57-661: The Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club ( CFNC ) is an Australian regional natural history society dedicated to the study, appreciation and conservation of the natural environment in the Castlemaine region of Victoria . Founded in 1976, the CFNC has played a pivotal role in promoting environmental awareness and scientific enquiry within the Castlemaine community. The club's purpose is to "encourage and support engagement with and appreciation of all aspects of natural history in
114-410: A branching inflorescence , each branch with groups of seven buds. The peduncle is flattened or angular and 10–18 mm (0.4–0.7 in) long, each flower on a cylindrical pedicel up to 5 mm (0.2 in) long. The buds are spindle-shaped to more or less cylindrical, 10–18 mm (0.4–0.7 in) long and 4–7 mm (0.2–0.3 in) wide with the operculum cone-shaped and about as long as
171-415: A guest speaker presenting on a natural history topic. Members and visitors are welcome to attend both the meetings and the club excursions, which are usually held the day after the monthly meetings. The club also organises vegetation and bird surveys, as well as weed control and roadside clean up days in the local region. In 2001, while on an observation excursion in the region, members of the CFNC identified
228-476: A naturalist, studies the world by observing plants and animals directly. Because organisms are functionally inseparable from the environment in which they live and because their structure and function cannot be adequately interpreted without knowing some of their evolutionary history, the study of natural history embraces the study of fossils as well as physiographic and other aspects of the physical environment". A common thread in many definitions of natural history
285-556: A part of science proper. In Victorian Scotland, the study of natural history was believed to contribute to good mental health. Particularly in Britain and the United States, this grew into specialist hobbies such as the study of birds , butterflies, seashells ( malacology / conchology ), beetles, and wildflowers; meanwhile, scientists tried to define a unified discipline of biology (though with only partial success, at least until
342-427: A vagrant population of tailed emperor butterflies ( Polyura sempronius ) , becoming the first to report the species within the Castlemaine area, as it is rarely found outside of its native habitat of north-eastern Australia. CFNC has previously conducted central Victorian cemetery surveys, which aimed to document the indigenous flora and provide an overall rating of the significance of the cemetery reserves. As of 2007,
399-712: Is 4 km along the Pyrenees Highway from Sawmill Road on McKenzies Hill to the Castlemaine Golf Club. For many years, CFNC has participated in controlling weeds in the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens. In the Nature Reserve, large patches of Cape Broom were removed to assist survival of the threatened Eltham copper butterfly which is found here, and the butterfly's host plant, sweet bursaria ( Bursaria spinosa ),
456-628: Is a component of the "WhiteBox Yellow Box Blakelys' Red Gum Woodland" commonly referred to as "Box-Gum Woodland" that is classed as "critically endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and as an "endangered ecological community" under the New South Wales Government Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 . The heavy and hard wood
513-639: Is a participant in BioBlitz wildlife survey events. Each year they host the annual 4-day Great Southern BioBlitz for the Castlemaine region. In 2023, 38 observers joined the CFNC-run event on iNaturalist . Together they contributed 2474 observations across 722 species. Four times each year, CFNC conducts roadside clean-ups as part of the Keep Australia Beautiful Adopt-a-Highway scheme. The club's adopted highway stretch
570-460: Is also echoed by H.W. Greene and J.B. Losos: "Natural history focuses on where organisms are and what they do in their environment, including interactions with other organisms. It encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do". Some definitions go further, focusing on direct observation of organisms in their environments, both past and present, such as this one by G.A. Bartholomew: "A student of natural history, or
627-601: Is currently hosted on the CFNC website and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. The CFNC also published and maintains an online plant identification and reference guide entitled Wild plants of the Castlemaine District , which is based on a guide produced by CFNC founding member, Ernest Perkins. CFNC has developed many brochures on the identification of plants of the local area as well as on local sites to visit, which are distributed on
SECTION 10
#1732790463677684-400: Is most often defined as a type of observation and a subject of study, it can also be defined as a body of knowledge, and as a craft or a practice, in which the emphasis is placed more on the observer than on the observed. Definitions from biologists often focus on the scientific study of individual organisms in their environment, as seen in this definition by Marston Bates: "Natural history is
