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Rakali Ecological Consultants

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25.01.2022 Just spent a week enjoying the rivers and wetlands of south western Victoria. Nice and cool compared to where I usually work and lots of beautiful places to explore. Awesome wildflowers and wildlife and great company for a 4 day paddle on the Glenelg River.

25.01.2022 River Bluebells (Wahlenbergia fluminalis) going off at Moodie Swamp

25.01.2022 Spring wildflowers, Wyperfeld NP = pretty spunky

24.01.2022 How gorgeous are these pics of swamp harriers at Doctors Swamp near Murchison? Damien Cook Rakali Ecological Consultants #waterfortheenvironment #biodivers...ity #nesting Victorian Environmental Water Holder BirdLife Murray Goulburn Murchison Victoria Community See more

24.01.2022 This ancient Hooked Needlewood (Hakea tephrosperma) stands in a cropped paddock beside Little Lake Kelly, NW of Kerang, on a rise of red sandy loam. It has a di...ameter of almost 1/2 a meter. It is a remnant of the semi-arid woodlands that once clothed the lunettes and sandy rises of this region which have been almost completely cleared. Can anyone estimate its age? This species, along with Buloke and Cypress Pines, was probably the food plant of Wiran, the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, an important totem animal for the local Wemba Wemba people, but sadly this species is locally extinct. It would be massive undertaking but what if we could revegetate enough of this habitat to help Wiran return to this part of the country?

23.01.2022 Saw about 50 Growling Grass Frogs on a half hour walk along the edge of one of my favorite wetlands tonight, with up to 3 per square meter in some places. One i...n ten were big old individuals, the others half their size. They weren’t calling, probably because of the cool change that came through earlier this evening, but they were certainly out for a feed! See more

23.01.2022 Last Wednesday to Friday I was planting trees at Red Gum Swamp, between Kerang and Koondrook, with Barapa Barapa Traditional Owners Uncle Duck and Laura Kirby a...nd members the North Central Catchment Management Authorities Working for Victoria team. All of the huge old River Red Gums in this wetland were killed by a combination of an irrigation induced increase in the height of the saline ground water table and other past water management practices, including direction of rain rejection irrigation water into natural wetlands. Fortunately irrigation practices have now improved, the water table level has dropped and conditions are right for live trees to once again grow in the swamp. Many of the trees in Red Gum Swamp were hundreds of years old when they died and they are full of hollows, which Cockatiels, Striated Pardalotes, Tree Martins and Nankeen Kestrels are currently nesting in. There are many cultural scar and ring trees in the wetland and Aboriginal oven mounds on its lunette. We planted 450 Red Gums grown by Ken Wellard at Neangar nursery. Ken grows them very tall for us in hiko trays, so they be planted deep into the soil to protect the roots of the seedlings from drying out over Kerang’s hot summers. On this project we are trialling 3 different types of tree guards including 1.2 m wire gal (as modelled by Uncle Duck in the picture), 90 cm plastic mesh and a biodegradable cardboard type we had not used before. We hope to restore the canopy of trees to provide shade for nesting birds, help keep the water table down, absorb carbon from the atmosphere and make the site less flammable; it would be tragic if the old dead trees were consumed by fire as they have been at other wetlands such as Hird and Johnson Swamps. We saw 3 species of snakes while planting, Eastern Brown, Tiger and Curl. Thanks to Parks Victoria, Anthony Sloan from NCCMA for organising the working for Vic crew and everyone else involved.

21.01.2022 It’s not every day you get to cuddle a Wedge-tailed Eagle! My friend Karl and I were out doing wetland surveys when we found this injured Wedgie. We rang a wild...life carer who specialises in looking after eagles and he asked if we could catch it and bring it to him, which we did. Thankfully I had a nice thick fire blanket, those talons are scary! See more

19.01.2022 Rounded Noonflower on the west side of Second Marsh at Koorangie (marshes at the northern end of the Avoca River) looking pretty at the moment. Trees planted in... the middle of the marsh, where all big old trees were killed by past poor water management, starting to get a bit of size, some look like they might survive a flood if we get one! See more

19.01.2022 Lock up your cats!

15.01.2022 This week I had the privilege of working with members of the Barapa Barapa and Wemba Wemba communities to restore some native grassland on the western side of J...ohnson Swamp, SE of Kerang on the Victorian riverine plain. The grassland is a remnant of a nationally endangered community. It had been simplified by past overgrazing but still retained a fantastic cover of Wallaby and Spider Grasses. We prepared the site by controlling annual grasses such as Wimmera Rye-grass, Barley Grass and Squirrel-tail Fescue with a combination of the organic herbicide slasher (non toxic to the environment and effective against annual weeds but doesn’t kill perennial natives), a weed burner and 1/2 a kilo of sugar per square meter. The sugar feeds the soil bacteria which take up much of the nitrogen in the top layer of soil, inhibiting the growth for nitrogen-hungry weeds. (thanks heaps to local dairy farmers Gary and Di Bowles for helping to prepare the site and bringing over their tractor to spread 1 ton of sugar, also thanks to Frances Cincotta and Kate Lee for supplying many of the plants) We planted lots of bush tucker plants including Mirrwan (also known as Myrnong or Yam Daisies), Bulbine Lilies and Vanilla lilies and Cranesbill (edible root vegetables known as Yalam in Wemba Wemba language) as well as rare and endangered plants including Downy Swainson-pea and Bushy Minuria. It was a fantastic group effort and will become an awesome resource for teaching about the cultural importance of bush foods and of caring for country by restoring endangered plant communities. Thanks heaps to everyone involved.

