Friends of the Grange Heathland Reserve

Flashback Friday! Fabulous Friends of the Grange alumni Penny and Gloria planting at the reserve, many moons ago.

Flowering this month at the Grange - Sweet Wattle (Acacia suaveolons). It's the first wattle to flower for the season, lots of them to see in the sand heathland area. Also flowering now are Common Correas (Correa reflexa) dotted throughout the reserve. Keep a look out for Eastern Spinebills and New Holland Honeyeaters having a nectar feed 🥰

Natural features of Wallan wallan Regional Parkland: the Parkland will protect elements of the landscape that are unique and significant including wetlands, volcanic cones, waterways, grasslands and stony rises.

The wallan wallan landscape is naturally wet and has been long known by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung for this fact. Stately volcanic hills tower above wet grassy plains, and waterways flow throughout.

The vista is dominated by Green Hill, Spring Hill, Mt. Fraser and Bald Hill. Each of these are volcanic cones which contributed to the basalt rock that underlies the area. The most recent eruption was from Mount Fraser some 800,000 years ago.

Significant changes to the waterways and wetlands of the wallan wallan region are due to works aiming to improve drainage and mitigate flooding. These have involved straightening and channelisation of significant segments of the Merri Creek and its tributaries, and drainage of extensive swamps in the early to mid 1900s.

Prior to being drained in the 1940s, Hernes Swamp (on the main stem of the Merri), covered about 600 ha when full and held water for up to six months. It supported thousands of waterfowl and ibis.

Fully protected and restored, the Parkland's wetlands will hold water in the landscape, help mitigate flood risk the Merri Creek catchment and provide habitat for birds.

If you haven't yet, sign out petition to have the Parkland established (it takes 1 minute!) https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/petitions/wallan-regional-park/

Wallan Environment Group, Friends of Merri Creek , BEAM Mitchell Environment Group

The wet weather has descended upon us... here's some of the watery landscape to be seen at The Grange 💦

Ambling with a camera, looking for the reported white-eared honeyeater, met Stefan who had just seen the bird, but failed to photograph.
Now simply ambling

It was a drizzly Saturday morning at the Grange Reserve yesterday - great weather for a spot of weeding, clearing a patch of fumitory that was already flowering and threatening to go to seed. During the bird survey a new species for the reserve was sighted, a White-eared Honeyeater. Unfortunately no photos of the honeyeater, but we did spot honey brown beetle larvae congregating on the trunk of this black wattle while others were munching on leaves.

I have been posting my for a good few months now. I have no idea of the impact, if any, but I do know that I checked out the analytics on all these posts and they have been viewed over 2.2 million times.
I will stick with it in the hope I can plant a seed in some minds when they see the pain and suffering discarded line, tackle and string can cause. Thank you for sharing and helping get this message out there 🙏