The Angair Committee of Management recently decided to allocate funds to the digitisation of the ground-breaking research done by Angair members into the regeneration of the area after the devastating 1983 Ash Wednesday fires.
Ironbark Basin quadrat 1984
Once the comprehensive data gathered in the survey are digitised, the areas can be revisited and reassessed to see the long-term effects on the district’s various plant communities after more than four decades. Six plant communities were surveyed: heath, heathy woodland, wetlands, sand dune, ironbark forest and fern gully.
While five scientific papers published the results of the research which ran over 10 years, the specific data was held on paper and so not easily accessible to later researchers. But, amazingly, some of the original quadrats have already been identified because their wooden markers are still standing straight. With digitisation, the work of scores of volunteer citizen scientists will produce a firm grounding for further research.
Sally White