741-442: Is not limited to it. It involves the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms, so while it dates from studies in the ancient Greco-Roman world and the mediaeval Arabic world , through to European Renaissance naturalists working in near isolation, today's natural history is a cross-discipline umbrella of many specialty sciences; e.g., geobiology has a strong multidisciplinary nature. The meaning of
798-477: Is smooth and white and is shed annually in short ribbons. The leaves on young plants are arranged alternately, egg-shaped to almost round, bluish grey, 90–150 mm (4–6 in) long, 60–115 mm (2–5 in) wide and have a petiole . Adult leaves are lance-shaped, dull greyish green and paler on one side, 100–160 mm (4–6 in) long and 17–30 mm (0.7–1 in) wide with a petiole 15–22 mm (0.6–0.9 in) long. The flower buds are arranged on
855-399: Is the inclusion of a descriptive component, as seen in a recent definition by H.W. Greene: "Descriptive ecology and ethology". Several authors have argued for a more expansive view of natural history, including S. Herman, who defines the field as "the scientific study of plants and animals in their natural environments. It is concerned with levels of organization from the individual organism to
912-543: The "Macquarrie river" . In 2009, Anthony Bean selected the material collected by Charles Stuart in the New England district of New South Wales as the lectotype . This eucalypt is related to grey box ( E. moluccana ) and inland grey box ( E. microcarpa ). Hybridization with grey box has been reported in the Hunter Valley . The specific epithet ( albens ) is a Latin word meaning "whitening". Both
969-550: The American Society of Naturalists and Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists . Professional societies have recognized the importance of natural history and have initiated new sections in their journals specifically for natural history observations to support the discipline. These include "Natural History Field Notes" of Biotropica , "The Scientific Naturalist" of Ecology , "From the Field" of Waterbirds , and
1026-588: The Flinders Ranges and near Melrose South Australia . It is associated with inland grey box, fuzzy box ( E. conica ), yellow box ( E. melliodora ), Pilliga grey box ( E. pilligaensis ), red ironbark ( E. sideroxylon ), narrow-leaved ironbark ( E. crebra ), Blakely's red gum ( E. blakelyi ), apple species ( Angophora ), black cypress ( Callitris endlicheri ), white cypress ( Callitris glaucophylla ), kurrajong ( Brachychiton populneus ) and wattles ( Acacia ) species. Eucalyptus albens
1083-616: The Mount Alexander Region (2016) and managed the club's Photopoint Monitoring Project, personally taking photos of key conservation sites over the course of 40 years. Over his 50 years of support for the club, Perkins undertook decades-long population surveys of numerous local fauna, including studying swift parrots ( Lathamus discolour ) and regent honeyeaters ( Xanthamyza phrygia ) for the New Atlas of Australian Birds . Perkins also coordinated conservation projects for
1140-486: The Natural History Society of Northumbria founded in 1829, London Natural History Society (1858), Birmingham Natural History Society (1859), British Entomological and Natural History Society founded in 1872, Glasgow Natural History Society, Manchester Microscopical and Natural History Society established in 1880, Whitby Naturalists' Club founded in 1913, Scarborough Field Naturalists' Society and
1197-531: The Renaissance , making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history books. From the ancient Greeks until the work of Carl Linnaeus and other 18th-century naturalists, a major concept of natural history was the scala naturae or Great Chain of Being , an arrangement of minerals, vegetables, more primitive forms of animals, and more complex life forms on a linear scale of supposedly increasing perfection, culminating in our species. Natural history
SECTION 20
#17327904636771254-581: The biological and geological sciences. The two were strongly associated. During the heyday of the gentleman scientists , many people contributed to both fields, and early papers in both were commonly read at professional science society meetings such as the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences —both founded during the 17th century. Natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus' aspiration to improve
1311-493: The floral cup . The flowers are white and appear in the autumn from March to May. The fruit are urn-shaped to barrel-shaped, 6–14 mm (0.2–0.6 in) long and 5–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) wide. Eucalyptus albens was first formally described in 1867 George Bentham in Flora Australiensis , from material collected in several locations, including by botanist and explorer , Allan Cunningham , along
1368-497: The humanities (primarily what is now known as classics ) and divinity , with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. The study of nature revived in the Renaissance , and quickly became a third branch of academic knowledge, itself divided into descriptive natural history and natural philosophy , the analytical study of nature. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry , while natural history included
