Meet some of the inhabitants at Ned's. We carried out some bird surveys as we were going around and put 27 or 28 species on the list- the most exciting being both Butcherbirds- Grey and Pied, a Whistling Kite pair with a nest right opposite the pumphouse and a flock of Black-faced Woodswallows at the pine sandridge. These were the only birds I captured on camera- the plants were easier. On the inlet, late afternoon- Crimson Rosella- yellow form On the big inlet- Black Swans Pterostylis biseta -Mallee Rustyhood, close relative to our Lowly Greenhood. Rosettes just emerging. Early morning on the river- Darter drying off. Early morning on the river- Pelican looking for breakfast. Taken at the Inland Botanic Gardens, these are NOT gazanias! (Sturt Desert pea) Early morning on the river again- 4 Wood Ducks Just over the side fence for the shearers' quarters- stickybeaking Emu Favoured food of many creatures furry and feathered- Enchylaena tomentosa, upright form- Ruby Saltbush Under the Hill's Hoist- Mallee Ringnecks feeding on weed seeds. Low groundocevr plant- Zygophyllum sp (Twinleaf) In the garden- the best use for 2km of barbed wire- rolled up by the Green Army girls and endorsed by Chris and Russell!

Anne Hughes takes a select group on a tour of the wonderful Wax Gardens in St Arnaud October 2017. View the brochure for more information.

I deduce that before Victoria was grazed and mined our waterways were very different. Early surveys seem to affirm this: maps of the plains and broad valleys often include the italic notation ‘chain of ponds’. Doubtless, dense or very mature riparian vegetation lined their banks. In my youth I roamed the reaches and cut-off bends of the straightened-out, de-snagged Latrobe River, cleared from time to time of their numerous stands of silver wattle, and eventually I read Peter Andrews’ thoughts on Australian flood plain management. (Basically he says: Hold water as long as you can, where it falls!) Then, perusing Google Earth some years ago, I noticed unusual features along Middle Creek - 10 km SW of St Arnaud. As you moved upstream the raw gullies, so characteristic of northern Victoria, gave way to – yes!!! – a chain of ponds. On-ground examination later with the landowner confirmed my assumptions. I could see that, once hoofed animals such as sheep and cattle displaced the gentler indigenous grazers, the newcomers, tracking in and out to drink, broke down the intervening earthen barriers between the pools, over which runoff had for millennia more or less gently trickled. Continuous gullies soon opened up. Here is part of what I saw, thanks to Google. Note the creek is still fairly intact where the cover is better - obviously there’s been less grazing here of late - but to the east where the land is hammered even today, the creek is a gutter. All the way more or less to the Avoca! Here are several other images of Middle Creek from above: That led to work on our 95 hectares at Adams Road, where there are now 100 waterholes (we call them gilgai), mainly small water bodies - cf the original 10 ‘traditional’ farm dams – that we are slowly ‘decriminalising’! In other words, converting them to wetlands. See below: John Douglas of Stuart Mill constructed these ponds on our land around 1983. There are 19 altogether over some 150 metres down a slope. Adams Road – 2016 – 11 ponds in a row, thanks to Aaron Watts. We no longer leave banks on the downstream side. Since we seeded the bare areas a few totem-poles have germinated. We readily transplant sedges from existing dams. Here’s my recent (experimental) painting on the subject: Here is a new ‘chain of ponds’ on a Bendigo property, S of Whipstick Forest So, what next? A modest gully runs SW-NE through our block of box-ironbark country below near Stuart Mill. In parallel is a non-eroded grassy drainage line. I want to try to restore the former to a chain of ponds. This means, I think, getting an excavator to reshape the bed of the eroded gully into a series of terraces, rather than the present constant fall, and filling the channel with as much natural debris – especially branches and heads of tree – as possible. It might also mean an inconspicuous series of upslope riplines. And maybe judiciously thinning 5-10 percent of the vegetation within say 40 metres of the creekline - across the slope, not up- or downhill – to ‘roughen the catchment’, as a friend once put it. Thinking broadly, the pre-European waterways of our state would have been full of large- and medium-sized debris. During the heaviest floods, such as we had in 2010-11, this debris would have been swirled around like an auger, and the resulting silt continually flushed out, thereby keeping the holes deep, and rich in habitat and organic matter, as in food, or riparian wildlife. Remember, some holes along the Murray were apparently 40 metres deep.

