Environment News: August 2025

Week One August 2025 (July 28 - August 3)

 

Killing of Ruskin Rowe Heritage Listed Tree 'authoritarian'

Pittwater residents have called the way the council has killed a tree community members stood vigil around a year ago authoritarian and lacking transparency. 

Residents of the street were informed in a letter dated July 23, two days out from Tree Day 2025, that the tree, a flooded gum, was judged to be one that was at risk of failure and dropping branches.

The tree in the cul-de-sac had been an exclusion zone since in early December- i.e completely fenced off. One of the tree lopper's ground crew made a pile of all the branches that had fallen in that exclusion zone since December and through several major wind and storm events since then.

This is the pile...:

photo supplied

Months after the Northern Beaches Council announced it had commissioned another independent arborist report on the condition of the two E.Grandis (Flooded gum), the outcome of that report arrived in the same manner that began this saga in May of last year;  a last-minute letter to residents.

The council decided, based on this report, to remove T2 (outside of 29 Ruskin Rowe) and retain T1 (in the centre of the cul-de-sac). The removal was slated for this week, although residents weren't informed on which day this would occur. 

The letter advised the tree would be replaced by 'an advanced locally indigenous species, Angophora costata' (Sydney Red gum).

The Angophora costata has a wide root system; based on a mature size specimen with a trunk diameter between 40cm to 50cm, a tree would require approximately 28m3 to 34m3.

Canopy Keepers requested a copy of the report before the scheduled removal, and awaited confirmation that this will occur. 

''We think this a reasonable request in the interest of transparency.''  the Pittwater founded community organisation stated

''We question the length of time it has taken for council to make public the findings of a report that they’ve had since February.

''We also worry that the proposed management strategy for T1 (e.g. “reducing significant load-bearing branches over the road"- which we are concerned will be live limbs) will, contrary to its intended purpose of safety, instead produce a higher risk of branch failure by impacting the overall condition of the tree, creating asymmetry in the canopy – thus potentially destabilising it, and reducing its naturally developed mechanical ability to withstand weather events.''

''One fact that has never been in question is that both trees are in an incredibly quiet location with no static targets within +50m. The chances of a branch falling on a moving target is extremely low, and outside of major wind events even lower. Removing one tree and potentially harming the other still seems excessive in light of this.''

''Canopy Keepers is following up with Council on a number of issues to do with questioning any live trimming and the planned replanting of an appropriate size and species.'' the group said on July 28

Exactly 7 days later, July 30, the trucks rolled into Ruskin Rowe again to cut down T2 and prune T1.

The street was closed in its entirety, and police tried to move Canopy Keepers members, who were peacefully observing, and other residents on

photo supplied

Canopy Keepers said:

''We've watched a sapling in the work zone, over 5 metres tall and not scheduled in the scope of works, being cut down. So someone needs to be here to hold them to account.

The contractor's vehicles are unmarked, the crew aren't wearing branded shirts and the company's name has been gaffer taped over on a service vehicle. It all feels covert and wrong.''

''Questions still remain unanswered regarding the heritage status of these trees. Ruskin Rowe is a heritage conservation area.

''We have been advised that the overlay includes street trees, which would mean that the council needed to make an application to remove them. We've asked to see this approval but have been met with silence.''

Another resident stated:

" We first asked the question in March of this year and several times since. Why is it so hard to get answers? Reading Pittwater LEP2014 relating to Heritage Conservation Areas, the objective is 'to conserve the environmental heritage of Pittwater' - well that’s definitely not what’s happening here, now as the chainsaws howl."

Another observed a pair of Kookaburras looked on the entire time, unsettled, darting in and out of the trees and down onto the felled limbs. Kookaburras are territorial. These trees are. or were, their home.

The main trunk was taken away, as the other two trees already killed had been, in one section - video recording showing it looked as sound as a bell - or living tree.

screenshot from CK video of the Ruskin Rowe gum tree trunk

branches woodchipped and left - photo supplied

Eucalyptus grandis, also known as flooded gum or rose gum, is known as a source of nectar and pollen for bees, and a food source for koalas - which used to traverse this part of Avalon before being made locally extinct due to the removal of their food trees. The wood of Eucalyptus grandis is used for various purposes, including construction and furniture making.

Eucalyptus grandis, found on coastal areas and sub-coastal ranges from Newcastle in New South Wales northwards to west of Daintree in Queensland, can exceed 80 metres in height and live for over 100 years in natural forests.

Pittwater residents are already calling for a Tree Management Policy that is specific to Pittwater - others have renewed their call for the reinstatement of their council, a Pittwater Council that is For, About and By Pittwater.

The displaced wildlife, and gap in the canopy of the local environment through the council's killing of yet another Pittwater giant, comes just two weeks after it adopted its Tree Management Policy.

Ruskin Rowe tree guardians 2024

the remains, July 31, 2025 - photos supplied

Newport job site: run off into Pittwater

Dear Editor

This is the old Sirsi Marina at the Crescent Road Newport - every time it rains this is what washes into the Bay. This affects all the fish, people, kayaks, dragon boats, sailors, and birdlife that enjoy the bay.  And the development that they are still trying to get approved is for 8 house with 9 x 22 meter boats that will intrude further into the bay past these original pens.

Pittwater Resident, August 2, 2025

Friends of Bongin Bongin Bay 2025 AGM + Free Screening of Ocean with David Attenborough 

Date: Tuesday, 20 August 2025

‍Location: Mona Vale Surf Club

Friends of Bongin Bongin Bay warmly invites you to our Annual General Meeting, an evening of reflection, storytelling, and shared vision for the future of our bay.

We’ll begin with welcome remarks by Jacqui Scruby MP for Pittwater, followed by a free screening of Ocean with David Attenborough — a stirring film that captures the beauty and fragility of our marine world.

This screening is free, but spaces are limited. Please register online to secure your seat here.

Event Schedule

  • 6:00 PM – Doors open
  • 6:15 PM – Welcome remarks by Jacqui Scruby MP
  • 6:30 – 8:00 PM – Screening of Ocean
  • 8:00 PM – Annual General Meeting (open to questions)
  • 9:00 PM – Close

Steering Committee Nominations Now Open

FoBBB members have the opportunity to nominate individuals for our Steering Committee. If you'd like to nominate a member, please download and complete the nomination form and email it to info@bonginbonginbay.org.au by 13 August 2025.

As outlined in our constitution, nominations must:

  • Be submitted in writing
  • Be signed by two members
  • Include the nominee’s signed consent

Not a Member Yet?

We welcome all members of the community to join Friends of Bongin Bongin Bay and support our mission to protect the bay and secure marine sanctuary status by 2027. Together, we can make a lasting difference for our ocean and future generations.

We look forward to seeing you on August 20th!

IPART Draft Report on the review of prices for Greater Sydney from 1 October 2025: Have your say

On Thursday July 31 IPART has released draft prices for WaterNSW bulk water services in the Greater Sydney region, from 1 October 2025 to 30 June 2028.

Tribunal Chair Carmel Donnelly said WaterNSW is responsible for owning, operating and maintaining dams in NSW, and capturing, storing and supplying bulk water to Sydney Water, a small number of local councils and about 60 business customers in the Greater Sydney region.

“Bulk water customers such as Sydney Water then treat and distribute that water to residential and business customers in Greater Sydney,” Ms Donnelly said.

“Bulk water pricing can therefore affect the price residential and business customers pay for the water they buy from Sydney Water and Wingecarribee, Shoalhaven and Goulburn Mulwaree councils.”

Under IPART’s draft decisions, over the 3 years to 2027-28, WaterNSW’s Greater Sydney bulk water prices would increase by around 10.4% per year before inflation. For a typical Sydney Water residential customer, IPART states this would add about $7 to bills in 2025-26, $20 to bills in 2026-27 and $31 to bills in 2027-28 before inflation.

Ms Donnelly said the Tribunal’s draft decisions are based on careful consideration of a range of factors including the need to support safe, reliable and efficient water catchment, storage and supply services in the Greater Sydney region.

“The Tribunal also considered stakeholder submissions received during a public hearing and in response to a November 2024 Issues Paper and a May 2025 Information Paper,” Ms Donnelly said.

“Our aim is to set prices that mean customers of WaterNSW only pay what is required to efficiently deliver bulk water services.”

“The draft prices we have set in this report are lower than WaterNSW’s September 2024 proposal to increase prices by around 14% per year. However, some increases in prices are necessary to allow WaterNSW to maintain its assets and continue to deliver reliable services that the community expects.”

Stakeholders can download a copy of the report from IPART’s website and provide feedback on the proposed prices for WaterNSW until Monday 25 August 2025.

Chapter 9 (Draft Prices) of the IPART Draft Report states:

Fixed charges are increasing for all customers under our draft decisions

Over the 3-year determination period, under our draft decisions:

• Sydney Water’s fixed charges would increase to around $203.7 million in 2025-26, which is a 11.6% nominal increase. The fixed charge in 2027-28 would be around $248.7 million ($2025-26), which is around a 36.2% increase from current prices.

For other customers the fixed charge would increase by around 13.1% in nominal terms to 2025-26, then increase by around 10.4% plus inflation each year.

• Wingecarribee Shire, Shoalhaven City and Goulburn-Mulwaree councils’ fixed charges would increase by around 13.1% in 2025-26 and by 37.8% to 2027-28. The dollar increases are different for each council.

• Fixed charges for unfiltered water customers would increase to around $131 in 2025-26 which is a 13.1% increase. The fixed charge would be approximately $160 ($2025-26) in 2027-28, which is around a 37.8% increase from current prices.

Usage charges are increasing for all customers under our draft decisions

Over the 3-year determination period, under our draft decisions:

• Sydney Water’s non-drought usage charge would increase to $100.50/ML in 2025-26, which is a 19.6% nominal increase. The same usage charge in 2027-28 would be $121.70/ML ($2025-26), which is around a 44.8% increase from current prices.

For other customers the non-drought usage charge would generally increase by around 13.1% in nominal terms to 2025-26, then generally increase by 10.4% plus inflation each year.

• Wingecarribee Shire, Shoalhaven City and Goulburn-Mulwaree councils’ non-drought usage charges would increase by 13.1% in 2025-26 and by 37.8% to 2027-28. The dollar increases are different for each council.

• Non-drought usage charges for raw water customers would increase to $0.86/kL in 2025-26 which is around a 13.2% increase. The same charge would be $1.05/kL ($2025-26) in 2027-28, which is around a 38.2% increase from current prices.

• Non-drought usage charges for unfiltered water customers would increase to $1.49/kL in 2025-26 which is around a 12.9% increase. The same charge would be $1.82/kL ($2025-26) in 2027-28, which is around a 37.9% increase from current prices.

 Overall, when comparing current prices (2024-25) to 2027-28 prices, our draft decisions for Sydney Water are that the:

• Fixed charge would be approximately 11.6% higher in 2025-26 from 1 October, including inflation. This is then followed by increases of around 10.4% plus inflation on 1 July 2026 then by around 10.6% plus inflation on 1 July 2027. In 2027-28 the fixed charge would be $248.70 million. The average price per annum from 2025-26 to 2027-28 would be around $225.76 million per year. 

''Your feedback will help us make our final decisions for the maximum prices WaterNSW can charge for its services in Greater Sydney. We will release our final decisions in September 2025 with prices to take effect from 1 October 2025.'' IPART states

Sydney Water has proposed the increase in water charges, now drafted in the latest IPART Draft Report, to fund infrastructure upgrades to address the city's growing population. 

IPART states in its report that the proposed bill increases under its draft decisions are lower than the 14% real increase per year put forward by WaterNSW in its June 2025 submission to our Information Paper (its alternative revenue request). 

''Our proposed prices are lower because our review of efficient expenditure has indicated that not all of the increases in expenditure that WaterNSW proposed are necessary or efficient for this next 3-year period.

We propose to set WaterNSW’s notional revenue requirement (NRR) for Greater Sydney to $824.8 million for the 3-year determination period.''

Read the Draft Report

Make a Submission

Previously:

622KG of Rubbish Collected from Local Beaches

Sadly, our beaches are not as pristine as we'd all like to think they are. 

Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches' Adopt A beach ocean conservation program is highlighting that we need to clean up our act.

Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches' states:
''The collective action by our amazing local community at their monthly beach clean events across 9 beach locations is assisting Surfrider Foundation NB in the compilation of quantitative data on the volume, type and often source of the marine pollution occurring at each location.

In just 6 sessions, clear indicators are already forming on the waste items and areas to target with dedicated litter prevention strategies.

Plastic pollution is an every body problem and the solution to fixing it lies within every one of us.
Together we can choose to refuse this fate on our Northern beaches and turn the tide on pollution. 
A cleaner coast together !''

Join us - 1st Sunday of the month, Adopt your local for a power beach clean or donate to help support our program here. https://www.surfrider.org.au/donate/

Next clean up - This Sun 3 August 3 - 4pm. From September, times will revert to 4 – 5 pm.

Event locations 
  • Avalon – Des Creagh Reserve (North Avalon Beach Lookout)
  • North Narrabeen – Corner Ocean St & Malcolm St (grass reserve next to North Narrabeen SLSC)
  • Collaroy– 1058 Pittwater Rd (beachfront next to The Beach Club Collaroy)
  • Dee Why Beach –  Corner Howard Ave & The Strand (beachfront grass reserve, opposite Blu Restaurant)
  • Curl Curl – Beachfront at North Curl Curl Surf Club. Shuttle bus also available from Harbord Diggers to transport participants to/from North Curl Curl beach. 
  • Freshwater Beach – Moore Rd Beach Reserve (opposite Pilu Restaurant)
  • Manly Beach – 11 South Steyne (grass reserve opposite Manly Grill)
  • Manly Cove – Beach at West Esplanade (opposite Fratelli Fresh)
  • Little Manly– 55 Stuart St Little Manly (Beachfront Grass Reserve)
… and more to follow!

Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches

Coastal and Estuary Grants Program: guidelines for applicants 2025–26

The program underpins the implementation of the coastal management framework and supports local councils and communities to achieve the state’s long-term vision for the coast. 

The program supports local councils in managing the coastal environment of New South Wales in a manner consistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development for the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the people of the state.

Grant funding enables local councils and communities to prepare coastal management programs and implement actions identified in those programs. Grant offers are subject to statewide priorities and the availability of funds each financial year.

The 2025–26 funding round for the planning stream is open. Funding for the implementation stream opened on 24 July 2025.

Councils may apply for actions listed in certified coastal zone emergency action sub plans following a significant erosion or coastal inundation event and when the department deems the round open.

The planning stream for the 2025–26 funding round is open and closes 30 June 2026. The implementation stream for the 2025–26 funding round is open on 24 July 2025 and closes 4 September 2025.

Coastal and estuary management grants awarded and project summaries

Coastal and estuary management grants are awarded each year.

2024–25

Funding for these projects came from the NSW Government Coastal and Estuary grants program. The program awarded $4,051,820 to 29 projects in the implementation stream and $1,114,156 to 4 projects in the planning stream.

Northern Beaches Council 

Freshwater Beach south dune stabilisation – $24,895 awarded

This project supports the issues raised in the coastal dunes management strategy for Freshwater Beach to achieve reduced sand blow-outs, improved dune condition by weed control and revegetating with native coastal species, and formalising pedestrian movements through dune systems. The aims of the project include fencing to formalise access and exclusion areas for revegetation, returning loose sand to the foredune or beach area with sand scraping, and reducing erosion with sand trapping fencing and coir logs.

North Avalon dune stabilisation – $32,653 awarded

This project aims to manage the most northern dune bay at North Avalon Beach through sand scraping, reducing beach erosion due to ongoing impacts from climate change induced storm events, formalising access by restoring access fences, and dune stabilisation with wind erosion control and replanting with native coastal vegetation.

2023–24

Funding for these projects came from the NSW Government Coastal and Estuary grants program. The program funded 35 projects in the implementation stream, awarding $11,368,708, and to date, 16 projects in the planning stream, awarding $2,061,936.

Northern Beaches Council

Collaroy-Narrabeen Coastal Management Program – $150,001 funding awarded

The coastal management program for Collaroy-Narrabeen Beach will set the long-term strategy for Collaroy-Narrabeen Beach, focusing on achieving the objectives of the Coastal Management Act 2016 and replacing the coastal zone management plan for this location. The project will include stages 2, 3, and 4 of the preparation for a coastal management program.

Curl Curl dune stabilisation – dune bay 2 – $48,849 funding awarded

The project aims to build on achievements from similar past projects that have successfully fenced, stabilised and replanted dune bays with strong community support and participation. The main elements of the project are formalising beach access points, fencing the entire bay to protect new plantings, managing and stabilising dune systems, beach scraping to mitigate immediate coastal erosion risk, and restoring natural defences.

Freshwater Beach – dune bay 2 stabilisation – $43,208 funding awarded

Freshwater Beach is one of the most visited beaches on the Northern Beaches. As a result of uncontrolled access at the front of the dune, regular encroachment has resulted in the loss of native vegetation and blowouts resulting in sand inundation. The project aims to limit access with fencing after minor sand scraping, removal of identified Weeds of National Significance, and followed by replanting of native coastal species.

Narrabeen Beach dunes restoration and weed control – $34,381 funding awarded

The project involves restoration of a degraded dune system and will encompass weed control, fencing and revegetation. There are 4 dune bays included in this project, totalling approximately 1.2 hectares in an area that contains coastal dune vegetation. There has been significant erosion on the foredune due to recent successive storms and considerable blowouts in the mid-dune sections. The project aims to control invasive weeds, stabilise the dune to minimise erosion with revegetation using native plantings and protect the endangered plant species.

Narrabeen Lagoon Entrance on Friday October 8, 2021 - Panorama by Kevin Murray.

Tricking herbivore noses to aid plant conservation: local species include Grevillea caleyi Haloragodendron lucasii 

On Friday August 1 2025 the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage revealed some details of a research project currently underway.

Across New South Wales, many threatened plant species are at risk of extinction simply because too many are being eaten – by both invasive herbivores, like goats and deer, and native herbivores, like wallabies. We try to protect these plants using fencing, repellents or other methods that focus on controlling herbivores. But each approach has limitations. They can be expensive, harmful to the animals or ineffective. We are yet to find a long-term, effective way to stop herbivores eating threatened plants.

Now, researchers at the University of Sydney are leading a trial of a new method – using and altering odours to confuse herbivores and reduce plant browsing. They are testing this promising ‘odour misinformation’ method, working with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Saving our Species program and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The team is testing the method on some of our most valuable plant species across the state, funded by the NSW Environmental Trust.

Smelling a new solution

Swamp wallabies and other herbivores rely heavily on their sense of smell when deciding what to eat. They use not just taste but the smell of plants from further away to choose which ‘plant neighbourhoods’ to forage in. Studies have shown that:

  • herbivores tend to avoid areas that smell of low quality (less tasty) plants (Pietrzykowski et al 2003)
  • high-quality (tasty) plants are less likely to be eaten when surrounded by these low-quality neighbours, something known as associational refuge (Stutz et al 2015).

