Member Groups; The Lismore Land Protection Group, Weering-Eurack Landcare Group, Leslie Manor Landcare Group, Cundare Duverney Landcare Group, Weerite Landcare Group & Mount Elephant Community Management
African Weed Orchid
Mt Emu Creek Waterway Action Plan
Managing stubble begins at harvest
2018 Daylesford/Hepburn Springs bus trip
Coming up
Lismore Land Protection Group Christmas BBQ
6pm Thursday 14th November, Lismore Golf Club
Mount Elephant Community Management meeting
7:30 pm Monday 11th December, Mt Elephant Visitors Centre
Mount Elephant open day
Open every Sunday from 1pm to 4pm
LLPG Christmas BBQ golf course walk & talk 6.00pm Thursday 14th December, Lismore Golf Club.
Arrive at 6pm for a walk and talk around the golf course and hear its interesting history from long time golf member Clive Bustard. Kids can join in with some waterbug collecting from the dam. Meat supplied, please bring a salad or sweet to share. RSVP for catering to Shari sharim@westnet.com.au or 0409 070 089
Summer Rains, Weeds and Revegetation Plantings
While the summer rains are good for our recently planted revegetation projects, it is also good for promoting the growth of phalaris, rye grass and wireweed. Having done all the hard work of fencing and planting, it is important to keep an eye on weed growth to make sure your effort aren’t wasted. Also please return any planting equipment to the office.
African Weed Orchid (Disa bracteata)
Within our area are some highly significant, albeit small areas of remnant Volcanic Plains Grasslands, which contain a number of EPBC listed species such as various orchids and lillies. However these areas now face a new emerging threat, the imported African Weed Orchid (picture below), which has been found amongst our remnant grasslands on Chatsworth Rd, Lower Darlington Rd, Hamilton Hwy (near Lismore & Cressy) and a bit further afield on Bolac Plains Rd, Worndoo.
The AWO is a deciduous perennial orchid with underground tubers. It sprouts from these tubers in early Spring, emerging as a rosette, then forming a single erect spike about 100 to 300m high. It flowers from late October through to December in Victoria, with about 15 to 30 flowers growing on the spike, which resembles a greenish-brown asparagus spear. Flowers are very dense and mostly reddish-brown and yellow with a leafy bract.
The AWO competes with and excludes smaller indigenous flora including native orchids, lilies and grasses (Muyt 2001) as its growth rate will exceed most other species of same life form. Each capsule (flower) can contain up to a thousand fine, dust like seeds, and there are many multiple flowers on each plant (Muyt 2001). Each plant produces tens of thousands of airborne seeds (DNRE 2002), which be dispersed by wind, water, vehicles, machinery and stock. Given the fine seed, even brushing against it can aid its’ dispersal, and the estimated rate of spread in South Australia has averaged 10 km per year, as the fine seeds may be blown many km (DNRE 2002). Thick infestations can potentially have 1000 or more plants per square metre.
AWO will be an extremely hard weed to control if it spreads further, particularly into pastures and cropping paddocks. Already its infestation has spread along roadsides, most likely aided and assisted by the movement of stock. Any landholders near or adjacent to infested areas should avoid driving or moving stock through infested areas
African weed orchid
Currently known to be along Chatsworth Rd, Lower Darlington Rd, Hamilton Hwy (near Lismore & Cressy) and a bit further afield on Bolac Plains Rd, Worndoo.
Mt Emu Creek Waterway Action Plan Update
Glenelg Hopkins CMA has been liaising with landholders along Mt Emu Creek as part of the Mt Emu Creek Waterway Action Plan (WAP) project for on-ground works in 2018. This is the second and final year of project funding from the CMA for this project, and will complement past and current works undertaken by the Lismore Land Protection Group along Mt Emu Creek under the Victorian Governments Community and Volunteer Action grants.
The first year (2016-17) targeted Trawalla Creek and Mt Emu Creek between Trawalla and Baillie Creek. The target area for 2017-18 is Mt Emu Creek from Skipton to Darlington. Projects are eligible from both of these areas for on-ground works in 2018 once submitted and approved for project funding at the GHCMA.
Letters with an expression of interest (EoI) form were sent to landholders with frontage to Mt Emu Creek in the current target area from Skipton to Darlington in late August 2017, with site inspections and projects developed during October and November. The landholder response to the project funds has seen 10 projects developed to date for stock exclusion fencing, revegetation, protection of remnant vegetation and assistance with provision of alternate stock water.