For several years now I have tried to photograph this tiny plant out on a buckshot gravel ridge in the Kara Kara National Park. A small patch of these 4-5mm high plants is adjacent to one of our conservation plots. I thought it would be easy to identify- just get a shot or two of the flowers and we would be away! The first year, I missed the flowers- a few tiny dried-up dark-red bits on one plant showed up on the computer screen. The next year, 2016,a wet year, the plants disappeared and White-winged Choughs seemed to be the culprits; beak-shaped holes were everywhere. 2017 came along and I had a good choice of plants to snap when I realised that I needed a supermacro function on the camera. Not good enough- a Panasonic Lumix shot on macro and blown up on the computer.Not enough detail and overexposed. The use of a digital microscope showed a hairy, cobwebby tube sprouting 5 dark red, 4 or 5 petalled flowers. So this year, after getting a camera with a super macro function I tried again. 2018 would have to be one of our driest years in the last 4 decades and the ground is bare in many places. Chough holes are everywhere, grasses are chewed down to their roots and there are few plants of any sort about. My little mystery is reduced to a few scattered plants on the south-east facing slope amongst Yellow Gums (Euc. leucoxylon). Even through the camera lens it is very difficult to see if there are any flowers so it is a case of point and shoot... and hope, otherwise it takes several trips to get enough shots with the desired features. Here is the first photo taken 26 Aug 2018 with an old Konica Minolta DiMAGE 3- it has great telephoto capability and 2 macro settings- a treasure. This is the plant with the flower assembly forming in the middle, covered with cobwebby hairs Flowering today, 9th August, the greeny-white tubes with hairy cobwebs topped with the dark-red of the "petals" makes these flowers nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. Each tubular flower would be 2-3 mm in length. So, very nice, but what is it? A clue. Common Bow Flower- Millotia tenuifolia, which also grows in the same area. My bet is Millotia perpusilla- Tiny Bow Flower. It is listed in Beauglehole's Vascular Plant List for our region- North Central. At no more than 5mm tall, the name seems apt.

Shake off your winter miseries and take a walk up to Bell Rock, just on the outskirts of town (take Wycheproof Rd/Hopetoun St then L into Butcher St and head north!) Wear solid walking shoes as the ground is really rough. Flowering now, although reduced because of the dry conditions our endemic Goldfield Boronia(Boronia anemonifolia ssp. aurifodina) and some beautiful examples of Bendigo Waxflower (Philotheca verrucosa) on the north west slope below the Rock. See the verrucosities(warts!) along the leaves and sprawling stems.

Birds are nesting everywhere at present. While doing my Birds on farms Surveys last week, I came across this one, unexpectedly, as this species usually nests high in the trees in Yellow Gum Woodlands. This Grey Butcherbird has built her nest in a River Redgum right in the creek- not that there is any water to be had but at least the food supply is probably better here than out in the very parched woodlands. Many other birds are nesting in the same area- Weebills, a pair of Spotted Pardalotes, White-browed Babblers and Restless Flycatchers and none seem concerned by this ferocious predator in their midst.

Many landholders like to have a spic and span property- dead trees removed, sticks and leaves raked up and dead branches turned into firewood. Very nice the property looks then - to our eyes anyway but to our often-unseen neighbours, homelessness is the result. The loss of many of our species- birds, reptiles, butterflies,insects and small mammals can be sheeted home directly to loss of habitat. The rarely seen Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops sp) has been captured on film here on a covenanted (Trust for Nature) property at Carapooee where all creatures are accorded a home. Here is the adult Blind Snake- head downwards. And here is the juvenile that had taken up residence in the kitchen- taking Land for Wildlife a bit far perhaps! Blind snakes live on ant eggs, pupae and larvae as well as ants themselves. They are vocal at times, non-venomous, lay eggs and produce 3-5 young. According to the Field Guides we have 3 or 4 possible species here- Can anyone help with identification of these facinating reptiles.

The last job of the year, 29th December - monitoring of our 2 Small Milkwort (SM) Plots in the Kara Kara National Park. Both plots are very dry and show signs of incursions by wallabies and kangaroos- scrapes, hip hollows, pruning and droppings. The larger plot had 58 spikes ( we believe that each rootstock puts up multiple stems and it is hard to decide where each plant starts and ends). There were only 7 flowering spikes in contrast to 24 last year; the spikes were very small and the flowers miserable! Most plants were less than 5cm tall. On a brighter note, the Eutaxia microphylla and Templetonia stenophylla are doing very well- both are members of the pea family and are very palatable to browsers and grazers so the protection offered by our fence has proved its worth there. Leafy Templetonia- T. stenophylla flowers and leaves Common Eutaxia- E. microphylla The second plot, also known as the "Small Small Milkwort Plot" is also having problems with wallabies- the Peach Heath looked as if a mower had been over it and ditto the Small Milkwort. Only 1 flower spike out of 48 plants was found. A new colony of SM was found in 2016 and is persisting - 7 stems but no flowering spikes. It is likely that more SM is out there but the smallness of the plants, and near-impossibility of seeing them unless they are flowering makes this plant difficult to find. Summer, grass-seeds, mosquitoes and heat all combine to make searching for it quite a task. Monitoring data for this project will soon be on our website. The Yellow Gums in both plots have been flowering and are now getting ready to shed their bark- the colours are astounding.

