Blackwarry Farm - Blog and Gallery

Pictures from Autumn '11

2011-06-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

27.11.2010 BIG WET

2010-11-28T04:11:00.000-08:00

2nd Anniversary weekend

2010-08-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Yes it's 2 years since we started the project. Happy anniversary to us! To celebrate we finally got to the bottom of the waterfall, the highest in Sth Eastern Gippsland!

Subscribing to new posts

2010-08-09T20:52:00.001-07:00

There is a new email subscription service for new post notifications, under the welcome message

Shitake mushrooms

2010-07-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

A quick how to on Shitake:

Shitake spore in Beechwood dowels

Dowels are inserted into drill holes in Oak logs

Hot cheese wax covers the holes


Ready to be stacked

Stacked logs rest under rainforest shade for 1 year until mushroom fruiting

and the lovely rainforest provides more than enough mulch for all our gardening needs

Mid winter

2010-07-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

Mid winter gardening and tree mulching. We also put shitake mushroom spore into oak logs yesterday. In a years time hopefully fresh organic shitake mushrooms!!

brrr!!!

Sean's SubTropical fruits and adventures with Mulch

2010-05-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's nearly June, still late Autumn weather with cool frosts starting to develop, and lovely sunny days. Will Winter actually arrive?, is it climate change or just a late arrival?

Anyway a visit to our near neighbour Sean's sub-tropical Strzelecki orchard on the weekend put me in no doubt that the future others envisage will be warmer! and most of them fruit too!

Back on the farm, plans are hatching for another shed and mulching of trees' continues:

The gentle art of scavenging! this from only 2 nights selective hard rubbish collecting around Melbourne.
Each week brings plenty more great stuff like windows, a fish tank and an antique ceiling fan. It's going to be a fancy shed!

No not a rotary hoe, but a weeks work from a family of Lyrebirds!

and if there is any mulch or wood they also take to that with a vengeance

The garden is taking shape despite the Lyrebirds efforts

Mulch is available in bulk and for free - bracken and wattle cuttings

Citrus with its winter mulch in place

and what a lovely patch of mushrooms

Autumn

2010-04-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Lots of yummy local foods and weeding these last few weeks. Mixes of sunny days and rainy nights continue. Tree planting time is almost upon us, and winter veges are in the freshly dug garden beds.

From this...

To this....weed control success?

Trial of windbreak and weed mats, awaiting gale force winds!

Burning off across the valley

American Ginseng in berry

Poisonous but beautiful

Lemon verbena, grows rapidly!

Hyssop, a delightful flower

Upper 'dam', we are hoping to regenerate this via dam liner for water birds

New fancy compost design, so easy with bales

Autumn Foods of the farm:

Basil, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and delicious field and pine mushrooms

Previously unseen

2010-04-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

This shows an aerial view of some of our ongoing projects and previously unseen maps of just how close the fires did get last year

A Return to Autumn Rains

2010-03-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hi again,

After I have spent 3 months away there is a distinct change in the land that one barely notices with more frequent visits. It's great to be back though, and it rains for 3 nights in a row, soft autumn rain, the air is warm and inviting, breaking into calm warm sunny days. After last years bush-fire summer and hot autumn, this year is very green and moist. The peace is without compare. At times it seems such a silent place, yet there are moments when it is alive with a multitude of bird song, cicaida's, frogs, wind in the trees and the soft cascade of the creek ever present.

Laurie, Kle and Quinten have done an amazing job while I was away, a new track section to the ginseng area (the mature ginsengs bearing heavily with berries), several hectares of blackberry sprayed with great success by Laurie (the Rust didn't take, but now there is hope for native regeneration), the final wall of the house finished off, and some landscaping on the garden…In the lower veggie patch there are masses of tomato, zucchini, tarragon, basil, watercress and weeds, weeds, weeds!

The trees have mostly all flourished, the primary orchard seems generally happy, although we lost the quince and figs due to planting too late. Only 1/2 the grapes have taken, they are noticeably susceptible to collar rot, and none of the passionfruit survived summer, they require a permanent shade shelter it seems. Rasberries and hazelnuts have struggled but are slowly establishing, however feijoa's and junipers are very happy. The zone 4 tree orchard has happy walnuts, olives and truffled oaks, although some caterpillars are vigorously munching the English oak leaves, I have emailed the truffle man to see if he has any suggestions on this.

The native re-vegetation project is working well. All the trees we wired from the wallabies have bloomed, and there are more and more self-seeded blackwoods and eucalypts popping up all the time all over the property. Soon we will have over a hundred new trees established. Once wired they grow at over twice the rate they had been. The ridge planted natives are also surviving with minimal casualties.

Autumn and winter are upon us, time to plan more projects.

Summer Update

2010-01-13T02:40:00.000-08:00

Very little January rain, but the nights and mornings are delightfully cool and there is a regular dew. Several locals have made contact via the blog recently, its great to hear from you! As always there are beautiful views.

A koala was heard very close to the 'house' last weekend, a local expert suggested we would have a number of them in our forest, now to date two have been seen or heard. We had to put in higher wallaby tree protection wiring as they were nibbling the fruit trees summer growth, however they don't like tomatoes or zucchini it seems, lucky us.

Richard the HVP forestry companies environment officer visited recently. He tells us it seems the waterfall off the bottom of the property the highest in South East Gippsland, although it is not on crown land as we had thought, but forestry company land from the recent government selloff. Hopefully it is too steep for them to ever worry about logging there.

