Still going strong

We've talked before about the oldest Helmeted Honeyeater on record being alive and kicking in Yellingbo. Well, we don't see him much. He lives in a quiet corner of Yellingbo that we don't get too much. We always wonder how he is. Is he still there? Is he breeding?

We don't know the answer to the latter question, but on 9 January 2012 he was spotted again by Bruce, DSE Senior Ornithologist (bird specialist). At that stage, he was 17 years and 2 months.

Amazing longevity for a little bird.

Water Sensitive Farm Design

The Water Sensitive Farm Design pilot program through Melbourne Water provides financial assistance and advice to land mangers to undertake on farm works that keeps soil and nutrients on farm and out of waterways. The innovative pilot program is part of Melbourne Water’s River Health Incentives Program. The program has been designed to improve on-farm management practices and support increased productivity, while helping to improve the health of waterways for the benefit of the broader community.

The program is available to eligible land managers in the Woori Yallock catchment, however, flexibility exists for opportunities for landholders outside of these target areas. Funding is available for a range of works on farm up to $40,000 on a cost share basis

For further information please refer to the website

Or contact Clinton Muller 9235 2111 clinton.muller@melbournewater.com.au

Your input needed - public submissions close 20 February 2012

Have your say about public land and biodiversity in the Yellingbo area

The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) has been asked by the State government to provide advice on the biodiversity and ecological values on public land near the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, identify threats and opportunities in relation to these values, and make recommendations relating to appropriate management arrangements. More information including a map of the public land in the investigation area can be found here.

VEAC is receiving public submissions until 20 February 2012.

Your feedback is important and you may wish to:

• make a formal submission
• post your comments and ideas in the community online forum.

This investigation is the result of over 6 years of lobbying by local environmental groups and a positive outcome will be vital for the long-term conservation of this area - home to the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater and endangered Leadbeaters Possum.

Please help us spread the message.

2011-12 breeding news

We are currently recording the highest number of breeding pairs of Helmeted Honeyeaters in Yellingbo since the 2004/2005 breeding season; 17 (there may be a couple more pairs to confirm too!). 15 fledglings have been confirmed (but one disappeared quickly). A family group has also been spotted in a 'new' section of the reserve. Healesville Sanctuary's captive breeding program also reports that 8 of the Sanctuary's 13 pairs have bred, which is a terrific result too!

The breeding season extends into February, so we are quietly hopeful of a good breeding season.

With a little help from our friends...

It's so nice to get some feedback isn't it?! This email arrived today:

Dear Sue and Bruce, Michelle and the friends group

Now it's coming to the end of the year we just wanted to say a big thanks for having us at the reserve and giving us the opportunity to get some experience with the planting days and in the nursery.

We have had an amazing time and have thoroughly enjoyed coming up to the reserve.

Our work at the reserve was a real advantage with our job interviews at Parks Victoria and Parks were really keen to hear about our involvement with the friends group.

Now that we have our Summer Rangers positions we are going to miss coming up to the reserve every week but we're really keen to continue volunteering in the new year.

Big thanks and we look forward to seeing you next year.

Tina, Jayne and Rachael

Looking for a great way to help your local community and yourself at the same time? Check out how you can get involved?

Can we go over the bridge?

Floods, floods, floods. 2011 & 2012 have been years of flooding in Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve. After 45 mm of rain in the Dandenong Ranges, Jack and Sean checked out the impact downstream in Woori Yallock Creek. Pretty significant! Usually 3-4 metres wide, Woori Yallock Creek was over 30 metres across in some places! A day later, the creek was back to 'normal', revealing revegetation areas that didn't show any worse for wear.

Find out more about why Yellingbo is a special place here

Image: Jack and Sean really wanted to explore the other side of the bridge.
Photographer: Jan Tardif

Vale Harold Johnson 2-1-1921 to 22-5-2011

REG Johnson, who returned from flying duties in World War II to become the Victorian

government's chief cartographer and draughtsman and then played a leading role as a

conservationist and environmentalist, died at the age of 90, still sharing his vast

knowledge with students.



He gave his time unstintingly to community work, and obstacles were minor hiccups.

Victoria's bird emblem, the helmeted honeyeater, owes its official status to Johnson,

who was the convener and blistered-hands shovel man of a group dedicated to restoring

degraded creek land at Silvan in what was a remnant of the bird's original habitat.



For years, Johnson and his wife, Kathleen, and co-members of the Bird Observers Club

of Australia lobbied governments to halt private clearings on public land, and coaxed

politicians to see this elusive bird, with its erectile helmet, still nesting in the

area. Eventually, government funding meant additional land could be bought along

creeks, leading to the establishment of Yellingbo Conservation Reserve. Many of the

indigenous eucalypts there today are

Johnson's plantings.



The helmeted honeyeater's existence and status remain precarious, but no one did more

for its chance of survival than Johnson. For him, the protection of public land was a

moral obligation. On one well-known occasion in 1969, when Henry Bolte's government

announced its intention to subdivide the Little Desert into farms, Johnson was

instrumental in forming a coalition of concerned groups to save its fragile

environment with its vulnerable species.



It was Johnson's encyclopaedic knowledge of the environment and his vision of

enhancing natural habitats that led to Land for Wildlife. The initial response from

officialdom was tepid, but he persistently trod on toes in a gentlemanly fashion

until politicians and bureaucrats agreed that wildlife habitat on private land would

diversify gene pools. Johnson and the nature writer and amateur ornithologist Ellen

McCulloch, OAM, jointly ensured the launch of Land for Wildlife, which is now a

national undertaking with thousands of participating properties.



Excerpt taken from: The Age. Date: 02/09/2011. Page: 18