The bush is looking pretty dry and desolate now- no rain and a month of extreme heat has knocked all the freshness out of the plants and trees. Birds are congregating in the lower parts of the landscape- around the creeklines and in gardens where there is water and some respite from the excessive temperatures. On a recent visit to Dalyenong Nature Conservation Reserve, a large area of Heathy Dry Woodland, to carry out a quarterly bird survey, I was heartened to see Bulokes festooned with the "dayglo" red flowers of Buloke Mistletoe- Amyema linophylla, an obligate on Buloke and thus a threatened species along with the Buloke- and the gorgeous firecracker flowers of the Harlequin Mistletoe- Lisiana exocarpi. Buloke Mistletoe Harlequin Mistletoe flowers I was not the only person interested in the flowering mistletoe; birds of every sort (well, nearly) were attracted to the plants - Honeyeaters, White-plumed, Black-chinned and Yellow-tufted; Rufous Whistlers, Hooded Robin and Dusky Woodswallows were all enthusiastically searching through the mistletoe clumps or hovering over them (maybe that should be "hoovering" as there were lots of insects there too). On the sector of the survey site where there were no Bulokes, there were no birds! In the Box-Ironbark areas the mistletoes are Drooping or Box Mistletoe- Amyema miquelii and Fleshy Mistletoe- A. miraculosa- miraculous because it parasitises another mistletoe rather than the tree. These two species are also flowering at the moment but are much less spectacular than the Buloke and Harlequin varieties. Mistletoe is a vital bird and insect food especially during summer, providing nectar, berries and cool roosting places during the heat of the day. The leaves contain more moisture and nutrients than the host plants and when they fall, return those extra nutrients to the soil thus benefitting the host. I was not the only person interested in the flowering mistletoe; birds of every sort (well, nearly) were attracted to the plants - Honeyeaters, White-plumed, Black-chinned and Yellow-tufted; Rufous Whistlers, Hooded Robin and Dusky Woodswallows were all enthusiastically searching through the mistletoe clumps or hovering over them (maybe that should be "hoovering" as there were lots of insects there too). On the sector of the survey site where there were no Bulokes, there were no birds!In the Box-Ironbark areas the mistletoes are Drooping or Box Mistletoe- Amyema miquelii and Fleshy Mistletoe- A. miraculosa- miraculous because it parasitises another mistletoe rather than the tree. These two species are also flowering at the moment but are much less spectacular than the Buloke and Harlequin varieties.Mistletoe is a vital bird and insect food especially during summer, providing nectar, berries and cool roosting places during the heat of the day. The leaves contain more moisture and nutrients than the host plants and when they fall, return those extra nutrients to the soil thus benefitting the host.

I was walking down my creekline, cleaning up, checking for weeds and rabbits and generally enjoying the day when I saw what I thought was a big piece of old rusty metal. What on earth was this doing on my creek! All metal bits, old fencing wire and so on had been cleaned up many years ago. When I got closer, I realised it was a monster fungus emerging from the leaf litter.I only had my binoculars to use as a comparison. So next day, I went back with the tape measure ( and binoculars again) and measured 45mm length and 26 mm front to back. I also managed to get a bit of a look at the undersurface which was spongy, confirming that this humungous fungus was a bolete of some sort. On scanning my several Fungus books I came up with Boletus ( or Phaeogyroporus) portentosus-regarded as Australia's largest terrestrial fungus "with individuals sometimes exceeding 1m in diameter" (A Field Companion to Australian Fungi- Bruce Fuhrer). So this one was actually a baby. From the Atlas of Living Australia-https://bie.ala.org.au/species/NZOR-6-3554 "Phlebopus marginatus, known as the salmon gum mushroom in Western Australia, is a member of the Boletales or pored fungi and possibly Australia's largest terrestrial mushroom, with the weight of one specimen from Victoria recorded at 29 kg (64 pounds). It is an imposing sight in forests of southeastern and southwestern Australia. Initially described as Boletus marginatus in 1845, and also previously known by scientific names such as Phaeogyroporus portentosus and Boletus portentosus it is in fact not as closely related to typical boletes as previously thought." You can see the difficulties with identification even for the experts. Bruce Fuhrer's comments on the edibilty of this species should put you off sampling it-"favourite breeding ground for fungus flies, the maggots of which cause rapid putrefaction..." although it is eaten,with relish, particularly in South- east Asia. As with all fungi- the greatest care should be taken with identification before eating- if in doubt- don't.

