Friends of the Gippsland Lakes Parks and Reserves

The Friends of the Gippsland Lakes will be holding their Annual General Meeting on Thursday 13 December with guest speakers Alan Broughton and Damian Britnell talking about Restoring Waterways and the Gunaikurnai Joint Mangaement Plan respectively.

The Friends of the Gippsland Lakes began 13 years ago and provides an avenue for interested persons to participate in projects and activities that enhance the environment, amenity and facilities within the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park, Lakes National Park, Blond Bay Reserve, Gippsland Lakes Reserve and crown land frontages abutting the Gippsland Lakes.

FoGL are keen collaborators with the many other environmental groups, agencies and people around East Gippsland and are committed to promoting the values and assets of the Lakes, Parks and Reserves.

“We so lucky to have such a unique ecosystem as our backyard” said Vice President, Heather Oke, “and it’s imperative that we value, protect and enhance the natural environment and biodiversity of our special, Ramsar-listed lakes system so that it can continue to be enjoyed by our children, the generations to come”

FoGL invites you to join them at their AGM at 6pm Thursday 13 December at

27 Dalmahoy St.
Bairnsdale

for pizza followed by talks by the fabulous Alan Broughton who will share with us examples from around the world where great progress has been made in fixing up degraded waterways, and archaeologist Damian Britnell who will proudly tell us about the landmark Gunaikurnai and Victorian Government Joint Management Plan that is setting a new direction in Victoria for working together to manage country.

For further information contact Secretary, Adele, on 0424 069 858 or secretary@fogl.org.au

Recent visit to Boole Poole to inspect and maintain FoGL/Parks Vic monitoring sites to assess browsing damage caused by Hog Deer on Banksia and Acacia species.

More info: https://fogl.org.au/project-burragarra-updates/boole-poole-monitoring-report-2013/

FOGL calls on the Government to act to protect our National Parks and public land for their natural values and biodiversity. Recreational hunting has no place in our National Parks.

FoGL Submission on Inquiry into Control of Invasive Animals on Crown Land

It appears to FOGL that under the current regime we are destroying critical habitat and putting our precious biodiversity at risk under the misguided and unfounded assumption that doing so will protect private property, when overwhelmingly the scientific evidence indicates burning the bush will NOT achieve this protection. This seems seriously flawed and will lead to increased environmental degradation…

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Recent working bee out on north arm of silt jetties – mainly for plant maintenance and rubbish collection.  Good weather and comaraderie made for a great morning.

This is such a beautiful and usually (outside of duck shooting season) peaceful part of the Gippsland Lakes –  a wonderful place in which to spend several hours working.

As usual, we collected several very large bags of rubbish including wads of fishing line, bait boxes, drink cans and bottles, food wrappers and a lot of toilet paper.  Some disgusting piles of fresh human waste with toilet paper piled on top were discovered.  Pity some of the people who use this area just rubbish it.

When we finished the area was almost pristine and the plantings look cared for.

FOGL members gathered along the Silt Jetties recently to hear from Parks Victoria’s Sean Phillipson, Manager for Regional Delivery, about plans to protect and rehabilitate this special part of the Gippsland Lakes.

As a stakeholder having had major projects along the Silt Jetties for ten years, FOGL was involved in workshops regarding their future held about 16 months ago and had input into the development of the current plans, so we were keen to hear how they are being implemented.

While we all had a cuppa, Sean showed us maps and gave an extremely interesting talk explaining the background to concerns about instabilities of the Silt Jetties (more…)

FOGL has been working for the past several months with other Community groups on plans to further rehabilitation works begun by EGSC and EG Water on McGees Gully in Bairnsdale. McGees Gully has an interesting history and McGees Gully Creek is an important waterway which runs from town into McLeods Morass.

The project, if approved and funded, would include a Shared Path and new signage highlighting the history of McGees Gully and the native flora and fauna found in the area, providing East Gippsland residents and visitors with a very interesting path along McGees Gully down to the Morass.

Last Friday FOGL representatives Anne Schmidli and Bill Cotter met with Frank McShane from EG Water, Anthony Nelson from EGSC and Bill Gamble from Mitchell River Rotary at the EG Water pumping station to discuss progress on the plans.