Friends of French Island National Park

11/06/2026

Parks Victoria - New Arrangement for Volunteers - 2026

Parks Victoria recently announced new arrangements for volunteers wanting to assist in the National Parks. Here are the relevent changes:

# Only volunteers legally deemed to require a Working with Children Check (WWCC) under the Worker Screening Act 2020 need one.
# Everyday volunteers will no longer be required to hold a ParkConnect account, unless requested to by their group.
# Duration of Volunteer Activity Plans (VAPs) will be extended from 1 year to as long as 3 years to allow for longer-term planning.
# A new dedicated Volunteer Resource Hub is now available on the Parks Victoria website with resources for group leaders, current volunteers, and people interested in volunteering for the first time.

This will mean it will now be easier to become a member of the Friends of French Island (FoFI)and volunteer on our various activities. As an everyday member of FoFI you will no longer have to register with Park Connect. And you will no longer have to provide a working with children’s check.

So if you interested in taking part in the Friends of French Island activities, contact me for a membership application form at: [email protected]

Helen Lucas - FoFI Secretary

04/06/2026

Australian Pied Oystercatcher
When FoFI members conduct shorebird surveys on French Island in conjunction with Parks Victoria and Birdlife Australia, there are several species of birds that we regularly see. One of these is the Australian Pied Oystercatcher. Pied Oystercatchers are plump, medium-sized shore-dwelling birds of the coast. They are basically black above and white below with bright red eyes and bills, pink legs and variable amount of white in the upper wings and back. The males have more robust bills than females, who have a longer more slender bill. Their name is a misnomer, as they mostly eat Surf Clams and Mollusc, rather than oysters. Their presence on beaches and mudflats can be discerned by the distinctive prints they leave, with three forward toes and no hind toe. Pied Oystercatchers make their nest in the sand above the high water mark on the beach. You may see a Pied Oystercatcher with a numbered tag on its leg. This is for research purposes to help organisations like Birdlife Australia to track the species.

I have a slightly longer article attached plus photos of Pied Oystercatchers.

Martin O’Brien

26/05/2026

Bendigo Community Bank Grant

The Friends of French Island (FoFI) have recently received a grant from the Bendigo Community Bank Balnarring & District. This grant has enabled FoFI to begin setting up our Archive online via cloud storage. FoFI has been going for over 40 years and a significant amount of historical data has been collected over these years. We intend to set up a library in the FoFI Archive. This will have information about the birds, animals and plants of French Island, bird surveys, habitat restoration, tree plantings, FoFI newsletters, historical documents and large numbers of photos and videos taken over the years. It will be a trove of information for current and future generations. It will be some time before it will be ready. Initially it will only be available for FoFI members. The grant from the Bendigo Community Bank Balnarring & District has enabled FoFI to take out a long term subscription with an online cloud storage service to set up the Archive. We are very grateful to the Bendigo Community Bank Balnarring & District for this grant.

Kath Shain - FoFI President

19/05/2026

FOFI Habitat Restoration Day - 16 May 2026

On Saturday, FOFI was involved in w**ding Agapantus at Gartsides on French Island. The island greeted us with a balmy and sunny late Autumn day. A 45 minute drive in three vehicles took our group of 8 across the island to a magically wild and secluded area deep in the National Park. Unfortunately clusters of South African Agapanthus had taken hold here. We were hard at work all day, aiming to but not quite succeeding in getting rid of all of these pesky w**ds. The call of a whistling tree frog was heard as we settled down for lunch. As we all got very excited about this, Sophie who was our fantastic park ranger for the day, decided to stop at a swampy place on the way back where Southern toadlets and Little Eastern froglets called. We also swung by the tip to dispose of two car loads full of Agaphantus. Then finally we could give our creaky bodies a well deserved rest.

With thanks to Sophie (Parks Victoria) and Christine for organising the day.

