Floral Emblem of Victoria
The pink form of Common Heath, Epacris impressa, was proclaimed the floral emblem of Victoria in 1958. There is also a white form of the same species. According to VicFlora, it flowers all year, mainly April – November. It is actually not very common in our park – but Lisa found a specimen budding into flower now. The pink flowers grow to become tube-like and open at the bottom.
Urban Forest Strategy
Project Challenges
Whitehorse Council is developing its very worthy Urban Forest Strategy to better manage trees and other vegetation across both public and private land – particularly in the context of climate change and its likely effects on our way of living and physical/mental health. This strategy fits into the broader “Living Melbourne: A Metropolitan Urban Forest Strategy”.
Council has set itself very challenging targets for the level of future canopy cover within the municipality: 27% by 2031 and 30% by 2050. Clearly, parks such as ours will play a significant role but there is not enough public land to reach those targets – private property will have to help!
Council data show a trend of rapid loss of tree canopy over recent years and just how challenging the project’s targets are. The losses from 2014 to date are indeed alarming – we expect due to current housing trends / State Government planning which is designed to increase population density in middle suburbs. We’ve all seen modest houses surrounded by large gardens replaced by multiple multi-storey units or houses with large footprints covering most of the block – most of the former trees and garden being removed to be replaced by buildings and hard surfaces – leaving little opportunity for planting trees.
| Year | Box Hill | Blackburn | Source |
| 2014 | 18.5 | 28.5 | DELWP |
| 2018 | 15.5 | 24.8 | DELWP |
| 2021 | 14.0 | 22.0 | our extrapolation |
| 2031 | 27.0 | 27.0 | target |
| 2050 | 30.0 | 30.0 | target |
So, to achieve the targets, we are going to need, not only to reverse the serious decline, but also considerably improve planting and retention rates to provide the target coverage. The project does take heart from the Moonee Valley experience where the trend was reversed successfully.
Bear in mind too that plants need time to grow to generate significant canopy benefits. Also, areas like Blackburn will probably need to deliver above-average results to compensate for areas like Box Hill where there are significant areas of high density development.
City Nature Challenge and iNaturalist
Citizen Science is one of the communication strategies the Urban Forest project is proposing to reach the community. The 2021 City Nature Challenge is running from 30th April to the 3rd May. Here is an opportunity to strut your stuff in an international forum! The general idea is that people in their local communities take pictures of wild plants and animals all over the world within those dates. Naturally, we are twisting the arms of our regular photographers to make contributions.
For more information on the City Nature Challenge, please visit: www.citynaturechallenge.org
Council will also be running a series of events which will be listed on its website (https://www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au/waste-environment/trees-and-gardens/wildlife-guests-and-pests/wildlife/city-nature-challenge) when the details have been confirmed.
Recording sightings is via photos uploaded through the iNaturalist app. You can also get free training on the app via this event:
Event: iNaturalist Training Webinar
Date & Time: Tuesday March 23, 2021: 7pm – 8.15pm AEDT
Cost: Free
Host: City of Monash (all seven councils participating in the City Nature Challenge will be promoting this event to the community)
Link to register or obtain a recording: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/inaturalist-training-webinar-tickets-141757714139
Park News
Maintenance Team Report
Since last report, we have spent a couple of working bees at the Billabong, one was cancelled due to the latest lockdown and another two were held at the noticeboard area and just west of the Laurel Grove bridge. People who know Mary Crouch will be pleased to know that she was a welcome visitor on 8th February – “returning to the scene of the crime” – discussing our plans and some of the work history at the Billabong site.
We are very pleased to have two new starters working with us – Carolyn and Andy. It is great to have some new people come on board – especially given we have lost Vicki and Cathy in the last couple of months.
Vale the Edgertons
Gwen and Colin Edgerton both passed away recently. They were well known identities in the park – walking their little dog and collecting litter along their route. Their contributions to the park will be greatly missed. Our sincere condolences to their family and friends.
Where are the logs going?
