Winton Raceway

11/11/2010 - After 11am on Remembrance Day.
The second part of our day with Ray and the Regent Honeyeater Project.

We had a little bit of seed left over from the previous site and Ray had an idea for where to plant it . The back of the Winton Raceway. We were adding understorey to enhance last years tree planting , filling in the gaps and squeezing between the trees . Ray led the way on foot , plotting a course through the bush . Andy was there to point out the small trees planted last year so that we would not squash them . Another 1 km was completed before the seed ran out .

I photographed a rare Datsun 180B its natural habitat at Winton.
(Note the camouflaged plumage of the wild Datsun )

Helping Regent Honeyeaters

11/11/2010

A day with Ray is always an adventure , this one was no exception .

It started at the Benalla DPI office with helping Ray & Andy scarify the seed with coarse sandpaper. Then off to a site near the newly decommissioned channel to Lake Mokoan just out of Benalla. Getting to the site was tricky , the grass was long and the tracks overgrown but Ray navigated us across the flood plain through the electric fences , past the lagoons and swamps into the unused roadway where we were to seed a bulk of the understorey species prior to a hand planting event with school children the next week.

The site had been sprayed ready for planting . Area=1.8ha

Riparian Forest- Red Gum woodland.

The soil was damp . The tracks were reasonably easy to follow - not too much squeezing between trees!

Regent Honeyeater Project .

First Ready but Last Sown

11/11/2010

Helen Repacholi DPI Grant

Samaria road , Benalla.

Wet ground has prevented us from getting onto this site since June !!!

Finally nearly 5 months later we were able to sow seed in Sarah's site . We had visited the site three times earlier to check the conditions , today it was dry but up to 150mm of rain is predicted for tomorrow .

This site was beautifully prepared - sprayed three times.

It was a roadside corridor in 2 sections totalling 5ha.

We sowed 4 rows in the north section & 6 rows in the south section.
Recent floods had covered most of the site .

Over- hanging river red gums will probably have taken advantage of the wet conditions and will naturally regenerate .

Pasture growth in the adjoining paddocks was amazing.We could barely see the sheep for the grass.

Grasshoppers / Locusts seemed attacted to the bare, sprayed soil .I hope this was not a bad sign .

Grand Canyon at Costerfield.

25/10/2010

Three sites covering 11ha

Box Ironbox Country

Erosion Control along several creeklines in the Harris farm at Costerfield.

This was old gold mining country and the creek had been quietly eroding away
for generations. Early soil conservation structures had stopped the waterway heads eroding in places .

No spraying needed because of short pasture which was predominantly native .
Fences were pegged out but not erected. ( Which actually makes our job a lot easier )

Neil had been busy crutching and hay making.

The erosion was extensive and recent floods had made things worse.

Bruce Radford DPI Grant .

We sowed an average of three rows along each side of the creeklines.

The soil was dry and dusty when we were direct seeding , fortunately 55mm of rain fell the next day and follow up rain has been good.
( I must remind Bruce to make sure the fences get put up or else all will be wasted )

New Seed Production Area

15/10/2010John Broadhurst at Earlston near Violet Town is creating a SPA with help from the Dookie Seedbank and Jim Begley. Seed will be collected off this site for future revegetation projects .

2000 plants have the hand planted in the milk cartons you can see in the background .

We were seeding 2 ha . John came with us to guide us around.

The site had been sown with native grasses earlier in the year and was looking good .

This lovely flat fertile site has been rested from grazing for a number of years ,used to be a lucerne paddock .

Creeks and billabongs around this site were looking great after many dry years.

Barjarg Beauty

24/11/2010

Cockies root up directing site !

Revisited Rosie's site with Jim nearly 4 weeks after sowing and found an unusual thing happening. While she was away on holiday cockatoos had turned over all the soil in the direct seeded scalped trench . They were digging out the dead onion grass bulbs to eat. Loose soil was scuffed all over the place burying the tiny seedlings in many places. I suspent the cockies may have been eating the germinating seeds as well . The fog grass had been slashed from between the rows. We observed a smattering of germinated wattles and hope that more seeds will survive the cockatoo attack. Rosie says they arrive in flocks of 100+birds.

28/10/2010

Rosie B. at Barjarg near Mansfield .

1.4 ha of valley grassy forest

100% Understorey species only . Hand planted overstorey .

Helen Repacholi DPI Grant

This well prepared site had been strip sprayed twice .

This site has been very wet all season .

Justus got bogged at the back of the dam today , luckily John and Trish were able to pull him out with their trusty little Subaru.

The site was dominated by fog grass .

In Memory of Tim

25/10/2010

Two sites at the base of Mercers Hill , Longwood .

Susan Sleigh DPI grant & Susan and David did the site preparation for the Mercer family since Tim's death .

Sprayed with herbicide two weeks earlier.

One site was re-seeding a failed site planted in the 2005 drought year.

Soil moisture was good , so lets hope we get follow-up rain .