It’s some of these high-quality plant species that are under threat from herbivores. But relying on low-quality, neighbouring plants to help protect high-quality plants has its drawbacks. The neighbouring plants can compete for resources, like water and nutrients. That’s where odour misinformation has a unique advantage. We can replace real low-quality neighbours with just their smell. From afar, herbivores smell information that tells them the area is mainly low quality, and they stay away, leaving the threatened plants untouched.

A bonus is that we don’t need to create the exact smell of the low-quality plants – which can include hundreds of different chemical compounds. We use a new method to work out the few, specific, smelly compounds that herbivores use to find or avoid those plants. This makes our job much easier.

The sniff test – focus species and field trials

This method is now being trialled to protect 4 threatened plant species in New South Wales. Each species has unique challenges, including the threat of being eaten by herbivores:

  • Haloragodendron lucasii (Endangered) is found at only 4 known sites in northern Sydney and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
  • Caley’s Grevillea (Grevillea caleyi – Critically Endangered) survives in fragmented populations in Sydney’s northern suburbs (Terrey Hills to Mona Vale and Ingleside escarpment), including Ku-ring-gai Chase and Garigal national parks.
  • Bossiaea fragrans (Critically Endangered) exists only within an area near Abercrombie River, south of the Bathurst region.
  • Granite zieria (Zieria obcordata – Endangered) is known only from small populations near Bathurst and Wellington in central NSW.

Up until now, it has been hard to protect each species from herbivores. Odour misinformation may offer a non-invasive and cost-effective method that works when other methods are costly or unsuitable.

Where we’re at

So far, the trial has gathered camera evidence confirming that these 4 plant species are being eaten by either native or invasive herbivores. We’re now in the experimental phase, testing our odour misinformation methods at sites for all 4 species. Motion-activated cameras are helping us assess whether herbivores visit and browse less.

These trials will continue through most of 2025 to test how well the method works in the long term. Early signs are promising, and we’re excited to see whether tricking herbivore noses could be the next big step in plant conservation.

Caley's Grevillea seedling that shows no signs of being eaten by herbivores. Image credit: DCCEEW

Caley's Grevillea seedling that shows signs of being eaten by herbivores. Image credit: DCCEEW

Sydney University staff inspect a site used in a study on changing the smell of threatened plants to protect them from herbivores. Image credit: DCCEEW

Sydney University staff presenting research at a seminar. Image credit: Erica Mahon/DCCEEW

Australia Post announced its latest round of Community Grants on April 30 2025, listing among the New South Wales Recipients ''First Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation, Grevillea Caleyi Revival''

IndigiGrow's "Grevillea Caleyi Revival" project aims to revive the critically endangered Grevillea Caleyi plant species in Sydney. Funds will be used for soil, pots and trays and water to support propagation.

This will be great news to the Ingleside Grevillea Caleyi Baha’i Temple Bushcare Group, with members stemming from Pittwater Natural Heritage Association, who have worked for years to save Grevillea Caleyi.

Grevillea caleyi, now critically endangered. Image taken in Bush at Ingleside/Terrey Hills verges - picture by A J Guesdon, 31.10.2014.

George Caley wrote in his 'An Account of a Journey to the Sea in the month of February 1805', of the plants discovered along his route. According to his diary, Caley set out from Macarthur’s farm at Pennant Hills on Monday February 18th 1805. He headed east northeast. As he approached the coast, the date not precisely recorded, he collected near a place he called ‘Seasight Hill’, later established as near Belrose, a Grevillea to which he gave the name ‘E. [Embothrium] pinnatum’. 

Caley's four-day journey, ‘An Account of a Journey to the Sea in the month of February, 1805’, took him  through present day St Ives to Belrose and then down through the bush to come out above where the Narrabeen Fitness camp now is. He reached Narrabeen Lagoon and the sea on February 20th, 1805. He returned by the upper reaches of Middle Harbour (Caley 1805).

He was accompanied by 'Daniel' or 'Moowat''tin' (c1791-1816) an Aboriginal Australian Darug man from the Parramatta area. There are a number of other spellings of his name, including Mow-watty, Mowwatting, Moowatting and Moowattye, which is said to mean 'Bush Path' and clearly infers how George Caley managed to find his way to Narrabeen from Pennant Hills. 

Mr. Caley (June 10, 1770- May 23, 1829) was sent to Australia by Joseph Banks as a botanical collector on the "Speedy." He arrived in 1800 and settled at Parramatta, and soon afterwards set out the Botanical Gardens, becoming Superintendent. Some records indicate he sent over 10, 000 specimens back to Sir Joseph Banks in England. Many of those specimens have the annotation in Caley's hand of "got by Dan".

Robert Brown, considered ‘the father of Australian botany’, had a great admiration for Caley and had collected with him while in Australia. He wrote - 

‘Grevillea is probably the most extensive genus of Proteaceae in New Holland. Besides the Proteaceae described or noticed in this paper, I am acquainted with several very beautiful species chiefly of Grevillea and Persoonia, discovered in New Holland by Mr George Caley, a most assiduous and accurate botanist, who, under the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, has for upwards of eight years been  engaged in examining the plants of New South Wales, and whose numerous discoveries will, it is hoped, be soon given to the public, either by himself, or in such a manner as to obtain for him that reputation among botanists to which he is well entitled.’ (Brown 1810a: 170).

Robert Brown, in a paper published in 1830, after first giving consideration to the name Grevillea blechnifolia’, a name recorded on several specimen sheets at the time, ultimately named a plant Grevillea caleyi in his honour, (Brown 1830: 22). 

Mr. Caley is also recognised in the orchid genus Caleana (the Flying Duck Orchid) and in Viola caleyanaBanksia caleyi, and Eucalyptus caleyi.


Grevillea caleyi, drawn 1832 by William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865)

At Ingleside and in some areas surrounding Grevillea caleyi is still present although it is now listed as a critically endangered species in New South Wales and at the Commonwealth level (gazetted May 30th, 2014). 

The Pittwater Natural Heritage Association was coordinating a project funded by Greater Sydney Local Land Services and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Saving Our Species program. 

First Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation (FHS), based at La Perouse, was established October 2012 with a mission to build empowered, resilient indigenous communities through cultural reconnection, education, employment and enterprise.   

FHS combines social innovation, cultural protection, education and social enterprises to bring significant positive change to a variety of social indicators including reducing prisoner reoffending, caring for children and the elderly, community regeneration, financial inclusion, employment and building pathways to further education, and employment (including self-employment through small business).  

It has three projects Blak Markets, IndigiGrow and National Indigenous Art Fair.

Their latest update on their Grevillea Caleyi project shares:


New data reveals land clearing rates in NSW Have risen 40% across the state

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW is calling for urgent protection of rural bushland after Government data released 28th July 2025 shows a dramatic jump in land clearing rates. 

New South Wales’ latest land clearing data shows we are wiping out over 66,000 hectares of the Australian bush each year – that's equivalent to bull-dozing Sydney’s Royal National Park four times over. 

“The jump in land clearing across NSW by 40% during Labor’s first year of governing is a major red flag. The Government needs to get moving on its election commitment to 'end runaway land clearing’,” Nature Conservation Council NSW CEO Jacqui Mumford said. 

“Just last month the state’s foremost scientific scorecard – the State of the Environment Report – signalled that nature was getting worse across the board, with vegetation clearing a major driver of biodiversity decline.  

“Destroying native bushland directly kills and displaces native animals, opens land up to erosion and weed invasion and decreases the health of the landscape. 

“If we continue on the current trajectory, scientists predict NSW will lose nearly 500 wildlife species to extinction within the next century.

“The data released today is yet more evidence that NSW’s environmental laws are too weak.  

“We’re calling on Premier Chris Minns to do as promised and strengthen habitat clearing laws urgently.” 

Some of the highest land clearing rates are occurring in the western part of the state, which is home to the last populations of endangered malleefowl and critically endangered red-tailed black-cockatoos in NSW.   

“Today’s findings are not surprising. When the previous government scrapped the Native Vegetation Act in 2016 we saw land clearing rates triple, and since then it’s remained out of control,” Ms Mumford said. 

The data released confirmed agriculture as the biggest driver of land clearing in NSW. In 2023, 77% of all clearing was due to agriculture – or 51,201 hectares. 

It also showed that woodland and forest clearing on private land climbed particularly sharply.  

“Tens of thousands of hectares of private land covered with habitat, that could have supported koalas and other species, were cleared in just 12 months, and the creatures that call those trees home are paying the price,” Ms Mumford said. 

“Currently, agricultural businesses can bulldoze bushland, including koala habitat, without any independent assessment, due to regulation changes by the previous Liberal National Coalition Government. That needs to end.

“The Labor Government promised to rein in land clearing before the last election, but it's still a free-for-all.”  

Greens MP and Environment Spokesperson Sue Higginson said:

“Land clearing in New South Wales is like a runaway train under this Minns Labor Government and it’s wiping out 66,000 hectares of bushland a year and showing no signs of slowing down.” 

“I think most people in NSW would be horrified to learn that land clearing is 40% worse under the Minns Labor Government than it was under the Liberal National Coalition Government, but that is the reality these figures show.”  

“The Liberal National Berejiklian Barilaro Government made catastrophic changes to land clearing laws to allow more rural land clearing, and since then the problem has only been getting worse. The Liberals and Nationals have made a huge mess and it’s now Labor’s responsibility to clean it up - but instead of taking action, they’re sitting on their hands while the problem gets worse.” 

“We are well on the way toward mass extinctions and ecosystem collapse unless we reign in land clearing, and that means reform to make our environmental laws stronger, an end to native forest logging and more support for farmers to invest in sustainable agriculture practices.”

Background: 

  • The latest data produced by the NSW Government as part of its annual Statewide Land and Tree Study (SLATS) survey shows that 66,498 hectares of NSW bush was destroyed across the state in 2023 through agriculture, native forestry and development. This is a 47% increase from 45,252 hectares cleared in 2022. 
  • Based on average yearly land clearing rates, since coming to Government in March 2023 around 192,525 hectares of native vegetation may have been cleared by private landowners. 
  • At the 2023 state election the Labor Government made commitments to: ‘stop excess land clearing, strengthen environmental protections and reform the biodiversity offset scheme’. These commitments are also articulated in their Plan for Nature. 
  • In 2023 77% of all vegetation cleared was on agricultural lands, 15% due to private native forestry and 8% attributed to infrastructure development. 
  • Clearing native vegetation directly kills and displaces native animals. Over time, the effects of habitat fragmentation and disturbance can lead to invasion by weeds and further deteriorate the condition and habitat values of the remnant vegetation. 
  • According to the latest NSW State of the Environment Report report cards, of the 1000 plant and animal species listed as threatened in NSW only 50% are predicted to be living within 100 years time (i.e. 500 species will be extinct in 100 years). 

Critically endangered red-tailed black-cockatoos. Photo: Euan Moore.

Sydney Basin Koala Network’s 2025 Report

Sydney Basin Koala Network’s 2025 annual progress report gives the NSW Government a fail for its slow to no progress on crucial corridors and legislative reform for koalas. Our koalas in the Sydney Basin are at crisis point but with growing community support, we can further ramp up our campaign.

Image: The approval of the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan allowed clearing of intact critically endangered Shale Sandstone Transition Forest. The cleared woodland at Macquariedale Road in Appin (left) was home to a breeding ground of SW Sydney Koalas. Displaced koalas are at higher risk of road strike and disease from stress. This habitat was also in the Ousedale Creek Koala Corridor - the only East-West corridor that the CPCP is maintaining in Macarthur.

Our report, with key contributions from the Environmental Defenders Office and expert ecologists Biolink finds: 

  • Record koala deaths on the roads of South-West Sydney
  • Damaging development occurring before measures to protect Koalas leading to their demise
  • Refusal to intervene to save a vital 116ha Koala corridor in Campbelltown, despite our research showing up to 60% of the last Koala generation being struck by vehicles in this LGA.
  • No follow through with announced enhancements to the CPCP with planning proposals being approved without following mitigation guidelines.
  • Properties within the new Georges River Koala National Park footprint trading on the open market.
  • No changes made to the flailing Koala Strategy, the Koala SEPPs, the BC Act or the LLS Act.

Our 2024 report showed Koalas in the Sydney Basin were in decline, yet legislation to protect koalas still remains in limbo, while damaging development continues at pace. This 2025 report shows record koala deaths in South-West Sydney as a direct result of this development. The Planning and Environment Ministers must strengthen protections and amend development plans to maintain safe travels across the region for our precious koala populations. 

Image: While koalas have been found to be declining in the Sydney Basin, vehicle strike is rising at an unsustainable rate

Through our work with local community groups, more councils in the Sydney Basin are committing to actions to understand their local koala populations via vegetation mapping and population surveys, but they are hamstrung on legislative protections by a NSW Government unable to act with the urgency our endangered koala populations require. Currently the Environment and Planning Ministers are shuffling deck chairs on the titanic with small, piecemeal announcements, while their just released NSW State of the Environment report shows every marker for Native forests and threatened species as poor. 

Image: NSW Government progress on key recommendations by the EDO

We are now calling for the NSW Government to urgently:

  1. Reform the Biodiversity Conservation Act (BCA) to strengthen protection for koalas (and other species).
  2. Protect and restore Mallaty Creek habitat corridor in Campbelltown LGA for koalas with an additional wildlife crossing on Appin Road to mitigate the unprecedented amounts of roadkill on Appin Road, as previously advised by koala experts.
  3. Apply a scientifically robust definition of koala habitat to legal frameworks and apply this to all LGAs with koala sightings so all councils can quickly proceed with habitat mapping and Comprehensive Koala Plans of Management.
  4. Apply the Chief Scientist corridor advice for Campbelltown and Macathur across the Sydney Basin, connecting the South-West with the North West, and the North-West to the lower Hunter and zone corridors as C2 to prevent fragmentation.
  5. Reform the LLS act to end code based clearing and remove the outdated 1990 regrowth rule.
  6. Scrap the unscientific Rural Boundary Clearing Code to prevent fragmentation of habitat.
  7. Curb urban sprawl and ongoing fragmentation of bushland
  8. Ensure any new transport routes do not clear and dissect koala corridors
  9. Undertake a strategic supply plan to reduce ad-hoc quarry development on koala habitat.
  10. Prohibit logging of Koala Habitat.

Read our report in full here: SBKN 2025 Annual Progress Report

Email your local MP with our plan to save Sydney Basin koalas here: tec.good.do/rescueplanforkoalas/rescue-plan-koalas

South-West Sydney Koala. Photo: Patricia Durman

Warranmadhaa National Park announced

On July 30 2025 the NSW Government announced it is establishing a national park along the Georges River in south-west Sydney to protect koalas and secure their habitat. Warranmadhaa (Georges River Koala National Park), located between Long Point and Appin, covers 962 hectares. Work is already underway to grow the park with more land transfers planned into the National Park system which will protect up to 1,830 hectares of habitat.

The government states that the Warranmadhaa National Park delivers on its commitment to establish a koala national park along Georges River under the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan.

The Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan aims to establish approximately 73,000 more new homes in Western Sydney.

The name 'Warranmadhaa' refers to the woodland areas between the Nepean and Georges Rivers near Appin, which relates to the southern area of the park. The name was chosen in close consultation with Traditional Custodians, the Tharawal Local Aboriginal Land Council and the local Aboriginal community.

The government states the new national park will also provide local communities with access to nature-based recreation to meet significant demand for quality green and open space, subject to the provisions in a future adopted plan of management.

Establishing the park will involve:

  • transferring existing public lands within the proposed park to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) by September 2026
  • acquiring additional land within the footprint of the park longer term
  • working with Traditional Custodians, Elders and Western Sydney’s Aboriginal communities to repair, protect and enhance the health and wellbeing of Country
  • using expert environmental and cultural specialists to develop strategies to safeguard the unique environmental and cultural heritage of the park
  • developing a plan of management and concept plan that set out the long-term vision for the park
  • ongoing community engagement
  • developing a strategy for visitor infrastructure to welcome visitors to the park.

Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe stated:

“This new national park is one of the most important in the state for koala conservation, protecting almost 1,000 hectares of vital koala habitat in south-west Sydney and delivering on our promise to safeguard this iconic species.

“$48.2 million has been committed to establish and manage this park, ensuring long-term protection for the south-west Sydney’s koalas.”

In 2018, the Australian Labor Party initially promised a 4,000-hectare koala park along the Georges River if it won the federal election.

However, the 2023 election commitment from the Minns Labor government was to establish a 1,800-hectare protected corridor for koalas in the region.

The previous coalition NSW government also made koala park announcements in the region, announcing but never establishing 

Map showing the area of Warranmadhaa National Park along the Georges River. Supplied: NSW government

Warmer with a chance of ice: hailstorms could hit Australian cities harder

Report by Melissa Lyne, UNSW

New research from UNSW shows climate change could cause hailstorms to get worse in some of Australia’ s most densely populated cities.

Climate change might cause hailstorms to become more damaging in some Australian cities, a study on future hail trends published July 29, has found. This includes the capital cities of Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.

In analysing simulations of weather in a warmer world, “we’re seeing an increase in hail size over some capital cities”, says lead author Dr Tim Raupach from UNSW Sydney’s Institute for Climate Risk and Response.

“Our projections also show hailstorms becoming more frequent in Brisbane, Sydney, and Canberra,” he says.

Yet, Dr Raupach says, while projections are helpful, there’s still a lot we don’t know. For some cities, like Adelaide, the simulations don’t show major changes.

“More research is needed to better address the complexities in modelling hail.”

Bigger stones, more often

From smashed windscreens in Sydney to ruined crops in Queensland, hail is one of nature’s most dramatic – and costly – displays.

Hailstorms were responsible for more than 20% of insured losses in Australia from 1967 to 2023.

The damage is largely driven by the size of hailstones – and the stones can get big. Australia’s record near Mackay, Queensland was around 16 cm across – more than double the diameter of a cricket ball.

While massive hailstones like these are rare, they’re not impossible. Dr Raupach says more intense storms in the future could increase the chances of large-diameter hail.

“We looked at changes in hailstone size between simulations of historical and future periods,” he says.

“And we can see increases in hail size produced by the model around Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.

“For example, in past simulations, very large, 10 cm hailstones were expected once every 20 years around Melbourne. But in a warmer future, it’s once every three years.”

What makes a hailstone?

Hailstorms rely on warmth to start, so usually occur in the spring and summer months, when warm air from the land or ocean is pushed up into cooler air and rises into the atmosphere.

“Hailstone size is controlled by how strong the updraft is in in a thunderstorm,” Dr Raupach says.

In a thunderstorm, strong winds – updrafts – carry moisture high up into the atmosphere, where it freezes. These ice particles – known as ‘hail embryos’ – pick up supercooled water as they circulate through the storm cloud.

“The stronger the updraft, the longer a hailstone can stay in the storm and grow,” says Dr Raupach.