Irene Treadwell

07/05/2026

Bird Survey - 2 May 2026.
Mild conditions and strong northerly winds heralded a successful survey of the wader roost sites on French Island by FoFI members for the autumn Western Port Wader Count last Saturday. We split into two groups. One led by Des Palmer headed to off the Tortoise Head. The second group, led by Martin O’Brien went in two cars to Rams Island, then back along the west coast of French Island, stopping at a series of sites.

Team 1, on their way to Tortoise Head, saw a very distant adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle, two Whistling Kites, two Wedge-tailed Eagles, a lone Swamp Harrier, and White Ibis flying over in pairs. Approaching Tortoise Head resulted in a small flock of smaller waders, Red-necked Stints, several Red-capped Plovers and a few Double-banded Plovers, all juvenile birds. The spit on Tortoise Head revealed more smaller shorebirds, again mostly over wintering Red-necked Stints and a handful of once again Red-capped Plovers and juvenile Double- banded Plovers. Roosting on the rocks were the usual suspects, copious numbers of Little Pied, Pied and Little Black Cormorants, plenty of Pelicans, a surplus of Swans, gaggles of Silver and Pacific Gulls, two Caspian Terns, loads of Masked Lapwings, oodles of Oystercatchers of the Pied variety. During lunch they saw two Wedge-tailed Eagles effortlessly soaring on a stiff breeze. Returning to Tankerton there was a Wedge-tailed and Sea- Eagle flew in unison without any sign of an altercation, good omen of neighbours getting acquainted!

For Team 2, At Rams Island, the incoming tide was accompanied by observations of,
Little Pied Cormorants, Pied Oystercatchers, a pair of Cape Barren Geese, a single Silver Gull and a flock of small waders, probably Red-capped Plover and maybe a few Double-banded Plover (returning from NZ). Using the scope, a treat for Team 2 was observing a juvenile White-bellied Sea-Eagle on the distant Bird Rock with a fish in its claws.

The most common birds along the west coast on the day were mobs of bugling Black Swans. These were usually in the company of Chestnut Teal with their whistle-like contact notes, Masked Lapwings, White-faced Herons and few White Ibis. They managed to detect a small group of Red-capped Plover at Scotts Beach with two non-breeding plumage Double-banded Plover amongst them.

A highlight while packing up for the day at Scotts Beach was witnessing a large number of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos atop a line of old Pinus trees in from the west coast.

It was indeed a ‘rapturous day’ encountering Wedge-tailed Eagles at Tankerton then again during the day, as well as seeing a Black-shouldered Kite near Long Point, a number of Whistling Kites and a what appeared to be a Brown Falcon sitting on a distant Wedge-tailed Eagle nest.

A great had by all. With thanks to Martin and Des for leading the day and to Kath for organising the whole day.

24/04/2026

Last Saturday while we were clearing out Sweet Pittosporum on French Island, we came across a crab in the rocks near the beach at Blue Gums. We have been wondering what sort of crab it was? With the help of Martin O'Brien we think it is a Red-spotted Shore crab. Though you can't see the red spots when it is away from the salt water.
https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/species/8670

21/04/2026

29/03/2026

Saturday 21st March 2026

Botany Day

In order to give a big THANK YOU to the dedicated and hardworking FOFI volunteers who show up month in month out, Parks Victoria Rachael arranged a wonderful treat in the shape of a rewarding activity focused on the BOTANY of French Island.

Led by French Island ranger Mitch (author of “The Field Guide to the Native Flora of Millowl/ Phillip Island, our members, a full capacity crowd, were engrossed by his talk ( and information sheets) which described multi-faceted details of the unique French Island flora.

A google search will inform you that there are 580 species of native
flora on French Island but our resourceful Parks Victoria ranger Mitch has compiled a far more complex list of flora from a (very reliable) range of sources and has come up with the magic figure of 677 species.

After an insightful talk, followed by question time, we were all ready for a walk in the park to identify a wide range of species and habitat vegetation types, eloquently described by Mitch as we wandered along, plucking out the invasive Pittosporums as we went.