The Landcare officer Sam visited with a gift of blackberry rust, a vial of fungal biologic weapon against the invasive blackberry. Each vial is around $1000 so we are grateful to receive this for free. A month on and it seems the rust at the trial site is taking well with early die off a good sign. We have also started selective spraying at Richards recommendation due to the sheer 40+ acres of blackberry control required and with careful application so as to not damage ferns it seems to be having a good effect.

It was pretty hot at the farm last monday 43 degrees, so in and under the waterfall was THE place to be all afternoon, a truly Zen experience.

The black cohosh

and ginseng

is taking off in the forest, but alas no golden seal has germinated.

In the forest its a bonanza of local bush foods with native elderberry and prickly berry bush providing more anthocyanadins than one could wish for.

The garden harvest provided a good first year trial result of marigold (calendula) and german chamomile. Nothing is more delicious than homegrown fresh organic herbal tea!

Sam and Catie and Wendy help out the harvest

One Hundred and forty four

2009-10-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

Until last weekend it had been a dry month, only 30 or so mm, then it RAINED. Month total 144mm. Every gully was running with runoff and the creek was a torrent.
Heres the BOM rainfall for that week..we are right near the blue spot. Perhaps one of the few places left in Aus with above average rain?

This ones normally half full

And this is normally dry

The weather suited our furry friends

First crop of Calendula drying

Daffodils

2009-09-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

So all the fruit tree's are in, it will be interesting to see if the figs go. Its time to propagate summer vege seeds in Melbourne to transplant up there in time for (hopefully) Xmas.

The ginseng project is finished and it can be left alone for 5 years. Everyone is happy about being able to get on with house building and other projects!

Not much joy on funding issues with the Shire regeneration fund being the only hope at present.

Full wattle glory, in the regenerating forest section

Our new sunny half house

Sunroom/dining room in detail

The lower dam, full!

Look carefully to see 2 dozen tree protectors regenerating in the valley

Home sweet home

I wandered lonely as a cloud... Jon enjoying the walk up the back

An unexpected find!

One hundred and forty!

2009-09-04T05:22:00.000-07:00

yep an amazing 140mm of rain in the month of August..we love it!

Rain rain rain

2009-08-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Rainfall check: April 82mm, May 65mm, June 40mm, July 82mm, 2 weeks into August 70mm!
Its wet here, much wetter than 2008, water and moss is everywhere, but spring has been sighted..yep the silver wattles are out in absolute splendor, and everything else is rearing to go, all the fruit trees are budding up, with the peach trees already blossoming.

Recent plantings include:

Autumn raspberry
Gooseberries
Cranberries
Warrigal greens
Elderberry
Borage and comfrey seed in fruit tree mulch
Truffled English oak
Truffled French oak
Quince
Hazelnuts
Walnuts
- Andean
- black
- Chandler
- Wilson
Chestnut
Gooseberry
Nellie Kelly strawberry

Recently, we also got to try wild duck, shot down by the neighbors overnight. Thats the country lifestyle!

Silver wattles in the regeneration zone

View to silver wattles from waterfall

Area below waterfall

Forest across from waterfall

Waterfall fairy?

Even the small trees are full of life and color

Kangaroo fern in full splendor

Blackwood and moss

Fern gully #3

More Blackwood moss

More fungal wonder

Wendy just made it back from the waterfall

The forest floor rejuvenates after blackberry clearance. Native elderberry, musk wood and kangaroo paw trees are quick colonizers. In the open pastures I found 20 young blackwoods today, all munched to near death by friendly marsupials. Now there are 20 blackwoods with tree protectors around them, they should take off and help regenerate the first valley area.

Renovations and explorations

2009-07-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

WE started renovating the kitchen...

The slabs are solid granite....

But 3 days of slog...

and now we have a fabulous new kitchen!

next is the living/bedroom space, owch, aching muscles!!

Luckily our vege patch survived the worst of a cow invasion...

We had time to explore the south end of the property, the native bush seen is pretty much all ours...the pines above will get the chop sooner or later...it will sure look strange...a bit like this:

This is the view from the south across the cow farm to our trees on the highest hill

In the forest at the south end are wonderful trees, mosses, ferns and fungi:

And some surprising animals...

Lets hope the shire will give us grant money to fence the cows out from the whole creek and forest area..

July update

2009-07-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Loads of rain folks, some 40 ml in the first week of July, coming off what was perhaps a dryish June (40ml total). Its lovely and wet up there, but the shed is now almost weather proof and we stay cozy by the fireside at night. Ginseng operations have begun in earnest. We even planted some saffron as a trial, but it seems like one needs 5 acres of flowers to make 500 grams of saffron stamens, so its not likely to be commercial venture!

Trial of Dong guai in the dappled forest creekside

More crazy fungi

Laurie loves the outdoor table, a sunny lunch spot in winter, shady in summer

Black wallaby in the pine waste

Our access road after forest thinning operations, much better!

10 year old American Ginseng, destined for our forest soil as seed stock

Land for Wildlife

2009-06-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

We are now proud members of the Land for Wildlife scheme.

Lyre birds are in mating season and their beautiful songs echo across the forest all through the day.

The rainy season is really kicking in now, soil is nicely soaked, and there is alot of water in the creek and the dams. Tree planting in earnest has begun, in a couple of years it should look fabulous.

The farm is now on facebook too. Its just another way to network, most of the action remains at the blog.

