Australian Bush Life

So many of Australia’s unique wildlife are killed or injured on our roads each year. A rapid response from the driver/passenger could mean life or death to the animal who has been hit. But who to call when there are 3 Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation groups in Victoria. Choosing from 3 under pressure is difficult.

So luckily RACV has this amazing program where if you just ring their number they will automatically transfer you through to your nearest wildlife carer to the accident location anywhere in Victoria. Link to RACV Wildlife Connect.

Too easy. 1 number to remember. 13 11 11.

Plug this number in to your mobile phone right now so you are ready to respond.

Please pass this message around…

Also keep these items in your car so that you can readily deal with an injured animal:

• old pillow case
• empty box
• blanket/s
• gloves

More information on local wildlife…

More sustainable living tips…

Garden lighting is something we use minimally in our lives. All lighting uses energy so wherever we can avoid lighting the less energy we use and the better for the environment.  For minimal garden lighting we only use when we are in the garden at night (when you obviously need to see) and we only have lighting illuminating particular garden features:

• Our carpark
• Our BBQ
• Our outdoor seating / dining area
• Our front and rear entries

We never have outdoor lighting on when we are inside. This not only saves energy (and money) but even more importantly to us we don’t want to upset our wildlife neighbours.

Garden lighting effects our australian wildlife

A great proportion of australian wildlife are nocturnal, coming out soon after dark to interact with their local habitat, other local wildlife or to find food and water. Being nocturnal native wildlife have adapted to function in low light and particularly their eyes are sensitive to bright lights. Imagine trying to move around in search of food with bright lights shining in your eyes…

Wildlife friendly garden lighting pointing downwards onto driveway.

The rarer types of wildlife species are generally more likely to avoid well lit areas. For instance more common wildlife species such as Ringtail Possums and Common Brushtail Possums have adapted to bright lights and hence can readily be found in our cities. But to encourage less common wildlife to our gardens not only do we have to provide key habitat features such as food (indigenous plants) and homes (tree hollows, ground cover plants & habitat logs and dense shrubs etc) we must reduce lighting.

In addition to really give our rarer wildlife a welcoming garden home working on noise reduction, particularly threatening noises like dogs barking, along with light reduction will make a huge difference for these shy creatures to feel safe and confident.

How to reduce the impact of lighting on wildlife in your garden

• Eliminate all unneccessary garden lighting locations
• Always point garden lighting downwards not upwards into trees
• Never point bright/feature lighting onto large old hollow bearing trees (wildlife homes)
• Don’t shine lights on other areas like lawns where wildlife may graze at night
• Only use outdoor lighting when neccessary
• Reduce the brightness of lighting, softer lighting is more welcoming
• Keep garden lighting close to the home
• Allow some areas of your garden to remain completely dark
• Solar lighting is usually a gentler light and doesn’t use electricity

Added bonus: By reducing garden lighting you get to enjoy clear skies full of brilliant shining stars.

Southern Brown Tree Frog - Litoria ewingii on window.

The Southern Brown Tree Frog – Litoria ewingii is a commonly frog found in our local area. We hear them croaking with a weep, weep ,weep, weep, weep, weep, weep sound (first “weep” sound is the longest). In fact I think we would feel quite sad if we didn’t hear this sound coming from our garden as it is so much a part of our lives.

We don’t always see these frogs though so got a big surprise when we found one in the kitchen amongst our drying dishes the other day. Luckily this little guy had found a nice moist place underneath a mug and was still in great condition so could safely be returned to the garden.

To pick up this frog I just ensured that I had nice clean hands as frogs have very sensitive skin and they can absorb all sorts of chemicals and other compounds that dissolve in water. I also wet my hands with clean water to reduce the abrasive impact of my rough hands (any human hand is rough to delicate frog skin).

Being a tree frog though he was pretty quick to make a get away and using his large toe pads tried to hop away by making his way up the kitchen window before I gently got a grab on him. To return him to the garden I placed him in an area with plenty of frog habitat including ground cover plants, rocks and habitat logs so that he could quickly find a sheltered place to hide out the day. I gave the area a sprinkle of clean water too to ensure that he didn’t dry out whilst find that hiding place.

