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Paperbark town

20/10/2022

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Picture
By Terri Allen
 
IT IS said that when the swamp paperbark is in bloom, the snapper are on the bite. They must be biting now because it has been magnificent this spring.
 
It flowered early this year, and we don’t yet know whether its pollinators were around to set the seed. My seed collectors group will be keeping an eye to see if the seed is viable. Swamp paperbark is so prolific that we don’t usually sow the seed, though we do include it in some direct seeding mixtures. We used it on the Rifle Range Reserve, of course.
 
I have long thought it should be Wonthaggi’s floral emblem. Wonthaggi was once a vast paperbark swamp interspersed with sheets of water and sand hills vegetated with heaths and eucalypts. 

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How to stay sane

24/9/2021

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Picture
Tank Hill working bee in maskless (pre-Covid) times. Terri Allen is in the centre of the front row.
By Terri Allen
 
I ONCE read that to improve our well-being we needed four things: meeting with like minds, continued learning, outdoor exercise and volunteering. All of these are met by my Monday morning seed collecting group.
 
But what about during lockdown? We are lucky in South Gippsland to have so many areas of beach and bushland. Our limited walks can provide “continued learning” and “outdoor exercise”. I birdwatch, search for insects, name plants, note changes (for example, so many plants are flowering early this year).

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​The missing link

14/8/2020

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PictureTwo fences now block a wonderful walk from Wonthaggi
to the coast. Terri Allen fills in the missing pieces from childhood memories.
By Terri Allen
 
ONE of the best ways to spend a day in our childhood was to go out to the Back Beach. Unimpeded by adults, we would set off from the end of Broome Crescent, across the paddocks to the Rifle Range gate. We crossed the undulations in these paddocks made for market gardening during the war.
 
Any other time we would be re-enacting things seen at the Saturday arvo flicks (These would involve inching along the furrows, whooping, shooting from cover, playing cowboys and Indians.) but now we had a different agenda – the beach. We cut across more paddocks, skirted tannin-stained swamps, hunted for Wonthaggi Monster tracks, passed the Southern Tunnel airshafts, skirted Lake Lister, breasted the dunes – Bass Strait, here we come!


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Friends honour the 'two Bills'

5/3/2020

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PictureBill Slade’s daughter Steph at the “Two Bills” seat at the Rifle Range Wetlands.
By Terri Allen
 
TWO friends of the Wonthaggi Rifle Range Wetlands, recently departed, will be remembered by us all. 
 
Bill Berry, adjoining farmer, was part of the team which revegetated the Rifle Range in 2005. Bill Slade, park ranger, helped with the project and monitored the area over the years. 

Together they moved out cattle which had escaped into the area through kangaroo-damaged fences.  Their last meeting was on such a venture.

Today they have plaques on a seat overlooking the site.

 
Vale the Bills.

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A force of nature

6/2/2020

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PictureEulalie Brewster photographed at Wilsons Promontory soon after the disastrous fires of 2005. Eulie was part of a volunteer team that monitored the recovery of the vegetation.
​By Terri Allen

AT LAST the achievements of Inverloch’s living treasure Eulalie (Eulie) Brewster have been recognised, with the award of a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day honours.

​EuIalie turns 94 in August, but her inquiring mind, ability to connect with all age groups, extensive reading, quick grasp of situations, willingness to tackle any job, outward-looking nature and encyclopaedic memory make her a living treasure.

She is an asset to the conservation movement, an example to all who meet her.

​I knew Eulie’s friend Ellen Linden first. They used to go bush walking together. Ellen said to me, “When I’m gone, you’ll have to go to Eulie at Inverloch.” So I always say Eulie was bequeathed to me. She’s been a great source of knowledge and a wonderful friend.​


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‘A gentle man who earned respect’

24/1/2020

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PictureWonthaggi Parks Victoria ranger Bill Slade died while fighting fires in East Gippsland.
By Terri Allen
 
BILL Slade, who died tragically while fighting fires in the Omeo region on January 11, was a kind personable man, extremely proud of his family, considerate of the public and a hard working Parks Victoria ranger in the Wonthaggi depot.
 
He had worked for Parks Victoria for 40 years, so knew our area intimately, from fox baiting on Phillip Island, manning controlled burns in our parks and reserves, monitoring our coastline and working on the George Bass Walk from Punchbowl to Kilcunda.


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The lake that vanished

14/11/2019

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PictureAllen family barbecue, Lake Lister, c. 1956. From left, Glenda (a family friend), Leonie, Peter and Graeme.
Lake Lister was a magical place - until the day two miners decided to deepen it with a few sticks of gelignite.