Farm on Facebook

A large wombat spotted by Kle after the fires

More cool forest floor mushrooms

Joyous mud, this happens when logging machinery uses your access road

Laurie's Birthday weekend

2009-06-08T05:32:00.000-07:00

Monday: Laurie turned 66, happy birthday to Laurie and the Queen!

and Yuko baked the best 66th chocolate birthday cake ever baked.

-----------------------

We extended the shed, in preparation for a new kitchen development..

We took a windfallen gum tree to task..

Kle used a milling attachment on a fallen Blackwood, stunning wood!

and the Plant List continued:
Garlic
Kiwifruit
Japanese turnips
Our local Blackwood seeds are now germinating
Marigolds/Calendula

oh and there are several dozen wonderfully weird mushroom species popping
up all over the place..this one takes the prize so far

Plantings

2009-05-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

By request, here is a list of many of the plants we have planted, whether from seed or seedling in the last 6 months. In no particular order:

Trees and shrubs:
Lemon - several varieties
Plum - several varieties
Tasmanian Mountain Pepper
Nectarine
Pear - several varieties
Peach
Apple - several varieties
Pomegranate
Gooseberry
Daphne
Blueberry - several varieties
Orange (we are optimists)
Cherry

Food crops:
Beans - several varieties
Peas - several varieties
Nicola Potato
Japanese mustard greens
Alpine strawberries
Radish
Coriander
Parsley
Broccoli
Bok Choi
Onions
Leeks
Silverbeet
Golden chard
Basil - greek and culinary
Chilli plant
Rhubarb
Covercrop- legumes, winter clover and medic

Herbs etc:
Aloe vera
German chamomile
California poppy
English/french/alpine lavender
Globe artichoke
Greek oregano
Blessed thistle
Bacopa monniera
Vitex agnus castus
Borage
Elecampane
Golden seal
American Ginseng
Bergamot
Comfrey
Licorice
Bupleurum

any advice on bird netting would be taken with gratitude...

A little shed on the prairie..er rainforest

2009-05-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

From this....

To this, barely a tarpaulin in sight!

Might not look like much but for about $300 for a shed with

rainforest views it feels very homey.

Strange creatures of the night...

Thanks to all the help from Robin, Danielle and Oliver.

On the Importance of good Gumboots

2009-04-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Wow the storm last weekend smashed the farm, dumped over 60mm of rain, the tracks turned to thick sticky mud, the shed was damaged and required several hours of repairs in the middle of the torrential storm, several garden items took a beating (plastic tables are not suited to farm life), but the silverbeet took it all in stride, and it was discovered that a good pair of Gumboots will get you through all but the worst of such crises. Autumn moves into Winter very quickly it seems at this altitude, and it never got above 9 degrees the whole weekend. Perfect weather for track cutting and tree planting.

Updates from the last 2 months include Laurie smiling like a pig in muck with his delivery of 100 mtrs and more of roughback stone.

Our friendly bulldozer driver Pete, terracing a few trial areas for future Truffle-Oak, and/or Walnut plantings. Would make a nice windbreak too.

Cleaning up 6 months of collected hard rubbish.

Being given a huge amount of timber, loads of pink batts and a lovely plastic tub, thanks Steve and Simon!

Seeing the Balook road area a few Km away is now regrowing.

We have now had almost 1000 hits on the blog since Sept 08, thanks everyone!

Autumn

2009-03-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Autumn now, rains have started, but warm starry nights are amazing. Orchard tree planting experiments begin, with our rows hopefully ready for peas, onions and garlic. Snakes are in the grass!, and berries are bountiful.

Leunig

2009-03-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Strzelecki Koala

2009-03-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

More wild weather forecast, but last weekend was beautiful. More so because this endangered Strzelecki Koala was spotted right by our shed, didnt have a camera so a crappy phone picture is all the evidence there is.

The Strzelecki Ranges are home to the only relic population of
Koala in Victoria and South Australia. All other koala populations in Victoria are the result of translocations from four South Gippsland Koalas sent to French Island in the late nineteenth century.

Translocated koala communites suffer from inbreeding through weakened genetic inheritance. Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus Regnans) is a known food tree for the Strzelecki Koala.

On the food front the garden beds for onion and garlic are now being prepared as we obtain compost, goji berry, artichokes, and spinach were planted and seeds of rainforest herbs golden seal and black cohosh were put into stratification along with the ginseng seeds.

With fire survival now in the forefront of our minds, given our isolated location and lack of safe escape routes, buried steel Bunkers and non-burnable shed construction plans are being considered. As much as an earthship might be great the tyres would probably burn in a firestorm.

A tale of contrasts

2009-02-25T04:59:00.000-08:00

After the fires this could have been us, but the Source has spared us for another day. The worst apocalyptic areas are the pine forests, the native forest often still stands and has the ability to regenerate.

In the last 6 weeks the vege/culinary herb garden has gone ballistic, sunflowers, chicory and amaranth already 2 feet high, strawberries fruiting up, cherry tomatoes yummy, miles of silverbeet, lots of basil, and I am the proud father of my first ginseng berries!

Whilst touring round beautiful Tasmania over the last few weeks, it is patently obvious that most of the old growth trees have disappeared, every where I stepped were the scars of 200 years of unmitigated logging. Today for the benefit of our unnecessary photocopiers, log trucks still roll by in the hundreds per day with Eucalypt tree's of 6 foot or more in diameter out of Tassies forests.