1425-642: The modern evolutionary synthesis ). Still, the traditions of natural history continue to play a part in the study of biology, especially ecology (the study of natural systems involving living organisms and the inorganic components of the Earth's biosphere that support them), ethology (the scientific study of animal behavior), and evolutionary biology (the study of the relationships between life forms over very long periods of time), and re-emerges today as integrative organismal biology. Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building
1482-480: The white box , is a common tree of the western slopes and plains of New South Wales and adjacent areas in Queensland and Victoria . It has rough, fibrous bark on the base of its trunk and smooth, white bark above. The leaves are lance-shaped and groups of seven spindle-shaped flower buds are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of the branches. White flowers are mostly present between August and February and
1539-592: The "Natural History Miscellany section" of the American Naturalist . Natural history observations have contributed to scientific questioning and theory formation. In recent times such observations contribute to how conservation priorities are determined. Mental health benefits can ensue, as well, from regular and active observation of chosen components of nature, and these reach beyond the benefits derived from passively walking through natural areas. Eucalyptus albens Eucalyptus albens , known as
1596-562: The CFNC, was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2000 for his conservation and natural history work as a part of the CFNC in the Castlemaine region. In 2008, Perkins also received the Australian Natural History Medallion for his work in the research and recording of the native flora and fauna of Victoria. Perkins led many of the CNFC's conservation efforts in the region, including co-authoring Eucalypts of
1653-569: The Castlemaine Secondary College for Field Naturalist Awards to encourage and reward year 11 and 12 students for their interest in environmental activities. The club also provides flora and fauna identification and advice for the local public and government bodies. The CFNC was founded in 1976, after local historian Raymond Bradfield called a public meeting in February of that year to garner interest. Bradfield's proposal
1710-742: The Diggings National Heritage Park, Castlemaine Botanic Gardens and City of Castlemaine . Perkins' sister, Pat Joan Murphy, was a key member of the Field Naturalists' Club of Ballarat and renowned contributor to the National Herbarium of Victoria , donating 1138 specimens. The two undertook field trips together and facilitated joint excursions between their respective clubs, during which many of Murphy's key specimens were found. Before his death in 2016, Perkins held much of Murphy's private collection that
1767-819: The English term "natural history" (a calque of the Latin historia naturalis ) has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also History below). In antiquity , "natural history" covered essentially anything connected with nature , or used materials drawn from nature, such as Pliny the Elder 's encyclopedia of this title , published c. 77 to 79 AD , which covers astronomy , geography , humans and their technology , medicine , and superstition , as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two main divisions:
Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
1824-670: The Natural History Institute (Prescott, Arizona): Natural history – a practice of intentional focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy – is the oldest continuous human endeavor. In the evolutionary past of our species, the practice of natural history was essential for our survival, imparting critical information on habits and chronologies of plants and animals that we could eat or that could eat us. Natural history continues to be critical to human survival and thriving. It contributes to our fundamental understanding of how
1881-556: The Sorby Natural History Society, Sheffield , founded in 1918. The growth of natural history societies was also spurred due to the growth of British colonies in tropical regions with numerous new species to be discovered. Many civil servants took an interest in their new surroundings, sending specimens back to museums in the Britain . (See also: Indian natural history ) Societies in other countries include
1938-493: The club had undertaken surveys of 166 cemeteries, identifying and recording pockets of threatened and endangered native flora and fauna, including matted flax-lily ( Dianella amoena ), late-flower dlax-lily ( Dianella tarda ), arching flax-lily ( Dianella sp. aff. longifolia Benambra ), northern golden moths ( Diuris protena ), buloke mistletoe ( Amyema linophylla ssp. orientale ), golden cowslips ( Diuris behrii ) and oval-leaf pseudanthus ( Pseudanthus ovalifolius ). The CFNC