“Eventually, the hailstone gets too heavy and falls.”

To grow large hailstones, the storm cloud needs to be tall, with lots of energy to keep the stone suspended long enough to gather layers of ice.

The trajectory the hailstone follows within the storm also matters.

“There are regions inside a storm that have more moisture and are colder,” says Dr Raupach.

“The more time the embryo spends in these moist, cold spots, the larger it can grow.”

Rain, hail or shine?

While hail can fall anywhere in Australia, certain regions are particularly exposed.

“The main region is the East Coast from a bit north of Brisbane to a bit south of Sydney,” Dr Raupach says.

However, other hotspots, like the remote goldfields of Western Australia and the Gulf of Carpentaria, also appear in radar records. These are sparsely populated areas where observational data and first-hand reports are more difficult to gather – which is why computer modelling is often used.

With Australia’s solar industry booming, another emerging vulnerability is rooftop solar panels.

“Hail can damage solar panels. We’ve seen it happen – in Brisbane in 2020 and in the US as well,” says Dr Raupach.

But, he says, this shouldn’t deter any investment in renewables.

“We should also think about how to strengthen our cities to resist hail damage, especially if hailstone size is increasing with climate change.”

Are Australians prepared?

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issues hail warnings. And some insurance policies cover hail damage.

While insurance companies have long tracked hail risk, Dr Raupach works directly with the industry to help them understand current and future hazards.

However, physical preparedness within the community is another matter.

“To be protected from hail you can move undercover, move your car undercover, have good insurance and have strong roof tiles,” Dr Raupach says.

He says some farmers use hail nets.

Dr Joanna Aldridge, co-author of the study from QBE Insurance, says a key issue remains.

“Australian building standards still don’t include hail resilience, which leaves many properties vulnerable,” Dr Aldridge says.

For now, Dr Raupach recommends insurance, preparedness and awareness. But in the long term, he sees two paths forward.

Firstly, he suggests reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a key step in mitigating the impacts of climate change on severe weather events.

“Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases remains a crucial objective,” says Dr Raupach.

Secondly, he says research should continue. As an example, there is an emerging question of how much urban environments – the structures of cities – affect hail. He says there may be innovative options worth exploring for designing and redesigning future cities – a research question he and colleagues are working on.

“It’s very early days, but maybe one day we could design cities with a reduced storm risk,” Dr Raupach says.

For now, he says Australians living in hail-prone regions should stay alert – and perhaps reconsider where they park the car in a storm.

Disclosure statement: Timothy Raupach receives funding from QBE Insurance, Guy Carpenter, and the Australian Research Council.

Citizen science behind countless new discoveries

Report by Tom Melville, UNSW, August 1, 2025

An international team of researchers, including two from UNSW, have quantified the impact community driven nature identification app iNaturalist is having on scientific research.

A pygmy grasshopper is a really small grasshopper and despite Australia being home to a number of species, we don’t know much about them. 

In fact, the Angled Australian Barkhopper hadn’t been recorded for more than 130 years until a few citizen scientists snapped pictures of the species in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland and uploaded them to iNaturalist. 

A European expert in the family identified the tiny creatures — which only measure a centimetre or two from antennae to tail.

It’s just one of countless discoveries made possible because of the global community of citizen scientists dutifully uploading photographs of the plants and critters they find when out and about.

Reiner Richter / inaturalist.org/observations/22360480

An expanding archive

iNaturalist allows members of the public to snap a picture of a beetle, a leaf, a bit of moss (or anything living really), and upload it to the database where other users can identify it.  

Beyond communities of everyday people uploading their sightings, it’s also long been used by biologists around the world and has driven many scientific discoveries.

“With cameras and smartphones now everywhere, just about anyone can use iNaturalist to record living things anywhere in the world,” says Simon Gorta, co-author on the paper and PhD candidate from the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science.

“Our research shows that the abundance of data this process generates is driving important biodiversity research.”

Some common Australian species uploaded to iNaturalist. Photo: iNaturalist

Until now, much of the value of iNaturalist was only anecdotal — researchers knew it was being used but didn’t know exactly how widely.

Now, for the first time, an international team of researchers, including two from UNSW Sydney, has totted up the numbers to quantify just how important the platform is becoming for biodiversity research. 

The team found that use of iNaturalist data in peer-reviewed research has shot up tenfold in the last five years, matching the growing increase in observations uploaded to the platform. 

According to the team, that means that the platform should only get more comprehensive and therefore more useful to researchers as more people contribute.  

Scientists use iNaturalist not only to identify new species, but also better understand where individual species live (their “ranges”). 

The study examined scientific literature that cited iNaturalist data and found that it has been used across 128 countries and 638 groups of different kinds of animals, plants, and other living things that are closely related to each other. 

Research topics ranged from conservation planning and habitat modelling to education and machine learning.

''With cameras and smartphones now everywhere, just about anyone can use iNaturalist to record living things anywhere in the world. '' said Simon Gorta, Study co-author

Data is also being used to understand the impacts of climate change, conduct ecological and evolutionary analyses, rediscover extinct species, characterise species interactions, and drive biosecurity and weed management. 

“Data use is greatly diversifying as the full potential and value of these data are being realised,” says Thomas Mesaglio, co-author on the paper and PhD candidate from the UNSW Evolution and Ecology Research Centre.

Also key is the development of new software and tools to analyse the data and extract information.

This all means that millions of people around the world are now shaping research and conservation outcomes for countless species in a way that was unimaginable a decade ago.  

“One of the standout features of iNaturalist is that it provides data on certain organisms, regions, or time periods where we just don’t have coverage otherwise through standardised monitoring programs,” says Mr Gorta. 

UNSW Ecologist Thomas Mesaglio (pictured) says iNaturalist has driven countless discoveries. Photo: Peter Crowcroft

An important resource

Australians are global heavyweights when it comes to uploading plant and animal sightings to the platform since it launched in 2008.

In that time 121,000 observers have lodged around 11.5 million observations across more than 64,000 species.

And that’s just Australia, worldwide the numbers are eye-watering: 262 million observations, 518,000 species recorded by 3.8 million observers.

Thomas Mesaglio says this army of citizen scientists has made thousands of discoveries so far, but the true number is likely higher and will go up as researchers get the chance to sift through sightings. 

“Time and money are precious resources which seem to be increasingly dwindling, so what iNaturalist does is massively expand the monitoring network to millions of people around the globe. 

“iNaturalist both hugely increases the amount of data that can be collected, but also provides invaluable starting points for the researchers to collect data themselves,” Mesaglio says. 

“Need to find a particular species in an enormous search area but have limited time and resources? You can check iNaturalist records as a great springboard to inform your data collection.”

“The tenfold increase in peer-reviewed research using our data demonstrates that community science isn't just a nice addition to traditional research methods; it's becoming essential for understanding our rapidly changing planet,” said Carrie Seltzer, the iNaturalist head of engagement, who was not associated with the study.

“Millions of people are helping scientists track biodiversity in ways that would be impossible through traditional scientific fieldwork alone.”

The study, published in the journal BioScience, was a collaborative effort involving researchers from 15 institutions across the United States, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, and South Korea. 

Contributing institutions include the University of Florida, UNSW Sydney, Meise Botanic Garden, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, the University of Münster, and Changwon National University, among others.

Gas exports have tripled Australian gas prices and doubled electricity prices: Australia Institute

New Australia Institute research, released July 29, reveals that gas exports have led to the tripling of wholesale east coast gas prices and doubling of electricity prices, since exports began in 2015, according to the authors.

''The Australian and Queensland governments’ decisions in 2010 to allow large-scale exporting of Australian gas from Queensland exposed Australians to high global prices, ending decades of abundant, low-cost gas for Australians, leading to higher energy bills, gas shortages and manufacturing closures.'' the Australia Institute states

Gas price increases due to excessive exports have also caused electricity prices to rise because gas power stations often set electricity prices.

“When you get your next energy bill, blame the gas industry and your governments for opening the gas export floodgates despite being warned it would drive up energy bills for Australians,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Adviser at The Australia Institute.

“Gas exports have meant Australian households and businesses have paid billions of dollars more for energy over the last decade, all of which went to the profits of a handful of predominantly foreign-owned gas corporations.

“The gas industry’s deliberate plan to increase domestic gas prices for Australians, by exposing us to global gas prices, has been a massive transfer of wealth from Australian households and businesses to Big Gas.

“Gas exports have led to manufacturing closures in Australia. Gas exporters manufacture nothing except gas shortages and higher energy bills for Australians.

“The kindest interpretation of the Australian and Queensland governments’ role in allowing gas export corporations to brutally price-gouge Australians over the last decade is that they are weak and gullible. Arguably, they are complicit.

“Allowing new gas projects doesn’t solve the problem. We have tripled gas production in a decade, and we still have rolling shortages and high prices. New gas projects just mean more gas is exported and result in net-zero additional gas for Australians, unless we cut exports.

“The only way to fix this mess and reduce Australian energy bills is to cut exports and divert the gas to Australians.”

“The federal Government must continue to invest to help people on low incomes and renters access home energy upgrades, including electrification, to help people get off gas and permanently reduce energy bills,” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.

“In the meantime, a domestic gas reserve from uncontracted gas exports is needed to lower domestic gas and electricity prices so people who don’t currently have the choice to electrify get much-needed energy bill relief.”

“Gas exports have exposed Australian manufacturers to high global gas prices and are also driving up electricity costs, hitting manufacturers with a double blow, making it almost impossible to compete with subsidised imports,” said Geoff Crittenden, CEO of Weld Australia.

“It beggars belief that for the last decade, Australian governments have allowed LNG producers to export surplus uncontracted gas to the global spot market while Australian manufacturers are unable to secure gas at reasonable terms and prices. It needs to be fixed now.”

Report: Impact of gas exports on Australian energy prices

 

More Wing Flaps from our yard

Notice of 1080 Poison Baiting

July 22, 2025

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) will be conducting a baiting program using manufactured baits, fresh baits and Canid Pest Ejectors (CPE’s/ejectors) containing 1080 poison (sodium fluoroacetate) for the control of foxes. The program is continuous and ongoing for the protection of threatened species.

This notification is for the period 1 August 2025 to 31 January 2026 at the following locations:

  • Garigal National Park
  • Lane Cove National Park (baits only, no ejectors are used in Lane Cove National Park)
  • Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
  • Sydney Harbour National Park – North Head (including the Quarantine Station), Dobroyd Head, Chowder Head & Bradleys Head managed by the NPWS
  • The North Head Sanctuary managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
  • The Australian Institute of Police Management, North Head

DO NOT TOUCH BAITS OR EJECTORS

All baiting locations will be identifiable by signs.

Please be reminded that domestic pets are not permitted on NPWS Estate. Pets and working dogs may be affected (1080 is lethal to cats and dogs). Pets and working dogs must be restrained or muzzled in the vicinity and must not enter the baiting location. Penalties apply for non-compliance.

In the event of accidental poisoning seek immediate veterinary assistance.

For further information please call the local NPWS office on:

NPWS Sydney North (Middle Head) Area office: 9960 6266

NPWS Sydney North (Forestville) Area office: 9451 3479

NPWS North West Sydney (Lane Cove NP) Area office: 8448 0400

NPWS after-hours Duty officer service: 1300 056 294

Sydney Harbour Federation Trust: 8969 2128

The giant cuttlefish’s technicolour mating display is globally unique. The SA algal bloom could kill them all

Great Southern Reef FoundationCC BY-SA
Zoe DoubledayUniversity of South Australia

Every year off the South Australian coast, giant Australian cuttlefish come together in huge numbers to breed. They put on a technicolour display of blue, purple, green, red and gold, changing hues as they mate and lay eggs.

This dynamic, dreamlike display takes place in the upper Spencer Gulf, near Whyalla. This short strip of coastline is the only place in the world to host this spectacular event.

But South Australia’s killer algal bloom is advancing towards this natural wonder. If the algae reach the breeding site in the coming weeks or months, they could wipe the cuttlefish population out.

Now, scientists may have a chance to get there first, take some eggs and raise an insurance population in captivity. This rescue operation would be a world first.

Why are the cuttlefish so vulnerable?

The giant Australian cuttlefish congregate to mate in waters off Whyalla every winter, in a gathering known as a “breeding aggregation”. The sanctuary area received National Heritage status in 2023.

The displays of movement and colour take place as abundant males vie for the attention of a female. Each year it attracts tourists, photographers and marine life enthusiasts. To witness it, all you need is a thick wetsuit, mask and snorkel.

Cuttlefish are cephalopods, alongside octopus and squid. While cephalopods are adaptable to environmental change, their generations don’t overlap. This means the parents die before the offspring are born, and so the population cannot be replenished by the parents if the offspring are wiped out.

By now, in upper Spencer Gulf, most adult cuttlefish will be breeding and naturally dying off, leaving the eggs behind. They will incubate for about three months, then hatch and swim away.

What if the algal bloom reaches the cuttlefish?

The harmful microalgal bloom of Karenia mikimotoi first appeared in March this year on two surf beaches outside Gulf St Vincent, about an hour south of Adelaide. It is thought to have been triggered by a persistent marine heatwave coupled with prolonged calm weather, and possibly excess nutrients from the 2022–23 Murray River flooding event.

It has since spread to many corners of South Australia, and has now reached the lower to middle reaches of Spencer Gulf. Preliminary modelling revealed last week shows the bloom could spread through Spencer Gulf, up to Whyalla and across to Port Pirie.

The disaster has already affected about 400 types of fish and marine animals. And we know this algal species can rapidly dispatch cephalopods, both large and small. In other parts of South Australia already affected by the algal bloom, dead octopus and cuttlefish have been extensively photographed and recorded.

If the latest batch of eggs dies in the algal bloom, their parents will no longer be around to rebreed and restore the population next year. This means the population could go extinct.

Could we lose a species?

More than 100 cuttlefish species exist worldwide. The giant Australian cuttlefish is found throughout southern Australia, from Moreton Bay in Queensland to Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.

However, the breeding aggregation is genetically distinct from even its closest cuttlefish neighbours in southern Spencer Gulf, about 200 kilometres away. And genetic evidence suggests the upper Spencer Gulf population could well be its own species, although scientists haven’t confirmed this yet.

Regardless, this cuttlefish population is truly unique. It is the only population of giant Australian cuttlefish, and the only population of cuttlefish worldwide, to breed en masse in such a spectacular fashion.

That’s why saving it from the algal bloom is so important.

Can we save this natural wonder?

Today I’ll be meeting with fellow marine and cephalopod experts at an emergency meeting convened by the South Australian government. There, we will discuss the feasibility of collecting an insurance population of eggs from the cuttlefish population.

Timing is everything. Two or three months from now, the eggs could be too developed to collect safely, because moving can trigger premature hatching. Even later, the eggs will have hatched and the hatchlings will have swum away.

Ironically, while the mass gathering of cuttlefish makes the species vulnerable to a permanent wipeout, it also makes them easier to rescue.

Collecting, transporting and raising eggs in tanks is a relatively straightforward process at a smaller scale. It has been done successfully for research purposes in South Australia.

Raising hatchlings is harder and more labour intensive. Then there is the question of what to do with them once they hatch. But the three-month incubation period would buy us time.The Conversation

Author Zoe Doubleday makes her pitch for saving the giant Australian cuttlefish as the harmful algal bloom approaches (Biodiversity Council)

Zoe Doubleday, Marine Ecologist and ARC Future Fellow, University of South Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As oceans warm, tropical fish are moving south. New friendships may be helping them survive

Angus Mitchell
Angus MitchellUniversity of AdelaideChloe HayesUniversity of Adelaide, and Ivan NagelkerkenUniversity of Adelaide

When you think about climate change in our oceans, you may picture coral bleaching, melting sea ice, or extreme weather events. But beneath the ocean’s surface, another quiet shift is underway. Australia’s tropical fish are heading south into cooler waters.

These fish are not just visiting. They are settling into the milder “temperate” reefs that used to be too cold for them. As they do, they encounter new environments, new challenges and new neighbours.

In our new research we studied the behaviour of these new migrants. We found some tropical fish are not just surviving in their new homes, they’re thriving. And, surprisingly, much of that success comes down to who they’re hanging out with.

A slow-motion invasion

Tropical fish travel poleward via ocean currents.

On Australia’s east coast, the fish typically hitch a ride on the strengthening East Australian Current as it pushes warm water and the tropical species further south.

Some species are showing up hundreds of kilometres beyond their usual home range. Many tropical fish arrive on temperate reefs during summer, and used to die over winter when the water grew colder. Now, as winter water temperatures increase, some tropical fish survive year-round in temperate reefs.

But life at the edge of your range is risky. These fish encounter colder water temperatures, unfamiliar predators and a reef full of competitors. So, how do they cope?

A diver swims underwater holding a special notebook while looking for fish on a temperate reef of kelp and seaweed in southeastern Australia.
As waters warm, temperate reefs of kelp and seaweed are becoming home to tropical fish as they venture southward. Angus Mitchell

Risky business: but some fish can adapt

We studied five tropical fish species and two temperate species across a 2,000km stretch of Australia’s east coast, from the tropics to the cold temperate south. We observed how these fish fed, sheltered and reacted to threats, using underwater video cameras.

Analysis of the footage revealed tropical fish behaved differently in the colder waters. They spent more time hiding and less time feeding. They were also more wary of predators, displaying a cognitive shift in “lateralisation” — a preference to consistently turn left or right, which can help fish make faster escape decisions when threatened.

Such risk-averse behaviour is likely to help fish stay alive in unfamiliar reefs by avoiding predators. But it also reduces food intake and growth, unless these fish find new friends.

New school mates, better outcomes

Previous research has shown when tropical fish gather or “shoal” with temperate fish, they grow bigger and survive longer into winter than fish in tropical-only shoals.

We wanted to understand the mechanism for this phenomenon. Could tropical fish be learning from temperate shoal mates? And how might their behaviour change when shoaling with temperate fishes?

Using underwater videos, we found three tropical damselfish species spent more time feeding and less time sheltering when they formed mixed shoals with temperate fish. They also appeared bolder and were more successful at finding food.

We think these mixed shoals offer key advantages: safety in numbers, more eyes watching for predators, and perhaps most importantly, social learning. By shoaling with local temperate species such as the Australian Mado, tropical fish may learn where and when it’s safe to feed, and how to behave in these foreign temperate ecosystems.

This kind of behavioural “plasticity” is a powerful tool in a changing climate. Fish that can adjust their behaviours in ways that boost their fitness are more likely to survive as climatic conditions rapidly shift in our oceans.

Underwater still image showing a mixed group of fish, both tropical and temperate species, living together on a rocky reef
Tropical and temperate fish species form a mixed-species group or shoal at Little Manly in southeastern Australia. Angus Mitchell

Not all fish benefit

These interactions were not always beneficial. Two herbivorous tropical fish species, the convict tang and brown tang, did not show the same benefits, likely because their specialised diets made it harder to learn from omnivorous temperate species.