The Mt Field National Park near Hobart holds remnants of Tasmania's remaining Eucalyptus regnans, the giant swamp gum. Standing under these giants is awe inspiring, these are the largest flowering tree's in the world, second only to the Californian redwood pines in height overall. In a prime example of short sighted policy, in 1950 the then government took back 1500 acres of these trees in the National Park by an Act of Parliament to allow them to be logged for paper pulp, such are the riches of these giant trees to industry. Today only 13000 hectares, of an estimated original 100000 hectares of these giant swamp gum eucalypts' remain in the world.

In the beautiful Mt Field national park is written this passage that spoke prophetically to my sense of our present day world:

Over 200 years ago, when French explorer Bruni D'Entrecasteaux first saw this island (Tasmania) in 1792 it was the forests which impressed him. He wrote of...

"..trees of an immense height and proportionate diameter, their branchless trunks covered with evergreen foliage, some looking as old as the world;

"closely interlacing in an almost impenetrable forest, they served to support others which, crumbling with age, fertilised the soil with their debris;

"nature in all her vigour, and yet in a state of decay, seems to offer to the imagination something more picturesque and more imposing than the sight of this same nature bedecked by the hand of 'civilised' man.

"Wishing only to preserve her beauties we destroy her charm, we rob her of that power which is hers alone, the secret of preserving in eternal age eternal youth."

As trees (that no longer exist) provided the water evaporation and carbon sinks for the planet its no surprise that the world is in drought...self sufficiency for food production may be a better way....

For those interested this is an excellent and sobering account of a states ecological short sightedness.

Tasmania's Wilderness Battles
A history - Greg Buckman
http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741754643

Others are taking nice pics of the Strzelecki's too, go here and search under strzelecki http://en.wordpress.com/tag/strzelecki/

Blessed amongst the bushfires

2009-02-14T18:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all the messages of concern, we are so fortunate that none of our property was burnt in the Strzelecki fires, although it reached right to our northern boundary, probably stopping due to the river.

So many people are not so lucky, so please support them in anyway you can. Something like >200 killed, and 2000 homes destroyed to date, with several areas still burning, although mainly in the Yarra ranges.

The picture is from the 8th of Feb 2009 showing the smoke drift.

Paul is in Tasmania so pictures of the surrounding areas wont be up for a couple of weeks, but it wont be pretty.

Dam it!

2009-01-18T05:02:00.000-08:00

Our not so good dams were carved up and made right by the CAT driver in about 6 hours. Laurie and I were pretty impressed by the CAT.

Windows to the forest and the Garden begun

2009-01-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

A rainy Xmas which luckily made gardening alot easier, and several days construction slog putting up windows, but we now have 1/2 a living shed and a vege patch taking shape. The grader has finished clearing for the water tanks and garage and this weekend comes the earth-mover for dam repairs.

Congrat's to Quinten and Jane: a new baby girl!

Eventually we hope to evolve into something like this: Earthships:

Plums!

Loy Yang mine

Mt Baw Baw in the distance beyond Loy Yang

Wildlife spotted recently, in addition to the giant wild sheep!, include the southern brown tree frog, whole families of kookaburra's, huge dragonfly's and stick insects and giant earthworms, and wedge tailed eagles regularly soaring in the afternoon updrafts above the hills.

Due to complaints re the rat's accidental deaths, I have been asked to retract my statements re their worth. Ok: In fact native rats are cool. They feed owls and other higher predators, and so they help keep the forest order intact. It was a complete accident their drownings mind you.

My sisters place

2008-12-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

My sisters little 'farmlet' in sunny Ballarat
In between visits it has transformed from this:

To this:

Wonderfully inspiring,
and home grown Xmas dinners are the best!

On Cows, Rats and Giant Radishes

2008-12-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

It was possibly just too good to pass by, let loose on their lower paddocks adjacent to the river, the neighbors herd of cow's had charged across the creek trampling our stone steps we had made up from the crossing and so after filling their mouths full of our lush pasture they had gone through my (somewhat in hindsight non-cow proof) garden fence and started at the radishes and silverbeets... reminds me of the flopsy bunny stories from my childhood but this is serious when it's about cow's... anyways they left a number of good manure deposits as some form of redemption and really they had only nibbled on a few radishes as it turned out. We can fence off the river crossing with great gusto when summer holidays arrive very shortly by recycling some unused fences we have lying around; "Beware you are now approaching a NO Cow Zone".

SO inspecting the garden today merely 5 weeks after planting we have handfuls of juicy radishes with the beetroot, silverbeet and dwarf beans not far behind. With the trial patch a resounding success for both humans and cows, with a little attention to the soil and a proper fence i hope to get a largeish vege patch prepared by summers end with the help of rotary hoe. Digging by hand is very hard slow work and despite the rotary hoes drawbacks (soil pan) a single use and loads of mulch should see us right. Also today I planted experimental gooseberry and pomegranate vines, not sure if the pomegranate will fruit but it does in the Himalaya's so why not here.

With nearly 200mm of rain in the last month its no surprise that the vege's are loving it. The dams are again overflowing and the river continues at full volume. Merriman's creek crossing the highway at Gormondale on the river flats some 10 km downstream from us is now a wide river, looking most out of place now its forest boundaries have all been stripped bare well up into the upper catchments that are just below our patch. Climate change is primarily caused by losses of trees and the water cycle becoming dysregulated but that doesn't stop the pulp-paper industry.

