PROGRESS
| BACKGROUND Laanecoorie is a twenty hectare partly wooded property straddling the seasonal Chads Creek and is situated on the southern foothills of the Kinglake Range close to the National Park in the northeastern outskirts of Melbourne. In the twenties, along with the rest of the region, it was extensively logged for firewood though fortunately a number of streamside trees were untouched and these have also survived mid-century bushfires. Prior to our ownership there was extensive tree clearance almost everywhere other than the creek banks, the steep south-facing hillside and parts of the property periphery. Subsequent "pasture improvement" which introducing serious weed problems followed by overgrazing also resulted in a major loss of understorey across the whole property. The valley and hillside were also heavily infested with blackberry which in association with debris caused creek blockages and serious bank erosion. |
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| BEGINNINGS
1984 - 1996 Since acquiring (and naming) the property in 1984 it has been devoted primarily to nature conservation with domestic buildings and surrounds, site access and horse paddocks taking only 10% of the land. Originally the intention was to attack weed and erosion problems, add extra wetlands and otherwise rely on natural regeneration. Blackberry and other large woody and herbaceous weeds spread over a third of the site were largely eradicated in an intense four year campaign (mainly by manual removal with less than three litres of herbicide) and control reduced to the annual elimination of seedlings - in the case of blackberries chiefly spread by foxes. Introduced grasses and flat weeds remain a continuing problem in the moister areas where they coexist with indigenous flora. Overall however recovery has been encouraging with the progressive return of shrubs, lilies and orchids, particularly on the drier slopes where increasing eucalyptus tree cover is s favouring the indigenous species and in the creek surrounds where treeferns are re-establishing and fungi is becoming increasingly widespread. |
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An unusually deep pink specimen of Pimealia linifolia which grew on
our fenceline. It did not survive cutting by a collector.
Caladenia caerula appeared for only a few years. One of many orchid species which belong but are on the edge of depletion > |
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| WIDER
CHALLENGE 1996 - 1998 It became increasingly apparent however, that fragmented indigenous species populations across the district were in catastrophic decline on both private and public lands as a consequence of development pressures, weed invasion and, in the case of rarer species, theft by collectors. It seemed clear, that if anything approaching the diversity of our unique local natural heritage is to be seen again, urgent action would be necessary to supplement current passive protection of floral remnants and basic restoration of highly degraded sites, with a broad range of programs targeted at the renewal of the breadth and vigour of our local biodiversity. Further, we came to believe that landowners motivated by the challenge to the local biodiversity which contributed to their sense of local identity would make significant contributions to its restitution through the pooling of their various remnants for joint renewal within surrogate habitats - given encouragement and expert support. |
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| LAANECOORIE
BIODIVERSITY RENEWAL FORUM - 1998 In early 1998 we presented our assessment of this significant and urgent conservation challenge in the Indigenotes publication of the Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association and invited participation in a public forum at which we would present our proposition for consideration by the community, experts and authorities. The Local Biodiversity Renewal Forum, (subtitled A Grass-root Fightback Proposition) was held in mid July with attendance from conservation management, research, Land for Wildlife, rangers from national, state, municipal and university parks and reserves, ecological consultants and members of nature societies and Friends groups. The proceedings greatly benefited from the breadths of background of the participants and their willingness to share experiences and ideas thereby providing a sound basis for our initiation of methodology development and feasibility demonstration |
| B&B ACCOMMODATION AND NATURE STUDIO 1999 - 2004 |
| LBH PLANNING 2005 - 2008 |
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WORKING WITH THE
GRAIN OF NATURE
" Pioneering was not meant to be easy, but take courage, it can be truly rewarding." With misquotation apologies to George Bernard Shaw and Malcolm Fraser. |
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