Guides, lists and plans for this country
126 publications about the land, water and wildlife of Mitchell and Strathbogie shires, gathered from the two councils, the Goulburn Broken and North Central catchment authorities, state agencies and local groups. Bird and frog guides, planting lists for your bioregion, the weed guide the councils refer landholders to, management plans for every reserve, and the walking tracks of the Strathbogie Ranges. Search for a species, a creek or a reserve, or pick a topic.
The Bird Book: Birds of the Grey Box Grassy Woodlands in the Goulburn Broken Catchment
Thirty birds of the Grey Box Grassy Woodlands, now about 85 per cent cleared across the northern plains of both shires, profiled by Janice Mentiplay-Smith for the Goulburn Broken CMA in 2025. Case studies cover nest hollow work that helped Turquoise Parrots recover, and a chapter shows how to record what you see.
Wetland Birds of North East Victoria: An Identification and Habitat Management Guide
A fold-out identification guide to 52 wetland birds of north east Victoria, 14 of them threatened, arranged by the habitat each prefers. The back explains how to turn a farm dam into wetland habitat with shallow fenced margins.
Freshwater Fish, Crayfish and Turtles of North East Victoria: An Identification and Conservation Guide
Fold-out guide to the fish, crayfish and turtles of the Goulburn, Broken and King Parrot systems: Murray Cod, Macquarie Perch, Trout Cod, galaxias, spiny crayfish, three turtles, each with size, status and habitat. It sets out what anglers or streamside landholders can do about the decline.
Fungi of North East Victoria: An Identification and Conservation Guide
Alison Pouliot's fold-out guide to 96 fungi of north east Victoria, from box-ironbark woodland to alpine herbfield, arranged by form with codes for how each feeds and what it grows on. Sections cover spore prints, fungi after fire, and conserving fungi on farms.
Golden Sun Moth (Yurrnga Ganbina)
The Golden Sun Moth lives as a larva on Wallaby Grass roots for two or three years, then flies for one to four days between October and January. This Trust for Nature brochure covers identification, then the grassland management that keeps it: timed burning or slashing, Phalaris control, no soil disturbance. Recorded at the Colin Officer Flora Reserve, Wallan and Beveridge.
Pollinator Insects of the South West Slopes of NSW and North East Victoria: An Identification and Conservation Guide
A fold-out to the native bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, moths, beetles that do most of the pollinating in north east Victoria, each photographed with its family. Most Australian pollinators are native insects, not honey bees. The guide explains how to keep them: flowers year round, bare ground or dead stems for nesting, fewer sprays.
Reptiles and Frogs of North East Victoria: An Identification and Conservation Guide
Eighty reptiles and frogs of north east Victoria on one fold-out, 21 of them threatened, from Tiger Snake to Striped Legless Lizard to Growling Grass Frog. It lists the habitat features each group needs: rocks, fallen timber, tussocks, hollows, clean water.
Know Your Amphibians: Frogs of Monument Hill Reserve, Kilmore
Graham Jury's profiles of five frogs of the Kilmore district: Brown Tree Frog, Pobblebonk, Spotted Marsh Frog, Common Eastern Froglet and the endangered Bibron's Toadlet, with call, habitat and breeding notes for each. Written for Monument Hill Reserve, useful anywhere in the shire.
Know Your Fungi: Monument Hill Reserve, Kilmore
Seven fungi and one slime mould from Monument Hill Reserve, Kilmore, photographed, with notes on which are poisonous or easily confused with edible species. Collecting fungi on public land is illegal in Victoria; the sheet says so.
Woodland Birds of North East Victoria: An Identification and Conservation Guide
A fold-out chart of 54 woodland birds of north eastern Victoria with photographs by Chris Tzaros, from Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater to Hooded Robin and Diamond Firetail. The reverse explains why the woodland bird community is declining and how to join the twice-yearly survey weekends.
Frogs Field Guide: North Central Waterwatch
North Central Waterwatch's 42 page frog guide: how to identify a frog by its call, pupil, toe pads and eggs, then 15 native species including Growling Grass Frog and Bibron's Toadlet, plus the three tree frogs that arrive in fruit boxes. The most readable frog guide for anyone with a dam or creek.
Birds of the Lower King Parrot Valley: Then, Now and the Future?
David Wakefield and Laurie Macmillan's 2007 booklet on about 100 birds of the King Parrot Creek valley between Flowerdale and Strath Creek, with the case that woodland birds need around 30 per cent native cover. Five focal species for Landcare attention: Crested Shrike-tit, Southern Whiteface, Jacky Winter, Hooded Robin and Brown Treecreeper.
A Wildlife Guide for Landholders in the Upper Goulburn and Broken River Catchments
The hill-country companion to the plains guide, covering Broadford, Kilmore, Seymour, the Strathbogie plateau and the Upper Goulburn. Twenty-seven species accounts from Common Imperial Blue to Regent Honeyeater, Platypus and Gang-gang Cockatoo, with guidance such as corridor widths of 40 to 50 metres.