As I was working there today I was thinking that its only now 4 months next week since we got the farm, all-in-all less than a total of 10 weekends work and we have already achieved so much, its quite wonderful to think what 4 years might bring us. The road is now solid packed gravel but the rains eroded some of the dam wall which will require some earthworks and have halted work on the carpark and new shed foundation area until next year now. We were certainly lucky that early spring was so dry otherwise we might still be getting bogged on a very muddy road and unable to do anything there at all.

Another surprise was that I accidently caught 2 bush rats. The sneaks had ended up in a bucket of citrus scraps that got waterlogged that I had left near the compost, they had managed to climb in up the handle and in but couldn't get out and had drowned, thats 2 less rats to eat my ginseng when it goes in next winter. In fact I think I will use the idea as a trap for the ginseng areas.

Off to plan for the 2 weeks of farm bliss coming up after xmas. Thanks for all the comments to date.

Water so wonderful

2008-12-04T03:27:00.000-08:00

It was a real flood, all the weeks rain poured through the earth and the river was gushing with amazing volume, as were the water falls. A long forest walk revealed many different moss and fern designs upon trees and long rainforest gullies with wonderful amounts of life.

Flood warnings

2008-11-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

Flood warnings across Gippsland kept us home this week, but last weekend we almost cleared the final main areas of ragwort, built the outhouse, found several new rainforest fern valleys during our wanderings, entertained Esher, started strengthening the side walls across the new road dam with structural logs and small native trees using some of the several hundred small native trees kindly donated to us recently, entertained Escher some more, discovered a beaut horse stud nearby and (whew) used some ferns I brought from town to revegetate the first part of the creek valley we initially cleared of blackberry. The wet weather means we can continue to plant tough small natives without too much worry of them drying over summer. And it keeps the snakes from coming out, but by all accounts there are loads up in the Strezelecki's so its a serious issue we have been considering.

Weeding the stragglers

Replanted creek bank - watch it grow!

Delicate ferns are regrowing along the creek now

The very proper outhouse

Update + Gallery Two

2008-11-06T03:10:00.000-08:00

Two weeks of contrasts, hard work and full bellies. Thanks for all the kind comments and encouragement, it's great to have people following this project with interest.

Week one was sunny and balmy, T-shirts at night, soil dry, very hot work weeding, but so many wonderful animals spotted on a clear warm starry night: A large black wombat, 4 small but very bouncy kangaroos, a small wombat who's bum reminded me of a womble and a big black wallaby hopping back into the pines. On another day bright red Rosella's squabble at sunset, Morepork Owl's hoot in the late evening high above us.

Week two gave us very very heavy rain, treacherous access, very cold nights but easy soft soil (thankfully) for weeding (lots of it and still more to go) and re-ferning, plants are starting to be transferred from city gardens to their new home. The kitchen is up and running with great style.
Expect recipes soon!! We pride ourselves on provincial and wholefood cooking and think that it is something worth sharing.

With all the spring flowers we hope to establish a beehive soon. We love fresh honey and there appears nothing more satisfying than helping bee's make their own from yummy native and non-native farm flowers like that seen below and all the sweet blackberry!

Meanwhile here are more photos taken on the property (except the fabulous neighbours Llama).

Views to next door property across tree'd boundary

Lovely gums of 'The Grove'

First Valley, now almost ragwort free, I love the amazing shades of green

Native spring flowers are everywhere

Moss is cool

Nice shot by Laurie

Laurie in the soon to be famous kitchen

Raja in heaven

Top of waterfall

Looking down waterfall valley to distant eucalypt state forest

Blackwood tree's are also cool

Natural Forest Regeneration

2008-10-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

A kind blog watcher posted this comment recently:
Blogger Small Footprints said...

Hi! This sounds like an interesting project. I'd really like to know more ... what your goals are and how your efforts will protect the rain forest. You have amazing pictures! Thanks for sharing them! Small Footprints
http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com October 22, 2008 9:25 AM

In answer to the question: by removing noxious weeds the rainforest will reseed itself, preventing 500000 Mlitres of water eroding the hillside when they remove the pine plantations above us in 10 years time. A blackwood would seed > 1000000 seeds per year, and they will be doing it soon, thus we propagate them for 2 years, as well as let the already established ones take hold. The blackberry we have already cleared is now a rapidly growing fern and tree area in the spring weather. Herbivores dont seem to be much of a problem for the rainforest trees, although we also need to plant additional boundary windbreaks where young trees are more at risk from kangaroos and birds. The rainforest gullies will be used for forest farming of american ginseng and culinary mushrooms which we already have in operation at another farm. I am a newcomer to permaculture but it seems totally logical and I cant believe it is not used to solve many of the worlds current problems, but it is a positive growing movement. See other blog links for some inspiring permaculture sites.

Following is a summary of a short article on regenerating Australian bushland and forest.

Natural regeneration
Edited by Caroline Douglass (Melbourne) and David Cummings (Box Hill)
March, 1999
© State of Victoria, Department of Natural Resources and Environment 2002
Natural regeneration is the establishment of trees by
using seed fall from standing trees.
Fostering natural regeneration is a cheap and effective
method of tree replacement. With good planning and a bit
of patience, abundant results can be achieved with little
effort compared to planting seedlings.