If a tree has to be cut down, we usually recommend that the logs be retained at the site if practicable – once again, for habitat purposes and also so nutrients are eventually returned to the park. While we have been assured that there is no change to policy regarding leaving logs, they keep disappearing ! We are following up with Council’s Parkswide soon…
Dog-on-lead Signs
Council has commenced a roll-out of new dog-on-lead signs in all its parks including ours. The new signs are clear, remind owners to pick up droppings and also sport a QR code in the top right which leads to off-lead park details for dog owners unaware that the park is on-lead in all locations.
Changes to Paths
We have been in preliminary discussions with Council on:
- a proposal to widen footpath(s) at the Heath Street end of the park following damage due to heavy traffic during the first lockdown (we don’t support that)
- path rationalisation in the Noticeboard area.
We’ll bring those to your attention when we have more information.
Autumn Bird Survey
The Blackburn Creeklands is blessed with an amazing diversity of native birdlife – more than 90 species of residents and visitors have been identified. We are working towards getting our Autumn and Spring Bird Surveys going again in 2021 – after both events, sadly, had to be cancelled last year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
For your diaries, the Autumn Survey is planned for Saturday, 24th April (Covid dependent). We will meet early at the Scout Hall in Pakenham Street, Blackburn and be led by our fantastic guides Pat Bingham (Birdlife Australia) and Ian Moodie (City of Whitehorse).
Details will be finalised at next month’s Committee meeting. For further information: please visit: https://blackburncreeklands.wordpress.com/activities/bird-counts/
We Wuz Wrong !
We used the handy “Melbourne’s Wildlife: A field guide to the fauna of Greater Melbourne“, published by the Museum of Victoria, as our reference for declaring that the difference between damselflies and dragonflies in last month’s edition was the way they hold their wings when resting (along their bodies – damselflies, at right angles – dragonflies).
Speaking of Ian Moodie (one of our Bird Survey leaders – see article above), he and Wendy were very quick to point out that this is only a good “rule of thumb”. Once again proving that Murphy was right, the photo of the “dragonfly” we used is the only example of a local damselfly that rests with its wings at right angles to its body! Ian tells us: “it is a Common Flatwing (the name is a bit of a give-away!) Austroargiolestes icteromelas”.
So what is the difference ? We can do no better than quote Ian on this subject:
There are lots of other differences, but many of them are a bit more subtle and have to do with larval stage development and stuff. The other reasonably large morphological difference that is usually mentioned when discussing this area, is the placement of the eyes. Damselflies tend to have their eyes very separate on their heads and stuck out on the sides, whereas Dragonflies’ eyes are often almost fused together in the centre of their heads, but again there are always exceptions.
Ian kindly provided this photo of a dragonfly to illustrate the head/eye differences:
Ian continues:
In reality all things are on a continuum and ‘distinctions’ are often just an arbitrary point that we humans assign to things to help us get a grip on how things are related to each other and, by inference, to us. Lots of times these distinctions have had to be revised over and over when more information comes to light (DNA analysis anyone? :-))
A classic case is the difference between moths and butterflies, which was a hot topic for many years. From memory, there is now no trait that all butterflies exclusively have, that some moths do not also have, and vice versa. Essentially therefore, there is no difference. To entomologists, they are all now just ‘lepidoptera’, with butterflies being just a ‘specialised’ type of moth.
Of course, “Lepidoptera” is just another human classification too (albeit higher level) and there are possibly problematic cross-overs with the related “order” Trichoptera (caddisflies – beloved of fly-fishers) – but we’ll leave that well alone! We nearly said that the damselflies look finer and more elegant than the dragonflies as you’d expect from Damsels vs Dragons – but thought better of that too – for fear of getting into even more trouble!
All of this strife comes from our human tendency to classify things. No doubt that has helped us to survive as a species through benefits such as identifying potential food sources and threats (reptiles without legs might be snakes which might poison us – even though there are legless “lizards”).