A Wildlife Guide for Landholders in the Plains and Box-Ironbark Regions of the Goulburn Broken Catchment
The Goulburn Broken CMA's wildlife guide for the plains and box-ironbark country, where about 89 per cent of native vegetation has gone. Species profiles for fish, frogs, reptiles, mammals, birds, each with habitat needs, what a landholder can do, plus the rule of thumb that at least a tenth of a property should be managed for wildlife.
Bats and Paddock Trees: Insights from Recent Research
Bat researchers Lindy Lumsden and Andrew Bennett on why scattered paddock trees matter: a four gram Little Forest Bat roosts in their hollows and eats up to half its body weight in moths and bugs a night, Rutherglen Bug among them. Bats forage far more around scattered trees than in open paddocks.
Fungi of the Wombat Forest and Macedon Ranges
About 115 fungi and slime moulds of the Wombat Forest and Macedon Ranges on a two page chart by Alison Pouliot, grouped by form with Fungimap target species marked. Many of the same species occur in the foothill forests of both shires.
Mitchell Shire Preferred Tree Species List (2026)
About 170 trees approved for streets, car parks, open space and bushland reserves in Mitchell Shire, sorted by size, with around 70 unsuitable species listed too. Indigenous species are flagged and the bushland reserve list is purely indigenous.
Port Phillip and Western Port Indigenous Plant Species List
Roughly 200 plant species indigenous to the Port Phillip and Western Port catchment, which takes in Wallan, Beveridge and Wandong, grouped by growth form from grasses to trees and aquatic plants. A bare reference list, no descriptions.
Mitchell Shire Landscape Design Considerations (Landscape Guidelines)
Mitchell Shire's landscape design rules for subdivisions and open space: one street tree per lot frontage, exotic trees kept 50 metres from waterway reserves and 100 metres from environmental reserves, plant selection from the council species lists. The rules exist to protect remnant vegetation as the southern towns grow.
Mitchell Shire Recommended Climber List (2023)
Eight climbers for fences or screens in Mitchell Shire, including Native Wisteria, Wonga Wonga Vine, Dusky Coral Pea, with one to avoid: Bluebell Creeper, a weed in this region.
Mitchell Shire Recommended Groundcover List (2023)
Twenty groundcovers for landscaping in Mitchell Shire, marked indigenous, native or exotic, with seven unsuitable species each paired with a replacement. Lemon Beauty-heads, Ruby Saltbush and prostrate grevilleas among them.
Mitchell Shire Recommended Raingarden List (2023)
Eighteen plants for raingardens or other water sensitive features in Mitchell Shire, nearly all indigenous sedges, rushes, mat-rushes, flax-lilies that take alternating wet and dry. The only local guidance on planting stormwater treatment features.
Mitchell Shire Recommended Shrub List (2023)
A seven page table of shrubs for Mitchell Shire gardens, with height, width, notes on frost, drought, fire, plus a page of shrubs to avoid, mostly environmental weeds such as Cotoneaster. Gold Dust Wattle, Rock Correa, Silver Banksia and Sweet Bursaria are on the recommended list.
Mitchell Shire Recommended Strappy Plants and Grasses List (2023)
About 50 grasses and strap-leaved plants for streetscapes in Mitchell Shire, wallaby grasses, spear grasses, flax-lilies, mat-rushes among them, with a page of species not recommended, Pampas Grass included.
Vegetation Types of Mitchell Shire (2022 edition)
The current four page guide to Mitchell Shire's six bioregions and the Ecological Vegetation Classes in each, from Plains Grassy Woodland around Wallan to the wet forests of the Highlands. The place to start before choosing what to plant.
Know Your Flora: Native Orchids of Monument Hill Reserve, Kilmore
Ten native orchids of Monument Hill Reserve, from Blue Fingers and Wax-lip to the Wallflower Donkey Orchid near the northern edge of its range, photographed by Graham Jury with flowering notes and ecology. Central Victoria has the state's highest density of Blue Fingers.
Vegetation Types of the Mitchell Shire (2017 edition)
The 2017 edition of the bioregion guide, with rainfall ranges from 400 millimetres on the plains to over 900 in the hills and photographs from Monument Hill, Clarkes Road and Upper Plenty. Superseded by the 2022 edition, kept for its different photographs and wording.
Grassy Woodlands of the Goulburn Broken Catchment: Identification and Management Handbook
A 152 page photographic handbook to the plants of the catchment's grassy woodlands, written by Euroa Arboretum botanists: grasses, herbs, shrubs and trees, each with identification notes, wildlife value and Aboriginal uses. It explains why these woodlands need active management with grazing or fire.
Wildflowers of the Foothills and Mountains of Northeastern Victoria
About 110 wildflowers, grasses and small shrubs of the Strathbogie Ranges, Tallarook, Mt Disappointment country on one fold-out chart by Mary Titcumb with Sally Mann, colour coded to bioregion. A short section tells landholders how to protect wildflower areas from earthworks, herbicide, overgrazing.