Planning
As with tree planting, natural regeneration areas should be
designed to fit into an overall plan for the property.
Remember that the area for regeneration will be
unavailable to grazing stock for 2-5 years. Where grass
growth is prolific, extra precautions against fire may have
to be taken ( for example, ploughed breaks around fences).
Areas frequently used for natural regeneration on the farm
plan are:
• clumps around existing trees in paddocks;
• in the corners of paddocks;
• in rocky or inaccessible areas where planting seedlings
is difficult;
• in sheet and gully erosion prone areas;
• in salinity recharge areas;
• on stream banks; and,
• on used and unused road reserves.
Operations should be timed carefully. The key is to a have
a seed bed prepared at the time of the likely seed fall which
is receptive to germination.

Seed is shed from fruit or seed cases, such as gum nuts,
wattle pods, she-oak and native pine cones, contained in
the tree crown. The crowns should be inspected to
determine the abundance and maturity of the fruit crop.
Generally, green cases are still immature, brown cases are
ripe. It is important that the existing trees are capable of
producing sufficient seed. The amount of seed borne each
year varies with flowering intensity and heavy fruit set
might occur only once every 3-4 years. It pays to monitor
the budding and flowering of potential parent trees to know
when a heavy seed fall is approaching. Ripe fruit will often
shed seed during hot days in the drier months.

Site preparation
Sun light and available moisture are the main determinants
of seedling survival and growth rate over the first 12
months. Absence of weed competition will greatly increase
germination and survival rates of any seedlings resulting
from natural seed fall. Cultivation, use of knockdown
herbicides and sometimes fire can be used to reduce or
eliminate weed competition.
Rough cultivation exposes physical soil to act as a seed
bed, and gives initial grass control. Weed and grass
regrowth is often prolific after such cultivation.
Mouldboard or similar forms of ploughing invert the sod
and therefore provide longer term weed and grass control
on suitable sites. Hard pan bare earth sites inhibit
regeneration, and ripping or deep cultivation is usually
necessary to improve the quality of the seed bed and assist
in early seedling development.
Initial weed and grass control can alternatively be prepared
by broadcast spraying of broad spectrum, knockdown
herbicides (consult your local herbicide supplier). Take
extreme care not to spray parent trees. The use of residual
herbicides can severely restrict the germination of tree
seedlings and is not generally recommended. For some soil
types there will be reasonable receptivity to seed
germination after spraying.Many soil types will benefit from a
light follow-up cultivation.

A seed bed can be prepared by burning stubble or grass.
This frequently results in rapid grass re-establishment. A
light fire may germinate wattle and other long lived seed
lying dormant in the ground. Suitable conditions for natural
regeneration can be provided during a fallow period or
pasture renovation.Resulting seedlings can be fenced
prior to the reestablishment of crops or pasture.

Fencing
The primary reason why no natural regeneration is seen
around trees in paddocks is the destruction of seedlings by
grazing stock and pests.
Grazing animals will browse young seedlings as they
germinate so protection is essential. Often when an area is
rested from grazing for a number of years even without
weed control, young seedlings will appear around the
existing trees.

The fenced area needs to be located carefully in relation to
the parent trees. Generally eucalypt seed is dispersed about
1-3 tree height equivalents downwind form the crown of
the parent tree. Consider the critical winds for seed fall
when locating fences for natural regeneration. Seed usually
falls with hot, dry winds, often from the north or north-
west in the drier months.
Rabbits and hares will cause great damage to naturally
regenerated seedlings and will usually bring about failure
of the regeneration project. Rabbit proofing may be
necessary with the use of netting. The netting may be
removed and reused in 18 months to 2 years when the trees
are above the browse height of a rabbit. An alternative to
this is controlling rabbits with baiting, fumigation and
warren destruction.

Regeneration clumps will often contain green feed when it
is scarce elsewhere.
The costs of natural regeneration fencing can be
minimised in a number of ways:
• Natural regeneration areas can be located to utilise
existing fences such as in paddock corners.
• The use of rounded clumps eliminates expensive
strainers and stay assemblies. the clump can be
circular or any other rounded shape.
• The use of electric fencing can also minimise fencing
costs for natural regeneration clumps. Again odd
shapes can be fenced without the added expense of
end assemblies. Solar energisers or ‘lead out’ cables
can be used as power sources.

Follow-up work
On occasions, excess seedlings resulting from natural
regeneration can be transplanted to other sites. Red gum
seedlings 300 mm in height, with the leaf area pruned
back, have been successfully lifted and replanted in the
Western District. Where regeneration is particularly thick
you may need to remove excess seedlings after 3-6 years.

Humanure composting

2008-10-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Recycling human waste is an important part of permaculture processes. Last weekend Mike and Isobel helped build the humanure compost up the top of the hill with us. We chose a simple dual system of : bucket-sawdust collection and independent composting system, rather than a single system due to the shed/toilet location near a catchment river.

Anything and more that you might want to know about composting toilets is found here:
Humanure Headquarters

Up the hill a roof for rainwater collection into a tank to wash buckets without contaminating dam water or in high summer if water is limited is built next to the compost pile. It was hot work and it is only October, summer will be for the retreat of the rainforest. The compost pile will get huge with all the weeds we are pulling. Composting takes about a year at appropriate temperatures to sterilise weeds and manure.

Laurie's toilet creation is amazing and smooth to sit on.

Thanks for all the help guys!

The artful toilet before it is enclosed. Esher ceremonially committed the first dose to the bucket.

Gallery One

2008-10-21T04:08:00.000-07:00

Over the last seven months we have experienced a so much unexpected beauty, from the land, weather, flora & fauna.

