Science & Nature

Happy National Eucalypt Day to the Grey Ironbark and other outstanding habitat trees

Last Sunday 23rd of March was National Eucalypt Day. There are events being held throughout March, right around Australia, to celebrate this absolutely iconic Australian group of plants. There are over 800 species of Eucalyptus, most of them only...

Emma Rooksby

March 2025

Science & Nature

Dear sea anemone, why are you so hard to pronounce? Also, why do you look like an anus?

I found out this week that I’ve been mispronouncing the name of one of my favourite marine creatures for my entire life. Comically, my husband, who is a high school teacher, corrected me after he himself was corrected by his 14-year-old student in...

Andy Lawrence

March 2025

Science & Nature

Beetling About: Try replicating Darwin’s experiments

I’ve just finished reading Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle (1839) and The Origin of species by means of natural selection (1859). Darwin was a man with an interest in explaining the world around him, collecting and studying anything and...

Chris Reid

March 2025

Science & Nature

Flipping fantastic: How ORRCA helps save our seals

When a human raises a hand in the waves, it’s a signal for help. When a seal raises a flipper, it’s usually cooling down, but many people assume it’s in distress and ring ORRCA, as the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in...

Genevieve Swart

March 2025

News

Meet Jan Arone, winner of the Dunecare Golden Trowel at Puckeys Bushcare

Most mornings, Jan Arone walks from Fairy Meadow Beach to the lighthouse, stopping for a coffee before heading back – a 6km round trip that keeps the energetic 85-year-old moving. But Thursdays are different. That’s when she leads the Bushcare...

Tareyn Varley

March 2025

Science & Nature

Native Tussock Grass: a biodiversity bonanza

Illawarra is a real biodiversity hotspot, with many thousands of native species calling this place home. What a privilege to live among them! We live in a local government area with over 2,000 native plant species, hundreds of native mammals, and...

Emma Rooksby

March 2025

Science & Nature

Helensburgh Glowworm Tunnel: should we be gatekeeping the gate?

I tend to err on the side of the dramatic when it comes to wildlife experiences, but some really do deserve the squeals that they induce; cicadas moulting out of their hard exoskeleton, fireflies floating by, their clear bright light signalling for...

Amanda De George

March 2025

Science & Nature

The Grey Nurse Arc: Mystery of missing sharks

The sharks of Bushrangers Bay have returned as mysteriously as they disappeared! Phebe Fidge reports Beneath the swirling waters of Bushrangers Bay, rich kelp reefs bustle with fish and urchins. Purple sea squirts protrude like alien fingers from...

Phebe Fidge

March 2025

Science & Nature

Bird of the Month: Azure Kingfisher

March’s bird of the month is the Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea)

Ewan Auld

March 2025

Science & Nature

Turtle-y awesome sighting of two endangered leatherback turtles off Port Kembla

Drones have really changed nature photography. Well, they have for some. I find it hard enough to keep the things in the air, let alone finding sea creatures in an enormous expanse of water, all the while dealing with battery warnings and the...

Amanda De George

March 2025

Science & Nature

New program calls for Guardians of the Grassy Woodlands

Right across the Illawarra, in urban parks and reserves, bushland patches and even in gardens and on verges, endangered species and ecological communities live among us. Our urban and peri-urban spaces are habitat for the Koala, first recorded by...

Emma Rooksby

March 2025

Science & Nature

The mulberry whelk: a berry cute sea snail with a tangled taxonomic history

Today, I’m bringing you an unassuming, juicy little sea snail that is very common on the rock shelves and pools of the Illawarra coastline. The mulberry whelk, Tenguella marginalba. This little whelk is appropriately named for the shell’s black...

Andy Lawrence

March 2025

Science & Nature

A majestic rainforest tree lurking in forests near you

This week’s entry goes back to the plants themselves, this time an unloved and unlucky vine that usually gets very bad press. The Silkpod Vine (Parsonsia straminea)

Emma Rooksby

March 2025

Science & Nature

WIRES advice: How to help wildlife in wild weather

“I’ve always loved wildlife and animals, and I got curious about how to have a more active role in helping,” says Alyce, who joined Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) six years ago.

Tyneesha Williams

March 2025

Science & Nature

Commelina confusion

The beautiful blue flowers of Commelina (Commelina cyanea), also known as Scurvy Weed, are appearing around the region in large numbers at the moment. There isn’t that much blue in the plant world, relative to other colours, so it’s always pleasant...

Emma Rooksby

February 2025

Science & Nature

Restoring Sharkey’s Beach through Bushcare

When I chat to Mark Fetterplace about his Coledale Bushcare group, I get to the most important question right off the bat: is it Sharkys, Sharkies or Sharkey’s Beach? If you’ve been in any community Facebook groups, you’ll understand why I...

Amanda De George

February 2025

Science & Nature

My delightful discovery of a local little-legged lizard: the three-toed skink

Last week, I came across a special little critter in my garden in Berkeley. I was digging a new garden bed for native plants along my back fence. The fence happens to share its boundary with a reserve, meaning we do come across interesting creatures...

Andy Lawrence

February 2025

Science & Nature

Beetling About with interesting station finds

This month some interesting ‘roadkill’ from the platform at Helensburgh railway station. On the left is a Serrodes campana moth, in the family Erebidae. I saw several of these on the platform after Christmas, but forgot to photograph the good...

Chris Reid

February 2025

Science & Nature

Backyard Zoology: Towradgi beach gets the seal of approval

Were you lucky enough to see the seal hauled out at Towradgi beach last week? A haul-out is when a seal temporarily leaves the water to rest or recuperate. If you’ve seen the seals down at the break wall in Narooma launching themselves out of the...

Amanda De George

February 2025

Science & Nature

Introducing Blackthorn and its butterfly friends

This is another article that didn’t start with a plant, but instead with an insect! Last week we had the adventure of the non-Stink Bugs on an Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius), and this week it’s the surprise appearance of a butterfly...

Emma Rooksby

February 2025

Science & Nature

Backyard Zoology: A bandicoot in the hand is worth two in the bush

There’s no way around it, when we live with nature, we affect nature and it affects us. It’s in the front of my mind when trimming back plants around our yard. Tiny crab spiders launch themselves on silken ropes, and plant hoppers leap skyward...

Amanda De George

February 2025

Science & Nature

The strange case of the stink bug that wasn’t

Social media is lighting up in 2025 with images of all kinds of insect: native bees, bugs, beetles, flies, wasps and many more. Invertebrate biodiversity really seems to be having a moment. I normally use this column to write about plants, but am...

Emma Rooksby

February 2025