Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association

Here is the latest issue of Indigenotes.  It features:

• the upside of the destructive winds in April in the President's Letter from Brian Bainbridge
• a conversation between our suburban correspondent and his tetchy indigenous garden in Letter from the Suburbs
• the influential conservationist Aldo Leopold features in a review of his biography "Aldo Leopold a Fierce Green Fire" and his own book "A Sand County Almanac"
• the efforts of residents at Belgrave to keep their suburb Echidna-friendly from Vivien Freshwater
• the frustrations of an indigenous gardener from Trevallyn in Tasmania, from Paul Schluter
• a Carpet Python to colour in, and a quiz for kids
• Fantastic photography from Mick Connolly and others, including a colour insects centrefold.

The Ecological Management & Restoration journal(EMR) has recently started publishing short reports on on-ground biodiversity conservation management projects.

We had three groups of notes from different CMAs reported in the last issue and are now calling for all groups involved in on-ground works to send us single summaries or clusters on related topics. (See examples attached.)
Each summary can be no more than 300 words (see below) and I am very happy to assist with feedback on drafts.

It would be good to receive drafts before the end of April or in early May.

My final deadline for drafts is end of the first week in May.

Many thanks,
Tein McDonald
(Editor, EMR journal.)

This glorious glossy issue of Indigenotes (Volume 19 no 1, January 2008) includes

• a letter from IFFA's President Brian Bainbridge about Echidnas and how they seem to be becoming more common in the suburbs,
• a humorous "Letter from the Suburbs",
• a report on IFFA's field trip to the Dandenongs, with a glorious full colour centrefold poster of the trip,
• an extract from Richard Howitt's book published in 1845 on his adventures settling in Melbourne.
• a kids page with a picture of Murray Cod to colour in and a little quiz about Murray Cod.

You can download the issue here.

A high resolution jpeg of the centrefold poster can be downloaded here (2.4Mb), or as a desktop image here (0.5Mb).

We are planning a new home in Gnarabup Beach on the coast of southwest Western Australia. The beach is located about half-way between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin.

Our home site is on a hill very near the beach. We would like to landscape our home using indigenous flora.

Is there someone that we may contact to help us with this endeavor?  We want our home to have the least disruptive impact on this beautiful location.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I have a property in Trevallyn, Tasmaia. For well over 10 years I've been trying to establish an indigenous garden with limited success. My property is around 40mx20m and about 100m from Cataract Gorge State Reserve which is over 500Ha. The house has been there for over 100 years and it was typically made up of grass, roses, fruit trees etc until I came along.

The November issue of Indigenotes is available here.  The fantastic new layout is thanks to Mick Connolly.

Here are some ideas about ways we could extend the website, including a grey literature database, Council environmental performance blogs, standards for management plans etc.

I have always been interested in invertebrates.

All my life I have observed them, and for may years I have photographed them. I have always found it hard to ID those I have seen. Many books relied on detailed entomological knowledge. More generally accessible books often have rather a northern Australian bias; not useful when I spent most of my time in southern Victoria.

The World Wide Web aimed to make information sharing much easier, and so it has.

There are some wonderful sites that can help you identify and learn about the invertebrates that you see. Here are just a few that I find useful.

I hope you enjoy looking at these, and discovering MANY more.

- Wendy Moore

Chilean Needle Grass Field Day, 28 November 2007, Greenvale, Victoria

Sponsored by the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria

9.30 am, Somerton Rd, Greenvale, Melway Map 178 E6