Southern Brown Tree Frog - Litoria ewingii on ground cover plant.

To us frogs are such an important part of our garden biodiversity. All frogs are sensitive to pollution and habitat degradation so knowing they can find a home in our garden re-assures us that we are looking after our natural environment. These little tree frogs pay us back by keeping our insect populations under control as they are very agile predators. They are an organic gardeners treasure feeding aggressively most nights throughout the year - it is difficult to think how many thousands of potential vegetable garden pests they must consume.

Heres to the Southern Brown Tree Frogs they are welcome to live around our vegetable garden any day.

Other frogs in our garden…

An example of a Fire Prevention Notice.

On Christmas Eve past our surprise present was a Bush Fire Prevention Notice in the mailbox. This is a strongly worded legal letter which outlines fuel reduction works that you must undertake on your property. It can be a little overwhelming as works must be completed within the specified time frame or they can be undertaken on your behalf and you can be left with the bill.

The Bush Fire Prevention notice really rattled us as we recieved the letter during the holiday period (Christmas Eve) and the works were required to be completed before January 2nd. What if we had been away and come home to our bush block slashed to less that 100mm? We would have been devastated – our indigenous plants are just recovering after the bushfire! Let alone been left with the bill to pay for the devastation.

While we understand the need to manage fuel loads to reduce the risk of bushfire for community safety, we did not move to our bushblock to turn it into a parkland. We can see the need to slash and maintain areas of weedy/pasture grasses or thickets of weeds such as blackberries as they do contain a high fuel load. But we only have indigenous bushland, maintain a cleared area and well watered vegetable gardens around our home, have a home with low risk of flammability and do not have any vegetation touching our home. Our home has actually just lived through the bushfire in 2009.

Some information that we have found out about Fire Prevention Notices since being served with one. As it is a legal document it is imperative that you act immediately before the deadline for completion of works specified in your letter.

• You have the right to oppose the Fire Prevention Notice if you have bushland that you want to protect
• Write an initial opposition letter in writing asking to work together with the fire prevention officer to come to an agreed management strategy, ask for more time if you need it and send it by certified mail
• Clearly outline how you already manage your property and bush to minimise the fire and fuel load risk
• Arm yourself with knowledge about your land such as knowing your local plants, animals and habitat that you want to protect
• Work with your local fire prevention officer to develop a mangement plan for your property if required
• You have the right to ask how and why the notice has been served to you
• You have the right to seek clarity on what specifically the letter requires you to do as we were very unsure with the ambiguous wording regarding what vegetation exactly was required for removal
• Try to contact someone in your local council who works in “environment” or with “indigenous vegetation” to gain advice as they may have a different angle to the fire prevention officer
• Contact your local Councillor or environment groups to ask for advice/support as required

By asking questions it appeared our notice was served on us without a fire prevention officer visiting our property and was purely on the request of a neighbour, which is allowed under the CFA Act 1958 – section 41. Our neighbour is looking to build and is hoping to build a home to a low Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating, which is cheaper.

This is obviously easier if we clear all the vegetation from our block as the fire threat is reduced to their block, but in no way are we stopping their building altogether. In fact we believe that if you live in a fire prone area then you need to build a house to a high BAL using quality materials and design so that the home has a higher level of surviving the bushfire event. Asking a neighbour to clear and maintain their vegetation is not a long term sustainable solution for building to a lower BAL rating and is really just a disaster waiting to happen.

An example of the legal wording in a Fire Prevention Notice.

We felt particularly that this letter did not take into account the fact that all our indigenous plants are currently recovering from a recent bushfire and that currently all plants are between 1 – 2 metres tall (whether grasses, shrubs or trees). Also the coucil have just recently installed a roadside conservation sign protecting indigenous vegetation right near where we were being asked to clear/reduce fuel to. Here is some of the ambiguous wording that we sought clarity over – in fact we still don’t really understand what these words mean and what exactly we were required to do.

