Life and Wildlife on the Banks of the Murrumbidgee
I've started adding some tiny triangles to my collection of revegetation plots over our hills. My plans for tree-planting have been evolving over the past four years since we moved back to live at the family farm. I started knowing we needed to do something substantial, because the small amounts of revegetation we'd been doing... Continue Reading →
Even in the dark I can tell when the river has started to flood. I love to hear the normal soft rushing sound at night, a little like distant traffic. This is more. It's a freeway roar that means big standing waves crashing against the rocks. Big water on the move is magnificent. Whole islands... Continue Reading →
A few old trees make all the difference when you're doing a bird survey. The bare, newly planted paddocks on Carkella and Adnamira were limited to a few species, mainly parrots (galahs,red-rumps, rosellas) and a small family of magpies. On a grey morning in April three ornithologists from Canberra Ornithologists Group (Sue Lashko, Chris Davey... Continue Reading →
It's that time of year again, when we happily send some young trees out naked into the winter. The ones that seem large enough have their wildlife and frost resistant covers removed, so that we can recycle them for this year's plantings. That's hundreds of covers to be jerked up, flattened and carried back... Continue Reading →
Tree planting doesn't always go as planned. In 2011, before we actually moved back to Australia, I spoke to Graham Fifield at Greening Australia about being part of their WOPR (Whole Paddock Rehabilitation) program. That program is designed to revegetate an area of 10 hectares or more, using bands of trees and shrubs directly seeded on the contours.... Continue Reading →
Last weekend we planted in two different directions at once. We finished the final small tree lots that are part of the chain of connections across the Murrumbidgee river for small birds. That makes nine tree lots for connectivity only, plus two extra areas, a shelter paddock that used to be a calf-feeding area,... Continue Reading →
At sunset on Anzac Day we planted an Aleppo Pine (pinus halepensis), a descendent of the Lone Pine at the centre of the 1915 battle at Gallipoli in Turkey. I don't usually plant non-native trees, but this one was special. The Rev. Peter Dillon, a former Army Chaplain, and Dad of our neighbour Leonie, gave a... Continue Reading →
Once we've got our trees planted, we usually walk away for several months and hope for the best. But eventually we come back and check on them. On the Easter weekend we had a whole crew of helpers to strip remaining covers from the 450 trees and shrubs planted in May 2013 near the cattleyards.... Continue Reading →
The Easter Bunny this year brought friends and excellent company - and the planting of 182 trees and shrubs . Generally, our method of planting trees and shrubs requires lots of water. We pour on 10 to 20 litres per tree to give them a head start in our dry landscape. We add mulch... Continue Reading →
Topsoil is that thin band of living matter that lies across the landscape. Except when it is undermined or dissolved by rain and carried downhill into first the gullies, then the waterways, leaving the water silty and the landscape denuded. As a child I loved to play among the eroding soil spires where you could imagine... Continue Reading →
For the third time in three years, many of our trees are looking like ghosts of their former selves. The immediate, obvious, culprit is the Christmas Beetle (an anoplagnathus species of scarab), a bit of seasonal joy in a shiny suit. If the weather's right, it digs its way up from underground in November or December,... Continue Reading →
Last autumn we planted up five mini enclosures to provide protection for small native birds and to re-establish a corridor from the Mullion Creek down to the Murrumbidgee River. It turned out to be a great way to get a lot of connection done without a massive amount of time spent planting. At the time... Continue Reading →
The ancient trees that stalked across the paddocks when I was a child were my first clue that something was wrong with our landscape. They started to die. "Theý're old" said Dad. "They've had their time. We just need to plant some more." So he planted more. The Goodradigbee Shire supplied Sydney blue gums in... Continue Reading →
A big attraction of setting up the "small bird stepping stone" plantations on Esdale this year (five 20m x 20m areas that link the Mullion Creek vegetation to the Murrumbidgee) was the promised monitoring of the plants and animals. I'm really interested to see what the changes will be as the trees and shrubs grow.... Continue Reading →
What an excellent idea, lilies that smell like chocolate. Or vanilla, or caramel, depending on your sense of smell (or lack of it, in my case, thanks to allergies). Something to make you smile, anyway. When I saw the first glimpse of purple in the long grass, I thought it was Paterson's Curse ( echium... Continue Reading →
Seeds are such hopeful things. The propagation days have started for the season at Murrumbateman Landcare. I usually go on the Thursday evenings, but this time I went on a Wednesday morning. The seeds all look so enticing in their carefully marked plastic jars. I love the fact that there are neatly printed label for... Continue Reading →
Things are blowing and banging around here. Trees lean over, the grass on the Adnamira hills ripples in patterns reminding me of a sandy sea bed. The hatch for our new guinea fowl house clatters every time a gust comes through. The irises in the garden flutter, no wonder they call them "flags". ... Continue Reading →
There's a saying about fences. And it's true. I have an extra one: "If you want to plant trees on a grazing property, you'd better have good fences." Not as catchy. Only a couple of years ago I was naive enough to think that a few star pickets could prop up a fence with sagging... Continue Reading →
A late addition to the collection of trees we've been planting this year has been a group of trees that have just graduated from the Australian National University. They're now decorating the slopes of our box-gum woodland plantation with tasteful stainless steel pendants and copper necklaces identifying them. The concept of the research (by Tricia... Continue Reading →
Months ago, we arranged for some work to be done on the access tracks on both sides of the river. I hoped to have them done in time for tree-planting and fencing, to save us all bumping and slithering over quite so many boulders, and allowing Andrew and Frank to round up their stock in... Continue Reading →
One Bend In The River 