Late summer (late January to late March) is known as Kooyang – season of eels in the Brambuk seasonal cycle of the Gariwerd region. In our local area, this means:
Within the Greater Gariwerd area, Lake Bolac Eel Festival (March 27-29) is a fun and educational celebration of this unique season.
The following images have been captured in Black Range during Kooyang:
BRLMG is pleased to host two major events on 21 March 2026. Since places are limited, these are invitation-only events for members, other local landowners and friends of the group. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have not received an invitation and would like to join us as we may have extra places.
GAME MEAT PROCESSING WORKSHOP
Sat, 21 Mar, 9am - 3pm
Callawadda Free-Range Pet Food
Callawadda VIC, Australia
Learn how to process deer and rabbits from the field, and butcher their meat for private use.
Instructed by Aaron Hemley at Callawadda Meats (30mins drive north of Stawell)
Each participant will take home a side of deer as packaged venison that you’ve butchered.
FERAL GAME DINNER FOR BIODIVERSITY
Sat, 21 Mar, 5pm - 9pm
Grampians Estate
Great Western VIC, Australia
A community dinner celebrating how feral game animals from the field can make fabulous food for the table. Melbourne chef and restaurateur Adam Racina (Lapinta) will serve a sumptuous fixed menu 3-course meal of share plates highlighting a range of ways to prepare and enjoy venison and other feral game meats.
These events are partially funded by Agriculture Victoria's Partnership Against Pests program, which supports community-led initiatives to build strong partnerships, raise awareness, and deliver long-term, collaborative invasive species management.
The BRLMG is part of the Biolinks project which seeks to unite the conservation efforts of individual Landcare groups working in the Pyrenees and Grampians regions into a focused program to reconnect habitat on a landscape wide scale (see more information on the Project Platypus website). As part of our participation in this project the Biolinks team for the BRLMG (Michelle, Pru and Fernanda) will be reaching out to landholders to seek support for data collection for this very important initiative. Stay tuned and we hope to count on your support!
Interested in addressing weeds from a fresh perspective?
Maybe you share my fascination/frustration with weeds and why they appear in certain places... Perhaps you’re looking for new ways to approach plants you don’t want on your landholding? Or you’ve tried everything you can think of and still the weeds appear?
Clear your diary on the 5th and optionally also on the 6th of September to come along to our workshop and field exploration, ‘Reading the landscape: what are weeds telling us’, with Gwyn Jones, author of ‘Turning weeds into solutions: Read the weed’. Gwyn is a popular and provocative presenter at symposia and workshops. We’ll be drawing on his deep experience to meet our particular context and intentions here in the Black Range.
Gwyn will also host an introductory webinar in the evening on 28 May 2026.
More details to come!
To express interest or if you have any queries, please contact Tanya Coburn at [email protected] or 0422 019 970.
We’re grateful for funding from the Agriculture Victoria Partnership against Pests program to support this activity.
As the heat of summer continues, we encourage everyone to stay informed about fire conditions with the following apps:
Emergency water points can now be found on an interactive map. GWM Water has installed fire-fighting infrastructure on the constructed sections of the East Grampians Rural Pipeline Project, including two new water access points on Bunjils Cave Road due to open later in 2026. The mix of fire water tanks, fire hydrants and public access standpipes (that can also be used for firefighting) will improve the region’s firefighting resources. You can further explore the locations of these water access points via the project’s interactive map. You can also check out the latest EGRP project updates.
The Black Range Landholders WhatsApp is a great communication tool for members and other local landholders to share upcoming external events (eg hosted by Landcare Vic, Project Platypus, Australian Plant Society) as well as informal landholder-led activities. Please contact [email protected] to be added to this group.
