Ben is an amateur arachnologist and nature lover specialising in Sparassidae (Huntsman spiders) of Australia. He is a member of the Entomological Society of Victoria and is their spider specialist. Ben is currently working on a field guide for huntsman spiders of Australia. His talk, delivered by zoom to a live audience at the Uniting […]
Our April excursion will be a combined Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club and Australasian Native Orchid Society visit to several sites in the Maldon-Muckleford area in search of autumn orchids. Meet: Note 10.30am start. Instead of our usual meeting place, we will meet at in the Downes Rd car park adjacent to the Botanical Gardens playground. We plan
Excursion: Saturday April 15th,10.30am, “Autumn Orchids” Read More »
Connecting Country urges us all to contribute to their new mapping portal where we can enter details and a photo of our favourite old trees. The project is aimed at raising awareness of the importance of old trees across the landscape as well as how to protect them, and is part of their larger project,
Mapping our old trees of Central Victoria Read More »
Annual General Meeting: The 2023 AGM will be held before the usual monthly meeting observations and talk. The AGM agenda will include the Annual Report for 2022, the Treasurer’s Report, and the election of office bearers and committee members for 2023. All positions on the committee will be open, so you are encouraged to consider
Meet: at the Octopus (Duke St, opposite the Castle Motel) at 1.30pm sharp or at the Tullaroop Reservoir picnic ground at the dam wall at 2pm. Watch out for raptors as you drive across the Moolort Plains to the reservoir! After gathering at the picnic ground, we will take a short drive to where we
Excursion: Saturday March 11th,1.30pm, “Tullaroop Reservoir” Read More »
The South East Australian Naturalists’ Association (SEANA) organises two camps each year where Field Naturalist groups from around SE Australia gather to explore a new region and meet fellow naturalists. The host club organises a range of activities led by their local experts. SEANA Autumn Camp – Port Campbell, April 28-30. Hosted by Timboon Field
Rescheduled from last October when floods prevented our speaker travelling here. Learn how to look after this unique and rare plant found only in our backyard. Georgie Custance, an ecologist from the Threatened Species Conservancy (TSC), will talk about a locally endemic plant, the Fryerstown Grevillea (Grevillea obtecta). Although locally common in small areas, it
Rescheduled from last October when floods prevented our leader travelling here. Enjoy a morning walk in the bush to see some local populations of the Fryerstown Grevillea (Grevillea obtecta) as well as the many other native plants that are in this area. During the walk, Georgie will demonstrate how to use ProofSafe to record your
Excursion: Saturday 11th February, 9.00am “The Grevillea obtecta project, Fryers Ridge” Read More »
Roadside Clean-up: Monday 13th February, 9am Read More »
Sadly, the weather forecast is not looking good for a picnic in the gardens next Tuesday, so we have decided to cancel this event. However, we had a very successful Members’ Night last Friday with a wonderful smorgasbord of presentations. A selection of members’ photos will be included in the February Castlemaine Naturalist. The committee
CANCELLED End-of-year Picnic: Tuesday 13th December, 5pm Read More »