A flashback...............visitors

Some of the visitors we have experienced includes :

An adolescent wombat strolled in one evening in January 2005, and then strolled off never to be seen again.

One night in August 2011, Janet couldn't sleep so she got up to make a cup of tea. At 2am, sitting outside watching the stars and drinking her tea, she felt a presence. The feeling persisted so she went inside and returned with a torch to find a koala squatting on the ground. Janet sat down, drank her tea and chatted to the koala. After a while it trundled off. We checked our eucalypts in the morning but couldn't locate the previous night's visitor.

There'll be other visitors posted in later blogs but we thought we'd give you a taste of a couple.

A few years on................

It's been way too long since initially setting up this blog - with good intentions of regular updates..........alas. The enthusiasm has been there, and lots and lots of things have happened;  we've simply been focused on other matters.

Anyways, it's a new day, and we'll see how we go from here !?!?!

The most significant observation in the past couple of years has been the vast increase in animal activity around the home, eg. kookaburra's using the house and flagpole as a roost, blue-tongue lizards around the gardens, copper-head snakes living under the back deck, Grey-shrike thrushes debugging the eaves, blah-de-blah.

The dam has been home to various birds at different times, including Australasian Grebes (raising their young failed both years due to Swamp Harriers eating the fledglings), up to eight (8) White-faced Herons, Great Egret, Pacific Heron, Sacred and Straw necked Ibis, Latham's Snipes, Cormorants, etc.

Mammals? - Antechinus' and Ring-tail Possums using the shed as a refuge, Kangaroos a plenty, Swamp Wallabies grazing in the plantings...........all good.

We've been trialling some weed management techniques. Some worked, others didn't. This year, the hand weeding of grasses has commenced in the gully. Very significant we thinks, considering the past has focused on woody-weeds. Pasture grasses are also being reduced with our mechanical controls (read 'mowing the grasslands just before the pasture grasses set seed'). We are sure the native grasses are increasing in these areas so will continue to implement this technique and monitor.

Also purchased a KeepGuard camera and will post shots from time to time..........promise.

So here's a tempter for you - we set the camera up in the gully along one of the thoroughfares used by the animals.

Enjoy

The 1st Post

Introduction
Boonoorong, the property, is located next to the Mornington Peninsula National Park in Victoria, Australia. The property consists of 20 hectares (50 acres) and includes remnant deep wet gully (approx 4 hectares) and remnant dry sclerophyll to heathy woodland (approx 2 hectares). The rest of the land is undulating pasture that was cleared in the 1950's and used for the grazing of cattle. Soil is substantially old aeroleon dune sands over basalt – yellow podzolic soils, coffee rock and some clay have been found at varying depths on the site. Internal fencing has been removed in addition to the lower two strainers from external fences (to improve access to kangaroos and wallabies).


Scope/Objective
To return the land to the way it was before white settlement and promote habitat for local fauna. Both consider the task a “rest of life” commitment which won’t be completed within our lifetime.

Revegetation (Active),  Regeneration (Passive)
Cattle were removed in September 2000 and the land laid fallow to assess the natural regen of the site.

Wet Areas (natural springs, riparian zones to gully) -
Wet areas have shown substantial natural regen. No intention to plant in these areas – possibly conduct some companion planting in later years.

Dry Areas (within pastured paddocks) -
Drier pasture areas have not shown signs of regen although, some Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwoods) have started to progress up into the pasture from the gully. Scarification to south sides of remnant eucalypts was unsuccessful - seed stocks appear depleted.

Plantings - Revegetation
Only plants of local provenance are used, so seed is collected from ours and neighboring properties which are then propagated into tubestock. Over 4000 plants have now been introduced to 20 assigned areas - primarily to support lone remnant trees, and to provide habitat corridors. Care has been taken to ensure grassland areas remain to encourage grazing by kangaroos. With the removal of cattle, native grasses (Microleana spp., Danthonia spp., and Themeda triandra) are returning and competing with the introduced pasture grasses.

Weeding
Within the gully, the biomass of many problematic species has been sufficiently reduced to allow hand pulling or cut and paint methods,
eg.
Rubis spp. (Blackberry) – cut and paint
Myosotis spp. (Forget-me-not) – hand pull
Phytolacca octandra (Ink Weed) – 1) hand-pull, 2) use pitchfork on larger plants or use mattock to clip top of tuber
Senecio jacobaea (Ragwort) – 1) hand pull rosettes/cabbages, 2) remove seed heads and cut/paint stem of mature plants

Following previous actions with blackberry, ragwort, forget-me-not and thistles, Ink Weed is now deemed our highest priority. A reduction of the biomass is under way with follow-up hand pulling intended.

Fauna
Mobs of Eastern Grey Kangaroos roam the property, at least five Swamp Wallabies live in the gully and over 70 species of birds have been recorded. Two Copperhead Snakes reside under our decks (currently hibernating), so our home acts as a hide and allows us to monitor and observe the native fauna in its natural beauty.

An old dam located near the house has developed into a unique wetland encouraging four frog species, various waterbirds and a food source for the snakes and lizards.

Why the Blog?
Due to our unique situation, we decided to start a blog to document and record our observations.