Wildflowers of the Plains and Low Hills of Northeastern Victoria
The flat-country companion chart: about 92 wildflowers and native grasses of the plains around Seymour, Nagambie, Euroa, colour coded to bioregion. Closes with how to help: no earthworks, herbicide or fertiliser in wildflower areas; control the perennial weeds.
Benefits of Conserving and Using Native Grasses
Why native grasses are worth keeping and planting: deep roots that hold down rising water tables, low nutrient needs (fertiliser kills many of them), suitability for rotational grazing, and weed suppression on roadsides. Written in South Australia, with the general case rather than species.
Indigenous Plants for North Central Victoria: A Revegetation Guide
Greening Australia's 1997 revegetation handbook for north central Victoria, which includes the Pyalong and Tooborac side of Mitchell Shire. Six planting zones split at the 500 millimetre rainfall line, direct seeding rates, shelterbelt design, and species descriptions to match plants to zone and soil. Dated, still the standard list for that country.
Creating a Garden for Birds and Wildlife (Gardens for Wildlife)
Mitchell Shire's Gardens for Wildlife guide to turning a backyard into habitat, organised around water, food, shelter and nesting. It names the local birds a garden can expect, warns against wide-mesh fruit netting, and recommends eucalypt mulch over pine bark.
Creating a Small Native Garden
A beginner's guide to native gardening in Mitchell Shire: the difference between indigenous and native, which nursery natives are weeds here (Cootamundra Wattle, Sweet Pittosporum, Foxtail Grass), and when to plant tube stock. Plant suggestions by shade and soil.
Environmental Weeds in Mitchell Shire: Stop the Invasion in Our Natural Areas
Fifty environmental weeds established or emerging in Mitchell Shire's bushland and roadsides, sorted by growth form with declared species marked. Sixty-five per cent of Australia's environmental weeds are garden escapes, and the second page covers choosing plants that will not spread.
Common Weedy Garden Plants and Suggested Alternatives to Plant
About 45 garden plants that escape into Mitchell Shire bushland, each paired with a native that gives a similar look: Desert Ash, Cootamundra Wattle, brooms, Cotoneaster, Holly and the rest. The practical companion to the environmental weeds brochure.
Weed Management Plan: Landholder Template
The seven page weed management plan form Mitchell Shire sends landholders under its 2022 local law: the four noxious weed categories, a weed table, a property weed map and before-and-after photo pages. Useful as a planning sheet whether or not council has written.
Your Guide to the Weeds of Central Victoria (June 2024 edition)
The 91 page regional weed identification guide produced by five central Victorian councils with the South West Goulburn Landcare Network, June 2024 edition. Photographic profiles of woody weeds, herbs, bulbs, grasses, vines and aquatic plants, each with a treatment calendar and control options. The guide Mitchell Shire's own weed plan refers landholders to.
South African Weed-orchid (Disa bracteata): Weed Alert Fact Sheet
A weed alert for the South African Weed-orchid, which invades grasslands and grows among native orchids. Herbicide only works before flowering; after that every tuber has to be dug out and sent to landfill, never green waste.
Serrated Tussock Annual Control Calendar
A one page calendar of when Serrated Tussock germinates, flowers, sets seed, with the best month for each control: glyphosate or flupropanate spraying, spray-topping, cultivation, pasture establishment. Pin it up beside the prevention brochure.
Rural Roadside Weed Control Plan, Part 2: Target Species and Control Tables
Four pages of tables from Mitchell Shire's roadside weed plan: 14 target species led by Serrated Tussock, Cape Tulip and Artichoke Thistle, with the control measure, kilometres, timing and cost for each. A compact record of what was sprayed where.
Watch Out for Serrated Tussock: How It Spreads and How to Protect Your Property
How Serrated Tussock seed travels, on clothing, stock, machinery, fodder, gravel, or up to 20 kilometres on the wind, with a preventive step for each pathway: wash-down points, quarantining new stock, weed-free feed, buffer plantings on boundaries.
Declared Noxious Weeds of Victoria
The February 2011 list of about 119 declared noxious weeds in Victoria under the Catchment and Land Protection Act, with each one's category in each catchment region. In the Goulburn Broken, Blackberry, Gorse, Paterson's Curse and Serrated Tussock are regionally controlled; willows are restricted. Agriculture Victoria publishes the current list online.
Recognising Water Weeds: Plant Identification Guide
Thirty-four aquatic weeds in four groups, emergent, feathery submerged, non-feathery submerged, floating, each with a description, the native plants it is confused with, how it spreads, its declaration status by state. Five are Weeds of National Significance: alligator weed, olive hymenachne, cabomba, salvinia, water hyacinth.
Controlling Foxes and Rabbits in Urban Areas: Helping to Protect Our Environment
Foxes and rabbits in Mitchell's towns, where shooting or poisoning is not an option: remove harbour such as Blackberry or Gorse, secure poultry, use licensed contractors for den fumigation or warren ripping. One pair of rabbits can become 184 in eighteen months.
Glovebox Guide for Managing Rabbits (PestSmart)
The PestSmart pocket guide to rabbits: scoring abundance, legal obligations, warren ripping specifications, fumigation, baiting, RHDV and calicivirus, exclusion fencing and monitoring with RabbitScan. Rabbits feature in nearly every local reserve plan, and this is the national manual behind the control work.
