May 1 - 31, 2025: Issue 642

Feedback invited until June 3 on proposed shorter-term WaterNSW prices: IPART's Prices for WaterNSW Greater Sydney from 1 October 2025

May 14, 2025

IPART is reviewing maximum prices for WaterNSW’s bulk water services. IPART has released an Information Paper and seeks feedback on proposed shorter-term prices that will be in place for up to 3 years.

WaterNSW has sought to increase in its revenue by 43% over the next 5 years including a 38% increase for Greater Sydney and 53% for regional and rural NSW. This would lead to price increases above what customers have told WaterNSW they can afford.

See

IPART seeks feedback on water pricing proposals: Submissions close December 9 2024 and 

Scotland Island Dieback Accelerating: IPART Review of increases In Sydney Water's Pricing Proposals An Opportunity to ask: 'what happened to the 'Priority Sewerage Scheme' for our Island?

Sydney Water:  Our 2025–30 price proposal

The Tribunal is not convinced at this stage that the full increases proposed by WaterNSW are sufficiently well justified. Additional information, consultation and analysis are required. However, the current pricing determination for WaterNSW’s regional and rural services expires on 30 June 2025 and cannot be extended to allow more time for assessment of WaterNSW’s proposed increases. 

Tribunal Chair Carmel Donnelly said, “The Tribunal proposes to set shorter-term prices that could be in place for up to 3 years for both Greater Sydney and Rural Valleys. While these prices are in place, IPART will continue further review of WaterNSW’s proposed prices for bulk water services in Greater Sydney and regional and rural NSW to inform future pricing decisions.”

Shorter-term draft prices for WaterNSW’s regional and rural customers would increase by 1.9% plus inflation from 1 July 2025 and then by inflation only on 1 July 2026 and 1 July 2027.

For WaterNSW Greater Sydney, where Sydney Water is the main customer, draft maximum bulk water prices would increase by 6.9% plus inflation from 1 October 2025 and then by inflation on 1 July 2026 and 1 July 2027.

“IPART’s current review to set the maximum prices for WaterNSW has been complex,” said Ms Donnelly. “WaterNSW has proposed a significant increase in revenue, which implies large price increases for customers. Some broader issues have also emerged during the review. WaterNSW indicates the main drivers of the proposed increases are macroeconomic factors and increased requirements which have imposed additional costs. At the same time demand for WaterNSW services is forecast to decrease.”

The shorter-term draft prices could be in place until June 2028 but may be replaced earlier if ongoing work by WaterNSW and IPART enables new price determinations earlier. Any new determinations would be made only after IPART issues a draft report, seeks and considers submissions and holds a public hearing.

“Our information paper and WaterNSW’s pricing proposal are available on IPART’s website. We welcome community feedback via IPART’s website until 3 June 2025,” Ms Donnelly said. 

“We are also undertaking financial analysis to ensure the draft shorter-term prices will enable WaterNSW to meet its obligations.” 

The Tribunal will consider all feedback and release shorter-term pricing decisions in June 2025 for WaterNSW’s regional and rural services to take effect from 1 July 2025 and in September 2025 for WaterNSW’s Greater Sydney services to take effect from 1 October 2025.

To read the Information Paper provide feedback visit: www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/review/water-metro-pricing/prices-waternsw-greater-sydney-1-october-2025

Related IPART Documents:

Maximum prices for Water NSW's Greater Sydney Services from 1 October 2025 - Draft  Determination May 2025

Prices for WaterNSW bulk water services - Information Paper, May 2025


Draft Decisions on Hunter Water's Prices

On April 9 2025 IPART released its draft decisions on Hunter Water’s maximum prices from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

Tribunal Chair Carmel Donnelly said Hunter Water’s price proposal did prioritise and defer expenditure where appropriate to limit price increases in a time of high cost of living, while also including investment so Hunter Water can deliver on important customer outcomes such as water security.

“However, the Tribunal has found that prices do not need to increase as much as Hunter Water proposed,” Ms Donnelly said.