And for the temperate fish, the presence of tropical fish in shoals were often problematic. At the northern, warmer edge of their range, temperate fish fled more often and fed less when tropical fish were present. That’s worrying, because warming alone is already pushing many temperate species toward their biological limits. Adding new competitors might push them over the edge.

Underwater image from a video shows a shy type of tropical fish, convict tangs, clustered together on a temperate oyster reef.
Herbivorous convict tangs (Acanthurus triostegus) shoal tightly near shelter on a temperate oyster reef. At the edge of their range, these tropical fish adopt more cautious behaviours, seeking refuge and foraging less. Angus Mitchell

A changing reef community

All this comes amid dire news of the Earth’s oceans. Research published today shows 2023 set new records for the duration, extent and intensity of marine heatwaves.

Fish migration to temperate reefs is a glimpse of the future: even warmer waters, shifting species ranges and new species interactions.

Our results suggest these new species interactions and relationships, particularly mixed-species shoaling, can help tropical fish survive longer in temperate ecosystems. But they may also disrupt existing ecosystems and place extra stress on local temperate species.

In this way, climate-driven range shifts are more than just a temperature driven story. They’re stories about behaviour, relationships, and resilience.

Understanding how fish respond to their new neighbours and how those responses shape who stays and who goes, will be key to managing reefs in a rapidly warming ocean.The Conversation

Angus Mitchell, Postdoctoral Researcher in Marine Ecology, University of AdelaideChloe Hayes, Postdoctoral Researcher in Marine Ecology, University of Adelaide, and Ivan Nagelkerken, Professor, Marine Biology, University of Adelaide

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Have your say on changes gas and pipeline regulations and guidelines for NSW

July 24, 2025

The community is invited to face-to-face information sessions and an online webinar to have your say on proposed changes to make it clearer and easier for landholders and companies to negotiate land access for pipeline projects.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) is modernising the regulation of pipelines and creating new guidelines to clarify:

  • the roles and responsibilities for seeking land access for surveys clearer so everyone understands what is involved; and
  • what needs to be done to get agreements with landholders before compulsory acquisition can be considered by the Minister for Energy.

The government is also proposing to strengthen the requirements for operators under the Pipelines Act 1967 and Gas Supply Act 1996 including stronger penalties.

Consultation focuses on ensuring landowners and communities are fully informed and consulted on the authority to survey and compulsory acquisition procedures, so everyone is on the same page and knows what is required.

The NSW Government states it is committed to making the process for land surveys and compulsory acquisition respectful, open and transparent.

Putting clear steps in place will support better communication between parties and set minimum standards for what applicants must do.

It will also provide information on how the Minister for Energy and DCCEEW assess authority to survey and compulsory acquisition applications.

Face to face information sessions will be held at:

  • Quirindi – Tuesday 19 August, 1–2:30pm
  • Muswellbrook – Wednesday 20 August, 9:30–11am
  • Maitland – Wednesday 20 August, 2–3:30pm

Registration is required at: www.nsw.gov.au/have-your-say/pipelines-and-gas-supply-regulations

A webinar will be held on Wednesday, 13 August from 6–8 pm for those who can't attend in person.

Liam Ryan, Executive Director, Energy Infrastructure, DCCEEW stated:

"We have listened carefully to stakeholders who have said the processes around surveying land for pipeline routes and compulsory acquisition need to be clearer – which is why we are putting new guidelines in place to ensure landowners are fully informed and consulted.

"It is critical the community knows what steps need to be taken when the NSW Government is assessing applications for pipeline surveys and at what stage compulsory acquisition can be considered.

"I encourage landowners and interested parties in Quirindi, Muswellbrook, Maitland and surrounding areas to register and come along and meet the team in-person so we can discuss these important reforms together."

Weed of the Week: Mother of Millions - please get it out of your garden

  

Mother of Millions (Bryophyllum daigremontianumPhoto by John Hosking.

Solar for apartment residents: Funding

Owners corporations can apply now for funding to install shared solar systems on your apartment building. The grants will cover 50% of the cost, which will add value to homes and help residents save on their electricity bills.

You can apply for the Solar for apartment residents grant to fund 50% of the cost of a shared solar photovoltaic (PV) system on eligible apartment buildings and other multi-unit dwellings in NSW. This will help residents, including renters, to reduce their energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions.

Less than 2% of apartment buildings in NSW currently have solar systems installed. As energy costs climb and the number of people living in apartments continue to increase, innovative solutions are needed to allow apartment owners and renters to benefit from solar energy.

A total of $25 million in grant funding is available, with up to $150,000 per project.

Financial support for this grant is from the Australian Government and the NSW Government.

Applications are open now and will close 5 pm 1 December 2025 or earlier if the funds are fully allocated.

Find out more and apply now at: www.energy.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-grants-and-schemes/solar-apartment-residents 

Volunteers for Barrenjoey Lighthouse Tours needed

Details:

Johnson Brothers Mitre 10 Recycling Batteries: at Mona Vale + Avalon Beach

Over 18,600 tonnes of batteries are discarded to landfill in Australia each year, even though 95% of a battery can be recycled!

That’s why we are rolling out battery recycling units across our stores! Our battery recycling units accept household, button cell, laptop, and power tool batteries as well as mobile phones! 

How To Dispose Of Your Batteries Safely: 

  1. Collect Your Used Batteries: Gather all used batteries from your home. Our battery recycling units accept batteries from a wide range of products such as household, button cell, laptop, and power tool batteries.
  2. Tape Your Terminals: Tape the terminals of used batteries with clear sticky tape.
  3. Drop Them Off: Come and visit your nearest participating store to recycle your batteries for free (at Johnson Brothers Mitre 10 Mona Vale and Avalon Beach).
  4. Feel Good About Your Impact: By recycling your batteries, you're helping support a healthier planet by keeping hazardous material out of landfills and conserving resources.

Environmental Benefits

  • Reduces hazardous waste in landfill
  • Conserves natural resources by promoting the use of recycled materials
  • Keep toxic materials out of waterways 

Reporting Dogs Offleash - Dog Attacks to Council

If the attack happened outside local council hours, you may call your local police station. Police officers are also authorised officers under the Companion Animals Act 1998. Authorised officers have a wide range of powers to deal with owners of attacking dogs, including seizing dogs that have attacked.

You can report dog attacks, along with dogs offleash where they should not be, to the NBC anonymously and via your own name, to get a response, at: https://help.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/s/submit-request?topic=Pets_Animals

If the matter is urgent or dangerous call Council on 1300 434 434 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

If you find injured wildlife please contact:
  • Sydney Wildlife Rescue (24/7): 9413 4300 
  • WIRES: 1300 094 737

Plastic Bread Ties For Wheelchairs

The Berry Collective at 1691 Pittwater Rd, Mona Vale collects them for Oz Bread Tags for Wheelchairs, who recycle the plastic.

Berry Collective is the practice on the left side of the road as you head north, a few blocks before Mona Vale shops . They have parking. Enter the foyer and there's a small bin on a table where you drop your bread ties - very easy.

A full list of Aussie bread tags for wheelchairs is available at: HERE 


Stay Safe From Mosquitoes 

NSW Health is reminding people to protect themselves from mosquitoes when they are out and about.

NSW Health states Mosquitoes in NSW can carry viruses such as Japanese encephalitis (JE), Murray Valley encephalitis (MVE), Kunjin, Ross River and Barmah Forest. The viruses may cause serious diseases with symptoms ranging from tiredness, rash, headache and sore and swollen joints to rare but severe symptoms of seizures and loss of consciousness.

A free vaccine to protect against JE infection is available to those at highest risk in NSW and people can check their eligibility at NSW Health.

People are encouraged to take actions to prevent mosquito bites and reduce the risk of acquiring a mosquito-borne virus by:
  • Applying repellent to exposed skin. Use repellents that contain DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Check the label for reapplication times.
  • Re-applying repellent regularly, particularly after swimming. Be sure to apply sunscreen first and then apply repellent.
  • Wearing light, loose-fitting long-sleeve shirts, long pants and covered footwear and socks.
  • Avoiding going outdoors during peak mosquito times, especially at dawn and dusk.
  • Using insecticide sprays, vapour dispensing units and mosquito coils to repel mosquitoes (mosquito coils should only be used outdoors in well-ventilated areas)
  • Covering windows and doors with insect screens and checking there are no gaps.
  • Removing items that may collect water such as old tyres and empty pots from around your home to reduce the places where mosquitoes can breed.
  • Using repellents that are safe for children. Most skin repellents are safe for use on children aged three months and older. Always check the label for instructions. Protecting infants aged less than three months by using an infant carrier draped with mosquito netting, secured along the edges.
  • While camping, use a tent that has fly screens to prevent mosquitoes entering or sleep under a mosquito net.
Remember, Spray Up – Cover Up – Screen Up to protect from mosquito bite. For more information go to NSW Health.

Mountain Bike Incidents On Public Land: Survey

This survey aims to document mountain bike related incidents on public land, available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K88PSNP

Sent in by Pittwater resident Academic for future report- study. 

Report fox sightings

Fox sightings, signs of fox activity, den locations and attacks on native or domestic animals can be reported into FoxScan. FoxScan is a free resource for residents, community groups, local Councils, and other land managers to record and report fox sightings and control activities. 

Our Council's Invasive species Team receives an alert when an entry is made into FoxScan.  The information in FoxScan will assist with planning fox control activities and to notify the community when and where foxes are active.



marine wildlife rescue group on the Central Coast

A new wildlife group was launched on the Central Coast on Saturday, December 10, 2022.

Marine Wildlife Rescue Central Coast (MWRCC) had its official launch at The Entrance Boat Shed at 10am.

The group comprises current and former members of ASTR, ORRCA, Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace, WIRES and Wildlife ARC, as well as vets, academics, and people from all walks of life.

Well known marine wildlife advocate and activist Cathy Gilmore is spearheading the organisation.

“We believe that it is time the Central Coast looked after its own marine wildlife, and not be under the control or directed by groups that aren’t based locally,” Gilmore said.

“We have the local knowledge and are set up to respond and help injured animals more quickly.

“This also means that donations and money fundraised will go directly into helping our local marine creatures, and not get tied up elsewhere in the state.”

The organisation plans to have rehabilitation facilities and rescue kits placed in strategic locations around the region.

MWRCC will also be in touch with Indigenous groups to learn the traditional importance of the local marine environment and its inhabitants.

“We want to work with these groups and share knowledge between us,” Gilmore said.

“This is an opportunity to help save and protect our local marine wildlife, so if you have passion and commitment, then you are more than welcome to join us.”

Marine Wildlife Rescue Central Coast has a Facebook page where you may contact members. Visit: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076317431064


Watch out - shorebirds about

Pittwater is home to many resident and annually visiting birds. If you watch your step you won't harm any beach-nesting and estuary-nesting birds have started setting up home on our shores.

Did you know that Careel Bay and other spots throughout our area are part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP)?

This flyway, and all of the stopping points along its way, are vital to ensure the survival of these Spring and Summer visitors. This is where they rest and feed on their journeys.  For example, did you know that the bar-tailed godwit flies for 239 hours for 8,108 miles from Alaska to Australia?

Not only that, Shorebirds such as endangered oystercatchers and little terns lay their eggs in shallow scraped-out nests in the sand, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Threatened Species officer Ms Katherine Howard has said.
Even our regular residents such as seagulls are currently nesting to bear young.

What can you do to help them?
Known nest sites may be indicated by fencing or signs. The whole community can help protect shorebirds by keeping out of nesting areas marked by signs or fences and only taking your dog to designated dog offleash area. 

Just remember WE are visitors to these areas. These birds LIVE there. This is their home.

Four simple steps to help keep beach-nesting birds safe:
1. Look out for bird nesting signs or fenced-off nesting areas on the beach, stay well clear of these areas and give the parent birds plenty of space.
2. Walk your dogs in designated dog-friendly areas only and always keep them on a leash over summer.
3. Stay out of nesting areas and follow all local rules.
4. Chicks are mobile and don't necessarily stay within fenced nesting areas. When you're near a nesting area, stick to the wet sand to avoid accidentally stepping on a chick.


Possums In Your Roof?: do the right thing

Possums in your roof? Please do the right thing 
On the weekend, one of our volunteers noticed a driver pull up, get out of their vehicle, open the boot, remove a trap and attempt to dump a possum on a bush track. Fortunately, our member intervened and saved the beautiful female brushtail and the baby in her pouch from certain death. 

It is illegal to relocate a trapped possum more than 150 metres from the point of capture and substantial penalties apply.  Urbanised possums are highly territorial and do not fare well in unfamiliar bushland. In fact, they may starve to death or be taken by predators.

While Sydney Wildlife Rescue does not provide a service to remove possums from your roof, we do offer this advice:

✅ Call us on (02) 9413 4300 and we will refer you to a reliable and trusted licenced contractor in the Sydney metropolitan area. For a small fee they will remove the possum, seal the entry to your roof and provide a suitable home for the possum - a box for a brushtail or drey for a ringtail.
✅ Do-it-yourself by following this advice from the Department of Planning and Environment: 

❌ Do not under any circumstances relocate a possum more than 150 metres from the capture site.
Thank you for caring and doing the right thing.



Sydney Wildlife photos

Aviaries + Possum Release Sites Needed

Pittwater Online News has interviewed Lynette Millett OAM (WIRES Northern Beaches Branch) needs more bird cages of all sizes for keeping the current huge amount of baby wildlife in care safe or 'homed' while they are healed/allowed to grow bigger to the point where they may be released back into their own home. 

If you have an aviary or large bird cage you are getting rid of or don't need anymore, please email via the link provided above. There is also a pressing need for release sites for brushtail possums - a species that is very territorial and where release into a site already lived in by one possum can result in serious problems and injury. 

If you have a decent backyard and can help out, Lyn and husband Dave can supply you with a simple drey for a nest and food for their first weeks of adjustment.

Bushcare in Pittwater: where + when

For further information or to confirm the meeting details for below groups, please contact Council's Bushcare Officer on 9970 1367 or visit Council's bushcare webpage to find out how you can get involved.

BUSHCARE SCHEDULES 
Where we work                      Which day                              What time 

Avalon     
Angophora Reserve             3rd Sunday                         8:30 - 11:30am 
Avalon Dunes                        1st Sunday                         8:30 - 11:30am 
Avalon Golf Course              2nd Wednesday                 3 - 5:30pm 
Careel Creek                         4th Saturday                      8:30 - 11:30am 
Toongari Reserve                 3rd Saturday                      9 - 12noon (8 - 11am in summer) 
Bangalley Headland            2nd Sunday                         9 to 12noon 
Catalpa Reserve              4th Sunday of the month        8.30 – 11.30
Palmgrove Park              1st Saturday of the month        9.00 – 12 

Bayview     
Winnererremy Bay                 4th Sunday                        9 to 12noon 

Bilgola     
North Bilgola Beach              3rd Monday                        9 - 12noon 
Algona Reserve                     1st Saturday                       9 - 12noon 
Plateau Park                          1st Friday                            8:30 - 11:30am 

Church Point     
Browns Bay Reserve             1st Tuesday                        9 - 12noon 
McCarrs Creek Reserve       Contact Bushcare Officer     To be confirmed 

Clareville     
Old Wharf Reserve                 3rd Saturday                      8 - 11am 

Elanora     
Kundibah Reserve                   4th Sunday                       8:30 - 11:30am 

Mona Vale     
Mona Vale Beach Basin          1st Saturday                    8 - 11am 
Mona Vale Dunes                     2nd Saturday +3rd Thursday     8:30 - 11:30am 

Newport     
Bungan Beach                          4th Sunday                      9 - 12noon 
Crescent Reserve                    3rd Sunday                      9 - 12noon 
North Newport Beach              4th Saturday                    8:30 - 11:30am 
Porter Reserve                          2nd Saturday                  8 - 11am 

North Narrabeen     
Irrawong Reserve                     2nd Saturday                   2 - 5pm 

Palm Beach     
North Palm Beach Dunes      3rd Saturday                    9 - 12noon 

Scotland Island     
Catherine Park                          2nd Sunday                     10 - 12:30pm 
Elizabeth Park                           1st Saturday                      9 - 12noon 
Pathilda Reserve                      3rd Saturday                      9 - 12noon 

Warriewood     
Warriewood Wetlands             1st Sunday                         8:30 - 11:30am 

Whale Beach     
Norma Park                               1st Friday                            9 - 12noon 

Western Foreshores     
Coopers Point, Elvina Bay      2nd Sunday                        10 - 1pm 
Rocky Point, Elvina Bay           1st Monday                          9 - 12noon

Friends Of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment Activities

Bush Regeneration - Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment  
This is a wonderful way to become connected to nature and contribute to the health of the environment.  Over the weeks and months you can see positive changes as you give native species a better chance to thrive.  Wildlife appreciate the improvement in their habitat.

Belrose area - Thursday mornings 
Belrose area - Weekend mornings by arrangement
Contact: Phone or text Conny Harris on 0432 643 295

Wheeler Creek - Wednesday mornings 9-11am
Contact: Phone or text Judith Bennett on 0402 974 105
Or email: Friends of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment : email@narrabeenlagoon.org.au

Gardens and Environment Groups and Organisations in Pittwater

Ringtail Posses 2023

Marine climate interventions can have unintended consequences – we need to manage the risks

Stock for you, Shutterstock
Emily M. OgierUniversity of TasmaniaGretta PeclUniversity of Tasmania, and Tiffany MorrisonThe University of Melbourne

The world’s oceans are being rapidly transformed as climate change intensifies. Corals are bleaching, sea levels are rising, and seawater is becoming more acidic – making life difficult for shellfish and reef-building corals. All this and more is unfolding on our watch, with profound consequences for marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

In response, scientists, governments and industries are trying to intervene. People all over the world are experimenting with new ways to capture and store more carbon dioxide, or make up for damage already done.

Ocean-based climate actions include breeding more heat-tolerant corals, restoring mangroves, and farming seaweed. Such interventions offer hope, but they’re also inherently risky. Some may be ineffective, inequitable or even harmful.

The pace of innovation is now outstripping the capacity to responsibly regulate, monitor and evaluate these interventions. This means current and future generations may not be getting value for money, or worse – the chance to avoid irreversible change may be slipping away.

In our new research, published in Science, we reviewed the latest evidence on known and perceived risks of new ocean-based climate interventions. We then gathered emerging ideas on how to reduce those risks.

We found the risks aren’t being widely considered, and the benefits are unclear. But there are emerging assessment tools and planning frameworks we can build on, to plan ocean-based climate actions that meet humanity’s climate goals.

The promise and peril of marine climate interventions

Marine climate interventions vary in scope and ambition. Examples can be found all over the world. These include:

Some interventions are still at proof-of-concept stage, and several have been tested and abandoned. Others are facing challenges owing to complexity of monitoring and verification.

Each has its own set of benefits, costs and risks. For example, making the ocean more alkaline may help to squeeze in more carbon from the atmosphere, but it’s difficult to verify how much carbon has been removed. This makes it hard to justify the costs and the potential damage to ecosystems, such as effects on local fish populations.