Rabbits: Warren Destruction and Harbour Management (Landcare Note LC0297)
The Landcare Note on destroying warrens and removing the harbour that lets rabbits bounce back: rip from 4 metres outside the outermost opening, lines no more than 50 centimetres apart and 1.5 metres deep, cross rip, then check in two or three days. One pair can reach 180 rabbits in eighteen months.
Making Cent$ of Carbon and Emissions On-Farm (new edition)
Agriculture Victoria's 2026 booklet on working out a farm's emissions and reducing them across eleven areas: energy, livestock methane, nitrogen, effluent, trees, soil carbon and more. Each section gives the science briefly, then the steps and where to get help.
Drought and Dry Seasonal Conditions Resource Directory (June 2025)
Agriculture Victoria's June 2025 directory of help for farmers in drought: on-farm infrastructure grants, the Regional Drought Coordinator, Farm Business Resilience Program, Rural Finance loans and the Farm Household Allowance, with notes on livestock feeding and farm water. The higher grant caps apply only to south west Victoria.
Mitchell Shire Farm Plan Template: Property Management and Land Management Plan
A 15 page fill-in workbook for landholders who want to plan their property without a permit condition driving it: describing the land, setting goals, drawing the current and ideal map, listing actions. Buffer guidance of 5 to 10 metres on small watercourses, 10 to 20 on large ones.
Life on the Land: A Toolkit for Rural Landholders in North Central Victoria
The North Central CMA's 2024 toolkit for rural landholders and tree-changers, successor to Caring for Country. Property planning with a before-you-buy checklist, water, habitat, pests, livestock, soils and extreme events. The most current general-purpose guide in the library.
Mitchell Shire Land Management Plan Guide (template, version 6)
The 34 page template Mitchell Shire gives rural landholders who must prepare a Land Management Plan, usually as a permit condition. It walks through land capability, livestock, pasture, biodiversity, soils, weeds, pest animals and fire with a ten-year action schedule. A checklist of what good land management means in this shire.
On The Land: Agricultural Fire Management Guidelines (Version 3)
The CFA's handbook on fire on farms: planning, fuel breaks, protecting buildings or environmental assets, burn-off permits, Fire Danger Period restrictions, the 10/30 and 10/50 clearing rules, machinery fires, hay fires, recovery. A 20 step pre-season checklist is included.
Rapid Assessment of Soil Health (RASH) Manual: A Landholder's Guide
Score your own soil health with five tests along a 25 pace transect: ground cover, water infiltration, aggregate strength, soil organisms and pH, each rated 0 to 3. Written for Queensland graziers; the method transfers to any paddock, the grass references do not.
Conserving Wildlife on Your Farm: Wildlife Conservation in Farm Landscapes
Four pages distilling the Lindenmayer research on wildlife in farm landscapes into three approaches: protect what you have, restore what is missing, and make use of natural regrowth. Produced with the Longwood Plains Conservation Management Network in southern Strathbogie Shire.
Healthy Hectares: A Guide for Small Landholders to Create Productive and Environmentally Sustainable Properties
The Euroa Arboretum's handbook for people who own a few hectares in the Goulburn Broken catchment: land capability, soil testing, dams, riparian setbacks, revegetation, pest plants, pasture, bushfire, drought. Each chapter ends with actions plus contacts.
Caring for Country: A Sustainable Land Management Guide for Rural Living in North Central Victoria
The North Central CMA's 173 page guide to living on a rural property, from farm dams to septic systems, bioregions, soils, pest animals, each chapter with a checklist. Written for a region where only 19 per cent of native vegetation remains while 87 per cent of land is private.
Dung Beetles: Identification Guide and General Information
Bertram Lobert's guide to the ten introduced dung beetles working in Goulburn Broken paddocks, when each is active, how to tell whether you have them, what they do for fertility, bush flies, run-off. Release sites included Euroa, Longwood, Yea, Strath Creek, Kilmore, Seymour.
The Importance of Paddock Trees in the Landscape
Kate Stothers' two page case for keeping paddock trees: a single River Red Gum yielded 8,456 invertebrates, a Grey Box with a 93 centimetre trunk is around 200 years old, and the bats roosting in them eat crop pests. Fence stock out and regeneration costs nothing.
Enhancing Farm Dams: What to Plant In and Around Your Dam
Which grasses, sedges, rushes or aquatic plants suit each zone of a farm dam, from inflow to spillway, with tables of waterlogging tolerance, depth range, salinity tolerance. Fence stock out, pipe water to a trough, keep trees at least 15 metres below the wall. The project area includes the Goulburn Broken.
Seasonal Herbaceous Wetlands: Identification and Management Handbook
A 104 page handbook on the shallow temporary wetlands that fill in wet years on the plains below 500 metres, listed as critically endangered nationally. How to recognise one through its dry, filling, full and draw-down phases, which plants qualify a site, and how to manage grazing, weeds and water.
