Proposed burn update: Now for fuel reduction not asset protection
The bushlands reserve on Commissioners Gully Road is now subject to a proposed planned burn sometime between 1 March and 31 May 2017. The signs recently put up at the reserve read: “Planned Burning Operations in accordance with the Published Fire Operations Plan for the Murray Goldfields District are scheduled in this area between Wednesday […]
Zombie alert!
Series 2 of the zombie tv ‘Glitch’ largely shot around the shire is coming to get us. Take care around the intersection of Miners Hut, Goldspeck Gully and Wattle Roads this week.
CFA Bushlands fire briefing December 2016
Antoinette Birkenbeil reports on the CFA Chewton Community Fire Meeting at Chewton Cemetery on Saturday December 10, 2016, attended by Kylie, Jim, Hannah, Tim, Ann Quinton, Glen, Chris, Fran, Jill, John Ellis, Karen, and four dogs, with CFA presenters Alan (from the CFA Community Education Group in Bendigo), David Button (CFA Chewton Captain), Barry Mousey (Second Lieutenant) and his daughter […]
Understanding Fire in our Landscape
A Community Conversation was a community event held on the weekend of the 12-13 November 2016, in Newstead, a town in Central Victoria.
Our 2017 AGM
The 2017 AGM for the Association was held in the Chewton Town Hall at 7pm on Friday 6 October 2017. Chewton Bushlands Association 2017 AGM Your committee for 2017/18 is: Ken Savage (President), Kate Elliot (Vice president), Mark Carter (Secretary), Karen Baker (Treasurer), along with Charles Affleck, Antoinette Birkenbeil, Mandy Huppert. Contact the secretary of the […]
Lot 17: Robyn and Ian Robinson
We had been looking for a property in the country for some time and had become increasingly despondent. After viewing some houses near Castlemaine, on a wet and windy Friday, we visited Glenys Johnson at Waller Realty. Glenys said that she had one place that we might be interested in but that she couldn’t show […]
Curry nights are back on the table
Set your alarm clock now for a mid-hibernation awakening to the imminent lengthening of days. The mid-winter curry night is back. Saturday 18 June at Ian and Robyn Robinson’s, 43 Miners Hut Road. To help them out with their preparations please RSVP asap to igar@bigpond.com. Rice and roti are taken care of but please rock up […]
Water tank cleaner
Does anyone know of a good contractor we can contact to clean out water tank for the the first time in 15 years? Cheers, Mark and Kim
Asset protection burn: Update
The proposed asset protection burn (triggered at the request of a neighbour) on the public reserve in Commissioners Gully Road didn’t take place, as listed, between 1 March and 31 May 2016. The Department of Environment and Primary Industry included the 12 hectare parcel of public land “Chewton Bushmans Road MGF CAS028”, otherwise known as […]
A dream realised now online
A dream realised – Chewton bushlands stories was published in October 2015. Since then we have sold all copies. However you can now read or download PDFs of the book as follows: • Chapters 1 to 6 (the history of the subdivision) plus chapter 8 (Living off grid) and chapter 10 (Bushlands organisation) … a 6.3MB PDF, […]
Bush cinema by Bushlanders
Our second screening was on last Saturday February 20 at Mark and Kim’s. We watched two good docos… Wild Will / Doco / 7 mins Directed by Kieran Watson-Bonnice About an Australian boxer Harold: A portrait of Harold Blair / Doco Produced by John Moore This documentary reveals how Harold emerged from the Queensland Reserve system in […]
Controlled asset protection burn
The proposed burn did not happen in Spring 2015 as planned and outlined below. We await notification of a date in Autumn 2016. In the meantime this piece by Phil Ingamells in The Age (10 January 2016) on the limits of fuel reduction burns is really very informative: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/appreciating-limits-of-fuel-reduction-burns-vital-to-effective-fire-management-in-victoria-20160110-gm2o3t.html ——————— Antoinette, Karen, Steve and I walked […]
Great Bluebell Creeper Cull update
Congratulations to all involved in the Great Bluebell Creeper Cull of February 2014 at the reserve on Bush Sanctuary Road. Karen and myself today (21 December 2015) did some follow-up work there and found remarkably few living specimens (which are of course no longer living) most of which were quite small and easy to manage. […]
A dream has been realised!
Like our roads, the journey of A dream realised: Chewton Bushlands stories has been long, steep and rocky. But the book has now arrived. As the back cover blurb says: “In 1967 Brian and Merle Parsons purchased a parcel of land near Chewton in Victoria. A dream realised tells how Brian’s dream of creating a […]
Kundry’s seduction of Parsifal
Kundry’s seduction of Parsifal, the extraordinary love scene at the heart of Wagner’s final opera Parsifal, will be performed at Castlemaine Art Gallery on Saturday February 14 at 7.30 pm, Valentine’s Day. In a concert staging, US-born mezzo soprano Kristen Leich sings Kundry, the beautiful woman conjured up by dark forces to seduce and corrupt the unknowing Parsifal. Kristen made […]
Native mice
Who else is hosting new winter residents? And what terms have you set on their tenancy? A non-lethal response suggested by Michael GS, one that he has found effective, is electronic rodent control… not that they are rodents… at http://www.pestrol.com.au/pestrol-rodent.html Mark Carter
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Brian!
…sometimes the Council did have a word to say even then. Just what the outcome was to this letter we don’t know? What we do know is the Subdivision went ahead despite these protestations from the Metcalfe Council.”
The end of an era for the Chewton Bushlands
Brian Parsons (1933-2014) Entrepreneur, Businessman, Real Estate Developer, Bon Vivant, Visionary. The death of Brian Parsons in January of this year marked the ending of a chapter in the history of the Chewton Bushlands. When referring to the Chewton Bushlands I mean that subdivision developed by Brian Parsons in the early 1970’s, and not the […]
Culling the creeper
Last February 23, 2014 a big push by a group of us really set back the invasion of Bluebell Creeper (Solly heterophylla) taking place in the North/East Bushlands. A further onslaught in November 2014 is planned and details will be posted here.
Snakes alive!
Summer usually sees the presence of a few snakes in particular locations around the Bushlands. Most are brown snakes but quite often a tiger snake or two joins the fray. In most instances they can be left to move off to other places but occasionally some may invade buildings and hence require removal. We are […]