1995-549: The club's website and the Castlemaine Visitor Information Centre. Natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms , including animals , fungi , and plants , in their natural environment , leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is called a naturalist or natural historian . Natural history encompasses scientific research but
2052-403: The diversity of the natural world. Natural history was understood by Pliny the Elder to cover anything that could be found in the world, including living things, geology, astronomy, technology, art, and humanity. De Materia Medica was written between 50 and 70 AD by Pedanius Dioscorides , a Roman physician of Greek origin. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted in
2109-498: The economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits. Modern definitions of natural history come from a variety of fields and sources, and many of the modern definitions emphasize a particular aspect of the field, creating a plurality of definitions with a number of common themes among them. For example, while natural history
2166-410: The ecosystem, and stresses identification, life history, distribution, abundance, and inter-relationships. It often and appropriately includes an esthetic component", and T. Fleischner, who defines the field even more broadly, as "A practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy". These definitions explicitly include the arts in
2223-710: The emergence of professional biological disciplines and research programs. Particularly in the 19th century, scientists began to use their natural history collections as teaching tools for advanced students and the basis for their own morphological research. The term "natural history" alone, or sometimes together with archaeology, forms the name of many national, regional, and local natural history societies that maintain records for animals (including birds (ornithology), insects ( entomology ) and mammals (mammalogy)), fungi ( mycology ), plants (botany), and other organisms. They may also have geological and microscopical sections. Examples of these societies in Britain include
2280-596: The environmentally diverse and fascinating Mount Alexander region". CFNC is a foundation member of the South East Australian Naturalists Association and is an affiliate of the Australian Naturalists Network. The club emblem is the nodding greenhood orchid ( Pterostylis nutans ). CFNC holds monthly meetings from February to December on the second Friday of the month. Meetings usually include
2337-507: The epithet and common names are derived from the white deposits over the leaves and gumnuts, while the epithet "box" comes from the box-like tessellated pattern in the bark. The Wiradjuri people of New South Wales use the name birri for the species. The white box is a tree of grassy eucalypt woodlands on plains or gently sloping areas from south-east Queensland to the western slopes of New South Wales and north-eastern Victoria extending as far south as Yea . Isolated populations occur in
Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
2394-411: The field of botany, be it as authors, collectors, or illustrators. In modern Europe, professional disciplines such as botany, geology, mycology , palaeontology , physiology , and zoology were formed. Natural history , formerly the main subject taught by college science professors, was increasingly scorned by scientists of a more specialized manner and relegated to an "amateur" activity, rather than
2451-638: The field of natural history, and are aligned with the broad definition outlined by B. Lopez, who defines the field as the "Patient interrogation of a landscape" while referring to the natural history knowledge of the Eskimo ( Inuit ). A slightly different framework for natural history, covering a similar range of themes, is also implied in the scope of work encompassed by many leading natural history museums , which often include elements of anthropology, geology, paleontology, and astronomy along with botany and zoology, or include both cultural and natural components of
2508-419: The fruit are barrel-shaped to urn-shaped. Eucalyptus albens is a tree that grows to a height of 15–25 metres (49–82 ft) high with a straight trunk for about half its total height and a branched, spreading crown. Its trunk may reach 0.5 metres (1 ft 8 in) diameter at breast height and has rough, fibrous, pale grey, sometimes tessellated bark to the base of its larger branches. The bark higher up
2565-546: The study of animals and Plants—of organisms. ... I like to think, then, of natural history as the study of life at the level of the individual—of what plants and animals do, how they react to each other and their environment, how they are organized into larger groupings like populations and communities" and this more recent definition by D.S. Wilcove and T. Eisner: "The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior, and their relationships with other species". This focus on organisms in their environment
2622-524: The system of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus . The British historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham calls Li Shizhen "the 'uncrowned king' of Chinese naturalists", and his Bencao gangmu "undoubtedly the greatest scientific achievement of the Ming". His works translated to many languages direct or influence many scholars and researchers. A significant contribution to English natural history