Strathbogie Shire Stormwater Management Plan, Volume 1
Strathbogie Shire's 2005 stormwater plan for Euroa, Nagambie, Violet Town, Avenel, Longwood, whose drains flow to Seven Creeks, Honeysuckle Creek, Hughes Creek, Pranjip Creek, Castle Creek, Lake Nagambie. Specific outlets are named for each town.
Strathbogie Shire Stormwater Management Plan, Volume 2: Background, Workshops and Risk Assessment
The supporting volume to the 2005 stormwater plan: the workshops, the issues raised town by town, an inventory of the values and threats of each receiving waterway, and the risk ranking. At the time no town drainage system had any water quality treatment.
Feasibility for wallan wallan Regional Park: Report 2022
A 175 page feasibility study for a regional park in the Wallan and Beveridge growth corridor, where the population is forecast to grow by more than 50,000 by 2036. It documents the volcanic cones, creeks, swamps, 61 Aboriginal places, the grasslands, Growling Grass Frog, Golden Sun Moth a park would protect.
Know Your Reserve: Monument Hill Reserve, Kilmore
The visitor brochure for Monument Hill Reserve, 76 hectares of Crown land bushland on the eastern edge of Kilmore: history, the 1924 Hume and Hovell tower, Grassy Dry Forest, phascogales, gliders, orchids, lilies, the grade 3 walking tracks. Entry from Monument Road or Anderson Road.
Know Your Reserve: Seymour Bushland Park
Seymour Bushland Park, 65 hectares of Box Ironbark Forest on the former Kitchener Military Camp, protected since 2006 by the first municipal Trust for Nature covenant in the catchment. Phascogale, Squirrel Glider, Barking Owl and Painted Button-quail, the walking tracks, and the rules.
Monument Hill Reserve: How is Bushfire Risk Managed?
How bushfire risk is managed at Monument Hill Reserve, bushland beside Kilmore's residential streets: who manages it, the fuel hazard assessment, planned burns, access tracks, why logs or fallen trees are left as habitat.
Avenel Heritage and Nature Trail
An easy 5.5 kilometre heritage trail around Avenel, from the 1838 Hughes Creek crossing past the Cobb and Co staging post to the cemetery. Chiefly a town walk; the natural interest is the Hughes Creek corridor with its old River Red Gums.
Balaclava Mine and Whroo Cemetery Trails, Whroo Historic Area
Seven kilometres of walking and bike trails through the Whroo Historic Area in the Rushworth ironbark forest north west of Nagambie: the Balaclava open cut, the battery dam, Aboriginal rock waterholes, a cemetery of 400 graves, under Red Ironbark, Mugga Ironbark, Grey Box.
Balmattum Hill Walking Track, Euroa
The walk up Balmattum Hill, 78.6 hectares of granite boulder country and box woodland on the Euroa-Strathbogie Road, 1.3 kilometres one way with a 168 metre climb on the long option. Interpretive signs went in with Landcare funding in 2019.
Big Hill Walk, Longwood East
Big Hill near Longwood East: a 1.6 kilometre return climb to the 372 metre summit through one of the last public examples of granitic hills woodland on the catchment's western slopes. Blakely's Red Gum, Red Stringybark, Drooping Sheoak and Nodding Blue Lily.
Bridge to Bridge Walking Track, Strathbogie Township
An easy 2 kilometre walk along the Seven Creeks floodplain between two bridges in Strathbogie township, where the deep pools hold platypus and the Strathbogie Landcare Group has planted hundreds of seedlings. Floods after heavy rain.
Cleo's Track, Strathbogie Forest
Cleo's Track, 7 kilometres over two to three hours through the Strathbogie State Forest from Creek Junction Road, past the Seven Creeks swamp, a fern gully, granite outcrops under Messmate, Blue Gum, Manna Gum. Two crystal mines still operate nearby.
Golden Mountain Walking Track, Strathbogie Forest (Strathbogie Ranges Nature Trails)
Four kilometres to the 1,028 metre summit of Golden Mountain in the Strathbogie State Forest, reached by forest drive from Thames Road. Granite geology, 1850s gold, later crystal mining, the Conservation Management Network's work on wetlands or rocky outcrops.
Gooram Falls Trail: Geological History of Strathbogie Forest
The short walk to Gooram Falls, two cascades on the Seven Creeks 400 metres from the car park off the Euroa-Mansfield Road, with the 300 to 400 million year story of the Strathbogie granite. No dogs, fishing or camping.
Goulburn Gates Walk, Goulburn Weir
An easy 4.9 kilometre walk around the Goulburn Weir near Nagambie, built between 1887 and 1891 to create Lake Nagambie and feed the irrigation channels. More water infrastructure than ecology, but it is the public entry to a key Goulburn River site.
Mangalore Flora Walk, Mangalore Nature Conservation Reserve
An easy 3.5 kilometre loop through the 78 hectare Mangalore Nature Conservation Reserve, a Grey Box grassy woodland with old hollow trees and spring orchid beds, an eBird hotspot with 155 species recorded. The most botanically rich of the Strathbogie walk brochures.