Restoring coral can support biodiversity in the short term, but it may not last as warming exceeds their (modified) ability to adapt. This type of intervention is also expensive and labour-intensive, with unintended emissions from energy-intensive processes. So it may be impossible to scale up.

Seaweed farming at scale would occupy thousands if not millions of square kilometres of oceans, displacing fishing, shipping and conservation. Harvesting 1 billion tonnes of seaweed carbon would require farming more than 1 million square km of the Pacific Ocean, and would deliver just 10% of the annual atmospheric carbon dioxide removal required to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

It’s doubtful whether seaweed farming would actually remove carbon from the atmosphere. But seaweed farming can – if well-planned – produce a range of other climate-related benefits.

Moreover, interventions often overlap in space and time, creating cumulative impacts and unintended consequences. In some cases, the projects may displace other users, undermine Indigenous rights, or erode public trust in climate science and policy. Without careful understanding and planning, these efforts could exacerbate the very problems they aim to solve.

Governance gaps and ethical dilemmas

One of the most pressing challenges is the lack of regulation and oversight suited to the scale and complexity of marine climate interventions.

Existing regulations are often outdated, fragmented, or designed for land-based systems. Few countries have biosafety laws for the ocean. This means many interventions proceed without comprehensive risk assessments or community consultation.

Ethical dilemmas abound. Who decides what constitutes a “healthy” ocean? Who bears responsibility if an intervention causes harm? And how do we ensure benefits — such as improved livelihoods or climate resilience — are equitably distributed?

Currently, scientists, funding bodies and non-government organisations do the bulk of the decision-making. There is limited input from governments, local communities and Indigenous Peoples. This imbalance risks perpetuating historical injustices and undermining the legitimacy of many ocean-based climate actions.

St Ives Harbour in Cornwall
Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement has been proposed for St Ives in Cornwall. diego_torres, pixabugFAL

Toward responsible marine transformation

We identified opportunities for scientists, policymakers, and funding bodies to work together more effectively on more comprehensive assessments of interventions.

Guidelines and insights are emerging from experimental-scale research into capturing and storing “blue” carbon in ocean and coastal ecosystems. Similarly, a non-profit organisation in the United States has developed a code of conduct for marine carbon dioxide removal. However these guidelines are yet to be integrated into broader governance frameworks.

Awareness of the urgent need to ensure intervention is done responsibly is also growing. Many high-level policy documents now recognise the importance of transitioning to more sustainable, equitable, and adaptive states. For example, the Samoa Climate Change Policy 2020 recognises the need to adapt coastal economies and communities to warming oceans, while also working to reduce carbon emissions.

We can use the ocean in our fight against climate change (United Nations)

Proceed with caution

The ocean is central to our climate future. It absorbs heat, stores carbon, and sustains life. But it is also vulnerable — and increasingly, a site of experimentation. If we are to harness the promise of ocean-based climate action, we must do so with care, humility, and foresight.

Responsible governance is not a barrier to innovation — it is its foundation. By embedding ethical, inclusive, and evidence-based principles into our marine climate strategies, we can chart a course toward a more resilient and equitable ocean future.The Conversation

Emily M. Ogier, Associate Professor in Marine Social Science, University of TasmaniaGretta Pecl, Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, UTAS, University of Tasmania, and Tiffany Morrison, Professor, School of Geography, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

We used tiny sensors in backpacks to discover the extraordinary ways birds migrate to find water

Heather McGinness/CSIROCC BY-NC-ND
Heather McGinnessCSIROLuke Lloyd-JonesCSIRO, and Micha V JacksonCSIRO

Every year, nomadic Australian waterbirds fly vast distances to find food and the perfect nesting site. They have to be good at finding not just water, but the right kind of water. But across much of Australia, that can be hard.

These species need long periods of flooding to produce the shallow, food-filled wetlands that support them and their chicks during breeding seasons. If the floodwaters fall too rapidly, the whole season can be threatened.

We don’t yet fully understand how these birds find these temporary wetlands. But by putting satellite trackers on species such as great egrets, plumed egrets, royal spoonbills and straw-necked ibis, we found the hidden flyways – bird highways – they use to search for wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Our research has also shown how important it is for these birds to be flexible to survive in a tough environment. Birds dependent on flooding can’t just do the same thing every year – they have to constantly change destinations.

Our research can help focus conservation and protection efforts to ensure the most important breeding and feeding sites have reliable access to water.

map of Australia showing flyway in Murray Darling basin.
This map shows the Murray-Darling Basin Flyway as flown by straw-necked ibis (white tracks). CSIROCC BY-NC-ND

Chasing the floodwaters

As rivers swell and break their banks, floodwaters fill dry billabongs and cover low-lying areas. These shallow, temporary wetlands soon fill with insects and young fish. For inland waterbirds, these wetlands offer food and safe nesting places.

But egrets, spoonbills and ibis can take years to reach breeding age. If conditions aren’t right, they won’t breed at all.

Australia is known for its waterbirds, both inland and coastal. To protect local species and those migrating from far away, Australia has made international commitments to protect waterbirds and wetlands.

But when human demand for water clashes with the needs of waterbirds, the birds can lose out. If irrigation and farming uses up too much water, there may not be enough left for the wetlands these birds need.

The Murray-Darling Basin contains critically important wetlands for waterbirds and is also home to many farms, orchards and rice paddies. Ensuring there’s enough water in the system for healthy wetlands is already difficult, and will get harder as rainfall becomes less predictable under climate change.

To help with this problem, water managers periodically release environmental flows of water from dams back into the Murray-Darling system. Among other things, these flows are designed to give waterbirds the conditions they need to successfully breed.

ibis flock.
Flocks of straw-necked ibis at Barmah Forest in Victoria. Heather McGinness/CSIROCC BY-NC-ND

Backpacks for birds

In 2016, we began placing tiny backpacks equipped with satellite trackers on waterbirds to find where they move to. Over the last decade, bird satellite tracking has come a long way. Many are solar powered, transmitting accurate data as often as we need it and over months to years. These days, trackers weigh just 1–3% of the weight of the bird.

We now have more than 50,000 days of data from more than 200 birds. We tracked some birds for more than seven years, and tracked some juveniles from their hatching site to their first breeding season.

The birds nest in noisy groups of thousands to tens of thousands when conditions are right. We chose them because they have similar habitat and food requirements as many other related waterbird species.

What our research shows is how vital it is to be flexible. Birds from each species often proved able to switch movement styles over time. One season, they might stay close to productive wetlands, while another might see them flying long distances.

Straw-necked ibis, royal spoonbills and egrets often switch between local movements all the way through to continental scale, though this can vary between species and individual birds. By contrast, the familiar white ibis tend to stay in one place as adults.

Individual waterbirds can use favourable winds to travel long distances. We recorded some birds flying at speeds up to 135 kmh, with daily records of 700 km and annual totals of over 15,000 km. Some flew as high as 2,800 metres.

In 2023, we tracked a newly fledged plumed egret flying from the Macquarie Marshes in northern New South Wales to Papua New Guinea. It was the first time the species has been tracked doing this in detail and it was remarkable to watch the egret cross the ocean, flying 38 hours non-stop from coast to coast.

plumed egret held by scientist.
This young plumed egret flew from northern New South Wales to Papua New Guinea – the first time a trip like this has been recorded. CSIROCC BY-NC-ND

The data provide clear evidence of common movement routes used by ibis, spoonbills and egrets. We named the largest of these the Murray-Darling Basin Flyway, as it connects important breeding sites from south-west Victoria all the way to southern Queensland. These include the Barmah-Millewa Forest on the Murray River, Gayini and Yanga on the Murrumbidgee River, Lake Cowal, the Macquarie Marshes, the Narran Lakes and the Gwydir Wetlands.

In an Australian first, we also tracked nesting birds. This shows us where and when adults get food for their chicks, and when and how often they attend the nest. We found straw-necked ibis often travel much further to find food when nesting than royal spoonbills or white ibis.

Tracking what’s lacking

Tracking waterbirds has given us new insight into how cleverly these birds deal with Australia’s extreme conditions.

But while these birds have been able to survive Australia’s seesawing climate, it’s an open question whether they can hold on as climate change makes water even less predictable – and as human demands increase.The Conversation

Heather McGinness, Senior Research Scientist, CSIROLuke Lloyd-Jones, Research Scientist, CSIRO, and Micha V Jackson, Researcher in Applied Ecology, CSIRO

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Australia’s rat uprising: footage provides first evidence of native rakali attacking introduced black rat

Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock
Peter BanksUniversity of Sydney and Jenna BythewayUniversity of Sydney

An introduced black rat scratches through leaf litter, looking for food. Nearby, a native water rat watches on, its beady eyes shining. The native rat pounces out from the shadows, sending the invader fleeing.

The encounter in Sydney bushland, captured on video, is the first documented evidence of an aggressive interaction in nature between a native water rat, also known as rakali, and a black rat.

The footage, discussed in our new research, provides proof that rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster) actively hunt introduced black rats (Rattus rattus). This behaviour may offer a promising natural form of pest control.

Rakali are carnivorous rodents, and the largest of Australia’s 60 native rat species. Our findings suggest efforts to conserve the rakali should include Australia’s urban environments, where introduced rats cause a host of problems.

rats on rubbish bags
Introduced rats spread disease and cause other problems in cities. Chanawat Jaiya/Shutterstock

The problem of black rats

Rats have lived with humans for about 4,000 years. In Australia, invasive rats are an ongoing concern.

Anecdotal reports suggest Sydney, for example, has a growing vermin problem. Public concern was fuelled late last year when footage emerged of rats scurrying through a food court at a popular Sydney shopping centre (see video below).

Black rats and brown rats are the two main pest rat species in Australia. Both were introduced by Europeans. They compete aggressively against other species for food and can breed quickly.

Black rats are particularly abundant in urban areas and nearby bushland. They may prefer natural vegetation to urban environments, if there are no competitors around.

Their ecological impact is significant. Black rats prey on bird nests, skinks and invertebrates and also eat seeds.

Black rats also pose serious health risks to humans, pets and wildlife.

They are the primary host of rat lungworm, a parasite on the rise in Australian cities. Rats also spread leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that has killed several dogs in Sydney in recent years, and infected scores of humans.

Managing introduced rats is becoming increasingly difficult. Some rodenticides have become less effective as rats developed genetic resistance. And rat poisons have been known to harm native species.

Clearly, better ways of managing introduced rats are needed. That’s where our new paper comes in.

Enter the rakali

The rakali, or water rat, is found across much of Australia. It is semi-aquatic and usually lives near fresh or brackish (slightly salty) water such as creeks and estuaries. It is often described as Australia’s “otter”.

The rakali weighs up to 1 kilogram – far greater than an adult black rat which typically weighs up to 200 grams.

While surveying rakali around Sydney Harbour in June 2011, we captured footage of one lying in wait before ambushing a black rat.

The observation took place in bushland on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, near Collins Beach at North Head. We had set up a motion-sensing wildlife camera as part of a pilot study to understand relationships between rakali and black rats.

At 10.22pm, the camera recorded a rakali next to a rock and hidden by vegetation. A black rat approached, and the rakali leapt out and chased it off.

But do rakali kill black rats, or just chase them? Captive rakali have been known to kill and eat other rat species in captivity. And given the larger size and carnivorous diet of the rakali, they may in fact prey on black rats in the wild.

Or rakali may reduce black rat numbers the same way dingoes reduce fox activity – by both preying on some and scaring others away.

Our paper also canvasses growing evidence that native rodents can resist and suppress their invasive counterparts.

For example, native bush rats (Rattus fuscipes) were presumed to be outcompeted by black rats. But an experiment at Jervis Bay in New South Wales removed black rats, allowing bush rats to reclaim their territory. After the experiment ended, black rats did not return.

At North Head on Sydney Harbour, reintroducing bush rats to areas where they once lived led to a dramatic decline in black rat numbers.

Recent research reported on footage captured in a Perth backyard of black rats attacking a native quenda, a small marsupial species found only in southwest Australia. However, the quenda appeared to fend off the attack. This means it’s possible rakali, which are much larger than quenda, would be even more aggressive towards black rats.

Native rats to the rescue?

Evidence is growing that native rodents can help control pest rodents.

This is especially true of rakali, which live in all major Australian cities where black rats are common. More research is needed to better understand the potential of rakali to manage invasive black rat populations.

Troublingly, however, native rats are vulnerable to rodenticides. To support their role in pest management, the use of poisons to control pest rats should be reconsidered.

By allowing native rodents to thrive, we may be able to harness their natural behaviours to control invasive pests safely, sustainably and effectively.The Conversation

Peter Banks, Professor of Conservation Biology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney and Jenna Bytheway, Senior Research Officer in Conservation Biology, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

UN climate chief tells Australia to ‘go big’ with its 2035 emissions reduction target

Michelle GrattanUniversity of Canberra

The United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has urged the Australian government to set an ambitious 2035 emissions reduction target, declaring “bog standard is beneath you”.

In a Monday speech, Stiell says, “don’t settle for what’s easy. Go for what’s smart by going big”.

His speech, hosted by the Smart Energy Council, comes ahead of his meeting with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, in Canberra on Tuesday. Australia must submit its 2035 target under the Paris climate agreement by September. The Climate Change Authority has yet to deliver its advice to Bowen on the target. Previously, it has pointed to a target of between 65% and 75% reduction on 2005 levels.

The authority says on its website:

development of the 2035 targets advice is currently underway. This includes complex whole-of-economy modelling, policy analysis, consultation and consideration of international trends in climate action.

Stiell said Australia had a strong economy and among the world’s highest living standards. “If you want to keep them, doubling down on clean energy is an economic no-brainer.

"So the choice is clear. The question is: how far are you willing to go?

"The answer is due in September – when Australia’s next national climate plan is due. This isn’t just the next policy milestone. It’s a defining moment.”

Stiell said this was the moment for a climate plan that did not just write a vision into policy, “but delivers in spades for your people.

"Go for what will build lasting wealth and national security.”

He said this could be “Australia’s moment”.

“You’ve got world-class resources, a skilled, inventive workforce, and a A$22.7 billion plan – Future Made in Australia – with real ambition behind it.

"You’ve doubled renewable capacity since 2019.

"You’ve enshrined targets in law, and you’ve got strong, long-term policy signals.”

On the other side of the coin, Stiell warned if climate change was unchecked it would cripple Australia’s food production, and the country could face $6.8 trillion GDP loss by 2050.

“Living standards could drop by over $7,000 per person per year. And rising seas, resource pressures, and extreme weather would destabilise Australia’s neighbourhood – from Pacific Island nations to Southeast Asia – threatening your security.”

Bowen will also be hoping for some intelligence from Stiell on whether Australia’s bid to host next year’s COP will succeed.

Meanwhile, the push continues within the Coalition from those who want to dump its commitment to the net zero emissions by 2050 target.

The Western Australian Liberal party state council on the weekend called for the federal opposition to abandon the target. The motion came from the party’s Canning division, which is the seat held by frontbencher Andrew Hastie.

Hastie, speaking after it was carried, said it sent a “clear signal” to Australians that “we stand for something”.

In his weekly newsletter to subscribers, Hastie denounces the “net zero scam”.

“The Net Zero economy favours big, foreign, commercial interests that employ platoons of sophisticated lobbyists to protect the legislated system of climate taxes, subsidies, and penalties that favours renewable energy.

"They cloak their commercial interests in the language of climate and crisis and emergency.

"The Labor Government is their enabler.”

The opposition has a review of its energy policy underway that Hastie, despite being in the shadow cabinet, appears to be pre-empting.

In the House of Representatives on Monday, the Nationals Barnaby Joyce introduced his private member’s bill to scrap Australia’s commitment to net zero.

“Net zero is going to have absolutely no effect on the climate whatsoever. The vast majority of the globe in both population and GDP are not participating in it, he told the house.

"So why are we doing this to ourselves?”

It had changed the standard of living for many Australians, he said. “Our GDP per person is going down. People are becoming poorer. If you go into shops they talk about 30 to 40% of their costs being energy”. In a more pronounced way, it was hurting the poorest, who needed the power to keep themselves warm, Joyce said.

Coalition rebels defect to support One Nation motion against net zero

In the Senate late Monday, Nationals Matt Canavan and Liberal Alex Antic defected from the opposition’s position to vote for a Pauline Hanson’s One Nation motion condemning net zero.

The motion called on the Senate to recognise as a matter of urgency,“The need for the Government to scrap its net-zero emissions target and instead prioritise providing Australian families, farmers, businesses and industry with cheap and reliable energy, to protect jobs, ensure energy security, lower the cost of living and restore Australia’s economic competitiveness”.

Hanson said net zero was “the most suicidal policy Australia has ever had”.

Liberal frontbencher Paul Scarr said the opposition would not be diverted from its policy review process.The Conversation

Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

5 reasons why wind farms are costing more in Australia – and what to do about it

Johan Larson/Shutterstock
Magnus SöderbergGriffith University

Building a solar farm in Australia is getting about 8% cheaper each year as panel prices fall and technology improves, according to an official new report. Battery storage costs are falling even more sharply, dropping 20% over the past year alone.

But the same can’t be said for wind farms, the second-largest source of renewable energy in Australia. Onshore wind costs actually rose about 8% in 2023–24 and another 6% in 2024–25.

The findings are contained in the GenCost 2024–25 report by CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator, released this week.

Rising costs are putting real pressure on the wind industry, undermining investor confidence. Developers of offshore wind projects are walking away, and even cheaper on-shore wind projects are under strain. Even as wind energy becomes a mainstay in China, the United States and Germany, the industry faces real headwinds in Australia.

This is surprising. Wind, like solar, was projected to get steadily cheaper. The fuel is free and turbines are getting better and better. Instead, wind in Australia has remained stubbornly expensive. Solving the problem will be challenging. But solutions have to be found fast if Australia is to reach the goal of 82% renewable power in the grid by 2030 – now less than five years away.

ship installing a wind turbine in ocean.
Australia has no offshore wind projects up and running – and cost spikes may put planned projects at risk. Obatala-photography/Shutterstock

Five reasons why this is happening

Here’s what’s going on:

1. Global supply chains have been disrupted

The cost of steel, copper, fibreglass and other materials vital for wind turbines shot up during the pandemic. As a result, turbine prices rose almost 40% between 2020 and 2022. While input costs have fallen, turbine prices remain high. Solar panels can be churned out in factories, but modern wind turbines are massive, complex structures that require specialised manufacturing and logistics. That makes them more sensitive to global price fluctuations.

2. Good wind is often in remote places

Australia’s best wind resources are typically far from cities and existing grid infrastructure. Connecting far-flung wind farms such as Tasmania’s Robbins Island to the grid can require new and very expensive transmission lines. Remote sites mean extra costs such as temporary worker accommodation. The GenCost report notes this has added about 4% to wind project budgets in 2024–25 compared with the year before.

