Silent Achievers

I spent a couple of pleasant hours tonight, meeting with some like-minded landholders from our catchment area. Nothing major to report, apart from the news that the dreaded Texas Needle Grass is moving in to our neighbourhood. I think the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, but no-one seems willing to call this one yet.

Meantime, it's great to be reminded of the silent efforts of many others across the Hills, all looking after their own little patches of bush. Not all of them are blessed with the same quality of scrub that we have, and many of them aren't nearly as fit and able as me. What keeps them going, as far as I can tell, is a genuine love of the bush, and a desire to actually make a difference.

A big bouquet too, to the folks at the AMLRNRMB who co-ordinate these little programs, and bring people together. Well done guys!

I'm not at all sure that we're winning just yet. But that's not going to stop me trying.

Sixty Years of Regrowth

In a previous post I referred to some aerial photos I had of our beaut little property going back to 1949. I obtained these through the great folks at Mapland and their historical search service. There's even an interactive search now that you can run yourself to locate old photos. And it's good value for money too, if you can find the right photos.

Here's what Wirra Birra looked like in 1949, presumably just after the woodcutters had been in for a bit of pillaging. (you can click the map to enlarge it)


And here's what it looks like around 2002 (again, click to enlarge)




We seem to have been very lucky, in that the stringbarks were felled for their timber, but the stumps left to re-shoot. While it's evident that things were a real mess back in the 40's, with the property denuded, and criss-crossed with snig tracks, things seem to have been left to regenerate naturally.

And for that we're extremely thankful.

Back in the 40's there wasn't the same weed pressure on a cleared bit of ground, and most of the native plants could re-establish themselves, without too much competition from the ferals. Today it would be a vastly different story. One of my longer term projects is to take some GPS co-ordinates off the 1949 map, and see if I can locate some of the cleared features or tracks, on the ground. My thesis is that some of the weed outbreaks we do have (notably the erica) will correlate to the areas that were hit hardest.

But that's for another day.

Struggling for Time....

Well, I think the weeds are winning. It's been a far busier time than I expected, and I found myself flying off to NZ this week, and then on to the US after that. No time to spend out in the bush, which is a shame at this most beautiful time of year.

Looking after the property is going to have to wait till after the 28th when I get back - and that's after I squeeze in competing in the second running of the Yurrebilla Trail Ultra.

But I was happy during the week to hear from my contact at the tediuosly-named Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board who was organising a tour of the area by the Board members, and wanted to show them over our property. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I wasn't able to help - but did manage to get them some aerial photos I have of our property going back to the 1940's, and which highlight well the desecration of the bush that occurred so widely back then, but also the stunning recovery that the bush made over the next few decades.

From what I can determine, our property was clear-felled for timber just prior to 1949, and has been regenerating naturally since. The big clue to this are the many multi-stemmed stringybarks on the property, that have regrown from the stumps from nearly 60 years ago. The occasional mature tree remains, and those stand out for their larger trunks and different habit. They're magnificent specimens, and it must have been a magical place back then before 'the axe'.

Meantime, the AMLRNRM board is managing to do some good works on the ground, and we've been the beneficiary of some of them over the past few years. I just wish there were more of these very practial programs, and a few less strategic plans.

Busy times ahead

Spring has sprung upon us, and the beaut rainfall we've had in the last month has things looking real good. Of course, that means the weeds are thriving too. Montpellier Broom is having a bumper year, and just coming in to flower, and the dreaded monadenia orchid is starting to think about blooming. Busy times are ahead on the property.

The big upside of spring though is the flowering plants, and this year is looking great for orchids in particular. Maybe I've just not noticed them before, but in recent weeks it seems that wherever I look, I see an orchid. Just in recent weeks I've spotted

• Mayfly orchids
• Mosquito orchids
• Banded greenhoods
• dwarf greenhoods
• veined helmet orchids
• Red beaked orchids (albeit not in flower)

(excuse the lack of scientific names, but my references are out of date - these things seem to change all the time)

For an experienced orchid lover that's probably a meagre list, but for me, just finding and identifying some of these guys for the first has been tremendously exciting. I've been out and bought the expensive new digital SLR camera (a Canon D450) and have been filling up the hard disk with photos. And the macro lens turns up tomorrow - can't wait to get out there and take some extreme close-ups.

Will post some photos soon.

Meantime, the Derwentia project continues successfully. The seedlings I raised earlier are now off at Keiran's nursey getting the type of love and attention I can't give them, but I have another few pots on the go as well - and I'm very happy to see new tiny seedlings starting to appear this week.

Kieran also gave me a large Derwentia he raised from my seed taken last year, and I'm planning to pop that into a prominent place in the front garden on the weekend.

Garnaut - initial thoughts

Unless you've been living under a rock lately (or at least living outside of Australia) todays release of the Garnaut report would come as no surprise.

Now, let me say at the outset that I've not read the report yet, as it's just on 600 pages in length. Anything I note below is really the result of a quick 'skim through' of the main report, and the analysis in the media.

But the first thing I've observed in a remarkable level of acceptance among the major players (maybe they've not read the report either) The farmers seem reasonably happy (agriculture has been excluded in the initially proposed trading scheme), the conservation movement seems comfortable (albeit that we could do more) and the union movement seems to be on board as well. Even the Business Council of Australia is apparently OK with the proposal to ramp the scheme up slowly in the first two years.