By Terri Allen
 
LAKE Lister has always been a magnet, drawing foragers, adventurers and naturalists.  A large freshwater lagoon, spring-fed, it nestles between the coastal dunes and cleared farmland (once paperbark flats and heathy undulations) west of Wonthaggi on private land.


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The allure of the back lane

1/8/2018

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PicturePhoto: Leonie Smith
By Terri Allen
​

THE older settled areas of Wonthaggi have a veritable treasure trove, a maze of back lanes.  These narrow lanes flanking our back yards hold a wealth of stories, beckon us to explore.


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​A purler of a day

14/6/2018

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Picture
Terri Allen gives thanks for a perfect winter’s day at the Mouth of the Powlett.

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Backyard critters

2/2/2018

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Black-headed Bull-Ant (Myrmecia nigriceps) Photo: patrickkavanagh
Terri Allen finds the hood can be a dangerous place.


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The Hovell tree

2/2/2018

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PictureThe original Hovell Tree in Albury
A young eucalypt at the State Coal Mine commemorates the first European explorer to venture overland to the Wonthaggi plains. Terri Allen reports. ​


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Wet wonderland

14/11/2017

4 Comments

 
Picture
In 2005, it was a paddock with a single tree. Now the Wonthaggi Rifle Range wetlands is home to an amazing variety of wildlife.


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Alien orchid on the march

19/11/2016

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Disa bracteata. Photo: Leonie SmithDisa bracteata. Photo: Leonie Smith
By Terri Allen

​
Disa bracteata, formerly Monadenia bracteata, was found in January 2005 on regenerating heathland abutting the coastal reserve at the Wonthaggi Heathland. ​

​The weed-orchid from South Africa was first found in Albany, WA in 1944, thought to be brought in sacking covering goods at the port.  It spread northwards to Geraldton, eastwards to Esperance and to the edge of the wheat belt.  It is now naturalised in WA, SA and Victoria.


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In the steps of our forebears

24/9/2016

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Planting of the Wonthaggi Rifle Range wetlands just over 10 years ago was a massive community effort.


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Out of the ashes

27/8/2016

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Picture
By Catherine Watson
 
A SURVEY of the Tank Hill Conservation Reserve nine months after fire swept through much of it reveals some rich and unexpected botanical treasures.


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​How sweet it is

30/7/2016

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Sweet bursaria. Photo: Chris Lindorff
By Terri Allen
 
THE summer sound of jingling in the bush heralds seed time for bursaria. Bursaria spinosa, an attractive drak green shrub to eight-metre tree, goes by a variety of names: sweet bursaria, blackthorn, native box, kurwan, Tupy or Christmas tree (the Tasmanian name as it flowers profusely on dry rocky hills at Christmas time).


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Back of beyond

2/7/2016

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With the quarter-acre block a threatened species, Terri Allen celebrates the big backyard of her childhood.


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Scenic short cut

9/4/2016

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Picture
By Terri Allen

A TREASURE on the western edge of Wonthaggi, the Campbell Street bush is tucked between Campbell Street and West Area Road from Brown Street to Chisholm Road.


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The yellow peril

12/3/2016

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PictureMontpellier broom infests a large part of the Five Brace site. Photo: Nature Share
By Terri Allen

ONCE cottage gardeners espoused a yellow-flowered shrub as a hedge plant or garden specimen; this shrub Montpellier broom, Genista monspessulana, originated in Europe. ​


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A green miracle

30/1/2016

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Picture
Terri Allen charts the changing landscape in Tank Hill in the weeks since the reserve was ravaged by fire.

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The barbarian of the bush

31/10/2015

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Picture
Terri Allen confesses to a love-hate relationship with coast teatree.


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A friend of the family

22/8/2015

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Picture
TERRI ALLEN pays tribute to a majestic messmate that has been part of her life for as long as she can remember. ​


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Caring for country

13/6/2015

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The resident black-shouldered kites have shown great interest in the work. Photo: Geoff GlareThe resident black-shouldered kites have shown great interest in the work. Photo: Geoff Glare
Volunteers transforming a cleared coastal paddock near Wonthaggi enjoyed the company of their fellow planters and the local wildlife.


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Marcia Brown, 1942-2015

16/5/2015

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Picture
By Terri Allen

CLAD in black gumboots, windbreaker and woolly hat, the sturdy figure of Marcia Brown braved all weathers to botanise, birdwatch, seed collect, monitor burn sites and plant trees.  This was the woman we met in the field.


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The seed of an idea

9/5/2015

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Picture
The Wonthaggi Seed Bank started with a few local farmers planting shelter belts. Today it's helping to revegetate hundreds of hectares of public land. ​


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