Many other countries rely heavily on offshore wind, because wind blows more strongly and reliably over oceans. Unfortunately, spiking costs are likely to further delay the arrival of offshore wind in Australia. GenCost projects the first offshore wind projects in Australia will face even steeper costs.

wind turbines in arid area.
Good wind resources are often located in remote areas of Australia. Brook Mitchell/Stringer via Getty

3. Local construction and labour costs have soared

Australia faces a shortage of workers with the skills to build and maintain wind farms, resulting in higher wages and recruitment costs. Wind developers say construction costs have become a real issue. Wind farms are more labour-intensive than solar.

4. Interest rates have raised financing costs

Wind farms require large upfront investments and lengthy construction periods. Even a small increase in interest rates can make them unviable – and interest rates have been high for some time.

5. Reliability concerns, regulatory delay and community opposition

According to US researchers, technical issues have emerged for some new wind turbines, creating unexpected costs for developers. The long, complex process of getting permits, carrying out environmental assessments and building community support is pushing out project timelines, increasing costs and uncertainty for developers.

Will solar take over?

Solar faces far fewer challenges. Solar panels are mass-produced, meaning costs are steadily driven down through economies of scale. Panels can be deployed quickly and solar farms tend to face less community opposition.

Wind turbines have to spin to function, while solar panels have no moving parts (though systems that track the Sun do). As a result, solar farms require less maintenance and are more reliable.

It’s no surprise large-scale solar has been on a record-breaking run, growing 20-fold between 2018 and 2023.

Solar panels make electricity during daylight hours, especially in summer. By contrast, wind tends to produce more power at night and during winter months. This is why wind is so useful to a green grid.

Generating power from both wind and sunshine can slash how much storage is needed to ensure grid reliability, lowering overall system costs. A balanced mix of wind, solar and storage will meet Australia’s electricity needs more efficiently and reliably than just solar and storage, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency and independent researchers.

Could wind come back?

Making wind more viable will take work. Potential solutions do exist, such as expanding the skilled workforce and investing in specialised ships and equipment to install turbines offshore.

Shipping large turbines from Denmark or China is expensive. To avoid these costs, it could make sense to encourage local manufacturing of large and heavy parts such as the main tower.

Other options include finding lower-cost turbine suppliers and streamlining regulatory processes.

wind turbine blades on dock.
Rising material and labour costs have driven up the cost of wind turbines. Pictured: turbine blades in China’s Jiangsu province in 2022 about to be shipped to Australia. Xu Congjun/Future Publishing via Getty Images

The newly announced expansion of the government’s Capacity Investment Scheme could help reduce risks and give certainty, alongside public investment in new transmission lines.

If nothing is done or if new measures don’t help, wind is likely to stall while solar and storage race ahead.

That’s not the worst outcome. Australia could get a long way by relying on batteries and pumped hydro to store power from solar during the day and release it in the evenings, as California is doing. But this strategy involves trade offs, such as higher storage-capacity needs and the risk of insufficient power during long cloudy periods.

For Australia to optimise its mix of renewables and storage, policymakers will have to tackle wind’s cost challenges. Effective action could lower costs, accelerate project timelines and bolster flagging investor confidence.The Conversation

Magnus Söderberg, Professor and Director, Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research, Griffith University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

An underwater observatory keeping the pulse of the Southern Ocean for nearly 30 years yields fresh results

Elizabeth Shadwick
Christopher TraillUniversity of TasmaniaElizabeth ShadwickCSIRO, and Tyler RohrUniversity of Tasmania

In a world affected by climate change, the Southern Ocean plays an outsized role. It absorbs up to 40% of the human-caused emissions taken up by the oceans while also being home to some of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems.

Understanding these ecosystems and how they’re changing is crucial – but challenging. Patterns and trends in this remote, chaotic ocean are often obscured by short-term variation.

The only way to see through the noise is to make sustained measurements, year after year, for decades.

In the heart of the Southern Ocean there is a car-sized yellow and blue structure floating on the surface. It may not look like much, but this is the tip of a vast underwater observatory that has monitored the pulse of this region for nearly three decades.

Known as the Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS), this observatory endures cyclone-strength winds and waves up to 18 metres high. The knowledge it provides has been collected in several recent studies, including one just published in Ocean Science.

From the surface to the seafloor

Established in 1997 by CSIRO researcher Tom Trull, the observatory consists of two automated deep-water moorings about 500 kilometres southwest of Tasmania.

Anchored to the seafloor 4,500 metres below, these moorings are maintained by annual voyages of the CSIRO research vessel Investigator from Hobart.

Together, they observe the entire water column, from the wave-lashed surface to the deep. Now in its 28th year, the SOTS program is the longest-running observation program in the open Southern Ocean.

The only actual sign of the observatory is the yellow mooring on the surface, known as the Southern Ocean Flux Station. It has an array of 30 different atmospheric and weather sensors. These transmit near-real time weather data used in Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.

Below the surface is an automated water sampler and some 40 sensors mounted along the 4,500m mooring lines down to the deep sea. Joining the floating laboratory is another mooring made of three large funnels that intercept sinking marine particles on their journey to the seafloor.

A satellite map with a red dot in the middle of the ocean, halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica.
A satellite map showing the location of SOTS. Christopher TraillCC BY-ND

What data has the observatory provided?

The newly published study uses the observatory’s data from 1997 to 2022 to quantify how heat and carbon enter the ocean, and how ecosystem structure changes over seasons.

These results show just how important are the tiny marine plants known as phytoplankton.

They control the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide entering the ocean. This can be directly linked to how much carbon actually makes it to the deep ocean and is locked away for long periods of time – this process is known as the “biological pump”.

At the same time, we’ve been figuring out what controls phytoplankton populations and their ability to help this part of the ocean absorb more carbon. Other research from the SOTS site published earlier this year shows exactly how marine life in this region is inextricably linked to an essential yet sparse trace metal in seawater – iron.

The SOTS program has also been helping scientists detect changes in the chemistry of the Southern Ocean, such as ocean acidification from rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.

It also allows for measurements of how carbon is absorbed by the sea, how marine ecosystems help store that carbon at depth, and how high-energy winds help supply vital nutrients to fuel these ecosystems.

The observatory has even been the site of discovery of a new marine species.

The key to success

All these results are only possible thanks to the longevity and sustained funding of the SOTS program. It yields sufficient data far enough back in time, and fills gaps that can’t be provided by satellites.

Without dedicated, long-term monitoring, we would have no baseline to track climate change and a poor understanding of the weather systems and ecosystems in this important part of the world. It also contributes to our ability to forecast daily weather in Australia and long-term climate.

But the value of SOTS reaches far beyond the Southern Ocean. Our national monitoring program contributes to global networks in an international, coordinated effort to observe, understand and predict weather and climate. It helps us prepare for extreme events that are set to become more frequent.

This example is timely. Funding cuts to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have resulted in staff layoffs, with 17% of NOAA’s workforce to be cut next year and the risk of extreme weather monitoring stations shutting down.

NOAA is responsible for several ocean monitoring sites. It is also responsible for meteorological satellites and the Argo robotic float program – both globally important monitoring platforms.

As ocean and climate monitoring systems abroad face the fallout from potential loss of observing systems, Australia’s Southern Ocean Time Series continues on – and its importance is only increasing.


Funding for the SOTS program comes via the Integrated Marine Observing System, the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, and through collaboration between CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.The Conversation

Christopher Traill, PhD Candidate Southern Ocean biogeochemistry, University of TasmaniaElizabeth Shadwick, Principal Research Scientist, Environment, CSIRO, and Tyler Rohr, ARC DECRA Fellow/Lecturer, IMAS, University of Tasmania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes

CassandraSm/Shutterstock
Lucinda ChambersUNSW Sydney and Tracey RogersUNSW Sydney

Late in the evening, the Antarctic sky flushes pink. The male leopard seal wakes and slips from the ice into the water. There, he’ll spend the night singing underwater amongst the floating ice floes.

For the next two months he sings every night. He will sing so loudly, the ice around him vibrates. Each song is a sequence of trills and hoots, performed in a particular pattern.

In a world first, we analysed leopard seal songs and found the predictability of their patterns was remarkably similar to the nursery rhymes humans sing.

We think this is a deliberate strategy. While leopard seals are solitary animals, the males need their call to carry clearly across vast stretches of icy ocean, to woo a mate.

A seal on an ice floe in Antarctica
Solitary leopard seals want their call to carry. Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A season of underwater solos

Leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) are named after their spotted coats. They live on ice and surrounding waters in Antarctica.

Leopard seals are especially vocal during breeding season, which lasts from late October to early January. A female leopard seal sings for a few hours on the days she is in heat. But the males are the real showstoppers.

Each night, the males perform underwater solos for up to 13 hours. They dive into the sea, singing underwater for about two minutes before returning to the water’s surface to breathe and rest. This demanding routine continues for weeks.

A male leopard seal weighs about 320 kilograms, but produces surprisingly high-pitched trills, similar to those of a tiny cricket.

Within a leopard seal population, the sounds themselves don’t vary much in pitch or duration. But the order and pattern in which the sounds are produced varies considerably between individuals.

Our research examined these individual songs. We compared them to that of other vocal animals, and to human music.

Listening to songs from the sea

The data used in the study was collected by one author of this article, Tracey Rogers, in the 1990s.

Rogers rode her quad bike across the Antarctic ice to the edge of the sea and marked 26 individual male seals with dye as they slept. Then she returned to record their songs at night.

The new research involved analysing these recordings, to better understand their structure and patterns. We did this by measuring the “entropy” of their sequences. Entropy measures how predictable or random a sequence is.

We found the songs are composed of five key “notes” or call types. Listen to each one below.

A low double trill. Tracey Rogers UNSW SydneyCC BY-SA28.5 KB (download)

A hoot with low single trill. Tracey Rogers UNSW SydneyCC BY-SA53.8 KB (download)

High double trill. Tracey Rogers UNSW SydneyCC BY-SA29.7 KB (download)

Low descending single trill. Tracey Rogers UNSW SydneyCC BY-SA49 KB (download)

Medium single trill. Tracey Rogers UNSW SydneyCC BY-SA22.7 KB (download)

A remarkably predictable pattern

We then compared the songs of the male leopard seals with several styles of human music: baroqueclassicalromantic and contemporary, as well as songs by The Beatles and nursery rhymes.

What stood out was the similarity between the predictability of human nursery rhymes and leopard seal calls. Nursery rhymes are simple, repetitive and easy to remember — and that’s what we heard in the leopard seal songs.

The range of “entropy” was similar to the 39 nursery rhymes from the Golden Song Book, a collection of words and sheet music for classic children’s songs, which was first published in 1945. It includes classics such:

  • Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
  • Frère Jacques
  • Ring Around a Rosy
  • Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
  • Humpty Dumpty
  • Three Blind Mice
  • Rockabye Baby.

For humans, the predictable structure of a nursery rhyme melody helps make it simple enough for a child to learn. For a leopard seal, this predictability may enable the individual to learn its song and keep singing it over multiple days. This consistency is important, because changes in pitch or frequency can create miscommunication.

Like sperm whales, leopard seals may also use song to set themselves apart from others and signal their fitness to reproduce. The greater structure in the songs helps ensure listeners accurately receive the message and identify who is singing.

Male leopard seals produce high-pitched cricket-like trills.

An evolving song?

Leopard seals sound very different to humans. But our research shows the complexity and structure of their songs is remarkably similar to our own nursery rhymes.

Communication through song is a very common animal behaviour. However, structure and predictability in mammal song has only been studied in a handful of species. We know very little about what drives it.

Understanding animal communication is important. It can improve conservation efforts and animal welfare, and provide important information about animal cognition and evolution.

Technology has advanced rapidly since our recordings were made in the 1990s. In future, we hope to revisit Antarctica to record and study further, to better understand if new call types have emerged, and if patterns of leopard seal song evolve from generation to generation.The Conversation

Lucinda Chambers, PhD Candidate in Marine Bioacoustics, UNSW Sydney and Tracey Rogers, Professor Evolution & Ecology, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A World of Water exhibition asks: ‘Can the seas survive us?’

John Kenneth ParanadaUniversity of East Anglia

Water is at the heart of the disruption wrought by climate change. The seas, once seen as vast and stable, are now unpredictable and restless.

That tidy, looping diagram of the water cycle once pinned up in primary school classrooms – clouds, rivers, evaporation and rain – now reads more like a fragmented recollection than a dependable process. Human impact has cracked that once-stable loop wide open.

Sea levels inch upward year on year. Droughts grow more prolonged and severe. Rainfall becomes erratic and violent. What was once spoken of in future tense is now present and pressing.

In Norfolk, land and sea have long coexisted in an uneasy truce. Here, the threat of sea level rise is not a speculative concern, it is data-backedvisible and accelerating.

According to research from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, vast swathes of Norfolk risk being submerged by rising seas if global temperatures rise by even two degrees celsius. It is one of the most at-risk areas in the UK.

Against this backdrop comes the Sainsbury Centre’s exhibition, A World of Water (part of the Can the Seas Survive Us? season). In the show, water is explored as subject, medium and metaphor. It is both agent and witness, shaping civilisations, sustaining life, and now challenging our ability to coexist with it.

Curated through an interdisciplinary lens, the exhibition was shaped by deep collaboration with scientists, artists, ecologists, activists and coastal communities. Rooted in lived experience, from a two-day walk along the Wherry Man’s Way to a 36-hour sail aboard a 1921 fishing smack, the curatorial process traced fragile coastlines and the North Sea’s rapid transformation into an industrial nexus of energy infrastructures.


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The curatorial approach to the show embraces the multifaceted nature of water by weaving together maritime history, Indigenous knowledge and contemporary works rooted in the artists’ experiences.

Many of the participating artists hail from communities already wrestling with rising tides and the realities of climate disruption. Their contributions form three thematic currents: Mudplume, Water Water Everywhere and In a State of Flux.

These overlapping threads investigate how water connects, nourishes and imperils. Rather than positioning the sea as a line of division, the exhibition reframes it as a living, connective tissue linking culture, history and ecology.

A curatorial geomorphology of the sea

Guidance for the exhibition’s conceptual framework came, fittingly, from water itself. Its mutable nature – solid, liquid, vapour – shaped the rhythm of the curatorial process. Rather than impose a rigid thesis, the exhibition offers an ever-shifting constellation of perspectives.

The exhibition journey begins with sound. Visitors are welcomed by a low murmur, tides lapping, water dripping, echoing through the museum entrance. This leads to Spiral Fosset (2024), a sculptural work by the Dutch collective De Onkruidenier.

Mirroring the central staircase of the museum, the piece suggests the brackish confluence where fresh and saltwater mingle. From here, the viewer descends into the lower galleries, reimagined as an estuary.

Within the lower galleries, artworks unfold like coastal mudflats at low tide. Seventeenth-century Dutch seascapes hang alongside photographs, video works and sculptures made from plastic waste. Sands from the beaches of Cromer, Happisburgh and Cley are featured, anchoring the exhibition in local terrain.

East Anglia’s centuries-old ties with the Low Countries form a steady through line. Hendrick van Anthonissen’s View of Scheveningen Sands (1641) shares space with works by Norwich School masters such as John Sell Cotman, John Crome and Robert Ladbrooke.

This approach privileges resonance over chronology. The exhibition avoids a linear march through time in favour of prioritising association, connection and drift. For instance, Shore Compass by Olafur Eliasson (2019) sits in subtle dialogue with Jodocus Hondius’s 1589 Drake Map an early cartographic rendering of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the world.

Created during the height of European maritime expansion and colonialism, the map illustrates the interplay between empire, navigation and power. Time, like tide, is allowed to meander.

The exhibition adopts what might be called a “curatorial geomorphology”: a way of curating that draws on the sculpting force of water. In the natural sciences, geomorphology examines how landscapes are formed and reshaped by flowing water, storms and tides, while hydrology traces water’s movement through the environment.

This curatorial approach translates those scientific ideas into a cultural and creative practice. Like a river, it flows through histories, stories and meanings. What unfolds is a tidal narrative, an estuary of thought where time loosens, the present deepens and new futures begin to surface.

Visitors to A World of Water can expect something different from a traditional gallery experience. It invites you to think with the seas, to tune into their rhythms, tensions and secret lives.

As you wander through the galleries, you enter a realm shaped by flux, expect to feel and reimagine a world where land, water and life move as one. And perhaps, by moving as water does, we may begin to sense an answer to the question: Can the Seas Survive Us? Not in certainty, but through our collective and individual actions toward a more regenerative and sustainable future.

A World of Water is at the Sainsbury Centre Norwich until August 3. It’s part of a six-month season of interlinked exhibitions and events that explore the question: “Can the seas survive us?”


Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.The Conversation

John Kenneth Paranada, Curator of Art and Climate Change, University of East Anglia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Flames to floods: how Europe’s devastating wildfires are fuelling its next climate crisis

Ioanna StamatakiUniversity of Greenwich

In recent years, I have all too often found myself passing over an active wildfire when flying from London to my family home in Greece during the summer months. The sky glows an eerie, apocalyptic red, and the scent of smoke fills the cabin. Silence falls as we become unwilling witnesses to a tragic spectacle.

Now wildfires are again raging across the Mediterranean. But the flames themselves are only part of the story. As wildfires become more intense and frequent, they’re setting off a dangerous chain reaction – one that also includes a rising risk of devastating floods.

Wildfire viewed from a plane
Author’s photo from a plane landing in Athens last summer. Ioanna Stamataki

In January 2024, Nasa reported that climate change is intensifying wildfire conditions, noting that the frequency of the most extreme wildfires had more than doubled over the past two decades. While some of this is driven by natural weather variability, human-induced warming is clearly playing a major role. Decades of rising temperatures combined with longer and more severe droughts have created ideal conditions for wildfires to ignite and spread.

This year, another brutal Mediterranean wildfire season is unfolding right before our eyes, with numerous active wildfire fronts across the region. As of July 22 2025, 237,153 hectares have burned in the EU – an increase of nearly 78% from the same period last year. The number of fires rose by about 45%, and CO₂ emissions increased by 23% compared to 2024. These are terrifying statistics.

Climate phenomena are closely interconnected

The fires themselves are bad enough. But they’re also closely connected to other climate-related extremes, including floods.

Natural hazards often trigger chain reactions, turning one disaster into many. In the case of floods, wildfires play a big role both through weather patterns and how the land responds to rain.

On the weather side, higher temperatures lead to more extreme rainfall, as warmer air can hold more moisture and fuels stronger storms. Intense wildfires can sometimes get so hot they generate their own weather systems, like pyrocumulus clouds – towering storm clouds formed by heat, smoke and water vapour. These clouds can spark sudden, localised storms during or shortly after the fire.

The damage doesn’t end when the flames die down. Satellite data shows that burned land can remain up to 10°C hotter for nearly a year, due to lost vegetation and damaged soil.

As the world warms, the atmosphere is able to hold about 7% more moisture for every extra degree. Recent temperatures of 40°C or more in Greece suggest a capacity for more downpours and more flooding.

