There are a number of environmental events being planned for mid November in north east Victoria.
In mid November Friends of the Earth will be hosting walks on the Buffalo plateau and the following day Protect Our Winters and Upper Ovens Landcare will co-host a planting day, followed by a film night in Bright.
Continue reading “Walks, forums, ecological restoration in north east VIC”
Continue reading “‘Save the Trees. March with us in the Autumn Festival Parade’”
As reported previously on Mountain Journal, many regional areas are in danger of being ‘developed to death’ as people move from major cities, seeking a Tree or Sea Change. This is playing out in many areas, including Bright in north eastern Victoria, where there is a subdivision and development plan that is currently being considered by the Alpine Council. This has been opposed by many residents in Bright.
In an update to this campaign, the Alpine Shire Council is now recommending that a sub-division permit which will see the destruction of two of Bright’s heritage trees be approved at next week’s Council meeting.
Many regional areas are in danger of being ‘developed to death’ as people move from major cities, seeking a Tree or Sea Change. From coastal areas like the Bellarine Peninsula to the Otways, to valley towns in north eastern Victoria, people are flocking to regional centres close to attractive places. The covid lockdowns allowed many people to transition to online work, which has further driven the trend towards relocating in regional areas. This is, of course, causing many problems as farmland and remnant vegetation is swallowed up (usually by low density sprawl), with growing demands for water supplies and waste treatment, and growing impacts on local community services like healthcare and schools.
This is playing out in many areas, including Bright in north eastern Victoria.
Continue reading “Housing development in Bright facing strong community opposition”
In March, Friends of the Earth (FoE) campaigners visited north eastern Victoria as part of a longer trip highlighting threats to the landscapes of the high country. While we were focused on the threat posed to native forests by logging, locals in the Upper Ovens wanted to show us some of the current harvesting of pine plantations in the area.
While pine (Pinus radiata) plantations have been located across the north east for decades, and provide valuable timber and local employment, the logging practices in many instances are appalling. This led to FoE making a series of recommendations to the land manager, Hancocks Plantations Victoria (HVP), about how to reduce the environmental impacts of future harvesting.
Would you like to hear about great environmental and sustainability initiatives happening in the Upper Ovens valley? Then please join us for a free event on the evening of tuesday March 14 at Bright Brewery.
This forum will feature local speakers showcasing some great conservation initiatives, and be a good chance to catch up with like minded people.
Locally owned gear shops have long been a cornerstone of the outdoors community. But, faced with the rise in online shopping and the buying power and reach of large chain stores, it’s remarkable that there are still so many locally owned outdoor gear shops in and around the Australian Mountains.
Here are a few of them. If we don’t support them, we will lose them. And as we know, all these places offer local knowledge in a way that online stores can’t.
2023 note: this guide is a couple of years old. If you want to suggest any changes, please send me an email: cam.walker@foe.org.au
Continue reading “Local gear stores. If we don’t love them, we’ll lose them”
The Victorian Backcountry Festival is a 100% volunteer run event, by the community for the community. It will be back at Hotham this winter with an action packed schedule of talks, tours, workshops, a demo village and outdoors bar over three days in September.
Volunteering with us is a great opportunity to make new backcountry friends and join a group of like-minded outdoor individuals who want to help out and support the festival and the adventure community it represents. We are hosting 2 volunteer meetup events in early June, in Bright and Melbourne.
Continue reading “Victorian Backcountry Festival volunteer info nights”
The Backcountry Film Festival is produced each year by the Winter Wildlands Alliance as a celebration of the human-powered winter experience and a gathering place for the backcountry snowsports community.
The 2022 season is screening early and will be an online festival. You can get tickets here.
However, Bright Brewery will be hosting a screening on Wed, Dec 1.
Continue reading “Backcountry film festival screening in Bright, DEC 1”
Snowboarder and environmentalist Jeremy Jones embarks on a mission to raise awareness about climate change.
His film Purple Mountains is being screened in Bright as part of the 2021 Victorian Backcountry Festival, which will happen in and around Mt Hotham resort over September 3, 4 and 5. Join festival sponsors Bright Brewery for a free screening of ‘Purple Mountains’ inside the brewery.
Continue reading “Protect Our Winters Australia film screening: Purple Mountains”
With the price of gold rising rapidly, much of regional Victoria is seeing renewed interest from mining companies, who are seeking exploration licences. In the Upper Ovens and Kiewa Valleys, there is strong local opposition to mining. A survey of local attitudes to mining highlights that gold mining does not have social license to operate in these areas.
The group No Gold Drilling (and no more gold mining) in Our Shire Valleys has released the results from their survey:
Continue reading “Alpine Shire residents oppose gold mining”
Endangered snow leopards or mountain gorillas? Not in Australia – but we do have native animals and plants threatened with extinction, right here in the Upper Ovens Valley.
The Upper Ovens Valley Landcare Group is hosting a special community event on Saturday June 19 to explore the ecology of some of these very special local species, why they are at risk and what can be done about it.
Continue reading “Threatened Species and Fire Recovery: a special community event”
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