Round the Traps

Current News

Bulokes

(Allocasuarina luehmannii) are listed under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and endangered under the Federal Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

In this district, although there are many stands of Bulokes, most are quite old and very few are regenerating. This is mainly due to grazing pressure from stock on farms as well as rabbits and excessive numbers of kangaroos.

I have noticed that many of these trees are suffering from the recent long drought and there is often sever wind damage, possibly due to their age.

On my property at Carapooee, there were 28 old Bulokes when it was purchased in 1999. The property is under a Trust for Nature covenant, to protect it in perpetuity.

Even though there has been no stock on the property since 1995, there was very little recruitment and seemed to be only from suckering in areas disturbed by erosion. In recent years, however there have been hundreds of seedlings of various ages around all of the female Bulokes as shown below.

The only difference that I can see is that the rabbit population has been dramatically reduced by, the drought and constant ripping and fumigating.

I would like to see small areas on farms fenced to exclude stock and allow some regeneration.