After leaving the Teesdale Flora Reserve, Marija and I travelled northwest on the Rokewood-Shelford Road and soon reached the little town of Shelford.

We last travelled through Shelford in November 2022, on our way home after a visit to Tasmania.

Shelford is about 52 km south of Ballarat. It is located at the intersection of the Leigh River and the road from Geelong to Rokewood. In 1836, Golf Hill Station was established on the bank of the Leigh River. The majority of the local squatters in the area originated from Scotland. In 1843 the Settlers Arms Inn was built at this location by Captain Francis Ormond (b. 1827. d. 1889). It was affectionately known as Ormond’s Inn and was the first Inn on the trade route between Geelong and Hamilton. By the late 1840s, a Presbyterian school had opened.

Above:- Francis Ormond. Image c/o Wikipedia.

The Post Office opened on the 1st day of July 1847 and was known as The Leigh. In 1850 a Presbyterian church was established. In 1853 a Denominational School was opened. The name was then changed to Shelford in 1854. It is believed that the name comes from Shelford in England.

By the 1860s Shelford had become the district’s principal town. This prompted the establishment of the Shelford Road District in 1861, the predecessor of Leigh Shire. By 1864 Shelford had a mechanics institute and in 1865 a courthouse was established.

In 1859, the Mount Mercer Station was the scene of a murder. George Kennecke was charged with the shooting murder of George Crombie.

Above:- Part of an article from The Age, Thu 17 Nov 1859. Image c/o Trove.

We continued north on the Shelford-Mercer Road and soon reached Mount Mercer. It is named after pastoralist George Duncan Mercer (b. 1815. d. 1884) who established the Mount Mercer Run. 

The Mount Mercer Wind Farm is located in one of the windiest regions of Victoria. It comprises 64 wind turbines with a rated capacity of 2.05 MW and produces over 390,000 MWh of clean electricity per year. This is equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 73,000 average Victorian households.

The Mount Mercer is about 215 hectares in size and located on the eastern side of the Shelford-Mount Mercer Road and backs on to the Leigh River.

Above:- An aerial view of the Mount Mercer NCR. Image c/o Google maps.

In 1999 a strategic assessment was conducted by the Department of Sustainability and Environment to identify Victoria’s most threatened ecosystems. This particularly included native grasslands and grassy woodlands. The Mount Mercer grasslands were identified and purchased due to their size and good condition. It was originally known as McNaughtons Paddock. The purchase of the Mount Mercer grasslands was completed on the 6th day of September 2002. On the 24th day of September 2002, the land was transferred to the Crown and on the 20th day of October 2003 it was assigned to Parks Victoria for management.

Plains Grassland is the main Ecological Vegetation Class represented in the Mount Mercer Nature Conservation Reserve. Plains Grassland is considered endangered in the Victorian Volcanic Plains bioregion and patches of the size present in Mount Mercer NCR are very rare.

The grasslands container in Mount Mercer NCR also fall within the definition for the Western (Basalt) Plains Grassland Community, which is listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. This community of grassland was recently nominated for listing as a threatened ecological community under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 . It is estimated that only around 0.5% of the original extent of this community remains in the Victorian Volcanic Plain bioregion.

The park is home to the nationally significant Striped Legless Lizard. It is threatened with extinction, with few habitats left. The lizard is up to 30cm in length and is superficially similar to a snake. It is sometimes confused with the deadly Brown snake.

The park is also home to the Fat-Tailed Dunnart, a native mouse-like marsupial. It is from the same family that includes Quolls and the Tasmanian Devil.

This was a climb over-the-fence activation as there were no gates.

Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB before the UTC rollover:-

1. VK3PF
2. VK7JFD

Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB after the UTC rollover:-

1. VK5GY
2. VK1RF
3. VK3PF
4. VK5IS
5. VK7JFD
6. VK1AO
7. VK2MET
8. VK3ANL
9. VK5BJE
10. VK3APJ
11. VK5TN

Marija worked the following station on 20m SSB:-

1. VK2VAR/p (Bamarang Nature Reserve VKFF-2517)

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB before the UTC rollover:-

1. VK3PF
2. VK7JFD

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB after the UTC rollover:-

1. VK5GY
2. VK1RF
3. VK3PF
4. VK5IS
5. VK7JFD
6. VK1AO
7. VK2MET
8. VK3ANL
9. VK5BJE
10. VK3APJ
11. VK5TN

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK2IO
2. VK4FW
3. VK8MM
4. VK5IS
5. VK2VAR/p (Bamarang Nature Reserve VKFF-2517)

We struggled with band conditions and fell well short of the 44 QSOs required to qualify the park for the global World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program. But we did qualify the park for the VKKF Australian program.

References.

1. Mount Mercer Nature Conservation Reserve Management Statement, May 2005.
2. Victorian Places, 2023, <https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/shelford>, viewed 2nd May 2023.
3. West Wind Energy, 2023, <https://w-wind.com.au/mt-mercer-wind-farm/>, viewed 2nd May 2023.
4. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelford,_Victoria>, viewed 2nd May 2023.
5. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ormond>, viewed 2nd May 2023.
6. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ormond>, viewed 2nd May 2023.
7. Wikipedia, 2023, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striped_legless_lizard>, viewed 2nd May 2023.