Predictably the Federal Opposition are dissenters. Not having learned the obvious lesson from last years spanking in the polls, Brendan Nelson and co., aren't exactly on board with the imperative to address Climate Change. Brendan wants to source his own advice (as if the last 12 months of effort by Professor Garnaut counts for naught) and is warning against "rushing in" (despite all the scientific opinion that says we need to do just that).

But even more disappointing to me than the Liberals who, frankly, we've come to expect this from, is the level of uninformed, unintelligent "commentary" from the general public. Here is just a small selection from some of the News Ltd web sites

It would be complete lunacy for Australia to implement this report, given that we are a miniscule polluter in global terms. This has got to be one of those government reports that gets filed away and forgotten. -- Dumfounded of Adelaide

Correct me if I'm wrong. So the poor really don't have to worry because no matter what they contribute to climate change they will be compensated? Typical Rudd screw the people that want to get ahead and reward those that don't! -- Barry of of don't blame me I didn't vote Labor

Tax, tax and more damn taxes. Does a Labor government know anything different? Already one of the highest taxed nations in the developed world. What fools voted for Krudd. Thanks -- Peter of Adelaide

To borrow a phrase from The Chaser - "these people vote!"

What I have picked up thus far from Garnaut is something I've been looking to see for some time, and that's a simple acceptance that we have to do this, and that it is going to cost. The sooner that we can get that message out there, the sooner that we can get on with implementing a solution. I see no way that we can make the dramatic kind of greenhouse reductions that are needed, without changing people's behaviour. And I can't see how we can change people's behaviour without a financial incentive to do so.

For that reason, and this is where many of course will disagree, the current rise in the price of oil has got to be seen as an opportunity, as much as it's seen as a problem. If the need is to reduce emissions, and if reducing car use is a part of that, then what better way to get cars off the road than for it to be too expensive to drive them? Isn't that kind of what London did with their congestion tax? According to the ABC, that tax, and the subsequent increase in fuel prices, is now causing people to saddle up their bicycles en masse instead.

A visionary government will see this, realise there's little it can do about the price of oil anyway, and take advantage of the opportunity afforded to bring forward some of the needed changes.

But I have my doubts that we have anyone with any political courage or any vision left, and that's sad, because we've never needed them so much.

Tomorrow, I'll find some time to get into the detail of Garnaut's report, then I'll head out into the bush with Bearded Dave and we'll do a few hours of bushcare work. That way I'll know that I've at least done my bit.

Creeping Change

The past few days of drizzle are most welcome after another few dry months. The gully that flows through our property would normally be burbling merrily by this time of year, but a few small pools are still all that it has to show for itself.

Wandering around the property on the weekend, the impact of the past two dry summers is still very evident. Hillsides that would normally be verdant green, are a sea of brown where whole areas of bracken died back last summer. Those areas are usually accompanied too by clumps of dead stringybark, among them a handful of the largest stringybarks on the property. At least one of the larger trees seems to have been missed in the Great Lopping of the 40's, so its sad to see such a tree go.

The bush will recover of course, but not quite as it was before. There will be a few less mature trees, a few less stringybarks - perhaps the areas covered by bracken (where the bandicoots seek refuge) will be a tiny bit smaller. And this is how climate change manifests itself - gradually.

Bit by bit the bush will change under the pressure of drier and hotter summers, and each year the Stringbark forest will recede a tiny, imperceptible bit. Species like the bandicoot will move away with it - if they can. Other species will move in, or establish themselves more widely and one day we'll look back and realise that the whole ecology has changed. Forever.

We're fortunate to own such a beatiful and biodiverse piece of bush, in such fantastic condition. And one of my Big Goals is to be able to hand our bit of bush over to the Princess Irulan when she grows up, in better condition than when we bought it.

But the impact of climate change is causing me to worry that that won't be achievable.

A good weekend

It's been a hard weekend at Wirra Birra, but a very satisfying one.

Saturday started off with a long run into Stirling and back with J and Z, stopping off at the Organic Market for coffee, as a small celebration of Z's birthday. Everyone seemed to be in fine form, despite the niggling injuries that we're all dealing with at present, and the 15km or so of running went past effortlessly.

Then it was off into the bush for a few hours of bushcare work with Bearded Dave. Wirra Birra has been infested with Pinus radiata in the past (and to a certain extent still is), so Saturday was about cleaning up a few of the larger trees that had been ringbarked years prior, and had tumbled into the creek. A few happy hours were spent on the chainsaw, chopping the logs into manageable bits, then piling up ready to burn.

Some purists might argue that the wood should remain where it falls, but the tangled pile of limbs in the creek, seemed more likely to harbour weeds, than to assist in regeneration. Pulling the logs out though did reveal a number of seedling eucalypts and acrotriche underneath, so I reckon the effort was well spent.

Saturday night was the annual trip to Coromandel Primary School for the Quiz Night, and once again our well-seasoned team stole the major prize. Highlight of the night was realising that "23 P of C in the BH", is short for "23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body" - can't believe no-one else got that one.

And Sunday was the bonfire. With the help of our friends The Maddens from Lockleys, a pleasant day was spent in feeding most of a large, dead pine tree into the bonfire. A bonus was taking a short walk in the nearby bush, and coming across a patch of Red Beak orchid (Pyrorchis nigracans). These guys weren't in flower, and probably won't be until such time as a fire goes through the place, so all there was to see was their unprepossessing leaves. But it's good to know that they're out there.

Meantime, by my count, there are another seven large pines in various stages of dying, along the same short stretch of creek. So this won't be our last big burnoff by a long way.