These projects will soon go through the approval process. Glenelg Hopkins CMA supports the Lismore Land Protection Group and is keen to work with the group over the coming year to get the best possible outcome for landholders along Mt Emu Creek. For more information about the CMA project, contact Tania Parker at Glenelg Hopkins CMA on 5571 2526 or t.parker@ghcma.vic.gov.au
Mount Emu Creek - stock exclusion fencing, revegetation, protection of remnant vegetation and assistance with provision of alternate stock water are all projects being completed in 2018 with CMA funding
2018 Daylesford/Hepburn Springs trip
Our 2018 bus trip to Daylesford and Hepburn Springs area is set for Tuesday 13th to Thursday 15th March 2018. The trip will give people the opportunity to see first-hand the innovative and sustainable ways people manage both our agricultural and natural resources. As well as fitting in a lot of informative visits on these trips there is room for the fun things – such as a massage when in Hepburn Springs next March!
The Corangamite CMA has once again supported our annual bus trip by subsidising travel and accommodation costs. The trip will run over 3 days/2 nights with accommodation at Linga Longa Cottages in Hepburn Springs. An outline of the itinerary includes: ‘Real Eggs’ – A 2000ha Merino sheep property which diversified their business to include 10,000 hens run in ‘open range’ farming to improve soil and pasture health Jonai farms – a family farm run on just 69acs who focus on the ethical treatment of animals Glenlyon Landcare – a community project to create a walking trail along the Loddon and restore riparian vegetation along a section of the river Blampied – Kooroocheang Landcare – a seed collection project to protect and collect seed from one of the last know pockets of Snow Gum ‘Powlett Hill’ – a 1200ha family sheep and cropping farm who switched from conventional farming to bio-dynamic farming.
Other activities include an evening guest speaker, time for a treatment at Hepburn Bath House, a visit to the beautiful gardens and buildings of the historic Swiss-Italian property ‘Lavandula’ and a look around ‘Overwrought’ metalwork and design to name a few.
The cost of $300 per person includes meals, accommodation, travel and entry fees etc. This price may reduce depending on the number of people attending. We encourage all interested people from all groups to consider coming along as it is an excellent social and relaxing time while still opening your mind to new methods and ideas of managing our land. Non-members also welcome. All enquiries to Shari at llpgsharim@westnet.com.au
The 2017 bus trip to the Otways took in range of innovative businesses in our local region
Managing Stubbles – It Begins At Harvest
Recently the Cundare Duverney Landcare Group undertook another visit to the stubble incorporation site on Ross and Justin Alexanders paddock. One of the issues with incorporating stubbles can be poor breakdown prior to sowing Three treatments were trialled to overcome this, these being
extra nutrients (N,P K and S added based upon the tonnage of stubble),
biological blend (of humates, coals dust etc),
stubble digestors (beneficial fungi to aid breakdown of the cellulose in the stubble)
“Across all three treatments there was good stubble breakdown, however it was visually better on the added nutrients and biological blend compared to the control” said Justin “and we had no trouble whatsoever with blockages or hairpinning at sowing on the incorporated plots”.
“With the stubble incorporated in February, followed by good Autumn rains while the soil temperatures were still warm, would definitely have helped promote the microbial activity to break down the stubbles” said Corinne Celestine, who is undertaking her post doctoral (PhD) studies on soil biology at Latrobe University. “The added nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur are essential to help break down the stubbles as they are help build up the soil microbial population required to consume the carbon in the stubble. If there are insufficient nutrients available, then the microbial population will not be large enough to consume all the stubble, resulting in insufficient decomposition by sowing time. Timing is also important, as the soil microbes are much more active in warmer months, so the earlier it is incorporated the better.”
This paddock has a sandy loam topsoil about 75- 100mm deep over a clayey subsoil, with evidence of compaction of the topsoil. Incorporating stubbles to about 125 to 150mm, will alleviate the compaction.
“Throughout the year we had only very minimal issues with slugs and snails, which can be a problem if there is poor decomposition” said Justin. “The only problem I found was around the herbicides, but managed to overcome that. The crop certainly looks ok and is at least as good as the rest of the paddock that was burnt. It will be interesting to see the yield results. I am keen to do a bit more this year and think I would lean towards using the added nutrients treatment, as it is relatively easy to spread a bit of fertiliser on when we are incorporating the stubbles”.
A six tonne stubble load will require about 34 kgs nitrogen, 13.2 kgs phosphorous, and 5.4 kgs sulfur. “While this is an upfront cost, it is difficult to quantify the costs of soil health. However we do know that an unhealthy, compacted soil will cost us dearly down the track” said Justin, “as we hope to be still farming this soil in many years to come”.
Stubble incorporation trial control (left), compared with extra N, P. K and S nutrients added (right)
This newsletter has been funded by the Australian Federal Government’s “Victorian Volcanic Plains Small Grants” Program and the Victorian State Government “Local Landcare Facilitator Initiative”
Lismore Land Protection Group
19 High Street (PO Box 28) Lismore, Victoria 3324 Ph: 03 5596 2384 Landcare Facilitators:
Rod Eldridge: 0458 390146 email: llpgrod@westnet.com.au Shari McConachy 0409 070089 email: llpgsharim@westnet.com.au Find us on the Landcare Gateway here