Melville's Lookout Track, Dargile National Park, Wirrate
A 10.5 kilometre multi-use track through box-ironbark forest in the Dargile section of Heathcote-Graytown National Park to Melville's Lookout, past the Grass Tree Garden, the Mt Black quarry and spring wildflowers. Camping at the Dargile picnic ground.
Mt Black Walk, Wirrate
Mt Black in the Dargile section of Heathcote-Graytown National Park, Victoria's largest remaining box-ironbark forest: 3.5 kilometres or 11 with the long option, grass trees, Crimson Spider Orchid, Squirrel Glider and wintering Swift Parrot. Cinnamon fungus is present, so stay on the tracks.
Mt Wombat Lookout Walk, Strathbogie Ranges
The 5.5 kilometre return walk to the 799 metre summit of Mt Wombat, with its fire lookout, views across the Goulburn Weir to the Waranga Basin, Wedge-tailed Eagles overhead. Mosses, lichens, fungi, ferns of the granite country, the 1881 cemetery.
POW Camp, Gold Diggings and Cemetery Walk, Graytown
An easy 3.5 kilometre loop at Graytown through the goldfield that drew 30,000 people in 1868, the Second World War prisoner of war camp and the cemetery. Mainly history; the route is the public way into the box-ironbark forest of the national park.
Ruffy Snow Gum Reserve Walking Track
Three kilometres return from the Ruffy Recreation Reserve to the Ruffy Snow Gum Reserve, where Snow Gums and Mountain Swamp Gums grow at the edge of their range in granite swamp woodland. Developed with the Hughes Creek Catchment Collaborative and the Ruffy community.
Seven Creeks Walking Track, Euroa Township
The 7 kilometre Seven Creeks Walking Track through Euroa, along floodplain River Red Gum woodland established in 1988 by the Euroa Apex Club and kept by the Friends of the Sevens. More than ninety bird species recorded, with koalas, water rats and microbats.
Tahbilk Eco Trails, Tabilk
The 6.4 kilometre Eco Trails circuit through the billabongs and backwaters of the Tahbilk winery property beside the Goulburn River, where about 8 kilometres of waterways have been regenerated since 1995. Private land open to the public, with a bird hide and an eco-cruise option.
Wallaby Gully, Upton Hill
A hard 6 kilometre walk with no formed track through the Wallaby Gully Flora Reserve on Upton Hill near Longwood, following fence lines through granite country with a 90 metre descent, then a 110 metre climb. Black Wallaby, Echidna, Wombat under Red Stringybark.
Strathbogie Shire Tracks and Trails Draft Strategy Map
A single A3 map of walking reserves and cycling routes across Strathbogie Shire against the road and rail network, prepared for the 2019 trails strategy review.
Shire of Strathbogie Tracks and Trails Strategy 2015-2018
The 2015 strategy behind Strathbogie Shire's walking, cycling and horse trails, and the parent document of the walk brochures in this library. Useful mainly as a gazetteer of where nature-based trails exist or were proposed, from Gooram Falls to the Great Victorian Rail Trail.
Colin Officer Flora Reserve Management Plan 2025-2035
The 2025 to 2035 plan for the Colin Officer Flora Reserve, 13.5 hectares of grassy woodland on Water Trust Road, Broadford, which despite its size records 246 plants and 222 animals including Swift Parrot, Speckled Warbler and Golden Sun Moth. Five goals, a costed action plan and management zones.
Seymour Bushland Park Management Plan 2025-2035
The 2025 to 2035 plan for Seymour Bushland Park: 226 plants, 131 native birds on eBird, 19 native mammals including Koala, three breeding sites for Bibron's Toadlet. Forty-nine costed actions from fox control to nest boxes to habitat links to Tallarook State Forest.
Mitchell Shire Climate Emergency Action Plan
Mitchell Shire's 98 page response to its climate emergency declaration: 71 actions towards net zero council operations by 2035 and community by 2043. It covers extreme heat, regenerative agriculture, the urban forest, FOGO and conservation covenant grants, and names sites from the Colin Officer reserve to the Cherry Tree Wind Farm.
Mitchell Shire Conservation Covenant Rate Rebate Policy (MSC 107)
The policy adopted June 2024 under which a landholder with a registered Trust for Nature covenant gets a rate rebate of $20 per hectare, between $100 and $500 a year. The main standing incentive for permanent protection of bushland on private land in Mitchell Shire.
Mitchell Shire Council Environment Policy (revised 2024)
Mitchell Shire's six page overarching environment policy with its 2050 goals: zero net emissions, a net gain in habitat on council land, 27 per cent tree canopy in towns, and 70 per cent of waste diverted from landfill. The parent of the reserve plans, weed framework and climate plan.
Monument Hill Reserve Management Plan 2024-2034
The 2024 to 2034 plan for Monument Hill Reserve, 76 hectares of Crown land bushland on the edge of Kilmore with 277 plant species, 78 native animals including Powerful Owl, 114 recorded fungi. Six goals, a prioritised action plan, the link to the Mt Piper bio-link project.