• Cut all “grasses” to less than 100mm. We only have indigenous grasses and they are mixed in amongst all other types of native vegetation (forming a habitat) so difficult to single each grass out and cut them.
• Cut all “blackberries” and “weeds” to less than 100mm. We don’t have any weeds including blackberries.
• Cut all “undergrowth” to less than 100mm. We still do not understand what this means. This is a classic case of an ambiguous word and can be taken in so many different ways. All of which tend to lean to cut everything. Apparently undergrowth does not mean trees or shrubs, in which case we weren’t sure how we could single out indigenous grasses from the regenerating trees and shrubs that have sprung up since the bushfire.

Anyway in the long term our fire prevention notice was anulled, without even so much as a site visit – all sorted out over the phone. But the process was stressful so we hope that we have made this journey easier for others out there hoping to protect their indigenous bushland from being cut to extreme levels. We believe that the strong and legally worded letter scares many people into clearing their bushland unneccessarily and in an undesired manner. If you feel like us then this would be very upsetting clearing away your wildlife homes too.

Here are some councils who have online statements indicating that native grasses and low indigenous vegetation are not the fuel load and major bushfire threat they have been demonised to be. Weeds are far more risky!

www.goldenplains.vic.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Fire_Prevention_Notice_FAQs.pdf

Why don’t you make the greenie with all the native grasses cut their block?
Native grasses generate about 1/10th the fuel load of introduced pasture grasses such as Phalaris and Wild Oats. This is why we encourage the retention and regeneration of native grasses. This can only be achieved if we allow them time to re-seed. Not doing so encourages introduced grasses which create a much greater fire risk.

www.melton.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=170&h=1

Sparse low growing native vegetation is less of a fire hazard than dense, tall growing pasture grass and weeds.

Roadside Conservation Sign - No Mowing.

Since the bushfire in February 2009 we have worked with our local council to get a street roadside conservation sign installed. This sign says “Roadside Conservation Area. No Disturbance. No mowing.”

The sign is placed on council owned land on roadsides. This strip of land is contentious as neighbouring private land owners often tend to look after them by “tidying up”. In our area this usually means mowing with little regard for the quality of indigenous vegetation remaining on these strips of land. Tidying up of habitat logs and leaf litter is also very common.

Mowing tends to occur through the bushfire preparation season - spring and into summer. It amazes us to see mowing on these areas often all that is mowed are ground cover plants such as indigenous grasses and wildflowers. Which at this time of year are actually astonishingly beautiful whilst flowering and their low fuel load is a minimal fire risk. We just don’t understand this behaviour which additionally stops the wildflowers from seeding and setting up the next generation.

Roadside reserves are some of the best quality remaining vegetation which hosts a great number of different indigenous plant species – local biodiversity. These exact roadside reserves are often used by Landcare and other volunteer type groups who undertake revegetation works. As they can use them to collect seed to bring back the diversity lost in nearby areas where indigenous vegetation is lacking or completely lost.

Roadside Conservation Sign on Street.

We have tended our roadside reserve for over 4 years. Mostly all that is required is a couple of days a year hand weeding to keep it healthy. It is an important route for local wildlife. Mainly echidnas hike up this protected stretch as often it is difficult for them to access or cross nearby properties as they would have to negotiate fences and pets particularly dogs.

Since the bushfires these roadside reserves were put under increasingly threatening levels of activity. From many levels of government there was a massive clean up process of removing dead trees, habitat logs, slashing  etc. Many local landowners also took the liberty to clear these areas after such a major disaster as who was going to question their clearing behaviour when they had just lived through the bushfire.

In addition there are many new people moving onto blocks that were sold by residents who lost housing and often these new residents are unaware of local indigenous plants and wildlife. So hopefully our new Roadside Conservation street sign will help this little strip of nature hold it’s ground for at least a few more years, actually we hope that with a little weeding maintenance it might now be there for those who come after us to appreciate it’s natural beauty.

Do you live in an area where there is quality indigenous vegetation on a road reserve that is not protected? Why not call your local council and see if you can get a sign installed on your street?

Hardenbergia violacia or Purple Coral-pea. Natural wildlife food.

We have never seen so much Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea as has been abounding on our bush block in the last 2 years with excessive re-growth triggered by the bushfire in 2009. This is one fire loving indigenous plant.

During spring we had masses of purple flowers trailing along the ground and creeping up small trees and shrubs. Since December these flowers have produced numerous pea pods which have been bursting with ripe seed to provide a bounty of food for local wildlife.

