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The IFFA is dedicated to the future of Australian flora and fauna, whether in habitats of world heritage quality or in the urban back yard. Read More

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Tackling Rabbits in Urban Areas - Kororoit Creek Field Day

Posted Mon, 09/11/2009 - 12:59 by tonyf
18/11/2009 10:00 am
Australia/Victoria

Friends of Lower Kororoit Creek have recently completed a revegetation project along a section of the Kororoit Creek. These works include weed control, revegetation, maintenance and path construction. The works have been carried out over a number of years and recently the group have attemtped to rabbit proof the site with the purpose to increase plant diversity, reduce the labour required for future works (planting without tree guards) and allow for natural regeneration of the site. Join in on the discussion to see if this can be achieved!

See attached flier for details.

FEEDBACK NEEDED.

Posted Wed, 14/10/2009 - 05:04 by admin

As you may have noticed the website is undergoing some changes. So what you would like to see implemented or changed or not changed?? Either leave a comment here or you can contact me here

Do you want a seed exchange? (Current forum overhaul)

On site PM's (personal messaging)?

More detailed profile pages? Business - Website - Buddy list - Education - Your Twitter feed (other social networking) - basically, linked-in - facebook style stuff :)

Blue-banded Bee (Amegilla sp.)

Posted Mon, 12/10/2009 - 05:14 by admin
Description: 

A very rounded solitary bee, slightly smaller than the introduced Honeybee. The abdomen is black with bands of iridescent pale blue hairs. The thorax is brown and furry while the head is dominated by a pair of huge green eyes. The long tongue may be extended as in the photo at right. The high whining sound produced by its hovering flight is likely to be the first thing that makes you aware that one of these bees in nearby. The bee moves very fast but may hover almost motionless for short periods.

Blue Banded Bee, approaching Arching Flax Lily flower, tongue extended, Late December, Fawkner. Photo. Brian Bainbridge

Butterfly Attracting Plants

Posted Wed, 07/10/2009 - 22:09 by admin

Many indigenous plants are important food plants for indigenous butterflies.

Acacia implexa (Lightwood) buds feed caterpillars of the Double spotted Line-blue (Nacaduba biocellata)

Acacia melanoxylon, Acacia dealbata and Acacia mearnsii attract the Imperial Hairstreak Butterfly (Jalmenus evagorus).

Acacia pycnantha (Golden Wattle) provides a bonanza of invertebrate life at all stages of life

Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi)

Posted Wed, 07/10/2009 - 21:51 by admin
Description: 

The adult is seen flying low and fast through open landscapes such as parklands, gardens and grazed paddocks where introduced foodplants such as Capeweed are common. The impression is of a medium-sized butterfly, orange with black and white markings. Up close, the perched individual can be seen to have a pattern of black and orange. The underside is more cryptically marked with mottled patterns.

Australian Painted Lady, basking, Fawkner, November. Photo. Brian Bainbridge

September issue of Indigenotes released

Posted Mon, 28/09/2009 - 17:32 by tonyf

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Latest Edition!

The AGM is coming soon. See page 3 for details. Come along to the workshop and help shape IFFA's future. If you stay to the end you get a free copy of the new video by Judy Allen on seed collecting (reviewed on page 4).

Centipeda cunninghamii

Posted Tue, 22/09/2009 - 16:13 by admin
Common Names: 
Common Sneezeweed

A species of the Asteraceae family, Common Sneezeweed has small globular green-cream flowerheads, and small teethed leaves. When crushed, the leaves exude a pungent sickly sweet smell.

Centipedacumminghamii

Catchment Care in Port Phillip not a priority to Australian Govt.

Posted Sun, 13/09/2009 - 22:19 by tonyf

Recently there have been significant changes to the way Landcare will be supported in the Port Phillip and Western  Port region.

The Port Phillip & Westernport Catchment Management Authority (CMA) has been advised that the CatchmentCare program in this region, comprising a team of CatchmentCare Coordinators that have supported the Landcare movement, will no longer be funded by the Australian Government.

Resilience Thinking - Sustaining Ecosystems and people in a Changing World

Posted Sun, 13/09/2009 - 22:04 by tonyf

It might seem strange to be reviewing a book published three years ago, but this is a title whose time has definitely come.   It is currently difficult to hear to any politician speak without dropping the word ‘resilience’ every few sentences and at the Society for Ecological Restoration conference in late August the air was thick with the term.  That’s not to say that this ‘resilience thinking’ is particularly new.  Much of the theory has been devised over many decades in social, economic, ecological and business fields.  It is the cross-fertilisation of ideas across disciplines and the usefulness of the idea in the face of uncertainty that makes this a stimulating and obviously popular concept.     

Roots of Civilisation: plants that changed the world – John Newton

Posted Sun, 13/09/2009 - 21:53 by tonyf
roots_of_civilisation small

The Roots of Civilisation

This is a ripper of a book!

Written by John Newton, a Sydney-based journalist and author, this is a pot-pourri of (as the subtitle of the book suggests) plants that changed the world.

The Roots of Civilisation runs the gamut of food plants, fibres, plants used in dyes, medicinal, poisonous, ‘psychoactive’ plants and even aphrodisiacs. It provides a deliciously entertaining guide of how these plants, along with the influence of mankind, have changed the world forever. It is a story of discovery, ingenuity, survival and greed.

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