Under IPART’s draft decisions, bills for a typical household customer receiving water and wastewater services would increase, on average, by $48 (or 3.6%) plus inflation each year for 5 years from 1 July 2025. This would see typical household bills increasing from $1,241 in 2024-25 to $1,481 by 2029-30, plus inflation, which is lower than the yearly increases under Hunter Water’s proposed prices (of $71 or 5.2% per year before inflation).

“The increases in draft maximum prices and bills are mainly driven by the efficient costs of new infrastructure, including the proposed Belmont desalination plant,” Ms Donnelly said.

“We have set draft prices that reflect the efficient costs of Hunter Water providing its services, and have phased in these price increases over 5 years.”

“Under our draft prices, Hunter Water customers will continue to pay around the median of water bills when compared with other major water businesses around Australia.”

“We know there are some households that may be more impacted by these prices during this time of high cost of living and that is why we have also made recommendations to the NSW Government to increase rebates and expand eligibility for bill relief to a broader range of lower income households.”

Hunter Water also has hardship assistance programs for customers facing difficulties paying their bills, IPART stated.

“We are inviting community feedback on these draft decisions, and we’re interested to hear from customers of Hunter Water, whether they are households or businesses. We will consider all comments made through our survey and in submissions before we finalise our decisions.”

IPART’s Draft Report and Hunter Water’s pricing proposal are available on IPART’s website. We welcome community feedback via the website, or via our customer survey, until 6 May 2025. The Tribunal will publish a Final Report with final pricing decisions in June 2025. The prices set in this review will apply to customers from 1 July 2025.

Sydney Water sewage licences reviews open for public consultation: Warriewood + Manly

May 2025

Warriewood - Environment Protection Licence EPL:  1784

Northern Suburbs (North Head) Manly - Environment Protection Licence EPL:  378

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has commenced public consultation on its statutory five-yearly review of the licences for Sydney Water’s 23 sewage treatment systems across Greater Sydney and the Illawarra.

The EPA states it wants to ensure the licences are fit for purpose, deliver an appropriate level of regulation and reflect the community’s views about the protection of human health and the environment.

In particular they would like your feedback on:

  • the level of treatment required at Sydney Water’s sewage treatment plants and associated levels of environmental protection, wet weather discharges and the impacts of climate change
  • monitoring requirements

Please note that pollution studies and reduction programs are targeted licence conditions aimed at addressing a specific issue e.g. wet weather overflow abatement. It should also be noted that this licence review does not relate to Sydney Water’s potable water supply activities.

The licences cover Sydney Water’s sewage treatment plants and the associated network of pipes and pumping stations that convey sewage from homes and businesses to those treatment plants.

NSW EPA Director Adam Gilligan said all environment protection licences are required to be reviewed every five years to ensure the licences are fit for purpose and reflect contemporary best practice and operating measures.

“We value community input to this review, which will help shape our approach to regulating Sydney Water’s sewage treatment systems,” Mr Gilligan said.

“We’re continuing to monitor the operations of Sydney Water to ensure it is complying with its strict licence requirements.

“We will keep the public informed, listen to concerns and provide summary feedback on submissions once the consultation has been completed.”

In particular the EPA is seeking feedback on the impacts to local environment from overflows and the level of treatment required at Sydney Water’s sewage treatment plants (STPs) as well as community access to information.

STP licences do not cover the stormwater system, which is typically regulated by local councils.

Public consultation for the review of Sydney Water’s licenses will be open until Thursday 12 June 2025. To learn more, you can access the public consultation and Have Your Say via the EPA’s online consultation portal https://yoursay.epa.nsw.gov.au.

You can provide your feedback by:

Responding to the short survey here

Provide written feedback by emailing metrowater.infrastructure@epa.nsw.gov.au

 Warriewood Beach looking north to Mona Vale. Pic: AJG/PON.

 

Neville Cayley Calls Just Two Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos Visit PON Yard


Neville Cayley, grandson of 'Birdman of Avalon Beach' Neville William Cayley and author of 'What Bird is That?', and great-grandson of Neville Henry Peniston Cayley 'Birdman of Mosman and Cronulla', will return to Sydney this coming Spring for a 'catch-up' and to share some more information on his family.