William of Occam (or Ockham) (d. 1347) – of Occam’s Razor fame – was one of the first philosophers to declare that classifications do not actually exist – rather they are purely inventions of human understanding – ways of collecting many objects for psychological simplicity.
This would make him a “nominalist” (ie a classification!) in the terminology of modern philosophy.
Thank you Ian and Wendy for setting us straight on all this!
“Slider” Effect
Our thanks to those who let us know they liked the new “slider” effect we used for the first time in last edition. Here is another example which shows a Damselfly (we hope!) viewed in Ruth’s black & white and colour versions:
Sightings
Ruth has supplied a large number of photos of insects in the park in February which we display in a new way (for our newsletter). This is another “control”, called a light-box, available to us via our updated web page editor.
Different web-site browsers on different devices (desktop computers, tablets, phones etc) can all behave differently. To use this feature under Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge (Chrome) on a desktop computer at least, you can click on any of the “thumbnail” images and then scroll through the photos in a magnified format by clicking on the < or > symbols which appear on the left and right sides. When you are finished, click on the little “X” that appears towards the top right of the magnified view and it will close. The behaviour on other devices may be different.
Carp
Not quite a Giant Grouper, Ruth spotted four fish recently in the creek downstream from the Blacks Walk bridge – all about 30cm long. Although this fish is an introduced pest, it is nevertheless interesting our creek can support aquatic life on this scale!
Rakali
Several people have reported seeing a Rakali (aka Water Rat) in the creek – and we are able to bring you a movie! Good spots for viewing seem to be around the Blacks Walk bridge in the evening and in the pond near the Noticeboard on Saturday mornings!
A Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster) is a largish (23-37cm) indigenous rodent which lives in burrows on the banks of creeks, rivers, lakes and irrigation channels. It feeds on aquatic insects, fish (hopefully the carp! [see above]), yabbies, snails, frogs, plant material, birds’ eggs etc.
It looks like a cross between a large rat and a ringtail possum. It has partially webbed hind feet, waterproof fur, a flattened head, a long blunt snub-nose, a thick furry tail usually with a white tip, small ears and eyes. The short film shows its white-tipped tail very clearly as well as its strong swimming capabilities.
Little Pied Cormorant
Margaret sent us this photo of a Pied Cormorant’s fishing success. Some think that “breakfast” might be an elver (young eel).
Noisy Miners
Perhaps not what we really want to see, Hugh’s photo below shows the Noisy Miners have also had a long and successful breeding season:
As last September’s edition shows, they have been reproducing since Spring. Even though they are indigenous birds, Noisy Miners can become a nuisance by driving out less aggressive species. They will gang-tackle most other birds regardless of size. For example, they will relentlessly bully larger birds such as Little Pied Cormorants by chasing them and raising alarm calls – even though the Cormorant is not a predator and would not share much food in common. This movie shows recent action:
Foxes
There have been several sightings of foxes reported. These pests also seem to have had a good season and are bold enough to appear in daylight.
In our September 2020 edition, we reported Belinda McPhee’s advice that, within an urban setting, the best and safest option for fox control is to discourage them by making the area unsuitable for their survival. Foxes use a variety of shelters such as rubbish heaps, rocky outcrops, patches of woody weeds and buildings. Actions that can be taken to discourage foxes:
- Remove rubbish lying around and secure bin lids.
- Clean up excess fruit dropped by fruit trees and berries – foxes are semi-vegetarian! Fox scats often contain large amounts of seed.
- Always cover compost heaps or use a compost bin.
- Don’t feed wildlife (including foxes of course).
- Remove prickly and woody weeds (such as gorse, boxthorn and blackberries).
- Fence off the underneath of buildings, water tanks and other places foxes may hide.
- Don’t leave objects for foxes to climb over into neighbouring properties.
- Remove dog bones and animal carcasses, including those a fox might bring into your yard, to prevent foxes scavenging.
- Fence off rock piles, building materials and woodpiles or store them in a manner that does not create a hiding place for foxes.