Gallery pictures, taken in and around the farm, appear throughout the blog trying to portrait some of these experiences. All blog photos can be viewed as their own web-gallery at this Picasa page. This gallery is all photos by Paul.

Great example of Blackwood rainforest with tree ferns, farm.

Cool Temperate Mountain Ash stands, farm.

The Cascades, just near the farm shed

Cool Tree fern valleys, currently many new fronds! Prime forest farming territory.

Fern forest, Callignee

Amazing Moss, Big Tree Stump, Callignee

So who was Strzelecki anyway?

2008-10-21T02:29:00.000-07:00

So who was Strzelecki anyway, I started to wonder? It turns out he was quite some guy.

Paul Edmund Strzelecki (1797-1873), also known as Count Strzelecki, is a figure to be admired. A Polish national, arriving in Sydney aboard the French barque Justine on 25 April 1839, he spent the next four years travelling some 7000 miles on foot throughout eastern Australia and Tasmania. A number of books and articles have been written on this subject (e.g. Havard, 1941; Rawson, 1953; Heney, 1961; Paszkowski, 1997), yet Strzelecki remains an enigma.

Strzelecki arrived in Australia in 1839 looking for minerals to sell and to investigate the 'geognosy' of Terra Incognita (Physical Description, p.51). He had spend the previous decade travelling through Europe (1829-30), Africa (1830-1), the United States and Canada (1834-5), South America and Mexico (1835-8) and the Pacific Islands (1838-9), including New Zealand (1839). He was by the end of this period an experienced geologist and natural scientist with aspirations in that area, though also more businessman than philanthropist. The discovery, collection and sale of rocks, fossils and minerals had occupied him for many years and provided his livelihood.

An initial lack of success in finding minerals within New South Wales, and the rapid development of the geological sciences in Great Britain during the 1830s, led Strzelecki to quickly set geognosy aside and widened the scope of his activities to include a more general geological and geographical survey. He was, for example, forced to carry out a trigonometrical survey whilst in Australia as much of the country he passed through was only recently settled and poorly mapped by colonial authorities. Fortune may have proved ellusive, however he was compensated with fame, becoming the first European to officially climb and name Australia's highest peak - Mount Kosciusko. His role in the discovery and opening up of the Gippsland region of eastern Victoria in 1840 brought notoriety, and his many subsequent geological and geographical investigations and revelations were of some significance.

How did the LaTrobe valley look to the Count and his companions ? The LaTrobe River ran through a morass three miles wide (!) in places, full of thick scrub and rushes. But on the higher ground there was a beautiful red gum forest, and plenty of kangaroo grass. And all the ranges were covered in forests of big gum trees like the few we have left in Bulga Park. There were not many aboriginals in this part. There were more eels, fish, ducks and kangaroos around the Gippsland Lakes, and that is where most of the aboriginals lived, although they would visit the Traralgon area at times. They called themselves the Briakolung or "Men of the West" , and their leader was named Bungaleene. Their dreaming included a spirit called Loo-errn, who lived on Wilson's Promontory, and that deadly yellow snakes lived near Mount Baw Baw where there was also a boiling pit into which you would be sucked if you went too far in that direction.

This is particularly telling of him getting lost in the soon to be named Strzelecki Ranges:

If we go out on the Princes Highway three miles on the way to Rosedale, we will find a monument on the right side of the road. It marks the place where Strzelecki, McArthur and Riley passed through back in the year 1840. Pushing on to the south, Strzelecki and his companions soon found themselves climbing the hills near Koornalla, and it was quite impossible to get through the huge trees and over the big logs with their four horses. They had to leave them here, and the Count decided to make straight for Western Port where they knew they would find settlers. He guided the party in a straight line up and down the ranges, and they were all very lucky that they did not die from starvation and exhaustion before they reached Western Port at last, after twenty two days in the forest. They even ate koalas when their food was all gone.

Strzelecki was very human, but also extremely humane. His concern over the widespread deforestation of eastern Australia and its effect upon climate marks him as an early environmentalist. His commentary on the Australian Aborigines within Physical Description included a heartfelt plea for recognition of their humanity and rights to the land, whilst at the same time reflecting an attitude of European superiority over the race. He therefore presents as a mass of contradictions, and is all the more interesting for it. It is clear that during his time in Australia he carried out - substantially unassisted - an extraordinary amount of original research into local palaeontology, meteorology, mineralogy, physical geography, geology, ethnology, biology and the agricultural sciences. His travels on foot over 7000 miles in 4 years were a notable feat of exploration and Physical Description stands as a monument to this flurry of activity.

Eponyms:

Australia

* Strzelecki Ranges, Victoria, in which is located the township of Strzelecki. The Strzelecki railway line runs through the ranges to the township.
* Mount Strzelecki, Northern Territory
* Strzelecki Peak, Flinders Island
* Strzelecki Creek, South Australia
* Strzelecki Highway, Victoria
* Strzelecki Track, South Australia
* Strzelecki Desert, east of Lake Eyre in South Australia
* Strzelecki Scenic Lookout, Newcastle, New South Wales

Canada

* Strzelecki Harbour

Ecological disaster?

2008-10-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

Some notes from various (most eco friendly sources):

The Strzelecki region has over 200 plant and 107 animal species, many of which are classiﬁed as being rare and threatened, including the only original population of Koala in Victoria and South Australia.