2679-475: The world works by providing the empirical foundation of natural sciences, and it contributes directly and indirectly to human emotional and physical health, thereby fostering healthier human communities. It also serves as the basis for all conservation efforts, with natural history both informing the science and inspiring the values that drive these. As a precursor to Western science , natural history began with Aristotle and other ancient philosophers who analyzed
2736-687: The world's large natural history collections, such as the Natural History Museum, London , and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Three of the greatest English naturalists of the 19th century, Henry Walter Bates , Charles Darwin , and Alfred Russel Wallace —who knew each other—each made natural history travels that took years, collected thousands of specimens, many of them new to science, and by their writings both advanced knowledge of "remote" parts of
2793-564: The world. The plurality of definitions for this field has been recognized as both a weakness and a strength, and a range of definitions has recently been offered by practitioners in a recent collection of views on natural history. Prior to the advent of Western science humans were engaged and highly competent in indigenous ways of understanding the more-than-human world that are now referred to as traditional ecological knowledge . 21st century definitions of natural history are inclusive of this understanding, such as this by Thomas Fleischner of
2850-799: The world—the Amazon basin , the Galápagos Islands , and the Indonesian Archipelago , among others—and in so doing helped to transform biology from a descriptive to a theory-based science. The understanding of "Nature" as "an organism and not as a mechanism" can be traced to the writings of Alexander von Humboldt (Prussia, 1769–1859). Humboldt's copious writings and research were seminal influences for Charles Darwin, Simón Bolívar , Henry David Thoreau , Ernst Haeckel , and John Muir . Natural history museums , which evolved from cabinets of curiosities , played an important role in
2907-801: Was basically static through the Middle Ages in Europe—although in the Arabic and Oriental world, it proceeded at a much brisker pace. From the 13th century, the work of Aristotle was adapted rather rigidly into Christian philosophy , particularly by Thomas Aquinas , forming the basis for natural theology . During the Renaissance, scholars (herbalists and humanists, particularly) returned to direct observation of plants and animals for natural history, and many began to accumulate large collections of exotic specimens and unusual monsters . Leonhart Fuchs
SECTION 50
#17327904636772964-402: Was made by parson-naturalists such as Gilbert White , William Kirby , John George Wood , and John Ray , who wrote about plants, animals, and other aspects of nature. Many of these men wrote about nature to make the natural theology argument for the existence or goodness of God. Since early modern times, however, a great number of women made contributions to natural history, particularly in
3021-651: Was not donated to the National Herbarium, including specimens of the rare Thelymitra flexuosa orchid, which Murphy had found in the Ballarat area. The CFNC publishes a monthly newsletter, the Castlemaine Naturalist , from February to December. The newsletter, which was first published in April 1976, contains natural history articles, as well as details of upcoming events and activities and
3078-405: Was one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock . Other important contributors to the field were Valerius Cordus , Konrad Gesner ( Historiae animalium ), Frederik Ruysch , and Gaspard Bauhin . The rapid increase in the number of known organisms prompted many attempts at classifying and organizing species into taxonomic groups , culminating in
3135-799: Was planted in the southern portion of Castlemaine's Kaweka Reserve, near Hall Street by Bradfield, to commemorate both the 10th anniversary of the Castlemaine Field Naturalist Club and the 25th anniversary of the Western Victoria Field Naturalists Clubs Association. In 1982, Bradfield was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the Castlemaine Community. Ern Perkins, a founding member of
3192-455: Was planted. The butterfly, native to Victoria and originally thought extinct in the mid-20th century, has now seen a resurgence in numbers, directly due to the efforts of field naturalist clubs, such as the CFNC. Club members have also joined other volunteers led by member Margaret Panter to remove invasive needle grass species from the lower section of the Reserve. CFNC provides funding to
3249-572: Was well supported and he was elected the club's first president. By 1977 the club had developed close working relationships with other field naturalist groups in the state, inviting Jack Wheeler, then president of the Geelong Field Naturalists Club, to their club meeting for a presentation and excursion to the Kaweka Nature Reserve in Castlemaine. On 21 November 1985, a white box tree ( Eucalyptus albens )
#676323