Have your say, share your experience or topic of interest in the next Bingi Babbler - Submit Here
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Co Chair: Kevin Heggen 5185 1322 hedleyrange@bigpond.com.au
Co Chair: John McClumpha 5185 1455 jd@incitegraphics.com.au
Minutes : Vacant Is this your name?
Newsletter: Kaye Proudley 5185 1398 katbingi@harboursat.com.au
Social Secretary: Vacant Does your name fit here?
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Co Chair: Kevin Heggen 5185 1322 hedleyrange@bigpond.com.au
Co Chair: John McClumpha 5185 1455 jd@incitegraphics.com.au
Minutes : Vacant Is this your name?
Newsletter: Kaye Proudley 5185 1398 katbingi@harboursat.com.au
Social Secretary: Vacant Does your name fit here?
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For interesting articles and plenty of photos, links to the YYLN or the JARR websites, or to read your newsletter online (don’t forget to let us know that you’re reading it online so we can save paper, trees & the ether from being polluted)
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CHOCOLATE BALLS: Melissa Scott 1 pkt Nice Biscuits 3 tbspns Cocoa Powder ½ cup Dessicated Coconut 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk ½ tspn Vanilla Extract 2/3 cup lightly packed Sultanas OPTIONAL) Extra coconut for coating Place biscuits and cocoa into food processor and blend until fine. Add coconut, condensed milk and vanilla, and mix well. If the mixture is runny, place bowl in refrigerator for 30 minutes until it firms and if still runny add more coconut. Gently roll generously heaped teaspoons of mixture into balls and then gently roll in the extra coconut till coated well. Place on tray and refrigerate till well set. Store in sealed container in fridge. MAKES approx 12 –15. The Frog and the Princess Once upon a time, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog in a pond. The frog said to the princess, "I was once a handsome prince until an evil witch put a spell on me. One kiss from you and I will turn back into a prince and then we can marry, move into the castle with my mum and you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children and forever feel happy doing so." That night, while the princess dined on frog legs, she kept laughing and saying, "I don't think so!” Landcare If you fancy reading even more Landcare stuff – have a look at this over the page: Hello online subscribers for the Victorian Landcare and Catchment Management magazine Issue 59 (spring/summer 2013 - Victorian Landcare Awards edition) of the Victorian Landcare and Catchment Management magazine is now available online. Go to this link to read or download pdf’s of the magazine which is now available on the Victorian Landcare Gateway http://www.landcarevic.net.au/resources/magazine/vic/victorian-landcare-catchment-management-magazine-2013-victorian-landcare-awards-issue-out-now Issue 58 (winter 2013) of the magazine is also available on the Victorian Landcare Gateway - go to this link http://www.landcarevic.net.au/resources/magazine/vic/previous-issues/issue-58/issue-58 All the other back issues (i.e. from issues 1-57) of the Victorian Landcare and Catchment Management magazine are now on the Victorian Landcare Gateway - http://www.landcarevic.net.au/resources/magazine/vic/previous-issues regards John Robinson Project Officer - Landcare Environment and Landscape Performance Division Department of Environment and Primary Industries Level 1, 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne 3002 | DX: 210098 T: 9637 9824| M: 0429 565 070| E: landcare.magazine@depi.vic.gov.au BRAIN TEASER This editions brain teaser from John McClumpha. First correct answer (send to, or ring Kaye Proudley) wins the prize! Peter, the office boy was asked by 5 girls in the office to call in and buy them some tickets to the concert on the weekend when he goes out to buy the lunches. The tickets were $20 each. So each girl gave Peter $20. When Peter got to the ticket office he found out he could he could get the tickets for $15 each for a group booking. Peter considered himself somewhat of an entrepreneur so he pocketed some of the savings. He took $2 dollars for each ticket and gave the remaining $3 saving per ticket to each girl. In summary Peter was given $100. The tickets cost each girl $17.00, a total of $85. Peter pocketed $10. This gives a total of $95. But what happened to the other $5? Nature Photographers Calling all nature photographers: Fancy yourself as a hotshot with that camera of yours? Don’t be shy; show us what you’ve got! We’re on the hunt for more great photos for our display set and would love to see what you can produce – as long as you will allow us to use your images. Full credit given with all photos used. We’d like to thank our contributors for their ‘you-beaut’ work: Kim Baggaley, John McClumpha, Alison Kuiter, Mark Wouters and me! Animals, birds, insects, flowers, fish or fungi – we don’t mind if they were taken outside of the area - as long as they also occur here in the Binginwarri area. Please ring or email Kaye or John to discuss how we can see your work. Contact details on the first page. Forgotten woodlands, future landscapes Posted on 13/10/2013 by Ian Lunt Picture a gorgeous woodland in the early 1800s. What do you see? Majestic gum trees with bent old boughs, golden grasses, a mob of sheep or kangaroos, and a forested hill in the distance? The luminous landscape of a Hans Heysen painting, perhaps. It’s an iconic Aussie landscape. But something’s missing. The trees are wrong. Or at least, they aren’t all there. Two hundred years ago, another group of trees – Honeysuckle, Oak, Lightwood and Cherry – formed extensive woodlands across many parts of south-east Australia. Today we call these trees Silver Banksia (Banksia marginata), Drooping Sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata), Wild Cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis), and Lightwood (Acacia implexa) or Blackwood (A.melanoxylon). … nearly all the trees were shiacks [she oaks], — not the eternal gum-trees, — and these, interspersed with Banksias, now in fresh foliage, and new pale yellow cones, or rather bottle-brushes, with a sprinkling of gums and golden wattles, gave what you rarely see in that country, a variety of foliage and hue (Howitt 1858, p. 206). This (above) and more is what I was alerted to by one of our erstwhile farming BLG members. Here’s the link for you to read the whole blog by Ian Lunt if you’re interested. He is a very well respected Australian ecologist… ianluntecology.com/2013/10/13/forgotten-woodlands-future-landscapes/ #comment-19850 As an indigenous plant propagator for the past 25 years or more, it was an idea that occurred to me way back that we were not putting enough variety into our plantings, as well as always using eucalypts as the base of every planting, everywhere. Ian explains this, with historical backing, very clearly, much better than I could ever do but I fully agree with what he says. And I would go further than his article suggests (and as he may have done in other blogs on his site) in just growing a bigger variety of trees – the ground flora is what is missing in so many current plantings; lilies, small daisies, orchids, tiny and small bushes, clumping plants, groundcovers, grasses and creepers & climbers. The list goes on. One of the reasons that our bird and animal life is declining is there is not enough understorey planted to give homes, food and protection from predators to the small fauna. It is one of the reasons that the bossy Australian Noisy Miner takes over areas to the exclusion of other small birds that eventually either move on or die. We only have to read historical records of the early naturalists and explorers to know what was here and plant it back like we were living two hundred years ago! Tadpole Shrimp Read this interesting article on Tadpole Shrimp by Kaye Proudley. I can’t top the Lorax for wise words, apart from adding that he may well be talking about YOU ‘stepping up to the plate’ to become a committee member and helping a little with the work load to run this group. If it escaped your attention, we are now down to just two working committee people. Come to a meeting and see if this is for you. We’d love a bit of a hand!
So for this edition, that’s it from me and that’s it from him! Kaye Proudley, Editor, Bingi Babbler |