We enjoyed lunch, then gathered in a group hug to farewell ranger Rachael who is heading up north for a period of time.
Words of thanks were spoken in appreciation of all the work Rachael has done for FOFI and for the French Island National Park over the past 4 years-the list of her achievements is comprehensive and everyone will miss her dearly.
Rachael in turn thanked us all for our invaluable support and work within French Island National Park and bid us a poignant farewell.
FOFI now warmly welcomes Rachael as our newest member of FOFI…YAY!!

Very special thanks go to Mitch for all the preparatory work he invested in presenting us with a fascinating and insightful learning experience which has enhanced our appreciation of the incredible and subtle significance of our beloved French Island.

25/02/2026

21 February 2026

African Pigface w**ding…west coast.

Ten FOFI members supported by Parks Victoria Rachel, took on a new w**ding activity on a sunny and warm February Saturday, tackling a patch of the introduced African pigface (Carpobrotus edulis). A spreading succulent with a worldwide impact. This w**d has the potential to ‘hybridise out of existence’ our native Carpobrotus species(C. rossi) and there is concern amongst Australian botanists that it will be eventually be impossible to discern native species from hybrids.
Rachel advised our group about the w**d, our work site and how to dig these plants out safely.
Rachael showed us the rounded noon flower ( a native species) a succulent found in salt marsh habitat.

Our site provided lovely coastal views of Western Port at low tide and it was easy to access the w**dy area in the upper littoral zone.
The lovely melancholic call of an Eastern Yellow Robin could be heard as well as New Holland Honeyeaters chasing each other through the banksias, the contact call of a Brown Thornbill and the high notes of a Mistletoe bird and the buzzing call of a White-browed scrubwren added to the nature sounds around us.

By midday, food was on our minds so a lunch break beckoned.
We sighted a distant Eastern Curlew and additional shorebirds including 200 Black Swans appearing to be at a water soak above the high tide.
Masked Lapwing, White faced Heron, White Ibis and Pied Oystercatchers were also seen.
A Whistling Kite was spotted on the way back to Tankerton.

Thanks to everyone for a day of good companionship, hard work and enthusiasm.
Special thanks to Kay for organising the day and the transport and ranger Rachael for her support on the day.

Note: If you find the non native Carpobrotus edulis ( always has a yellow flower) report it to inaturalist. Reporting contributes to knowledge of the species.

08/02/2026

Saturday…Jan 31 2026

Our first activity for the year was the Western Port wader survey where FOFI members join together with Birdlife Australia to undertake the count of migratory waders and resident waders.
Groups of people count shorebirds on the same day in and around Western Port Bay. It is a vital resource for monitoring the numbers of waders in our region.
In the 50 years that the survey has been running the numbers have fallen quite sharply and reflects a worrying trend.
Imagine our surprise when we spotted a lone Great Knot at Stony Point.
Great Knots breed on the Siberian tundra and spend the non breeding period on our shores.
They are rarely seen in Victoria in recent years and have now been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red list.

Arriving at Tankerton we split into three teams to monitor the principal high tide wader roosts.

Reasonable numbers of Eastern Curlew were counted and one Whimbrel within the flock. Eastern Curlew are also listed as endangered and their
numbers have declined by 80 per cent over 30 years.
The most significant threat has been the destruction of the tidal mudflats in the Yellow Sea in China and Korea.
These are vital stop over feeding grounds in their 10.000 kms migration .
Small numbers of Red necked Stints and Greenshank were seen.

Large numbers of Black Swan and ChestnutTeal were counted and an immature White bellied Sea Eagle, Swamp Harrier, Whistling Kite and a Brown Falcon.

The teams came together at the end of the day to compare notes .
Thanks to team leaders, Bett , Des and Martin.
Ranger Sophie who supported the Duck Splash team and our scribes on the day, Andrée, Richard and Peter.