Hardenbergia violacia - Crimson Rosella eating seeds.

Although there are many smaller animals like ants which undoubtably harvest the seeds from the ground we most commonly see parrots feeding on the seed pods. Our most common parrots, King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas will come right down onto the ground to spend time opening the pods gorging on the hardy seeds within.

Hardenbergia violacea seeds eaten by King Parrots.

Any excess seeds that are not harvested for food by our local wildlife will remain hidden amongst the leaf litter and soil on our bush block. The tough seed coat protecting this seed bank until the next round of germination. This plant is a hardy native survivor, the tough seeds can even be protected through droughts or bushfire.

More natural wildlife foods…

More information and pictures of Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea…

Painted Button-quail - Turnix varia. Recovering from shock in a quiet and dark place.

We recently had a Painted Button-quail, Turnix varia, crash into our windows. The bird hit hard and as it is quite a small bird this caused it to go into shock.

Whilst in this state of shock the quail was very vulnerable to any form of attack by a predator. Additionally the exposure to the cooler weather of the morning may increase the chance of death when in this state. As we have had another small bird - a Striated Pardalote crash into our windows before and die, we decided to pick the animal up and put it in a quiet space to let it recover from the shock. Click here for more information and tips on how to avoid birds striking your windows…

We placed the Painted Button-quail in a cardboard box on some clean rags for warmth, comfort and somewhere to hide. Closed the lid and just peeped in every 10 minutes to check it was going okay. After about half and hour the animal had perked back up. We could tell as it had become fully alert and was trying to get out of the box. This fiesty spirit is what it would need to survive in the bush. We were also able to give it a small drink of water and it drank another sign it was feeling a lot better. We released the bird in the exact location where we had found it and it immediately flew off to our relief.

Painted Button-quail - Turnix varia. Flew away immediately on release.

Like all quails the Painted Button-quail is a ground dwelling bird. It predominantly eats seeds and really enjoys the seeds of our indigenous grasses such as the Wallaby Grass, Kangaroo Grass and Weeping Grass. The indigenous grasses are also all tufting grasses and left un-mowed provide excellent habitat for birds like quails to hide amongst. We have noticed more quails than ever before after the recent bushfire as all our indigenous grasses have successfully regenerated in larger numbers than were originally found on our bushblock (pre-bushfire). The higher rainfall over the last year has also helped provide a bumper source of seed for the birds.

Another important habitat feature for ground dwelling birds such as quails to survive is to maintain a good ground cover of leaf litter, twigs and logs. This provides additional protection from predators particularly as quails build their nests on the ground. Without this ground cover and a good scattering of indigenous grasses it would be very difficult for quails to survive and breed and they would most likely become locally extinct in areas where these features are removed.

Feral predators particularly foxes and cats are also be a major threat to the Painted Button-quail. Additionally human activites can threaten quail survival such as straying pets (cats & dogs), and ”tidying up”; fuel reduction such as mowing & clearing up the leaf litter, twigs and logs. The “tidying up” of our bush particularly occurs and is promoted as a bushfire prevention method and is particularly disastrous to ground dwelling species that rely on these exact habitat features for their existence.

We choose to refrain from “tidying up”; mowing & clearing away the leaf litter, twigs and logs as we love to see these ground dwelling creatures survive. They are the reason we live on our bushblock and we refuse to turn our piece of paradise into a parkland with low biodiversity values just for the sake of a bushfire event that may or may not happen in the short or long term. This would be giving up on the wildlife that we get to live amongst every day for a single day that might not even be for another 30 years or more into the future (it was 48 years between the last 2 bushfires!). It would defeat all reason for living here in the bush amongst the wildlife.

What are your thoughts on “tidying up” as a bushfire prevention technique that can remove the exact habitat that the Painted Button-quail needs?

Safe driving is not only important for human safety but also for wildlife safety. Wildlife injuries and deaths on our roads have a huge impact on maintaining our biodiversity. As most of us drive we all play an important role in trying to protect our wildlife whilst on the roads as unfortunately they don’t understand our human road rules and ettiquette!

