Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh visits Rushworth

By Grace Carter

Feb 15, 2024

Conservation efforts: Charlie Cerci, Denis Hardie, Peter Walsh and Graeme Wall visiting Rushworth Golf Club to see the results.

State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh visited Rushworth to look at conservation work being done by the Rushworth Field and Game Club.

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Rushworth Field and Game conservation officer Graeme Wall said Mr Walsh was keen to look at the hen house and nest box programs the club had implemented.

The Victorian Nationals leader first visited Rushworth Golf Club to look at the parrot nesting boxes, which had successfully provided a safe breeding site for eastern rosellas.

To the surprise of the field and game and golf club members, one of the boxes had become a breeding site for three young sugar gliders.

Denis Hardie and Slim Perry, representing the golf club during Mr Walsh’s visit, were more than pleased that in the golf off-season, native birds and the surprise sugar gliders could use the course as a safe breeding area.

Following Mr Walsh’s visit and their successful year in 2023, the two clubs are looking at building on their partnership by constructing more boxes.

Unexpected visitor: A sugar glider was spotted leaving a nesting box during Peter Walsh’s visit.

Mr Walsh also visited a local wetland to look at some of the hen houses and nest boxes the Field and Game Club have put up, providing an elevated nest area that foxes and feral cats can’t access.

Mr Walsh was impressed with the success, and the two inspected hen houses had clutches of eggs.

While looking at the nest sites, three brolgas flew into the wetland. Among them were two parents and one young brolga now capable of flying.

Diligent landowners, hunters and field and game members who conducted fox shoots in the area are credited with the breeding success in the wetland after working hard to decrease the fox population.

The Field and Game Club knows of four successful hatchings of brolgas in the local area this year, and the excellent result will further add to the local population.

Despite Mr Walsh’s Achilles surgery last year, he was keen to pull on a pair of waders and walk in to see the conservation work the Field and Game Club was doing.