Broad scale clearing for agriculture, settlement and industry has resulted in an 86% loss of Pre-European vegetation cover. Only 2% is protected in reserved areas – the smallest reserved area of a bioregion in Victoria.

You can see more pictures of modern Strzelecki logging practices here: Logging photos

Over 2004/5 about 800 hectares of eucalypts in the Strzeleckis was cleared, almost all being koala habitat. Tall Mountain Ash are logged and replanting is with Shining Gum, a non food tree for the Strzelecki Koala and not a local eucalypt species. All of the Reserve is located on leased Crown land within the Maryvale Pulp Mill Supply Area under the 1996 Amcor Wood Pulp Agreement. Almost all of the logs cut from the Strzeleckis end up at the Maryvale mill (now owned by PaperlinX) which will convert these trees into Reﬂex Copy Paper for your fax machine.

Unfortunately things are not looking good for the region with a recent 2008 agreement sacrificing even more old growth forest and native forest for pulp, thanks to corporate greed and general shortsightedness.

This depresses me so much I can't go on..but it occurs to me, given the downstream logging of Merriman's creek catchment we are custodians what may be a last bastion of the local rainforest

A Goodbye to Big Trees

2008-10-21T01:12:00.000-07:00

The Strzelecki ranges are probably the most biologically damaged mountains in Australia. Famed for its extensive tall trees and high rainfall, the Strzelecki ranges are now patchy remant rainforest pockets surrounded by pine or eucalypt plantation which is heavily posioned and sprayed to rid it of animals and competing plants. Forestry practice is so intense and severe as a result of our insatiable demand for paper pulp that most of the forests are to be logged in the next 50 years apart from the "core 2200 hectares", part of which forms Tarra-Bulga National Park. We are a mere 7km from here by the Grand Ridge Road (more on this later).

Last week we visited Callignee where the old tree stumps are on display. Wow they are huge, and Laurie says they have shrunk alot from what they were. What beautiful tree's they must have been. Our place also has a big stump (one of our many 'tourist attractions').

Stump dwarfs Laurie

Sign says all big tree's were logged until exhausted by 1900.

Thus it took less than 60 years from the European discovery of the Strzelecki ranges to its decimation, and this was before industrial forestry. This is consistent with old photos I have seen of the period, including rich resource areas from Southern NSW and around here. They show deforestation, mud and erosion, shanty towns etc.

Kle discovers Ye Old Big Stump (it's bigger than it looks)

The Land and its Rhythms

2008-10-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

At times it feels timeless up here, one's attention is captured by the likes of flocks of black cockatoos or amazing shooting stars daily.

Blackwarry Farm (for want of a better name - ideas?) is a 67 acre private property purchased for permaculture horticulture and forest regeneration in the eastern Strzelecki's at Blackwarry. It consists of partial blackwood rainforest, logged rainforest and mature cool temperate mountain ash stands making up to 50 out of 67 acres total. The remaining area is pasture. There is a beautiful permanent running creek that is one of the headwater tributaries of Merriman's creek. The top (southern) end of the creek running off the Grand Ridge is a large aquifer spring within a 1991 Hancock pine plantation. The creek runs south to north down to the northwest end of property, ending as "crown land" with a large scenic waterfall. From the property you can see Mt Baw Baw clearly, and on Grad Ridge road above the view is to Wilson's Prom. In just a few weeks we have seen wombats, kangaroos, lyrebirds, kookaburra's and huge flocks of black cockatoos and parrots in the area. Having been basically untouched for over 10 years the wildlife has had a chance to flourish, something we hope can continue with a formal wildlife corridor status in the future.

Looming large over everything is the knowledge of the Strzelecki's incredible and more recently tragic history. Industrialism and forestry is what the LaTrobe valley does, and irrevocably the nearby land and forests have been consumed giving us what we now see. There is a early history post for those interested.

We arrived to find weeds for miles, erosion, experienced gale force winds (no wind breaks) and a very sticky muddy road surrounded by looming pine plantations. So the first weeks have been about having a temporary shed and kitchen built, fixing the road, making a wood fire stove and a humanure composting system (so cool!), pulling out thousands of weedy ragworts (not so cool) and starting at the total infestation of blackberries. Its all good healthy work and we are loving it!

Cool waterfall huh!

The lovely work surrounds looking up the creek.

Welcome - About Us

2008-10-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Thanks for visiting. Keep visiting or up to date by adding yourself as a "follower". Leave comments if you like.

The blog records the farm's progress week to week as we transform it from weedy wasteland to what we hope will be a permaculture wonderland. It's been an amazing journey. Less than 7 months from the inception of an idea of a ginseng farm, to winter experiments at another property, to our own piece of land.

Who are we?

Paul

Kle

Quinten

and our hired hand Laurie

Although not without its negatives (being mainly the timber industry surrounding the area and the potential of logging indirectly damaging the property, and the neglected property itself), when we are there it is full of life and potential. 67 acres, with a permanent river, abundant wildlife, 1000ml of rain/annum and many wonderful trees.

These first photos are what we first found there:

Blackwood forest choking with blackberry

Looming pine plantations

Exposed open pastures

Logged rainforest: This is what rainforest looks like after logging and poor land management. Infested with noxious blackberry and looking rather poorly (1/3 of our forest).

Aerial view: open pasture to left, tree'd area centre, logged forest to right,
river runs along bottom right (south) to left (north)

Full property boundary. Top = North