FRIENDS OF CHILTERN PARK
Convener: E.Collins 057 262 484
Newsletter No.9 May 1994
Dear Friends,
A crisp sunny morning welcomed members at Bartley’s Block for the May meeting. We were pleased to have as our guest Tony Long, Manager for Lands, for the Murray Region.
We began planning the interpretive trail. A plan of the brewery site and homestead was drawn up using a painting showing the buildings as they were in the late 1860’ s along with historical facts previously gathered.
Much excitement was generated as members uncovered the foundations of the homestead, the brewery engine block and the boiler foundations. The June meeting will be devoted to furthering this work.
Tony and John put forward ideas for the trail route and after morning tea everyone walked the suggested trail; Christine has volunteered to do the planning for the trail. As the work progresses the plan will be refined and the route consolidated. Of course no one goes to Bartley’s and leaves without pulling the Caper Spurge. Most of the plants are first year plants without seed and this is the ideal time to remove them. John Reeve detests thistles and I hear he is devising a way to deal with them.
Friends Seminar: Ten members attended the seminar at the Herbarium where they listened to keynote speakers and later took part in workshops. After a delicious lunch provided by the hosts everyone was captivated by Dr. Patricia Vickers-Rich as she led us into the world of Victoria’ s Dinosaurs. Later she led a Dinosaur Food Walk in the gardens. Tours of the Herbarium and the Seed Bank were also popular. This was a great social day for our group and was enjoyed by young and old alike.
Congratulations go to our member Scott Jessup who graduated from Charles Sturt University with a Bachelor of Applied Science. Scott is now doing his honours year and we wish him success. .
Geology Tour Report contributed by John Reeve.
Sunday 17th April dawned with a bright red sky and threatening cloud cover. However it developed into a beautiful day which was thoroughly enjoyed by a 28 seat bus load of “Friends and friends of”Friends”.
Our excursion, which was lead by one of our geologist members Phil Rosengren, commenced with the 500 million year old sandstones and mudstones which underlie Chiltern Park and a huge zone commencing in East Gippsland and extending north-west under the Murray Basin. We then crossed the Kiewa Fault which forms the boundary with the adjacent zone to the north and east and examined
metamorphic rocks formed 440 million years ago by the action of heat on the basal rocks.
400 hundred million years ago our zone of sedimentary rocks received intrusions of granite, a hard erosion resistant type such as the Mt. Pilot Range and a softer type at Murmungee, which has completely eroded away leaving a deep circular basin, thé heat and pressure resulting from these intrusions alters the adjoining sedimentary rocks causing them to harden such as Skeleton Hill.
280 million years ago southern Australia was covered in glaciers. In the Wooragee Valley we saw remnants of the clay and stones carried by the glacier. At our lunch stop on the Ovens River we saw geological processes in action today, erosion of the mountains, transport by wind and water, deposition in the valleys which are constantly changing shape with changes in stream flow etc. We concluded our
excursion by returning to the Chiltern Park and looking at the shallow alluvial and deep lead gold mining.
We are particularly grateful to Phil Rosengren who put so much effort into planning our excursion, preparing a detailed set of notes and maps for participants and obtaining geological maps, satellite images, aerial photographs etc which enabled us to reach some understanding of our place in the geology of the region, state, continent, planet etc. We also wish to thank our other geologist member Mike Donelly who made a special effort to be with us and help Phil answer the mass of questions we all had at each inspection site.
Any member who could not make the excursion but would like to borrow the notes please contact Jenny or John Reeve.
Thank you John for your report. . .
RECIPE FOR DAMPER
Friends of Macedon Ranges
2lbs wholemeal flour 1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon skim milk 1 teaspoon salt
half pint hot water Half a pint beer {that’s =to one stubby!}
Method
Mix all the ingredients together, leave in bowl to rise and cover with wet cloth until ready to bake.
Bake in hot oven for 3 0-40 minute sat 400 degrees C.
Delicious with Golden Syrup
This caution about Caper Spurge was printed in the Friends Network,News
it ‘s interesting. Take care when you work on it.
You may have Petty Spurge in your garden.
It’s a very common and persistent pest.
BEWARE OF SPURGE
Recently about a dozen Friends of Warrandyte S.P. suffered skin irritation after pulling Caper Spurge{Euphorbia lathyris) at Pound Bend. Many of the symptoms cleared up within a few days, but some victims had blisters which were slow to heal. Sóme years ago Friends of the Prom.suffered severe reactions after tackling Sea Spurge{E.paralias} which is invading the beaches at the Prom. and they have abandoned this activity. It is believed the milky sap can cause serious damage to the eyes. Pat Couper of F.O:Warrandyte reports that Caper Spurge does not lose its toxicity on drying or storage and that the indigenous Flat Spurge,{E. drummondi} a prostrate annual, also contains a white sap which was used by Aboriginals to treat snake bite and ‘remove warts. It is believed its use for skin cancer treatment is being researched. Poinsettia {E.pulcherrirna} is a related species. Any plant which exudes a milky white “latex” type sap should be treated with caution and not handled with the bare hands or be allowed to come in contact with the face or eyes.
An interesting article. Some of our members had a problem with Caper Spurge. Fortunately no harm was done. Always wear gloves when weeding.
JUNE MEETING OUR FIRST BIRTHDAY
SUNDAY JUNE 5TH WORLD ENVIRONMENT DA Y
PLACE: BARTLEY’S BLOCK
TIME: 9.00AM ‘
We will be working on the interpretive trail searching for buried artefacts and foundations and dealing with weeds (using gloves of course!)
LUNCH will take the form of a PARTY. There will be a barbecue and salads, a birthday cake and fun.
Bring something to barbecue and a small salad to share.
Everyone is welcome so bring your friends.
It is often said that Australia is not a major military spender,
but Australia’s defence budget is the fourth largest
budget outlay. Did you know:
• We spend more on defence that we do on educationand housing.
• Australias 1993-94 defence budget was $A9.786 billion.
• The United Nations global budget for this year is $A3.7 billion.
• Australia’s environment budget is a paltry $A184 million. ,
• The environment budget could be doubled by reallocating just one week of the defence budget.
• Thirty Aboriginal health centres could he built with just nine hours of Australia’s military expenditure.