Victorian Landcare Magazine - Winter 2024, Issue 87
Not many people can lay claim to having encouraged a baby boom in the wild, but Tavish Bloom’s name was added to that list last year. The 13-year-old, who lives next to the Post Office Hill Reserve at Chewton, has been part of a project installing and monitoring 28 nest boxes in the Central Victorian reserve.
Among their successes are a female brush-tailed phascogale using one of the boxes to successfully raise eight joeys last summer. Nest boxes are important for providing refuge for the threatened species in the absence of its usual habitat: hollows in large trees.
Tavish said the shy, nocturnal rat-sized marsupials were his favourite local animal, “because I have them in the bush behind my house and I enjoy watching them go about their lives.”
Even as a young child, he spent countless hours investigating, observing and recording flora and fauna in the reserve and two years ago joined the Post Office Hill Action Group (POHAG), that cares for it. Stripped of natural vegetation during the 1850s gold rush, when thousands of fortune hunters flocked to the diggings, the 22.6 hectare reserve on the lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung People was later used as a rubbish dump.
POHAG members, including Tavish, have cleared the site of waste and weeds, and planted local species of shrubs and trees to encourage biodiversity in the landscape. Tavish visits the reserve each day, has created comprehensive species lists, and records observations to iNaturalist and eBird. This valuable data, which feeds into the Atlas of Living Australia and can be used by scientists world-wide, is evidence of the effectiveness of the restoration works.
Tavish has also been involved with community conservation groups, such as BirdLife Castlemaine and Connecting Country’s Woodland Bird Monitoring Project, sharing his skills at identifying birds and mammals by guiding bird walks for up to 50 people at Post Office Hill Reserve and taking part in bird surveys.
Above: Tavish Bloom has been part of a project installing and monitoring 28 nesting boxes at Post Office Hill Reserve, Chewton.
Naturally reserved, Tavish has set aside his nerves to share his knowledge and dedication to nature with people of all ages.
“I have been interested in wildlife and the environment for pretty much my whole life, but I started getting really interested when I was 10,” he said.
“I find them interesting because there are so many different species – their behaviours, habitats, colours – and because they’re awesome. I think kids with an interest in the environment should not hesitate to get out there in the bush and join their local Landcare group, so we can act and help the world.”
Tavish has initiated nature conservation programs at his school, Castlemaine Steiner School, where he co-founded the Eco Club and has been involved in projects to develop the wetland, nest boxes and bird hides. Last year the school was awarded School of the Year in the Campus Infrastructure and Operations category of the Victorian Resource Smart School Awards. Tavish’s extensive records documenting the many species that had returned to restored bushland and wetland areas of the school provided essential evidence for the award, which recognised the sustainably designed grounds had become a sanctuary for many plants and animals.
He’s also inspiring other students to take direct on-ground action, in a Junior Landcare-style group, to learn about, protect and restore their local environment. As well as building and installing nest boxes, Tavish is sharing his skills at setting up and using trail cameras activated by motion sensors which the group is using to film the behaviour of wildlife in the school’s bush and wetland areas.
So far, they have captured footage of a nesting Krefft’s glider, often mistaken for a squirrel glider, and hope to record the migratory Latham’s snipe which has been observed visiting the wetlands.
Tavish’s own videos of wild birds and animals at Post Office Hill Reserve and elsewhere have been published at his YouTube channel, Pardalotus Films, named for the family of tiny, brightly coloured native birds, also known as pardalotes or peep wrens.
The videos, which include familiar animals such as the eastern grey kangaroo, wombat and brown snake, as well as his beloved brush-tailed phascogales, have racked up more than 3600 views since the first was shared in 2022.
There’s also footage of introduced animals such as rabbits, foxes and cats, which destroy natural habitat and prey on many ground-dwelling birds and small animals. The devastation wrought by feral cats – which can kill more than four million animals a day and are held responsible for the extinction of 27 native animals – is one of the environmental problems that Tavish would like to see solved in his lifetime.
Tavish’s dedication to numerous projects at school and in the community demonstrates his great love for nature and a desire to raise awareness, invoke the same sense of wonder in others and encourage care for Australia’s wildlife, so they can also be enjoyed by future generations.
A Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant supported St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Werribee to build a vegetable patch and kitchen garden at the school not long after it opened in 2021.
Each level in the school participates in a one-hour kitchen garden lesson each week. Students learn about weeding, watering, planting, harvesting, seed saving, making garden art from recycled materials, planting habitat for local insects, birds and animals, raising seedlings, composting and making pots from recycled paper.
Above: Junior Landcare Ambassador Costa Georgiadis paid a special visit to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Werribee to celebrate their win in the Love Letters to the Land competition. The school submitted hundreds of letters with each student sharing heartfelt sentiments about their feelings for the land and how they care for it.
The kitchen garden, which includes a yarning circle, bush tucker and native plant sensory garden, straw bale garden, picnic table and frog bog, is always open for students to use as an interactive play space during break times. The school is on Wadawurrung Country and Kulin Nation seasons, stories, and plants are woven through kitchen garden lessons. Students are also encouraged to grow their favourite vegetables, herbs and fruits and share traditional family recipes.
St Joseph’s students participate in Clean Up Australia Day, National Pollinator Week, National Water Week, The Wonder Recycling Program and National Tree Day. This year students will also embark on individual passion projects in the garden. These include scaling up the composting area, increasing habitat for endangered local wildlife, more fruit trees, hydroponics and, hopefully, chickens!