AGM and Monthly Meeting:  Friday 8th March, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St

Speaker: Trent Nelson (FFM, DEECA) “Cultural burning program in the Murray Goldfields district”

The 2024 AGM will be held at 7.30pm before the usual monthly meeting on March 8th. The AGM agenda will include the Annual Report and the Treasurer’s Report for 2023, and the election of office bearers and committee members for 2024. All positions on the committee will be open, so you are strongly encouraged to consider joining the committee. Members with a range of skills and interests are very welcome. For more information, please contact the President or one of the committee members. Nomination forms are available from the Secretary and completed forms should reach the Secretary (castlemainefnc@hotmail.com) before the meeting.

Monthly Talk Guest Speaker – Following the AGM, Trent Nelson (Cultural Fire and Heritage Coordinator, Loddon Mallee, DEECA) will speak about the “Cultural burning program in the Murray Goldfields district”. Trent is a member of DEECA’s Forest Fire Management team in addition to his role coordinating several Cultural Burn Programs across the Loddon Mallee region. Several cultural burns in our area are planned, to be conducted by DJAARA (Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation) in conjunction with FFM. Cultural burning is called Djandak Wi in the Dja Dja Wurrung language, meaning ‘Country Fire’. It is cool, slow burning to stimulate the growth of native plants and increase biodiversity. Djandak Wi holds significant spiritual, social and ceremonial importance for Dja Dja Wurrung people. We will visit the site of one of these burns later in the year.

This month there will be no Observations segment. If you have interesting observations, with photos if available, please forward them by email to the newsletter editors at newsletter.cfnc@gmail.com by 29th March.