Imperial Blue Butterflies
These butterflies have had a very extended season and are still “hatching”:
We are seeing the underside of the wing in Greg’s photo. The upper side is a beautiful blue colour as Hugh’s photo below shows:
They are now on two different varieties of wattle – the Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii) and the Silver Wattle (A. dealbata) and often seem to prefer saplings to mature trees. Maybe the ants don’t like heights? Ian Moodie has also seen them on Blackwoods (A. melanoxylon) in another location. All three species are fairly common in our park.
What is this substance or creature ?
Wendy’s photo above shows the fascinating larva she found on the same Black Wattles that the Imperial Blue Butterflies have been metamorphosing on. Although the larva looks like a tiny white cotton mop, it is the larva of a Ladybird that eats scale and mealy bugs. It is called the Mealybug Ladybird (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri).
Her photo above is an action shot – actually consuming a scale insect. If you are thinking it looks like just what you need to mop up the scale on your citrus trees, they were imported from Australia into California in 1891 to control citrus mealybug ! They are hungry little guys (4mm long as adults) with good defences. Here is a link if you’d like to learn more and/or see what the adult Ladybird looks like.
Kookaburras
Our Kookaburras also seem to have enjoyed an excellent breeding season. There is one “riot” of kookaburras which seems to be based around the Laurel Grove bridge. This photo was taken in a nearby neighbours’ garden (there is a swimming pool there which is good for a bath):
So what type of golden food do they feed their young ?
Bob Dylan may have had it right with his lyric “the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind“… Wendy has had a close look at Ruth’s photo above and thinks the hapless spider is a Golden Orb Weaver – a Nephila. They are large and their long legs have tufts on them. She says they come down to Melbourne from time to time – often blown on a northerly wind. Here is a photo of one she took in her own garden:
Birdlife Visitors
The Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos have returned to the park recently. Other returning visitors have included the Gang-gang Cockatoos and King-parrots.
In the Corridor
Lisa had a visit from Bluey – who was too polite to show us his eponymous tongue:
The Common or Eastern Blue Tongue lizard (Tiliqua scincoides) is a slow, stocky and large (30-50cm) skink – harmless to humans. They eat snails, fruit and flowers. They are “viviparous” – giving birth to up to a dozen, live young.
Jim sent this nice shot of a couple of dozey Tawny Frogmouths roosting in his backyard in Acacia Street:
BBC Planet Earth III
Speaking of our Tawnies, Niall Stopford is hoping to film the nesting and hunting behaviour of Tawny Frogmouths, in and around Melbourne, in November 2021 for the upcoming wildlife documentary series Planet Earth III from the BBC Natural History Unit in the UK. He is also especially interested in how Pied Currawongs now breed in the area after the 2009 bushfires – they are predators of eggs and nestlings.
It would be great to see some of our local birds and habitat on this highly regarded BBC TV show! Please click here if you’d like to download Niall’s “call out” flyer.
Vacant land at 60 Main Street
Vacant land at 60 Main Street abutting the park is once again on the market. We think this would be a great way to add more quality Urban Forest capacity in the public domain through a Council purchase. It abuts a narrow portion of the Creeklands and is ideally sited – being mostly to the south of neighbouring housing. We understand Council has a budget of $60M+ to buy land for parks.
This is the same land that the Bellbird Residents’ Advocacy Group (BRAG) raised a petition for Council to purchase in April, 2019. Unfortunately, it was rejected then on the grounds that such a purchase did not comply with Council policy. In the context of corridor/bio-link oriented purchases, the policy seems to prefer to fund purchases that link parks – and apparently excludes worthwhile extensions of parks. Otherwise, land is purchased for “pocket parks” which have very limited capacity to contribute to the Urban Forest and are usually only suitable for quite young children.
Perhaps a change in policy is called for – or an exception should be made. Clearly it will be too late once units are built on the land.
The Blackburn Creeklands 
Pingback: Park News – March, 2022 | The Blackburn Creeklands