Mitchell Shire Council Weed Management Framework
How Mitchell Shire prioritises weeds on the land it controls: 23 declared species, 12 environmental ones, about 617 kilometres of roadside treated in 2022-23, 38 actions to 2025. Community priorities are Blackberry, Gorse, Paterson's Curse, Serrated Tussock, Chilean Needle Grass, Cape Weed.
Mitchell Shire Urban Forest Strategy 2023
Mitchell Shire's plan for trees in its towns, where canopy cover is 12 per cent against targets of 20 per cent by 2043, 30 by 2073. About 41,000 street trees, 11,747 vacant sites, a plan to lift planting from 600 to 2,000 trees a year, preferred species street by street.
Mitchell Shire Urban Tree Management Policy (2023 revision)
The 2023 policy for the roughly 44,000 trees council manages in Mitchell's towns: removal only where a tree is dead, hazardous or approved through development, and species chosen for a climate two degrees warmer.
Mitchell Shire Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030
Mitchell Shire's waste strategy to 2030: 34 per cent contamination in recycling at the 2021 audit, three quarters of council's emissions from landfill, and targets of 80 per cent diversion. Sixty-six actions covering FOGO, the recovery centres, compost subsidies and the closure of the Mitchell landfill.
Strathbogie Shire Council Tree Management Policy
The 2023 policy above Strathbogie's tree plan: no council tree removed without arborist approval, pruning to the Australian standard, and a five-year inspection cycle for the more than 15,000 trees council is responsible for.
Greening Euroa Project
The advocacy brochure for Greening Euroa, a $3.8 million scheme to upgrade the Euroa wastewater plant's output to Class B and pipe it to ovals, parks, schools and the Euroa Arboretum. Described as the first scheme of its kind in Victoria.
Strathbogie Shire Climate Change Action Plan
Strathbogie Shire's plan after its 2021 climate emergency declaration: net zero council operations by 2025 and about 53 actions. The natural environment chapter commits to roadside vegetation, street trees, soil carbon and a $25 per hectare rate incentive for covenanted land.
Strathbogie Shire Tree Management Plan: Urban and Rural Strategies
How Strathbogie Shire looks after its 15,000 trees in towns or on rural roads: the register, inspection regime, removal criteria, habitat trees, valuation. Green cover runs from 94 per cent at Strathbogie to 35 at Nagambie. Appendix 1 is the approved street tree list.
Greening Euroa: Stage 1 Report
A water security study for Euroa's parks, ovals, the Arboretum, after the 2019-20 drought left sporting grounds dry. It assesses nine sites, their irrigation demand, the options: recycled water, stormwater harvesting from the Gobur Street drain, groundwater.
Goulburn Valley Regional Litter and Illegal Dumping Plan
A four-year plan to cut litter and dumping across the six Goulburn Valley councils, where land managers spend over $1.1 million a year on clean-up. Fast food, cigarette butts on roadsides, household rubbish or asbestos in rivers, plus the taskforce proposed to deal with them.
Regional Waste and Resource Recovery Education Strategy 2019-2021: Southern Goulburn Valley
The joint waste education strategy of Mitchell, Murrindindi and Strathbogie councils, 2019 to 2021: composting workshops, school tours of recovery centres, the Back to Earth FOGO campaign. It compares the three councils' bin services.
Sustainable Strathbogie 2030: Strategy and Action Plan 2018-2022
Strathbogie's umbrella sustainability strategy to 2030 across six themes. The ecology chapter covers roadside conservation, with over 200,000 flora records from the 2017 assessment, riparian work on Seven Creeks, Castle Creek, Hughes Creek, threatened species such as Grey-crowned Babbler or Bush Stone-curlew.
Mitchell Shire Rural Roadside Environmental Management Plan 2016-2026
Mitchell Shire's plan for the native vegetation along 1,184 kilometres of rural road, where a survey rated 39 per cent of roadsides as high value. The appendices are the asset: about 200 named roads listed as wildlife corridors, 18 threatened plants and 44 threatened animals recorded on roadsides.
Beveridge Recreation Reserve Vegetation Management Plan 2011-16
A five-year plan for the 10 hectare Beveridge Recreation Reserve, four hectares of it remnant Volcanic Plain vegetation with a spring-fed wetland. Surveys found 49 indigenous and 69 exotic plants; the plan protects Growling Grass Frog and Latham's Snipe habitat and manages the reed beds by partial burning.
Kilmore Hospital Reservoir Reserve: Environs Management Plan 2011
The 2011 plan for the bushland around the old Kilmore Hospital Reservoir off Anderson Road, which stopped supplying the town in 1893. Forty-four native plants, 27 animals including Brush-tailed Phascogale, pines planted in 1895, the reserve's place in the Mount Piper bio-link.
Shire of Strathbogie Sustainable Land Use Strategy
The 2010 rural land use strategy for Strathbogie Shire, where about 230,000 hectares are farmed while native vegetation still covers almost 30 per cent. It records the landscape values of the Strathbogie Ranges, rural living pressure around Avenel, a proposed agribusiness precinct.
