Indigenous burning in the Box Ironbark country

In June 2020, the  Paradoxa Collective and the Nillumbik Shire Council hosted an online forum on traditional burning and botany. It featured Uncle Dave Wandin, Wurundjeri elder and traditional firestick farming expert and David Cameron, Senior Botanist at the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in conversation. They wandered around the Bunjil Reserve…

Summer

Summer is a crazy time to live inland and north of the divide. I have heard that the Wurundjeri people, whose country extends up the Yarra and north to the great divide, recognise six seasons in the year. But in mid summer in Central Victoria, it seems to me that there are only two: Summer.…

Late spring. Turning of the season.

Late spring, last light. The sky is pale but the colours haven’t leeched out of the land yet. The wind swirls through the trees, like a stick in muddy water, stirring languid but not yet hot air through the canopy. Last spring was wet and we had fields of chocolate lilies. This year is drier…

Islands in the sky

I live in the Box Ironbark country of Central Victoria. We don’t have any mountains here, just nice rolling landscapes of hill and valley, and occasional plains. We do have some nice hills, that are just high enough to be different to the surrounding plains. The standout is Lanjanuc (Mt Alexander). It rises about 350…

a community vision for Barkers Creek

Bringing people together to dream, champion, advise and sustainably manage the future of the Barkers Creek between the Botanic Gardens and Camp Reserve, Castlemaine You are invited to a creek side lunch to focus attention on the Creek.What would we like to see here in the creek’s riparian zone?People will have the opportunity to make…

Aboriginal burning: how much, how often?

An interesting piece lifted directly from the website of the Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests (Mt Alexander Region). A CSIRO fire management report on Aboriginal burning in the Great Western Woodlands of south western WA has revealed some interesting facts about traditional approaches to fire in the woodlands. The report was written to document the Ngadju…