Vol. 17, No. 2 September 2006 - Indigenous Flora and Fauna ...

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Editorial The Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association was formed in 1986 by individuals who were concerned about raising the profile of native vegetation and habitat, protecting it from removal and degradation, and starting to reverse the degradation by restoration and revegetation. It aimed to: “Promote awareness and conservation of indigenous flora and fauna (particularly in the Melbourne Region)”. IFFA brought together people already doing this work and others interested for support, exchange of ideas, and to begin the task of convincing people that protecting and restoring remnant vegetation and planting indigenous plants should be basic management requirements. One of the first activities of the group was to publish a series of pamphlets under the banner “Melbourne’s Indigenous Gardens”. The pamphlets encouraged the conservation of remnant vegetation and the use of indigenous plants in rehabilitation and landscaping, and gave local contact information for interested people who wanted to take it further. IFFA has seen many successes. Protection of remnant vegetation has become enshrined in law. The importance of managing environmental weeds has been recognised. Native vegetation management has become an industry, with expertise developing rapidly. Many local indigenous nurseries have been set up and promote the use of indigenous plants. Greening Australia has set up a training program. A journal (Ecological Management and Restoration) has been established to exchange information about technical matters. Quite a few of the 'old folk' of IFFA, as well as new members and interested people got together in June to celebrate 20 years of IFFA. We met at the Wildlife Reserves at La Trobe University, now known as the Melbourne Wildlife Reserve. Things had certainly changed, especially the vegetation. 20 years ago much of the campus reserve was little more than grazed paddocks. Some of us found it hard to recognise where we were, but there were a few landmarks (see front cover). Cover Photo Geoff Carr talked to us about the history of IFFA. Randall Robinson reminded us of a whole swag of IFFA's other achievements and the challenges ahead. After a barbeque lunch we were taken on a short tour of the reserve by one of the Rangers, Anthony Theunissen and finished up having a cuppa at the office where we were fascinated by the wireless network infrared cameras monitoring activity inside nesting boxes in the reserve. The Melbourne Wildife Reserve is well worth a visit. It's open 9-5 weekdays and sometimes on Sundays. The Keelbundoora Indigenous Nursery which is part of the reserves is open every Sunday. Photo from Jon Greening of the 20 year re-union at the Melbourne Wildlife Reserves at La Trobe University. It took 3 people to hug this fine old Red Gum. Page 2 Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association Inc. (Incorporated Association No A0015723B)
From our Suburban Correspondent One of the things I like about planting indigenous plants is never having to say you’re sorry. No matter how scruffy it looks next to the neighbour’s weeds, you know it belongs right where you planted it. Unlike a glorious magnolia whose only value is superficial, a scrawny indigofera that’s growing so open you can hardly tell it’s there has an intrinsic value that goes beyond any frivolous opinion on its appearance. Yes, I am an indigenous gardener. I have truth on my side. So here I am, weeding my attempt at a microlaena lawn, knowing that there is only one true grass and all the rest are evil. I start to become familiar with the evil grasses. There’s the one that I think is Poa annua and another that may or may not be squirrel grass. There’s the super fine one that comes up every spring, turning the muddy bald patch outside Arie’s bedroom door into two square metres of golf course before dying off in the summer, leaving us with a scale-model desert. There’s the one that looks like Microlaena on growth hormones. (Could it be Microlaena? Is that what Microlaena looks like when it’s not struggling to survive in a hyco tray that should have been watered days ago? What if it is Microlaena? That would save me a lot of weeding. What if it is and I think it’s not and I spend the remainder of my life pulling it out and then one of those VINC people come around and tell me what a fool I’ve been? Relax, Neil. If you pull it all out, they’ll never know.) Weeding. Weeding, weeding, weeding. I look at a clump of grass(es) and it appears to have some Microlaena-like features. There’s probably some Microlaena in there, but where do I start? I pull away something that looks wrong. It looks better. I remove another clump of something evil. And then another. And then there’s a moment when the gates of perception open in my aging brain and voila - it’s not just a clump of grass anymore. It’s a beautiful little clump of Microlaena. Indigenotes Volume 17, Number 1, April 2006 Don’t ask me what makes grass look like Microlaena. The answer probably involves a lot of words like lanceolate or bifurcated. All I know is that I’ve looked at 1300 Microlaena seedlings, pricking out the precious little bastards and sticking them in hyco trays. Never again. I’ve collected a bit of seed from the first round of plants, and I’m going to broadcast it this spring. Wish me luck. The first round of plants came from VINC, but also from seed that was given to me by a friend who lives about a kilometre away, next to Rosanna Parklands, whose garden is only nominally separated from the Parklands by a treated pine railing. One kilometre. How indigenous is that? Weeding, weeding. It’s a strange kind of meditative state, but I can’t let it become robotic, because if I do, I’ll just end up pulling things out because they’re green. And there’s a sort of zen in-the-moment thing. If I start to think about outcomes, about where this is all heading, about how much longer it’ll take or whether it’ll ever be done, I’ll go crazy. Because weeding is never done. Never. It has no past, no future. Weeding is now. And always will be. I stand up and stretch and groan and hobble about. My certainty about the one and only true grass is rattled a bit when I look at the Isolepsis that has escaped from the bog garden. It looks really good growing on the wrong side of the paving stones around the pond, forming a natural link between the lawn and the pond. Last summer I found out that you can mow Isolepis. I decided to try mowing the Microlaena to see what would happen and the Isolepis grew right back. Happy as Larry. The Microlaena has still not grown back. It just sits there, looking mown. Maybe it’s waiting for spring. Maybe it’s waiting for me to stop worrying. Page 3
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Vol. 17, No. 2 September 2006 - Indigenous Flora and Fauna ...

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