Sustainable Land Use Strategy, Appendix C: Rural Zones Map
A 1:300,000 map of the proposed rural zoning for Strathbogie Shire. The Rural Conservation Zone areas show where landscape and environmental values were judged to outweigh farming.
Sustainable Land Use Strategy, Appendix A: Supporting Maps
Fourteen A3 maps supporting Strathbogie's land use strategy. The useful ones for environmental purposes show ecological vegetation groups, bioregional conservation status and waterways relative to Euroa, Nagambie, Avenel, Longwood and Violet Town.
Empowering the Mitchell Community: Mitchell Community Energy Inc.
Mitchell Community Energy, the Seymour-based volunteer association funding renewable energy in the shire: 99 kilowatt solar on the Karingal hostel and the Seymour aquatic centre, a pumped hydro study at Trawool, a solar farm proposed for the old tip site. Membership is $20 a year.
Vegetable Planting Guide: A Resource for Growing Veggies in Mitchell Shire
A month-by-month planting calendar for about 50 vegetables in Mitchell Shire's frost-prone climate, arranged by plant family into eight bed rotations. Zucchini out after the frosts, tomatoes in pots until flowering.
The Best is Yet to Crumb: Combatting Bread Waste
Victorians throw out 125 million loaves a year and half of every loaf ends up in the bin. Storage advice (cool, dark and dry, not the fridge), what best-before dates mean, and uses for stale bread.
We Welcome Reusables (single-use plastics poster)
An A3 poster for cafes inviting customers to bring their own cups, containers or straws, with a QR code to Sustainability Victoria's tips. Print it, hang it.
Climate Emergency Declaration: Frequently Asked Questions and Key Informant Insights (draft)
Strathbogie Shire's answers to residents' questions after its April 2021 climate emergency declaration, plus interviews with regional figures from Farmers for Climate Action and the Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance on farm emissions, household energy and a forecast 20 per cent fall in water availability by 2030.
Open PDFOriginal at hdp-au-prod-app-strath-share-files.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com
Simple Rules for Storing Fruit and Veggies
Open Table's guide to storing fruit so it lasts: keep fruit away from vegetables because of ethylene, potatoes unwashed in the dark, carrots or celery in water, surplus fruit frozen.
Household Energy Action Guide: Ready to Cut Your Energy Costs?
Sustainability Victoria's checklist for cutting home energy use: heating (each degree above 20 adds about 10 per cent to the bill), cooling, insulation, hot water, lighting and standby power, with payback hints.
E-Waste Frequently Asked Questions
Victoria's ban on e-waste in landfill from July 2019, what counts as e-waste, and where Mitchell residents can drop it free at the Broadford and Wallan recovery centres. Repair options include the Seymour Repair Cafe.
How to Make Compost
Home composting from the start: siting the bin, layering browns with greens, turning every few weeks, keeping it as moist as a damp sponge, and knowing when it is ready.
I Want Chickens, But Know Nothing About Them
Backyard chickens for people who know nothing about them: breeds, how many to keep (at least three), when pullets start laying, feed, housing, and keeping foxes out by running wire 30 centimetres beyond the coop.
What to Feed Your Worms (worm farming guide)
Worm farming at home: choosing a three-tier farm, what to feed and how much, harvesting castings, diluting the liquid one to eight, and the do-not-add list. Worms survive about four weeks without feeding.
Renters Guide to Sustainable Living (2nd edition)
Renew's room-by-room guide for tenants who want a cheaper, more comfortable home without owning it, flagging which changes need written landlord permission. It includes a sample letter to a landlord and the Victorian programs open to renters.
Climate-Ready Victoria: Hume. How Climate Change Will Affect the Goulburn Broken and North East and How You Can Be Climate-Ready
The Victorian Government's eight page climate briefing for the Hume region: warming of 1 to 1.6 degrees since 1950, less autumn, winter or spring rain, fewer frosts, harsher fire seasons, a risk table for farming, infrastructure, the environment.
Dabyminga Landcare Incorporated: Rules of Association
The rules Dabyminga Landcare adopted at a special general meeting at the Tallarook Arboretum on 25 February 2025, a worked example of a local group's constitution built on the Victorian model rules. Purposes are protecting the Dabyminga Creek catchment, weed and feral animal control and revegetation.
Model Rules for an Incorporated Association
The 77 model rules a Victorian incorporated association can adopt as its constitution: membership, discipline and grievances, general meetings, the committee, finances. The starting point for any group's rules; Consumer Affairs Victoria publishes the current version.
Every document here was published by its owner for free public use. Mitchell Shire Council and Strathbogie Shire Council publications are reproduced with their permission. Victorian Government and catchment authority material is published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence or made available for public distribution, and each file carries its own copyright notice. The network holds a copy of each so the link keeps working after a council website is rearranged; the original is linked beside it where it still exists. Summaries are ours, written from the documents, not quotations from them.
Know of a guide, a species list or a reserve plan that belongs here? Send it to the facilitator at [email protected], or call 0409 515 630.