Here are some tips we regularly use to reduce the chance of injuring wildlife whilst driving:

• Reduce speed so that you have time to stop.
• Drive carefully at night as many Australian wildlife species are nocturnal and very active at night.
• Drive particularly carefully at dawn, dusk and during rain.
• Or avoid driving at dawn and dusk as wildlife are most active then.
• Or avoid driving in the rain as it is more dangerous, but many of our frogs and water birds love the rain and are more likely to be out and moving about.
• Always keep an eye on the roadsides as wildlife often use these areas and can move out unexpectedly, particularly when there are habitat features such as indigenous vegetation or water pooling on roadsides.

We carry a pillow case and box in our car so that we can assist injured wildlife if we come across them. We are lucky to live near the Healesville Sanctuary which can quickly assist any wildlife with injuries, but many vets are also willing to help out.

We also have the RACV’s wildlife assist number, 13 11 11, plugged into our mobiles so even if we are travelling we can link to the nearest wildlife resuce centre using just this one phone number.

Special outift required to clean up toxic dust from treated pine fencing posts.

We have always been dubious about fencing as unless you really need to keep something in then it also works the other way and keeps other things out. Most particularly where we live fences form barriers for wildlife and can limit their ability to move through their habitat home ranges. As we don’t have ay pets, we chose to live where we do to enjoy the local wildlife, we are quite happy to have no fencing around our property. Although on 2 sides of our boundary our neighbours have fences up to keep in pets or livestock.

We do maintain a fence around our vegetable patch to ensure that the local wildlife don’t eat our human food. We keep our indigenous plants healthy on our bush block to ensure wildlife have their own food too. We maintain our boundary to our property by just having metal stake/pickets to mark the border, but without any wire, wildlife are freely able to move across this boundary. We absolutely would not use any barbed wire this is a really nasty product, totally unnecessary and highly like to injure, humans, livestock, pets or wildlife. Additionally smaller wildlife can be trapped on the barbs often leading to a long slow and painful death.

Since the bushfire in February 2009 we have also become very wary of treated pine posts used in fencing. These are very popular and used widely throughout Australia for fencing and many other uses. After the bushfire event these posts had burnt and left behind piles of green toxic dust, containing nasty chemicals like chromium, copper and arsenic. After the bushfire it was very warm and dusty for 3 weeks until we received some rain and this dust would have been blowing around. This is really scary considering how many thousands of kilometres of fencing was burnt leaving behind toxic dust, who knows where it all ended up!

We quickly ensured we cleaned up and disposed of any toxic soil close to our property. Bagging soil for proper disposal through waste companies who could deal with such nasty chemicals.

The fencing that we do have around our vegetable patch uses recycled untreated (no chemicals) hardwood posts and recycled fencing wire (no barbs). We pick up most of the materials we need for this small amount of fencing off hard waste, the material scraps thrown away by others in our area. Metal posts marking our boundary also survived the bushfire and did not need replacing. I would not recommend that anyone use treated pine anywhere near a food growing area as the chemicals can leach into the soil.

Crimson Rosella eating Cotton Fireweed.

The indigenous plants called “fireweeds” or scientifically known as ”senecio spp.” live up to their namesake as they do love fire! We have had huge numbers of fireweeds sprout up since the bushfire over a year ago as they love disturbance and are a typical plant to colonise newly opened areas of soil. Unfortunately for their namesake and appearance they do look and sound weedy. Many people have unfortunately removed this plant from their gardens but they are an indigenous plant and a very important food plant for our wildlife particularly rosella’s.

The most common species on our block is called Cotton Fireweed or Senecio quadridentatus. Cotton Fireweed’s on our bushblock have been continually flowering from spring until autumn. They have been a staple food supply for our local rosella’s who visit and eat the flowers and seeds from these plants daily.

Eastern Rosella eating Cotton Fireweed.

We are glad that we have had the chance to notice the importance of this plant as a food supply for wildlife. We will ensure that we have an abundance of fireweeds in the future to entice our native parrots to visit us on our bush block. We don’t need to provide them with bought seeds or other types of bought food, just observe the indigenous plants they love to eat and ensure we have these around our home where we can enjoy the birds as they visit.