15.01.2022 Reedy Lagoon looking stunning after delivery of environmental water

14.01.2022 Out at Johnson Swamp again this week working on restoring the tree canopy with Wemba and Barapa crew and the guys from NCCMA Working for Victoria team. This U...mbrella Wattle (Acacia oswaldii) on the floodplain of Pyramid Creek is one of the largest of its kind that I have ever seen. This species grows very slowly, so this specimen must be incredibly old. We have planted some baby Umbrella Wattles around it so it will have some friends in its old age. Umbrella Wattles have a wide distribution across the semi-arid regions of all mainland states. The seed is edible and highly nutritious and the bark and gum (wutya in Wemba language) is medicinal. Awesome shade tree and the branches have sharp boomerang bends; the wood is very hard and while it would be difficult to carve makes excellent tools. Pictured with the tree is James Nelsson, supervisor of the Working for Victoria team. Thanks James for watering our new babies!

14.01.2022 Anyone who is not convinced about the benefits of environmental watering should go and have a look at Reedy Lagoon in Gunbower Forest near Cohuna. Prior to the ...construction of the Hume Dam and other river regulation infrastructure on the Murray River this lagoon flooded every year or so. Post-regulation with no environmental flows it would only flood one in ten years. If the Murray River was not regulated large areas of Gunbower Forest would have been flooded this year between April and October. This would have allowed birds such as Egrets and Night Herons to breed. There has not been a successful Egret breeding event at Gunbower for many years. By delivering water over a prolonged period this year to Reedy Lagoon the NCCMA have allowed aquatic life to flourish. The vulnerable Musk Duck and more common species such as Grey Teal have bred and the vegetation response has been nothing short of spectacular. At present the lagoon supports lush aquatic herbfields of threatened plant species such as Water Nymph (Najas tenuifolia), the uncommon Yellow Bladderwort (Utricularia australis- pictured) and large areas of submerged Eel Grass (Vallisneria australis). Addendum I’ve added this bit in response to a very good question. I am aware that there are people who have negative things to say about environmental watering and I think that while some of this is politically motivated some of it is based on very valid concerns. I am promoting Reedy Lagoon as an example of where I believe a CMA has got things right. Like most things environmental watering can be done well or it can be done poorly, and when it is done poorly it can have negative ecological consequences. We cannot pretend we know everything about how to deliver water, after all we are trying to mimic what should be a natural process by engineering and mistakes will be made. That is why monitoring and evidence based adaptive management are so important. I have been involved in monitoring of environmental watering for over 15 years and have seen both positive and negative outcomes. However, evidence shows that ecological condition is improving where things are done well. This is an area of ecological management where we have a lot to learn. Nccma Nccma

08.01.2022 Groovy grasshopper, does anyone have any idea which species? Found among Pyramid Bluebush (Maireana pyramidata) and (Austrostipa platychaeta) beside Lake William between Kerang and Lake Boga.

06.01.2022 Mixed feelings paddling on the lower Loddon River yesterday near Murrabit West. Some beautiful big old River Red Gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), and healthy st...ands of Eumong (Acacia stenophylla) and Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) were awe inspiring and reminded me of some of the wild outback rivers like the Paroo and Bulloo. However, this country is scarred by impacts of environmental degradation; many of the large old Red Gums are dead and the billabongs degraded, casualties of irrigation induced salinity and river regulation. Hopeful signs included some young stands of regenerating Red Gums and abundant wildlife including Grey-crowned Babbler, Gilbert’s Whistler and a young Tree Goanna (Varanus varius).

05.01.2022 This weekend, the last of the four information boards has been put up at the Rotary BBQ shelter in Atkinson Park, Kerang. The final board is a map of the many ...Ramsar wetlands in the area which are easily accessible for visitors should they choose to stay. It is designed to catch the attention of locals and visitors alike so that they might decide to go and see the abundant natural sights we have. There are many photos and lots of interesting information on the board, you should go down sometime and check it out. Many thanks to Damien Cook from Rakali Ecological Consulting who supplied many of the stunning photos and to the North Central Catchment Management Authority who kindly provided the map we used.

04.01.2022 I just edited the post about $ for the Wedgie as I made a mistake with the account number The correct details for making a donation are NAB... Neil Fredrick Morgan BSB 083551 Acc 815535508 Sorry for any confusion

01.01.2022 Mallee wildflower loveliness

01.01.2022 Update on the Loch Garry Wedgie Our Wedge-tailed Eagle friend had a visit to the vet yesterday. He is a boy; the girls are a lot bigger so luckily I didn’t have... to pick up one of those Mummas. It turns out he might have had a collision with something; he was missing all his primary feathers on his ring wing and had stretched tendons in his right shoulder. He was just over 3kgs, quite underweight for an adult male Wedgie and scoffed a whole rabbit during his first night in care. He will very likely survive, but will have to stay in care for two years as that is how long his primaries will take to grow back. If you would like to donate for his upkeep the wildlife carer’s bank details are below; he said Wedgies are pretty expensive to keep so all donations are appreciated (put Loch Garry Wedgie as a deposit reference). Alternatively go to the Wildlife Rescue Emergency Service website donation page https://wres.org.au/donate/ and give $ there. NAB Neil Fredrick Morgan BSB 083551 Acc 815535508 We are looking for a name for him, preferably a local Aboriginal name, any ideas?