About
Bush dudes house before the bushfire
I am a 100% committed “Bush Chick” now in Australia that means many things but what I mean by that is that I am 100% committed to living in harmony with my bush block. I want to use the least resources as possible (being sustainable in water, materials, energy etc), BUT most importantly and what most people do not heavily consider in trying to live a sustainable lifestyle is living in complete harmony with nature and the amazing biodiversity around me.
My partner and I live about 1 hour east of Melbourne. We are lucky enough to have purchased a “Bush Block” in 2007 which still had remnant indigenous vegetation on it. At the time of purchase the block was starting to be over run with weeds and if we hadn’t stepped in when we did then it might be gone by now. Lucky for biodiversity we arrived!
Bush dudes home the day after bushfire
The past years have been a really big learning journey for us “Bush Dudes”. To ensure we could live in harmony with our local biodiversity we needed to know what we had. Learning about the wildlife wasn’t that hard as I have been a nerdy wildlife geek for sometime having a Science degree in Zoology, but learning all the different plants WHOA that can be challenging! We could tell the bush block was being overrun with weeds, but to get to removing them we had to know exactly which ones were weeds and which ones were indigenous – we also had many planted natives, herbs, fruit trees and vegies (from previous owners) in the garden area around the house to consider too.
Us ”Bush Dudes” strongly believe that preserving biodiversity is everyones responsibility and if you are lucky enough to have been able to purchase land then this makes it your responsibility to look after it in a way that those coming in the future will get to enjoy it as you did. Humans might be able to save the planet from Climate Change by changing energy, materials and water use but at the current rate that humans are altering our biodiversity it is not going to be nearly as interesting a place to live in anyway.
Only in the past few years that we have lived here the biodiversity in our natural environment has rapidly decreased. We have been through the Black Saturday bushfires (February 2009) and all the follow up indigenous vegetation clearing that occurs after such a major event. We are writing about our experiences in the hope that people can overcome some of their fears and really look into enjoying and being part of their natural environment and it’s biodiversity no matter where they live.
People these days seem to see nature as somewhere else, somewhere that they can go and enjoy if they wish. Many people don’t realise that they are part of our biodiverse ecosystem and can make a difference by improving the biodiversity around them wether they live in the country or the city. We can all be part of a biodiverse and interesting environment now for us to enjoy and maintained or enhanced for those in the future to enjoy. BUT it is up to us, all of us.
I have been rsearching worm farming. I live in Ontario Canada.
I am fighting cancer and would like to find something to do that
would help me and my family finacially. I hve tread that it
can be quite profitable. I have spoken with my son and
daughter. They have conveyed a stong interest in learning
about the art of worm farming. If you could forward me any
information, about if it is finacially feesable I would appreciate
it.
Sincerely yours,
Les and Julie Clairmont
Hi Bush dudes! I am a country girl now living in the city and stumbled upon your site, I just love it. I have learnt many things already and haven’t seen many sites with such detail and relevant information in a while. Keep up the good work, one day if I get some money I’d like to buy some land and regenerate it, and have a small orchard and sustainable garden. I am busy planting natives on the suburban block I live in now as well as a veg garden and fruit trees.
Cheers,
Sarah – Canberra
Hi Sarah,
So great to hear your feedback as we just feel that if others get interest out of our site and help to preserve our amazing biodiversity then any effort we put in to providing information is worthwhile. We hope you make your dream of owning a bush block as the bush needs people like you that are willing to really learn about and look after the land. At the moment where we are there feels to be a lot of people keen to remove the exact trees, indigenous vegetation and wildlife that probably attracted them to this area in the first place. C’est la vie!
All the best with your bush dream.
Bush Dudes!
Thanks for your great pages and the very useful information about bush tucker. I was very pleased to read the info on the daisy yams, Microseris lanceolata as I have been trying to find out more about them.
I realised from your clear notes and photos that I already have warrigal greens growing (I think) and several other useful things. If you never hear from me again you can assume that the experiments with tea and salad ingrediants had a tragic result.
I am trying to develop my garden (in Hazeldene on the Yea Whittlesea Road) with respect for indigenuos plants and fauna – and trying to work through how I balance my wishes for a productive fruit and vegetable garden and reduction of fire danger with minimising any adverse impact on the wider enviroment.
Your comments on brush cutters on another page throw out a challenge to us all to consider what are weeds and the impacts of our actions on local biodiversity.
All the best
Dayle
Enjoy your Warrigal Greens and Yam Daisies these were staple foods for Indigenous Australians and early settlers so hopefully it won’t end up in a tragic end for you! Appreciate your feedback.
Bush Dudes.