Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park

Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park

Website of the Friends Group – Information about working bees and monitoring projects. As well as flora and fauna pictures and descriptions

Category: Activities

Visitor Information Centre has re-opened

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Easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Victoria has meant that our group activities have been allowed to re-commence

Tarra-Bulga National Park is one of only a handful of National Parks in the state that has an
operational Visitor Information Centre. In this day and age it is refreshing for visitors that are not
familiar with the Park to be able to have face to face interaction with an actual human being. This
enables them to get the best information in regards to getting the most out of their visit.
At present we have vacancies for new volunteers to come on board and help to keep the centre
open. Full training and support will be provided. You don’t even have to know that much about the
park. A list of answers for common visitor questions will be provided.
Our long term volunteers love the experience that working in the Visitors Information Centre Offers.
It helps of course to be surrounded by the awesomeness of Tarra-Bulga National Park. It can
certainly be a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend a day. All while helping to provide a great
community service. Some of our volunteers find it so enjoyable, that over the years they have
accumulated over 200 days service. Do you enjoy getting out in the community, if so please consider
giving volunteering at Tarra-Bulga a go. For further details or to register your interest email
friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com or phone our Volunteer Co-ordinator Jane on 5196 6182.

25th Anniversary Celebration

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To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park are planning to hold a special function at the Ship Inn in Yarram, on November the 23rd.  They are hoping that as well as current volunteers getting together, former volunteers will also come along. For details about the upcoming anniversary event or if you would like to join the group and become a volunteer please contact David Akers on 0488 035 314 or email friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com

Invitation to our 25th Anniversary celebration
25th Anniversary Invite

2019 Lyrebird Survey Results

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Conditions were fortunately very good after a wild week of strong winds, rain and even a dusting of snow on the Wednesday. As a result  of the snow many fern fronds have been crushed down and were providing an obstacle along the walking tracks. The temperature was relatively mild and although you could hear the wind in the tree-tops it was not that strong. First Light was predicted at 6:52 am and the official sunrise time was 7:21.

We had 38 volunteers which was more the enough to cover all 16 monitoring locations. After meeting at 6.15 am everyone was briefed and out into the field by 6:40. Kookaburras were the first birds to start calling and were very active and noisy for quite a while. It seemed like quite a long wait until we heard our first Lyrebird at 6:58 am. Most volunteers had vacated their sites by around 7:15 am and people started filing into the Guest House for breakfast by about 7:25.

The results were collated this year during Google Earth.  The bottom of Lyrebird Ridge seemed to be quite active as well as the points around the suspension bridge and the Bulga Carpark. other sites were much quieter with only one or two calls heard.

Using our call triangulation method there ended up being a couple of anomalies with the results that made the certainty of the existence of a couple of birds 100% certain. (e.g  2 monitoring sites heard it calling but a closer one did not). Overall though we came up with a total of 9 birds calling for 2019 (which is one more than last year).

Lyrebird Survey Results updated 2019
Lyrebird Location Map 2019
Map of Lyrebird Survey Results 2019

Working Bees Switching to Sundays

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This year we are switching to hold most of our on-ground activities on Sundays. The first one is coming up this Sunday morning (March 31st). We will be meeting at the Tarra Valley Carpark at 9.30am and then heading down to our project site a bit further down the road where we will spend a couple of hours hand weeding sycamore maple, ivy and tutsan.
BYO, gloves etc but please let us know via friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com or phone 0488 035 314  if you intend to come along in case any plans need to change on the day.

Photo of Tutsan
Tutsan with some fruit ready to spread more seed into the park.

Activity Coming up this Saturday

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Fire damaged re-vegetation.
Project Site in 2010, previous re-vegetation efforts were destroyed in the Black Saturday fires.

This Saturday July 28th, we are inviting people to join us

New Seedling
Newly planted seedling in a wire tree-guard

for an activity at one of our on-going project sites. The aim is to remove wire tree-guards from successfully plantings which are part of the recovery from 2009 bushfires.

Meeting point is the Tarra-Bulga Visitors centre at 10am and the activity will finish around 1pm. Please let us know if you intend to come along in case there are any change of plans. Phone 0488 035 314 or email: friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com

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Project Site Showing Progress June 2018

Lyrebird Survey 2018 Results

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Another great turnout of 34 volunteers for this year’s survey, our annual Lyrebird Survey is by far our most popular activity and once again we were able to cover all 16 monitoring sites.

Weather conditions were quite good, at 5.30am heading up to Balook there was a substantial amount of moonlight with a clear sky and some cold air, At Balook however it was darker because of cloud cover blocking the moonlight and there was a slight breeze in the treetops.

Our full crew of volunteers arrived in good time and by 6.30am everyone had arrived and signed in and by 6.45am everyone had been briefed on their tasks and had headed out in the dark to their assigned monitoring stations.

Once in position there ended up being quite an unexpectedly long wait until Lyrebird calls were first heard, only a couple of locations recorded birds calling before 7am; which was when the majority of the sites started hearing birds, the latest any group had to wait to record any calls was 7.10am.  Last year (2017) every site had birds calling by 6.55am.

The official sunrise time for Saturday June 2nd at Balook was 7.22am and first light was scheduled to appear at 6.52am which was almost identical to last year.

From our results we detected 8 birds calling in our search area, this figure was slightly down on recent years. It is hard to read too much into one years results but potentially the dry summer and autumn we have experience may be having an impact. Most birds appeared to be calling from forest areas with established Eucalyptus over-storey or rainforest. It would be great if some action can be taken to re-establish the original canopy species into areas of the park that have been degraded.

As usual we only count birds that are detected by at least 2 monitoring stations and some stations heard birds calling that were not in our survey area so are not included in the final tally.

Thanks again to AGL who generously supported the breakfast provided for the early rising volunteers.

Lyrebird Survey Results Summary Table 2010-2018

 

 

Year

  

Number of Males Calling

 Monitoring

Points

Covered

(out of 16)

  

 

Weather Conditions
2010 4 9
2011 9 13 Windy making it hard to hear calls, especially in the more exposed sites.
2012 9 12 Still and Calm
2013 3 10 Wet, may have discouraged birds from calling. Several males sighted feeding but not calling.
2014 14 15 Perfect calm morning
2015 6 12 Windy
2016 9 15 Ideal – slight wind, relatively warm
2017 11 16 Ideal – slight wind, relatively warm
2018 8 16 A little overcast with a slight breeze.

Lyrebird Count 2018 150 dpi

David, Vicki & Patrick
Brett & Julie
Some very dedicated volunteers!
Pre-Survey Briefing at the Visitors Centre

Junior Rangers holiday fun at Tarra-Bulga

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Fantastic News that Parks Victoria are providing some holiday programs for Primary School age children at Tarra-Bulga this year. With opportunities coming up for kids to undertake a “Mini-beast Discovery” or a “Flora Explorer” activity and learn more about the awesome things that nature has to offer. For more info and bookings head to www.juniorrangers.com.au 

JR Ranger Tarra-Bulga

JR_whatson_Tarra-Bulga 2018

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