End of Year Gathering:
10.30am - 1.30pm Sat 2nd December 2023 - RELOCATED to Farrer's Horwood Road garage due to drizzling weather
Come and catch up with other landholders, enjoy conversation with our guest speakers over a shared picnic lunch, and get an update on our projects.
Bring a plate to share, a chair, and drinks. All welcome.
Guest speakers:
Adam Blake (Victorian Trust for Nature) - sharing the Trust’s statewide conservation priorities, and priorities for the Wimmera region.
Clive Carlyle (Land Covenantors Victoria board member, Project Platypus chairperson) - offering thoughts on increasing the impact of coordinated conservation efforts in the Range.
Elia Pirtle (Project Platypus local landcare facilitator) - giving a brief introduction to the i-Naturalist app and its possible use in Black Range.
Dave Kendal (Environmental Management Consultant recently moved to Ararat) - sharing thoughts on possible futures for cooperative private land conservation.
We hope to also be joined by staff from the Traditional custodian group Barengi Gadjin Land Council, our partners in Cool Cultural Burning tests and plant propagation.
Our BRLMG website
Yes! Our new website provides open access to resources and shared information of use to Black Range landholders, regional landcare and conservation networks, and the broader community.
We hope this assists in developing understanding of the Black Range, and supports land management to improve the biodiversity and resilience of the area as we work in partnership with Traditional Owners, Parks VIctoria and public land managers.
If you want to know about our current projects, see our IPA Management Plan, study the work of our community founders twenty years ago in the 2003 Black Range Land Management Guide, or see our newsletter, then you’ll enjoy what the website offers.
We will be developing the website with updated resources including a full species list and information on Indigenous Plants and Animals to Black Range, share land management tips from experienced Black Range landholders, and share the archive of our group - the oldest of its kind in the Wimmera region.
Thanks to our member Andrew Gunstone for his voluntary website development work, and all who have contributed content.
Welcome new member Landholders
We have been joined by three new member landholdings over the year, who are appreciating the sharing of know-how and resources that the Group affords. New members have skills and knowledge from their own backgrounds that we look forward to seeing contribute to the Group capacity. Welcome! Our group now comprises 27 landholdings.
Change of landholders
One of the largest landholdings in Black Range on Bunjil’s Shelter Road was recently sold by the Kaldor family. We look forward to meeting the new landholders and sharing knowledge of the Range.
Success with new Victorian Landcare Grants 2022-2023
We were successful in receiving two VLG’s in the recent round:
“Improving biodiversity in the Black Range through informed volunteer-led land management” - $16,471
“Second cycle of a Cool Cultural Burning approach to Black Range Land Management led by Traditional Owners” - $14,250
Thanks to Tanya, Mark, Fernanda and Mick for completing the grant submissions.
Information to Trail Bike and 4WD users
Ongoing trail bike activity on private property and public Reserves of the Black Range has prompted a number of landholders to coordinate an approach to fencing some previously unfenced boundaries between private land and public road reserves.
The BRLMG is informing trail bike and 4WD users about legal and illegal use of the Range, to discourage damaging impacts on the land. Further information is on the website, where landholders can download a gate sign and information flyer to share with others. Feel free to print and laminate up a gatesign, and share the flyer!
Propogation & Understory Revegetation Project
Our last working bee had us pot up over 600 plants so they can keep healthy growing and survive summer in a nursery over summer in readiness for planting in autumn. Lots of Banksia marginata! Stay tuned: in May next year we will be calling for expression of interest from members to participate in planting some of our 2000 seedling Indigenous plants on their landholdings.