Neville helped provide that note of 'continuity' most PON history pages close on, and it was the news services pleasure to host a visit back in 2012 to his grandfather's former home and studio on North Avalon Beach headland - called 'Ideal View' - and on private property.

  
Neville William Cayley                                 Neville Henry Peniston Cayley

Neville David Cayley, sister Joan and wife Vera at 'Ideal View' , Marine Parade, Avalon, May 2012. Pic: AJG/PON

Fortuitously, a pair of Yellow-tailed black cockatoos (Zanda funerea) landed in the Pittwater Spotted Gums (Eucalyptus (Corymbia) maculata) of the PON front yard, currently flowering, while  talking on Wednesday May 14 - possibly part of the same flock seen winging their way to Bangalley headland early in the morning the week before. 

Pittwater's spotted gums - currently flowering

Neville quickly rang off so some photos could be taken and sent to him. Although a bit too excited to get to see them up close to get good photos, and in our very own yard, a few pictures were promptly taken and sent north to Bundaberg where Neville lives and once farmed - he's now retired, at 80 years young.


Kevin Murray and Joe Mills got some better photos while walking the Elvina Bay- Lovett Bay loop a few years ago, feasting on one of their favourites, Banksias.

Yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus funereus, above Lovett Bay, October 2020 - photo by Joe Mills

Yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus funereus, above Lovett Bay, October 2020 - photos by Kevin Murray

The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is one of two species of black cockatoos that visit Pittwater for the food trees here. A few years back Paul Wheeler shared some photos of regular visitors to his Clareville home for feasting on she oak seeds, the Glossy Black-cockatoo (Calyptohynchus lathami).

Glossy Black-cockatoo, Calyptohynchus lathami - photos by Paul Wheeler

The yellow-tailed black cockatoo (Zanda funerea) is a large cockatoo native to the south-east of Australia measuring 55–65 cm (22–26 in) in length. It has a short crest on the top of its head. Its plumage is mostly brownish black and it has prominent yellow cheek patches and a yellow tail band. The body feathers are edged with yellow giving a scalloped appearance. The adult male has a black beak and pinkish-red eye-rings, and the female has a bone-coloured beak and grey eye-rings. 

In flight, yellow-tailed black cockatoos flap deeply and slowly, with a peculiar heavy fluid motion. Their loud, wailing calls carry for long distances. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is found in temperate forests and forested areas across south and central eastern Queensland right through to south-eastern South Australia, including a very small population persisting in the Eyre Peninsula.

Two subspecies are recognised, although Tasmanian and southern mainland populations of the southern subspecies xanthanotus may be distinct enough from each other to bring the total to three. Birds of subspecies funereus (Queensland to eastern Victoria) have longer wings and tails and darker plumage overall, while those of xanthanotus (western Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania) have more prominent scalloping. The subspecies whiteae is found south of Victoria to the East of South Australia and is smaller in size.

They nest in large hollows high in old growth native trees (~ greater than 200 years old), usually Eucalyptus regnans. Although they remain common throughout much of their range, fragmentation of habitat and loss of large trees suitable for nesting has caused population declines in Victoria and South Australia. Furthermore, the species may lose most of its mainland range due to climate change. In some places yellow-tailed black cockatoos appear to have partially adapted to recent human alteration of landscape and they can often be seen in parts of urban Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. 

Yellow-tailed black cockatoos are diurnal, raucous and noisy, and are often heard before being seen. They make long journeys by flying at a considerable height while calling to each other, and they are often seen flying high overhead in pairs, or trios comprising a pair and their young, or small groups. Outside of the breeding season in autumn or winter they may coalesce into flocks of a hundred birds or more, while family interactions between pairs or trios are maintained. They are generally wary birds, although they can be less shy in urban and suburban areas. They generally keep to trees, only coming to ground level to inspect fallen pine or Banksia cones or to drink. Flight is fluid and has been described as "lazy", with deep, slow wingbeats.

A family flying overhead in Tasmania. Photo: Peter Shanks 

The breeding season varies, taking place from April to July in Queensland, January to May in northern New South Wales, December to February in southern New South Wales, and October to February in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The male yellow-tailed black cockatoo courts by puffing up his crest and spreading his tail feathers to display his yellow plumage. Softly growling, he approaches the female and bows to her three or four times. His eye ring may also flush a deeper pink. Nesting takes place in large vertical tree hollows of tall trees, generally eucalypts.