Climate stripes chart for Greece
Greece is getting hotter and hotter (Each stripe represents one year, with blue indicating cooler and red indicating warmer than the 1961-2010 average). Ed Hawkins / Show Your Stripes (Data: Berkeley Earth & ERA5-Land)CC BY-SA

Wildfires also make the land itself more vulnerable to flooding. Burnt areas respond much faster to rain, as there is less vegetation to slow down the water. Wildfires also change the soil structure, often making it water-repellent. This means more water runs off the surface, erosion increases, and it takes less rain to trigger a flood.

Under these conditions, a storm expected once every ten years can cause the sort of catastrophic flooding expected only every 100 to 200 years. Water moves much faster across scorched landscapes without plants to slow it down. Wildfires also leave behind a lot of debris, which can be swept up by fast-moving floodwaters.

While EU-wide data on post-wildfire flood risk is still limited, various case studies from southern Europe offer strong evidence of the connection. In Spain’s Ebro River Basin, for example, research found that if emissions remain high and climate policy is limited, wildfires will increase the probability of high flood risk by 10%.

Nature’s ability to regenerate is nothing short of magical, but recovering from a wildfire takes time. Burnt soil takes years to return to normal and, during that time, the risks of extreme rainfall are higher. Beyond the impact of wildfires on soil and water, it is important not to overlook the devastating loss of plant and animal species or even entire ecosystems, making the natural world less biodiverse and resilient.

To reduce the frequency and severity of extreme events, we must focus on repairing climate damage. This means moving beyond isolated perspectives and adopting a multi-hazard approach that recognises how disasters are connected.

Flooding after wildfires is just one example of how one crisis can trigger another. We need to recognise these cascading risks and focus on long-term resilience over short-term fixes.


Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.The Conversation

Ioanna Stamataki, Senior Lecturer in Hydraulics and Water Engineering, University of Greenwich

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

US government may be abandoning the global climate fight, but new leaders are filling the void – including China

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva meet in Beijing in May 2025. Tingshu Wang/Pool Photo via AP
Shannon GibsonUSC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

When President Donald Trump announced in early 2025 that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement for the second time, it triggered fears that the move would undermine global efforts to slow climate change and diminish America’s global influence.

A big question hung in the air: Who would step into the leadership vacuum?

I study the dynamics of global environmental politics, including through the United Nations climate negotiations. While it’s still too early to fully assess the long-term impact of the United States’ political shift when it comes to global cooperation on climate change, there are signs that a new set of leaders is rising to the occasion.

World responds to another US withdrawal

The U.S. first committed to the Paris Agreement in a joint announcement by President Barack Obama and China’s Xi Jinping in 2015. At the time, the U.S. agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025 and pledged financial support to help developing countries adapt to climate risks and embrace renewable energy.

Some people praised the U.S. engagement, while others criticized the original commitment as too weak. Since then, the U.S. has cut emissions by 17.2% below 2005 levels – missing the goal, in part because its efforts have been stymied along the way.

Just two years after the landmark Paris Agreement, Trump stood in the Rose Garden in 2017 and announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the treaty, citing concerns that jobs would be lost, that meeting the goals would be an economic burden, and that it wouldn’t be fair because China, the world’s largest emitter today, wasn’t projected to start reducing its emissions for several years.

Scientists and some politicians and business leaders were quick to criticize the decision, calling it “shortsighted” and “reckless.” Some feared that the Paris Agreement, signed by almost every country, would fall apart.

But it did not.

In the United States, businesses such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Tesla made their own pledges to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

Hawaii passed legislation to become the first state to align with the agreement. A coalition of U.S. cities and states banded together to form the United States Climate Alliance to keep working to slow climate change.

Globally, leaders from Italy, Germany and France rebutted Trump’s assertion that the Paris Agreement could be renegotiated. Others from Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand doubled down on their own support of the global climate accord. In 2020, President Joe Biden brought the U.S. back into the agreement.

A solar farm in a field.
Amazon partnered with Dominion Energy to build solar farms, like this one, in Virginia. They power the company’s cloud-computing and other services. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Now, with Trump pulling the U.S. out again – and taking steps to eliminate U.S. climate policiesboost fossil fuels and slow the growth of clean energy at home – other countries are stepping up.

On July 24, 2025, China and the European Union issued a joint statement vowing to strengthen their climate targets and meet them. They alluded to the U.S., referring to “the fluid and turbulent international situation today” in saying that “the major economies … must step up efforts to address climate change.”

In some respects, this is a strength of the Paris Agreement – it is a legally nonbinding agreement based on what each country decides to commit to. Its flexibility keeps it alive, as the withdrawal of a single member does not trigger immediate sanctions, nor does it render the actions of others obsolete.

The agreement survived the first U.S. withdrawal, and so far, all signs point to it surviving the second one.

Who’s filling the leadership vacuum

From what I’ve seen in international climate meetings and my team’s research, it appears that most countries are moving forward.

One bloc emerging as a powerful voice in negotiations is the Like-Minded Group of Developing Countries – a group of low- and middle-income countries that includes China, India, Bolivia and Venezuela. Driven by economic development concerns, these countries are pressuring the developed world to meet its commitments to both cut emissions and provide financial aid to poorer countries.

A man with his arms crossed leans on a desk with a 'Bolivia' label in front of it.
Diego Pacheco, a negotiator from Bolivia, spoke on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries group during a climate meeting in Bonn, Germany, in June 2025. IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth

China, motivated by economic and political factors, seems to be happily filling the climate power vacuum created by the U.S. exit.

In 2017, China voiced disappointment over the first U.S. withdrawal. It maintained its climate commitments and pledged to contribute more in climate finance to other developing countries than the U.S. had committed to – US$3.1 billion compared with $3 billion.

This time around, China is using leadership on climate change in ways that fit its broader strategy of gaining influence and economic power by supporting economic growth and cooperation in developing countries. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has scaled up renewable energy exports and development in other countries, such as investing in solar power in Egypt and wind energy development in Ethiopia.

While China is still the world’s largest coal consumer, it has aggressively pursued investments in renewable energy at home, including solar, wind and electrification. In 2024, about half the renewable energy capacity built worldwide was in China.

Three people talk under the shade of solar panels.
China’s interest in South America’s energy resources has been growing for years. In 2019, China’s special representative for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, met with Chile’s then-ministers of energy and environment, Juan Carlos Jobet and Carolina Schmidt, in Chile. Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images

While it missed the deadline to submit its climate pledge due this year, China has a goal of peaking its emissions before 2030 and then dropping to net-zero emissions by 2060. It is continuing major investments in renewable energy, both for its own use and for export. The U.S. government, in contrast, is cutting its support for wind and solar power. China also just expanded its carbon market to encourage emissions cuts in the cement, steel and aluminum sectors.

The British government has also ratcheted up its climate commitments as it seeks to become a clean energy superpower. In 2025, it pledged to cut emissions 77% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels. Its new pledge is also more transparent and specific than in the past, with details on how specific sectors, such as power, transportation, construction and agriculture, will cut emissions. And it contains stronger commitments to provide funding to help developing countries grow more sustainably.

In terms of corporate leadership, while many American businesses are being quieter about their efforts, in order to avoid sparking the ire of the Trump administration, most appear to be continuing on a green path – despite the lack of federal support and diminished rules.

USA Today and Statista’s “America’s Climate Leader List” includes about 500 large companies that have reduced their carbon intensity – carbon emissions divided by revenue – by 3% from the previous year. The data shows that the list is growing, up from about 400 in 2023.

What to watch at the 2025 climate talks

The Paris Agreement isn’t going anywhere. Given the agreement’s design, with each country voluntarily setting its own goals, the U.S. never had the power to drive it into obsolescence.

The question is if developed and developing country leaders alike can navigate two pressing needs – economic growth and ecological sustainability – without compromising their leadership on climate change.

This year’s U.N. climate conference in Brazil, COP30, will show how countries intend to move forward and, importantly, who will lead the way.

Research assistant Emerson Damiano, a recent graduate in environmental studies at USC, contributed to this article.The Conversation

Shannon Gibson, Professor of Environmental Studies, Political Science and International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As US climate data-gathering is gutted, Australian forecasting is now at real risk

Gallo Images/Getty
Andrew B. WatkinsMonash UniversityAnthony ReaRMIT UniversityMatthew EnglandUNSW SydneyScott PowerMonash UniversitySue BarrellUniversity of Technology Sydney, and Tas van OmmenUniversity of Tasmania

This year, Australia has experienced record-breaking floods, tropical cyclones, heatwaves on land and in the ocean, drought, coral bleaching, coastal erosion and devastating algal blooms. Over the past five years, insured losses from extreme events have risen to A$4.5 billion annually – more than double the 30-year average.

But even as damage from climate change intensifies, political change overseas is threatening Australia’s ability to track what’s happening now, and predict what will happen next.

The United States has historically been a world leader in earth observation systems and freely sharing the gathered data. Sharing of data, expertise and resources between scientists in the US and Australia makes possible the high-quality weather, climate and ocean monitoring and forecasting we rely on.

But this is no longer guaranteed. Under the Trump administration, key US scientific institutions and monitoring programs are facing deep cuts. These cuts aren’t just cosmetic – they will end essential data gathering. Australia has long relied on these data sources. When they dry up, it will make it much harder for scientists to look ahead.

Australian leaders should look for ways to boost local earth monitoring capabilities where possible and partner with other large scientific organisations outside the US.

Extreme weather has hit Australia hard and often in 2025. Pictured: a storm surge at Robe, South Australia, on June 24 2025. Marcus PohlCC BY-NC

What is at risk?

Forecasting weather and climate isn’t simple. To produce accurate forecasts, scientists rely on earth observation systems which monitor changes to Earth’s land, atmosphere, ocean and ice. Much of this vital data is gathered by satellites, augmented by ocean data from thousands of robotic ARGO floats which capture data on ocean temperatures and salinity. Using this data to model the complexity of the Earth system requires research expertise and supercomputers.

Graphic showing sources of data used in weather and climate models.
Australian weather and climate forecasting relies on many forms of data collection. Some US capabilities will soon be cut or restricted. World Meteorological OrganizationCC BY-NC-ND

This year, the US government has announced sweeping cuts which could significantly degrade earth monitoring data gathering and availability.

In March 2025, the administration culled around 1,000 positions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Two months later, cuts were announced for NASA, including their Earth observation missions and to the National Science Foundation, with a proposed major reduction to Antarctic observations and research.

In June, still deeper cuts were proposed for NOAA. These would see the agency’s Ocean and Atmospheric Research section dismantled and parts moved to the National Weather Service and the National Oceans Service. If these cuts are approved, they would cut NOAA funding by about 25%.

The data and modelling capabilities at risk include:

Map of ocean ARGO floats in the seas
This map shows which nations contribute to the global ARGO float program. The US (dark green dots) contributes over half of all sensors. OceanOPSCC BY-NC-ND

Maintaining Australian capabilities is not a given

Making accurate forecasts requires high-quality global observations.

Forecasts will inevitably get worse if data sources are restricted or stopped. During extreme weather events, this will pose real risk to life.

The loss of experienced US staff could also lead to a stagnation in forecasting advances, especially on extreme weather. Many Australian scientists working on forecast improvements collaborate with US colleagues.

If some or all of these cuts take place, the flow-on effects for Australian meteorology and climate science will be substantial.

In response, Australian leaders should:

  1. Assess the immediate risks to Australia’s weather, climate and ocean capabilities from these changes in the US.

  2. Assess where Australia can best lift national capabilities in research, modelling and observations.

  3. Expand data sharing and collaboration with ChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndia and the European Union. Each of these has established satellite observing programs which cover Australia.

  4. Strengthen investment and partnership in international programs such as as the WMO, the EU’s Copernicus Program, the World Climate Research Program and the EU Horizon program.

The future

America’s sweeping cuts to science will have large ripple effects. Losing these capabilities and expertise will be a significant setback for researchers in the US, Australia and worldwide. The cuts come at a time when extreme weather and damage from climate change is intensifying. Early warnings save lives.

To meet the ever more urgent need for reliable forecasting and modelling, Australia can no longer rely on US data and expertise. It’s time to boost local capabilities and expand vital alliances.


Peter May (Monash University), Peter Steinle (Melbourne University) and Tony Worby (University of Western Australia) contributed to this article. Jas Chambers and Rob Vertessy (Melbourne University) provided initial inspirationThe Conversation

Andrew B. Watkins, Associate Research Scientist in Climate Science, Monash UniversityAnthony Rea, Industry Adjunct Associate Professor in Meteorology, RMIT UniversityMatthew England, Scientia Professor in Oceanography and Deputy Director of the ARC Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, UNSW SydneyScott Power, Adjunct Professor in Climate Science, Monash UniversitySue Barrell, Chair of Australian National University's Institute for Space and Council Member, University of Technology Sydney, and Tas van Ommen, Adjunct Professor in Climate Science, University of Tasmania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Pittwater Reserves: histories + Notes + Pictorial Walks
A History Of The Campaign For Preservation Of The Warriewood Escarpment by David Palmer OAM and Angus Gordon OAM
A Saturday Morning Stroll around Bongin Bongin - Mona Vale's Basin, Mona Vale Beach October 2024 by Kevin Murray
A Stroll Along The Centre Track At Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park: June 2024 - by Kevin Murray
A Stroll Around Manly Dam: Spring 2023 by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
A Stroll Through Warriewood Wetlands by Joe Mills February 2023
A Walk Around The Cromer Side Of Narrabeen Lake by Joe Mills
A Walk on the Duffy's Wharf Track October 2024 by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
America Bay Track Walk - photos by Joe Mills
An Aquatic June: North Narrabeen - Turimetta - Collaroy photos by Joe Mills 
Angophora Reserve  Angophora Reserve Flowers Grand Old Tree Of Angophora Reserve Falls Back To The Earth - History page
Annie Wyatt Reserve - A  Pictorial
Annie Wyatt Reserve, Palm Beach: Pittwater Fields of Dreams II - The Tree Lovers League 
Aquatic Reflections seen this week (May 2023): Narrabeen + Turimetta by Joe Mills 
Avalon Beach Reserve- Bequeathed By John Therry  
Avalon Beach This Week: A Place Of A Bursting Main, Flooding Drains + Falling Boulders Council Announces Intention To Progress One LEP For Whole LGA + Transport Oriented Development Begins
Avalon's Village Green: Avalon Park Becomes Dunbar Park - Some History + Toongari Reserve and Catalpa Reserve
Bairne Walking Track Ku-Ring-Gai Chase NP by Kevin Murray
Bangalley Headland  Bangalley Mid Winter
Bangalley Headland Walk: Spring 2023 by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
Banksias of Pittwater
Barrenjoey Boathouse In Governor Phillip Park  Part Of Our Community For 75 Years: Photos From The Collection Of Russell Walton, Son Of Victor Walton
Barrenjoey Headland: Spring flowers 
Barrenjoey Headland after fire
Bayview Baths
Bayview Pollution runoff persists: Resident states raw sewerage is being washed into the estuary
Bayview Public Wharf and Baths: Some History
Bayview Public Wharf Gone; Bayview Public Baths still not netted - Salt Pan Public Wharf Going
Bayview's new walkway, current state of the Bayview public Wharf & Baths + Maybanke Cove
Bayview Sea Scouts Hall: Some History
Bayview Wetlands
Beeby Park
Bilgola Beach
Bilgola Plateau Parks For The People: Gifted By A. J. Small, N. A. K. Wallis + The Green Pathways To Keep People Connected To The Trees, Birds, Bees - For Children To Play 
Botham Beach by Barbara Davies
Brown's Bay Public Wharf, on McCarrs Creek, Church Point: Some History
Bungan Beach Bush Care
Careel Bay Saltmarsh plants 
Careel Bay Birds  
Careel Bay Clean Up day
Careel Bay Marina Environs November 2024 - Spring Celebrations
Careel Bay Playing Fields History and Current
Careel Bay Steamer Wharf + Boatshed: some history 
Careel Creek 
Careel Creek - If you rebuild it they will come
Centre trail in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Chiltern Track- Ingleside by Marita Macrae
Clareville Beach
Clareville/Long Beach Reserve + some History
Clareville Public Wharf: 1885 to 1935 - Some History 
Coastal Stability Series: Cabbage Tree Bay To Barrenjoey To Observation Point by John Illingsworth, Pittwater Pathways, and Dr. Peter Mitchell OAM
Cowan Track by Kevin Murray
Crown Reserves Improvement Fund Allocations 2021
Crown Reserves Improvement Fund 2022-23: $378,072 Allocated To Council For Weed Control - Governor Phillip Park Gets a Grant This Time: full details of all 11 sites
Crown Reserves Improvement Fund Allocations 2023-2024
Crown Reserves Grants 2025 Announced: Local focus on Weeds + Repairs to Long Reef Boardwalk + some pictures of council's recent works at Hitchcock Park - Careel Bay playing fields - CRIF 2025
Curl Curl To Freshwater Walk: October 2021 by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
Currawong and Palm Beach Views - Winter 2018
Currawong-Mackerel-The Basin A Stroll In Early November 2021 - photos by Selena Griffith
Currawong State Park Currawong Beach +  Currawong Creek
Deep Creek To Warriewood Walk photos by Joe Mills
Drone Gives A New View On Coastal Stability; Bungan: Bungan Headland To Newport Beach + Bilgola: North Newport Beach To Avalon + Bangalley: Avalon Headland To Palm Beach
Duck Holes: McCarrs Creek by Joe Mills
Dunbar Park - Some History + Toongari Reserve and Catalpa Reserve
Dundundra Falls Reserve: August 2020 photos by Selena Griffith - Listed in 1935
Elsie Track, Scotland Island
Elvina Track in Late Winter 2019 by Penny Gleen
Elvina Bay Walking Track: Spring 2020 photos by Joe Mills 
Elvina Bay-Lovett Bay Loop Spring 2020 by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
Fern Creek - Ingleside Escarpment To Warriewood Walk + Some History photos by Joe Mills
Hordern Park, Palm Beach: Some History + 2024 Photos of park from top to beach
Iluka Park, Woorak Park, Pittwater Park, Sand Point Reserve, Snapperman Beach Reserve - Palm Beach: Some History
Ingleside
Ingleside Wildflowers August 2013
Irrawong Falls Walk May 2025 by Joe Mills
Irrawong - Ingleside Escarpment Trail Walk Spring 2020 photos by Joe Mills
Irrawong - Mullet Creek Restoration
Katandra Bushland Sanctuary - Ingleside
Long Reef Sunrise Headland Walk by Joe Mills
Lucinda Park, Palm Beach: Some History + 2022 Pictures
McCarrs Creek
McCarrs Creek Public Jetty, Brown's Bay Public Jetty, Rostrevor Reserve, Cargo Wharf, Church Point Public Wharf: a few pictures from the Site Investigations for Pittwater Public Wharves History series 2025
McCarr's Creek to Church Point to Bayview Waterfront Path
McKay Reserve
Milton Family Property History - Palm Beach By William (Bill) James Goddard II with photos courtesy of the Milton Family   - Snapperman to Sandy Point, Pittwater
Mona Vale Beach - A Stroll Along, Spring 2021 by Kevin Murray
Mona Vale Headland, Basin and Beach Restoration
Mona Vale Woolworths Front Entrance Gets Garden Upgrade: A Few Notes On The Site's History 
Mother Brushtail Killed On Barrenjoey Road: Baby Cried All Night - Powerful Owl Struck At Same Time At Careel Bay During Owlet Fledgling Season: calls for mitigation measures - The List of what you can do for those who ask 'What You I Do' as requested
Mount Murray Anderson Walking Track by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
Mullet Creek
Muogamarra Nature Reserve in Cowan celebrates 90 years: a few insights into The Vision of John Duncan Tipper, Founder 
Muogamarra by Dr Peter Mitchell OAM and John Illingsworth
Narrabeen Creek
Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment: Past Notes Present Photos by Margaret Woods
Narrabeen Lagoon Entrance Clearing Works: September To October 2023  pictures by Joe Mills
Narrabeen Lagoon State Park
Narrabeen Lagoon State Park Expansion
Narrabeen Rockshelf Aquatic Reserve
Nerang Track, Terrey Hills by Bea Pierce
Newport Bushlink - the Crown of the Hill Linked Reserves
Newport Community Garden - Woolcott Reserve
Newport to Bilgola Bushlink 'From The Crown To The Sea' Paths:  Founded In 1956 - A Tip and Quarry Becomes Green Space For People and Wildlife 
Out and About July 2020 - Storm swell
Out & About: July 2024 - Barrenjoey To Paradise Beach To Bayview To Narrabeen + Middle Creek - by John Illingsworth, Adriaan van der Wallen, Joe Mills, Suzanne Daly, Jacqui Marlowe and AJG
Palm Beach Headland Becomes Australia’s First Urban Night Sky Place: Barrenjoey High School Alumni Marnie Ogg's Hard Work
Palm Beach Public Wharf: Some History 
Paradise Beach Baths renewal Complete - Taylor's Point Public Wharf Rebuild Underway
Realises Long-Held Dream For Everyone
Paradise Beach Wharf + Taylor's Wharf renewal projects: October 2024 pictorial update - update pics of Paradise Wharf and Pool renewal, pre-renewal Taylors Point wharf + a few others of Pittwater on a Spring Saturday afternoon
Pictures From The Past: Views Of Early Narrabeen Bridges - 1860 To 1966
Pittwater Beach Reserves Have Been Dedicated For Public Use Since 1887 - No 1.: Avalon Beach Reserve- Bequeathed By John Therry 
Pittwater Reserves: The Green Ways; Bungan Beach and Bungan Head Reserves:  A Headland Garden 
Pittwater Reserves, The Green Ways: Clareville Wharf and Taylor's Point Jetty
Pittwater Reserves: The Green Ways; Hordern, Wilshire Parks, McKay Reserve: From Beach to Estuary 
Pittwater Reserves - The Green Ways: Mona Vale's Village Greens a Map of the Historic Crown Lands Ethos Realised in The Village, Kitchener and Beeby Parks 
Pittwater Reserves: The Green Ways Bilgola Beach - The Cabbage Tree Gardens and Camping Grounds - Includes Bilgola - The Story Of A Politician, A Pilot and An Epicure by Tony Dawson and Anne Spencer  
Pittwater spring: waterbirds return to Wetlands
Pittwater's Lone Rangers - 120 Years of Ku-Ring-Gai Chase and the Men of Flowers Inspired by Eccleston Du Faur 
Pittwater's Great Outdoors: Spotted To The North, South, East + West- June 2023:  Palm Beach Boat House rebuild going well - First day of Winter Rainbow over Turimetta - what's Blooming in the bush? + more by Joe Mills, Selena Griffith and Pittwater Online
Pittwater's Parallel Estuary - The Cowan 'Creek
Pittwater Pathways To Public Lands & Reserves
Resolute Track at West Head by Kevin Murray
Resolute Track Stroll by Joe Mills
Riddle Reserve, Bayview
Salt Pan Cove Public Wharf on Regatta Reserve + Florence Park + Salt Pan Reserve + Refuge Cove Reserve: Some History
Salt Pan Public Wharf, Regatta Reserve, Florence Park, Salt Pan Cove Reserve, Refuge Cove Reserve Pictorial and Information
Salvation Loop Trail, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park- Spring 2020 - by Selena Griffith
Scotland Island Dieback Accelerating: November 2024
Seagull Pair At Turimetta Beach: Spring Is In The Air!
Some late November Insects (2023)
Stapleton Reserve
Stapleton Park Reserve In Spring 2020: An Urban Ark Of Plants Found Nowhere Else
Stealing The Bush: Pittwater's Trees Changes - Some History 
Stokes Point To Taylor's Point: An Ideal Picnic, Camping & Bathing Place 
Stony Range Regional Botanical Garden: Some History On How A Reserve Became An Australian Plant Park
Taylor's Point Public Wharf 2013-2020 History
The Chiltern Track
The Chiltern Trail On The Verge Of Spring 2023 by Kevin Murray and Joe Mills
The 'Newport Loop': Some History 
The Resolute Beach Loop Track At West Head In Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park by Kevin Murray
$378,072 Allocated To Council For Weed Control: Governor Phillip Park Gets a Grant This Time: full details of all 11 sites - CRIF March 2023
Topham Track Ku-Ring-Gai Chase NP,  August 2022 by Joe Mills and Kevin Murray
Towlers Bay Walking Track by Joe Mills
Trafalgar Square, Newport: A 'Commons' Park Dedicated By Private Landholders - The Green Heart Of This Community
Tranquil Turimetta Beach, April 2022 by Joe Mills