Despite the lack of rain for the last 7 weeks, the Wax Garden is looking beautiful. A walk with members from Avon Plains Banyena Landcare Group on Sunday 13th October started with disappointment at the front gate where the vegetation could only be described as Macbeth's "blasted heath"! Taking the Mallee Track though, we were soon amazed and thrilled at the diversity of the flowering shrubs and herbs. Blue Dampiera (D.dysantha) was threading its way everwhere through the flowering Goldfields Grevilleas ( G. dryophylla), Silky Tea-tree(Leptospermum mysrsinoides), soon-to flower Daphne Heath (Brachyloma daphnoides), Common Fringe-myrtle(Calytrix tetragona) and fading Rosy Baeckea, Many other plants were flowering- Twining Fringe-lilies (Thysanotus patersonii) various peas and daisies and then we came to the patches of the yellow Sun-orchids- Rabbit's Ears. Like rabbits too they were everywhere and flourishing. Round the corner and heading for the outside track we found, flowering, several plants of the Fairy or Bendigo Waxflower (Philotheca verrucosus), regenerating now since the new fence was installed 2years ago Other plants present in good numbers were Yam Daisy (Microseris lanceolata) attracting early hoverflies Twiggy Guinea -flower(Hibbertia exutiaces) with its outstanding honey scent the tall stately spires of the Cypress Daisy-bush (Olearia teretifolia) emerging spikes of the Tall Chocolate Lily(Arthropodium strictum) the shy, low growing herb White Marianth (Rytidospermum procumbens) re-emerging since the fence went up and the hot magenta flowers of Pink Bells(Tetratheca ciliata) Each section of the 3 tracks has something different to offer and flowering plants and shrubs are seen from August through to the show of Tall Lobelias, Trigger-plants and native grasses in December. The patch supports the Box-Ironbark eucalypt species Red Box, Yellow Gum, Grey Box, Red Ironbark and Red Stringybark as well as the mallee species Blue Mallee. The rich and diverse understorey represents the best of both ecological vegetation types. The new grazing control fence has proved its worth and will offer protection to this unusual 6.84 ha patch of bush into the future.

Over the last 4 decades I have never seen more than one White-winged Triller at a time and probably only one sighting a decade. Since early September, the Carapooee West area has been over-run with White-winged Trillers. Below- male White-winged Trller Using fencelines as lookout posts they have spent weeks pouncing on unwary grubs in the short grasses- so many grubs, probably army worms, that the birds would have to have a spell on the fence for half an hour at a time before looking for more. I counted 35 + birds one day and although numbers have fallen in the last couple of weeks, the remaining birds have taken up residence in the acacias in the top paddock (revegetation).Perhaps they will be so impressed with the conservation works and direct seeding that they will choose to nest. At the same time as the big influx occurred, there also appeared a pair of Crimson Chats, a first for our area and rejected by BIrdlife Australia's Atlas until I plugged the photos in. These brilliant little birds have been seen as far afield as Rupanyup and Newstead so the Central Desert species are coming to St Arnaud Below- making use of a new fence, male WW Triller, Crimson Chat and female WW Triller Below- male Crimson Chat and female White-winged Triller in foreground Last week, pandemonium in the chookyard was the result of a loafing Square-tailed Kite- not that he or she wanted a take-away poultry dinner but I didn't take any chances. Sorry about the bad photo but you don't get a second chance with this bird. The same afternoon I was visited by a ferocious female Brown Goshawk who was not leaving until she had caught dinner( I put all the chooks away very smartly). I bet it was a honeyeater she got- wouldn't look at the sparrows, would she!( No geese!) This bird still has some of the juvenile's vertical chevron banding on her chest and on her collar as it gives way to the beautiful close horizontal bands Today, Friday 25th Oct- a Cockatiel has turned up here- the first for many years so the drought is really biting further north and we can expect more unusual sightings in the weeks and months to come. No photos of this one as yet.