Like other cockatoos, this species is long-lived. A pair of yellow-tailed black cockatoos at Rotterdam Zoo stopped breeding when they were 41 and 37 years of age, but still showed signs of close bonding.

The yellow-tailed black cockatoo's diet primarily includes seeds of native and introduced plants. They also feed on wood-boring grubs.
The diet of the yellow-tailed black cockatoo is varied and available from a range of habitats within its distribution, which reduces their vulnerability to degradation or change in habitat. Much of the diet comprises seeds of native trees, particularly she-oaks (Allocasuarina and Casuarina, including A. torulosa and A. verticillata), but also Eucalyptus (including E. maculata flowers and E. nitida seeds), Acacia (including gum exudate and galls), Banksia (including the green seed pods and seeds of B. serrata, B. integrifolia, and B. marginata), and Hakea species (including H. gibbosa, H. rugosa, H. nodosa, H. sericea, H. cycloptera, and H. dactyloides). 

Wy-la was an aboriginal term from the Hunter Region of New South Wales for this beautiful, while the Dharawal name from the Illawarra region is Ngaoaraa.

Information: BirdLife Australia and BirdLife International.

Pat Connors Avian Grant for Glossy Black-cockatoo 

May 12, 2025
WIRES are proud to share that Glossy Black Conservancy Inc. has been awarded the 2024 Pat Connors Avian Grant for their critical project: Habitat mapping for the vulnerable Glossy Black-Cockatoo in Southeast Queensland. 

Photo: WIRES/Glossy Black Conservancy Inc

This unique bird relies on specific habitats that are fast disappearing in one of Australia’s most rapidly developing regions. The most recent habitat data is from 2016, before the devastating 2019 bushfires, and planning decisions are still being made using that outdated information. This project will change that.

With support from this grant, experts will update essential habitat maps, ensuring data meets standards set by the Queensland Vegetation Management Act. The project will also empower councils and conservationists with webinars to share methodologies and incorporate the latest findings into local planning, maximising protection for this vulnerable species.

Project - Habitat mapping for the vulnerable Glossy Black-Cockatoo in Southeast Queensland

Use of the grant: The Glossy Black Conservancy is an independent conservation and research organisation providing resources, training and support to people and groups so that they can identify, collect data and take action to protect the nationally vulnerable Glossy Black-Cockatoo and its habitat. Southeast Queensland is the fastest growing region in Australia and holds critical stands of habitat for the nationally-listed Glossy Black-Cockatoo. Habitat mapping for this species, which has been severely impacted by 2019 bushfires, was last undertaken in 2016. Researchers, Councils and State Government are making planning and policy decisions about the species, using data that is woefully out-of-date. The grant will be used to update habitat mapping for the nationally-listed Glossy Black-Cockatoo in Southeast Queensland - one of Australia’s regions at greatest risk of habitat clearing.

We will engage an ecologist to gather data from known sources as well as a GIS specialist with skills in creating habitat mapping to drive conservation outcomes. Together, these specialists will work with the Conservancy’s Science & Research committee to update Taxon Profiles and ensure mapping is to a standard that will inform Essential Habitat as defined by the Queensland Vegetation Management Act (1999).

Once mapping is complete, we’ll two webinars focused on sharing mapping methodology and Taxon Profiles so the project can be replicated across the country. And a third that will focus on Councils of SEQ to share mapping methodology and drive incorporation of new mapping data into local planning instruments, to maximise habitat protection.

Pat Connors Avian Grant
To be awarded for one large avian project or a series of smaller avian projects.
Patrick Connors was a long-term member of WIRES. He developed WIRES first rescue and rehabilitation database and call recording system pro-bono and supported it for well over a decade. Pat's contribution enabled WIRES to provide rescue advice and assistance for 2 million animals. Pat passed away in December 2020 and this grant honours his outstanding contribution to WIRES, and his passion for birds.

In 2024 there were 68 successful projects in 4 tiers across Australia.
 