Tree Management Policy Passed

Turimetta Beach Reserve by Joe Mills, Bea Pierce and Lesley
Turimetta Beach Reserve: Old & New Images (by Kevin Murray) + Some History
Turimetta Headland
Turimetta Moods by Joe Mills: June 2023
Turimetta Moods (Week Ending June 23 2023) by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: June To July 2023 Pictures by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: July Becomes August 2023 by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: August Becomes September 2023 ; North Narrabeen - Turimetta - Warriewood - Mona Vale photographs by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: Mid-September To Mid-October 2023 by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: Late Spring Becomes Summer 2023-2024 by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: Warriewood Wetlands Perimeter Walk October 2024 by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: November 2024 by Joe Mills
Turimetta Moods: mid-February to Mid- March 2025 by Joe Mills

Turimetta to Avalon Dunes Being Trashed

Warriewood Wetlands - Creeks Deteriorating: How To Report Construction Site Breaches, Weed Infestations + The Long Campaign To Save The Warriewood Wetlands & Ingleside Escarpment March 2023
Warriewood Wetlands and Irrawong Reserve
Whale Beach Ocean Reserve: 'The Strand' - Some History On Another Great Protected Pittwater Reserve
Whale Migration Season: Grab A Seaside Pew For The Annual Whalesong But Keep Them Safe If Going Out On The Water
Wilshire Park Palm Beach: Some History + Photos From May 2022
Winji Jimmi - Water Maze

Pittwater's Birds

Attracting Insectivore Birds to Your Garden: DIY Natural Tick Control small bird insectivores, species like the Silvereye, Spotted Pardalote, Gerygone, Fairywren and Thornbill, feed on ticks. Attracting these birds back into your garden will provide not only a residence for tick eaters but also the delightful moments watching these tiny birds provides.
Aussie Backyard Bird Count 2017: Take part from 23 - 29 October - how many birds live here?
Aussie Backyard Bird Count 2018 - Our Annual 'What Bird Is That?' Week Is Here! This week the annual Aussie Backyard Bird Count runs from 22-28 October 2018. Pittwater is one of those places fortunate to have birds that thrive because of an Aquatic environment, a tall treed Bush environment and areas set aside for those that dwell closer to the ground, in a sand, scrub or earth environment. To take part all you need is 20 minutes and your favourite outdoor space. Head to the website and register as a Counter today! And if you're a teacher, check out BirdLife Australia's Bird Count curriculum-based lesson plans to get your students (or the whole school!) involved

Australian Predators of the Sky by Penny Olsen - published by National Library of Australia

Australian Raven  Australian Wood Duck Family at Newport

A Week In Pittwater Issue 128   A Week In Pittwater - June 2014 Issue 168

Baby Birds Spring 2015 - Rainbow Lorikeets in our Yard - for Children Baby Birds by Lynleigh Greig, Southern Cross Wildlife Care - what do if being chased by a nesting magpie or if you find a baby bird on the ground

Baby Kookaburras in our Backyard: Aussie Bird Count 2016 - October

Balloons Are The Number 1 Marine Debris Risk Of Mortality For Our Seabirds - Feb 2019 Study

Bangalley Mid-Winter   Barrenjoey Birds Bird Antics This Week: December 2016

Bird of the Month February 2019 by Michael Mannington

Birdland Above the Estuary - October 2012  Birds At Our Window   Birds at our Window - Winter 2014  Birdland June 2016

Birdsong Is a Lovesong at This time of The Year - Brown Falcon, Little Wattle Bird, Australian Pied cormorant, Mangrove or Striated Heron, Great Egret, Grey Butcherbird, White-faced Heron 

Bird Songs – poems about our birds by youngsters from yesterdays - for children Bird Week 2015: 19-25 October

Bird Songs For Spring 2016 For Children by Joanne Seve

Birds at Careel Creek this Week - November 2017: includes Bird Count 2017 for Local Birds - BirdLife Australia by postcode

Black Cockatoo photographed in the Narrabeen Catchment Reserves this week by Margaret G Woods - July 2019

Black-Necked Stork, Mycteria Australis, Now Endangered In NSW, Once Visited Pittwater: Breeding Pair shot in 1855

Black Swans on Narrabeen Lagoon - April 2013   Black Swans Pictorial

Brush Turkeys In Suburbia: There's An App For That - Citizen Scientists Called On To Spot Brush Turkeys In Their Backyards
Buff-banded Rail spotted at Careel Creek 22.12.2012: a breeding pair and a fluffy black chick

Cayley & Son - The life and Art of Neville Henry Cayley & Neville William Cayley by Penny Olsen - great new book on the art works on birds of these Australian gentlemen and a few insights from the author herself
Crimson Rosella - + Historical Articles on

Death By 775 Cuts: How Conservation Law Is Failing The Black-Throated Finch - new study 'How to Send a Finch Extinct' now published

Eastern Rosella - and a little more about our progression to protecting our birds instead of exporting them or decimating them.

Endangered Little Tern Fishing at Mona Vale Beach

‘Feather Map of Australia’: Citizen scientists can support the future of Australia's wetland birds: for Birdwatchers, school students and everyone who loves our estuarine and lagoon and wetland birds

First Week of Spring 2014

Fledgling Common Koel Adopted by Red Wattlebird -Summer Bird fest 2013  Flegdlings of Summer - January 2012

Flocks of Colour by Penny Olsen - beautiful new Bird Book Celebrates the 'Land of the Parrots'

Friendly Goose at Palm Beach Wharf - Pittwater's Own Mother Goose

Front Page Issue 177  Front Page Issue 185 Front Page Issue 193 - Discarded Fishing Tackle killing shorebirds Front Page Issue 203 - Juvenile Brush Turkey  Front Page Issue 208 - Lyrebird by Marita Macrae Front Page Issue 219  Superb Fairy Wren Female  Front Page Issue 234National Bird Week October 19-25  and the 2015 the Aussie Back Yard Bird Count: Australia's First Bird Counts - a 115 Year Legacy - with a small insight into our first zoos Front Page Issue 236: Bird Week 2015 Front Page Issue 244: watebirds Front Page Issue 260: White-face Heron at Careel Creek Front Page Issue 283: Pittwater + more birds for Bird Week/Aussie Bird Count  Front Page Issue 284: Pittwater + more birds for Bird Week/Aussie Bird Count Front Page Issue 285: Bird Week 2016  Front Page Issue 331: Spring Visitor Birds Return

G . E. Archer Russell (1881-1960) and His Passion For Avifauna From Narrabeen To Newport 

Glossy Black-Cockatoo Returns To Pittwater by Paul Wheeler Glossy Cockatoos - 6 spotted at Careel Bay February 2018

Grey Butcher Birds of Pittwater

Harry Wolstenholme (June 21, 1868 - October 14, 1930) Ornithologist Of Palm Beach, Bird Man Of Wahroonga 

INGLESIDE LAND RELEASE ON AGAIN BUT MANY CHALLENGES  AHEAD by David Palmer

Issue 60 May 2012 Birdland - Smiles- Beamings -Early -Winter - Blooms

Jayden Walsh’s Northern Beaches Big Year - courtesy Pittwater Natural Heritage Association

John Gould's Extinct and Endangered Mammals of Australia  by Dr. Fred Ford - Between 1850 and 1950 as many mammals disappeared from the Australian continent as had disappeared from the rest of the world between 1600 and 2000! Zoologist Fred Ford provides fascinating, and often poignant, stories of European attitudes and behaviour towards Australia's native fauna and connects these to the animal's fate today in this beautiful new book - our interview with the author

July 2012 Pittwater Environment Snippets; Birds, Sea and Flowerings

Juvenile Sea Eagle at Church Point - for children

King Parrots in Our Front Yard  

Kookaburra Turf Kookaburra Fledglings Summer 2013  Kookaburra Nesting Season by Ray Chappelow  Kookaburra Nest – Babies at 1.5 and 2.5 weeks old by Ray Chappelow  Kookaburra Nest – Babies at 3 and 4 weeks old by Ray Chappelow  Kookaburra Nest – Babies at 5 weeks old by Ray Chappelow Kookaburra and Pittwater Fledglings February 2020 to April 2020

Lion Island's Little Penguins (Fairy Penguins) Get Fireproof Homes - thanks to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Fix it Sisters Shed

Lorikeet - Summer 2015 Nectar

Lyre Bird Sings in Local National Park - Flock of Black Cockatoos spotted - June 2019

Magpie's Melodic Melodies - For Children (includes 'The Magpie's Song' by F S Williamson)

Masked Lapwing (Plover) - Reflected

May 2012 Birdland Smiles Beamings Early Winter Blooms 

Mistletoebird At Bayview

Musk Lorikeets In Pittwater: Pittwater Spotted Gum Flower Feast - May 2020

Nankeen Kestrel Feasting at Newport: May 2016

National Bird Week 2014 - Get Involved in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count: National Bird Week 2014 will take place between Monday 20 October and Sunday 26 October, 2014. BirdLife Australia and the Birds in Backyards team have come together to launch this year’s national Bird Week event the Aussie Backyard Bird Count! This is one the whole family can do together and become citizen scientists...

National Bird Week October 19-25  and the 2015 the Aussie Back Yard Bird Count: Australia's First Bird Counts - a 115 Year Legacy - with a small insight into our first zoos

Native Duck Hunting Season Opens in Tasmania and Victoria March 2018: hundreds of thousands of endangered birds being killed - 'legally'!

Nature 2015 Review Earth Air Water Stone

New Family of Barking Owls Seen in Bayview - Church Point by Pittwater Council

Noisy Visitors by Marita Macrae of PNHA 

Odes to Australia's Fairy-wrens by Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen and Constance Le Plastrier 1884 and 1926

Oystercatcher and Dollarbird Families - Summer visitors

Pacific Black Duck Bath

Painted Button-Quail Rescued By Locals - Elanora-Ingleside escarpment-Warriewood wetlands birds

Palm Beach Protection Group Launch, Supporters InvitedSaturday Feb.16th - Residents Are Saying 'NO' To Off-Leash Dogs In Station Beach Eco-System - reports over 50 dogs a day on Station Beach throughout December-January (a No Dogs Beach) small children being jumped on, Native birds chased, dog faeces being left, families with toddlers leaving beach to get away from uncontrolled dogs and 'Failure of Process' in council 'consultation' open to February 28th 

Pardalote, Scrub Wren and a Thornbill of Pittwater

Pecking Order by Robyn McWilliam

Pelican Lamps at Narrabeen  Pelican Dreamsong - A Legend of the Great Flood - dreamtime legend for children

Pittwater Becalmed  Pittwater Birds in Careel Creek Spring 2018   Pittwater Waterbirds Spring 2011  Pittwater Waterbirds - A Celebration for World Oceans Day 2015

Pittwater's Little Penguin Colony: The Saving of the Fairies of Lion Island Commenced 65 Years Ago this Year - 2019

Pittwater's Mother Nature for Mother's Day 2019

Pittwater's Waterhens: Some Notes - Narrabeen Creek Bird Gathering: Curious Juvenile Swamp Hen On Warriewood Boardwalk + Dusky Moorhens + Buff Banded Rails In Careel Creek

Plastic in 99 percent of seabirds by 2050 by CSIRO

Plover Appreciation Day September 16th 2015

Powerful and Precious by Lynleigh Grieg

Red Wattlebird Song - November 2012

Restoring The Diamond: every single drop. A Reason to Keep Dogs and Cats in at Night. 

Return Of Australasian Figbird Pair: A Reason To Keep The Trees - Aussie Bird Count 2023 (16–22 October) You can get involved here: aussiebirdcount.org.au

Salt Air Creatures Feb.2013

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Sea Birds off the Pittwater Coast: Albatross, Gannet, Skau + Australian Poets 1849, 1898 and 1930, 1932

Sea Eagle Juvenile at Church Point

Seagulls at Narrabeen Lagoon

Seen but Not Heard: Lilian Medland's Birds - Christobel Mattingley - one of Australia's premier Ornithological illustrators was a Queenscliff lady - 53 of her previously unpublished works have now been made available through the auspices of the National Library of Australia in a beautiful new book

7 Little Ducklings: Just Keep Paddling - Australian Wood Duck family take over local pool by Peta Wise 

Shag on a North Avalon Rock -  Seabirds for World Oceans Day 2012

Short-tailed Shearwaters Spring Migration 2013 

South-West North-East Issue 176 Pictorial

Spring 2012 - Birds are Splashing - Bees are Buzzing

Spring Becomes Summer 2014- Royal Spoonbill Pair at Careel Creek

Spring Notes 2018 - Royal Spoonbill in Careel Creek

Station Beach Off Leash Dog Area Proposal Ignores Current Uses Of Area, Environment, Long-Term Fauna Residents, Lack Of Safe Parking and Clearly Stated Intentions Of Proponents have your say until February 28, 2019

Summer 2013 BirdFest - Brown Thornbill  Summer 2013 BirdFest- Canoodlers and getting Wet to Cool off  Summer 2013 Bird Fest - Little Black Cormorant   Summer 2013 BirdFest - Magpie Lark

The Mopoke or Tawny Frogmouth – For Children - A little bit about these birds, an Australian Mopoke Fairy Story from 91 years ago, some poems and more - photo by Adrian Boddy
Winter Bird Party by Joanne Seve