WIRES 2025 Grants Applications Open May 19

WIRES National Grants Program

National Support for Critical Wildlife Projects

WIRES’ National Grants Program (NGP) is designed to support best practice wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, an increase in emergency preparedness for wildlife, and native species recovery projects, to improve long-term outcomes in Australia.

Program Objectives

  • The NGP was developed to provide ongoing support for wildlife, and their habitats, across Australia. WIRES’ focus is on proposals that have tangible, positive, and ideally long-term, outcomes for wildlife. Program objectives include:
  • Building capacity and capability for the Australian wildlife rescue and rehabilitation sector,
  • Improving emergency preparedness and response capabilities to assist wildlife,
  • Preserving species and their habitat through projects leading to long term positive outcomes for native wildlife,
  • Raising community awareness and inspiring broader community involvement in supporting Australian wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and preservation.

Funding Categories

Up to $1 million is available across these tiers annually, and eligible applicants are invited to submit proposals for:

  • Tier 1: Individually Licensed Wildlife Rescuers and Carers (maximum $2,000)
  • Tier 2: Licensed Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Organisations (maximum $8,000)
  • Tier 3: Environmental NGOs and Community Groups (maximum $20,000)
  • Tier 4: Consortia/Multi-partner Collaborations (maximum $50,000)

Application process
Key dates for 2025 applications:

Please note that due to limited funding and a competitive assessment process, not every application that meets the eligibility criteria may receive a WIRES Grant.

Applications open - 19th May 2025

Online webinar #1 - 12.30pm AEST 21st May - Register Here

Online webinar #2 - 7.30pm AEST 3rd June - Register Here

Applications close – 20th June (5pm AEST)

Successful applicants notified - September 2025 

Grant announcements and unsuccessful applicants notified - October 2024 

Reports due - Final for 6-month progress for – March 2026

Final Report due and project completed - 12-month month projects - September 2026.

How to Apply

Please note that due to limited funding and a competitive assessment process, not every application that meets the eligibility criteria may receive a WIRES Grant.

Click on APPLY NOW link when available to access the WIRES Grant Portal.
  • Create account or log in. Please note that you will need to tick “Yes” to receiving notifications if you wish to be sent confirmation of application submission.
  • Read information on the home page
  • Click on “Start application”
  • Select your State/Territory
  • Select “WIRES National Grants Program 2025” and then the appropriate tier.
  • If you wish to leave a partially completed application, make sure you press ‘Save + close’ and log out.
  • You can log back in and continue to edit your application form until you are ready to submit.
  • To submit your application, select the ‘Submit application’ button.
  • Note, no changes can be made once this is selected.
You will receive a confirmation email when your application has been successfully received. If you do not receive an email, please ensure you check your junk mail and add us to your safe sender list.

Visit this page on May 19 when the apply now link becomes available to commence your application.

Weed of the Week: Blue Spur Flower - please get it out of your garden

 Blue spur flower Plectranthus ecklonii and a Crab Spider Sidymella rubrosignata photo by A J Guesdon/PON

The blue spur flower (Plectranthus ecklonii), originally a south African plant, is regarded a minor environmental weed in Victoria and as a potential environmental weed or 'sleeper weed' in other parts of southern Australia. Regarded as ‘Naturalised’ (establishing or persisting in a new environment or location after being introduced from another region) in some parts of south-eastern Australia (i.e. in southern Victoria and the coastal districts of central New South Wales), this beautiful weed flowers in late Autumn and winter in Australia but drops a lot of seed and also propagates from stems left on damp ground. 

Urgent repairs to Fisher Bay and Castle Rock sections of Manly to Spit Scenic Walkway

Council will be doing critical repairs along the Manly to Spit Scenic walkway over the next three months and is urging the community and visitors to plan ahead and follow signs.

Northern Beaches Mayor Sue Heins emphasised the importance of these repairs, stating, " while sections of this popular walk have been repaired over the years, it is now essential to undertake works that will ensure the area is safe for everyone and help us reduce costs on repairs in the long run."

The works will comprise of two stages, stage 1 at Castle Rock and stage 2 at Fisher Bay, near the Spit Bridge end.

The works will start at the Castle Rock boardwalk after Anzac Day and will include a 500m signposted detour to direct walkers up Barrabooka Street and onto Ogilvy Road before rejoining the scenic walk.

After the completion of the first section, works will commence on the Fisher Bay section, which requires the reconstruction of the wooden staircase so walkers will need to follow the signposted path between Ellery’s Punt Reserve at the Spit Bridge and Sandy Bay near Clontarf. 

It’s recommended that if travelling by bus to the Spit Bridge to commence the walk that you alight at Heaton Ave if travelling south and if travelling north you alight at the Spit Bridge and follow the signs.

Full details of the closures and detours can be found at www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/recreation-area/manly-scenic-walkway

Mayor Heins added, "We understand that these closures may cause some inconvenience, but the safety of our community is our top priority. We appreciate everyone's patience and cooperation as we work to enhance the quality and safety of our beloved Manly to Spit walkway."

The Council encourages all track users to plan ahead and visit Council’s website for detour maps and up to date information on the status of each section.

These works are part of Council's ongoing commitment to maintaining and improving the safety and accessibility of local tracks and trails across the Northern Beaches.

Works are scheduled to take place from the end of April through to June 2025, weather permitting.

Photo: Kevin Murray 

First NSW Waste and Circular Infrastructure Plan released

May 14, 2025
The Minns Labor Government has released a draft of NSW’s Waste and Circular Infrastructure Plan, which is needed to prevent Greater Sydney running out of landfill. Without intervention, waste collection and disposal services could be severely impacted by 2030, forcing councils to transport rubbish to regional areas or interstate.

Failure to tackle this would drive up the cost of kerbside bin collections and lead to costs for residents and businesses increasing by around 20%.

A slowdown in rubbish collection would also impact critical infrastructure projects, such as new housing developments. It’s estimated that it could cost the economy around $23 billion.

The first chapter of the draft NSW Waste and Circular Infrastructure Plan will consult councils, industry and the community on the next steps to build the infrastructure required across Greater Sydney.

Future chapters are expected to be released later this year and will focus on enhancing recycling infrastructure and addressing the unique waste challenges facing regional and remote NSW.

The release of this chapter lays out how the NSW Government will:
  • safely manage the waste we don’t recycle and avoid Greater Sydney’s imminent shortfalls in landfill capacity
  • collect and process increased volumes of organic waste, as source-separated FOGO collections are rolled out across Greater Sydney.
The Minns Labor Government recognises that a state government cannot do this alone. A new Ministerial Advisory Committee will be established to guide the plan’s implementation and advise on local barriers, identify opportunities for investment and report on progress.

This plan follows the NSW Government’s recent mandate of Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) recycling. FOGO will reduce the volume of food waste sent to landfill, by diverting up to 950,000 tonnes of each year.

To have your say by 25 June 2025, visit the Draft NSW Waste and Circular Infrastructure Plan web page.

Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe said:
“For too long, state governments have ignored the fact that Greater Sydney is running out of landfill.

“Waste collection is an essential service.

“This draft plan is the first of its kind and is long overdue.

“We can no longer kick this problem down the road. I look forward to working with local councils, industry and local communities to urgently address the problem.”

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 

Have your say: NSW Sustainable Communities Program - Support to minimise the socio-economic impacts of the Restoring Our Rivers 450 GL target

The NSW Sustainable Communities Program (NSW SCP) will provide $160 million to create jobs, establish industry, and support existing industry to innovate and stimulate economic development.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is delivering the Sustainable Communities Program for NSW under the Australian Government's Restoring Our Rivers Framework, as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

The objective of this consultation is to complement the existing evidence base and provide additional insights to assist in the design and delivery of the NSW SCP to minimise the socio-economic impacts of water recovery.

We are seeking information from Basin communities on their challenges, opportunities and concerns associated with the potential impacts of water purchasing and how we could prioritise investment under the program to respond to identified needs.

We are taking a 3-stage approach to deliver the NSW SCP. Further information about this approach and our consultation activities can be found at the NSW SCP website.

Tell us what you think

You can take part by completing the survey by 5pm Friday 13 June 2025.

Have your say: Improving camping in NSW national parks

Share your feedback on fairer camping fees, simpler bookings, and tackling campground issues in national parks.

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is seeking community feedback on proposed changes to camping in NSW national parks and reserves.

Proposed changes include:

  • the introduction of consistent state-wide camping fees
  • simplified bookings to deliver fairer camping experiences for national park visitors
  • improved management of persistent campground issues such as people booking space and not cancelling or turning up.

More than 200,000 campers and national park visitors were consulted to develop the proposal. Further community feedback will help the NSW Government to decide on next steps and whether proposed changes are adopted and implemented.

Tell NSW NPWS what you think

Please read the consultation paper outlining details of the proposal and share your feedback by 11.59pm on Sunday 25 May 2025.

All submissions to this consultation, including online written submissions, online survey responses and postal submissions, may be published on the Environment and Heritage website after the closing date unless you request otherwise. When lodging your submission (either online, by post or through the online survey) you can request that your submission remains confidential.

There may be circumstances where the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service may be required by law to release the information in your submission. For example, in accordance with requirements of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.

Complete the survey

Complete the online survey 

Submit your response online

Upload a submission 

Post your submission

Post your submission 

Avalon Beach Clean

When: Sunday May 25 at 10am
Where:  southern end, grassed area near clubhouse
Bring: Hat, Water Bottle & a Smile!
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out via email.
We hope to see you all there.

Avalon Community Garden's screening of Climate Changers - Tim Flannery's search for climate leadership

When: Fri, 30 May, 6pm - 9pm
Where:  Pittwater Palms Retirement Village - The Lounge, Avalon beach

You are invited to a special screening of the film Climate Changers at Pittwater Palms, 82 Avalon Parade on Friday 30 May 2025. 

Climate Changers follows acclaimed scientist Tim Flannery as he searches for the missing ingredient in our fight against climate change – leadership. It is an inspiring and thought-provoking film that offers a blueprint for effective climate leadership. It charts the different qualities, challenges and triumphs of diverse leaders around the world working at both grassroots and systems levels to create positive change.

Doors open at 6pm, light refreshments available. Screening at 7pm, run time approx 1.5 hour.       
This is a fundraising event for Avalon Community Garden.   
Tickets: $15 each HERE

'Warringah and Pittwater Garden Heritage'

Saturday, 7 June, 2025 11am - 1pm
The Annex, Dunbar Park, Avalon

All are welcome to attend this special talk on significant local heritage gardens presented by expert Stuart Read, Chair, Sydney Branch of the Australian Garden History Society. Stuart is a landscape architect focusing on garden history, cultural landscapes and dry stone walls.

Photos: Jeanne Villani's Waterfall Cottage at Bayview. 

Bob Storey's Tarrangaua at Lovett Bay (formerly Dorothea MacKellar's home)

The talk is presented by the Avalon Armchair Gardeners club. No charge to attend.

Enquiries:  Fran Colley - francescolley@me.com

Whale Census Day 2025: June 29

nSW Government’s call to action on illegal tree clearing

The Minns Labor Government has stated it is responding to calls from local government to help address the growing number of cases of illegal tree clearing in NSW.

An Explanation of Intended Effect (EIE) has been released today and offers stakeholders the opportunity to help shape reforms to the urban tree clearing framework.

A new resource to help planners, developers and builders tackle urban heat has also been released.

The EIE is aimed at protecting tree canopy by proposing stronger penalties for illegal tree and vegetation clearing.

Under the proposed policy changes, additional enforcement powers would be given to councils and exemptions would be tightened for dead, dying and dangerous vegetation to close loopholes that have been open to abuse.

The EIE responds to growing concerns among councils, the community and stakeholders that the current framework needs to be updated.

In addition to the EIE, the new Cooler Places hub has also been launched today to help address urban heat.

The NSW Government’s Cooler Places online resource has also been released to assist councils, residents and developers in accessing practical guidance to incorporate cooling measures into their homes and designs.

Urban heat can have negative effects on communities’ wellbeing, creating hotter homes and streetscapes. Some features of our urban landscape, such as the large areas of hard and dark surfaces, contribute to rising temperatures and amplify heatwaves.

The resource encourages cooling through low cost and innovative measures such as water saving features, trees, shrubs awnings and the use of materials and colours that absorb less heat.

In 2020, a study from Macquarie University found shade provided by urban trees can lower temperatures at ground level by up to 6°C.

Similarly, research from Wollongong University in 2019 showed that areas with at least 30 per cent tree canopy cover experience improved mental and physical health outcomes.

Cooler Places will help deliver cooler, more resilient cities, precincts, streets, parks and homes.

To read the illegal tree and vegetation clearing EIE and make a submission visit the Vegetation in non-rural areas web page.

The consultation period closes on 5pm on Wednesday, 4 June 2025. HAVE YOUR SAY HERE

For more information on Cooler Places visit the Cooler Places web page.

Minister for Environment and Climate Change Penny Sharpe said:

“NSW records some of the hottest temperatures on the planet and we need to minimise the impacts of urban heat and build climate resilience.

“Tackling illegal tree clearing is an essential part of this.

“Working with councils on these proposed measures will increase the ability to crack down on illegal activity.”

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:

“Communities have become increasingly frustrated by the growing number of instances of illegal tree clearing in urban areas, particularly on public land.

“Our housing reforms have leant on the development of infill housing, near existing infrastructure and services because constant urban sprawl is not sustainable. These proposed changes will better protect the existing tree canopy as we deliver more homes in developed areas.

“I encourage everyone to have their say on the proposed changes.

“The Cooler Places resource contains tips and advice on how to design and build cooler homes and neighbourhoods, delivering better communities.”

A Win for Councils - Crackdown on illegal tree clearing!

April 23, 2025

The state’s peak body for local government has welcomed the NSW Government’s proposed crackdown on illegal tree and vegetation clearing as a major win for councils, communities and the environment in urban areas across the state.

Local Government NSW (LGNSW) President Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM congratulated the NSW Government on its announced consultation proposing stronger penalties. 

Mayor Miller said the announcement showed the State Government had heard and acted upon councils’ calls for stronger protections. 

“LGNSW and councils have long called for action to address illegal tree clearing, with this matter raised at our 2022, 2023 and 2024 Annual Conferences. One of our advocacy priorities for the current year is for the NSW Government to legislate to increase protection of trees, with increased penalties for illegal destruction and vandalism,” Mayor Miller said. 

“The NSW Government’s proposed changes would strengthen councils’ ability to protect their communities’ urban canopy and natural environment," she said.

The Government has said the proposed changes would:

  • Increase fines and penalties for illegal tree and vegetation clearing.
  • Ensure existing restrictions on complying development where illegal clearing has occurred and can be enforced.
  • Improve compliance and enforcement outcomes by making the policy clearer, giving councils the power to issue orders relating to vegetation clearing.
  • Close potential loopholes associated with the removal of dead, dying and dangerous vegetation.
  • Require tree clearing permits to include a condition to replace cleared vegetation.

Mayor Miller thanked the NSW Government for listening to councils and communities.

“Councils invest millions in planting and maintaining trees and urban greenery, making our communities cooler, greener and more liveable. Trees are also critical to protecting biodiversity,” Mayor Miller said. 

“We know our communities love their trees, but we need to ensure that penalties for illegal clearing act as a sufficient deterrent for the small minority who think they're above the law,” she said. 

“LGNSW looks forward to carefully reviewing the proposed reforms in consultation with councils and contributing to this important step forward,” Mayor Miller said.

To read the details on the proposed measures to combat illegal tree and vegetation clearing and to make your submission, visit the State Government's website here. The consultation period closes at 5pm on Wednesday 4 June 2025.

Phase one of Central Coast's Lake Munmorah remediation begins

May 2025

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) states it has approved a Voluntary Management Proposal (VMP) for the former Lake Munmorah Power Station site on the Central Coast, kicking off the first phase of a complex remediation process.  

Part of the site was declared significantly contaminated in April last year due to PFAS and petroleum hydrocarbon pollution, stemming from the historical operation of the coal-fired power station and past use of fire-fighting foams containing PFAS at the site. 

NSW EPA Executive Director of Operations, Jason Gordon said the recently approved Voluntary Management Proposal (VMP) is a critical first step in ensuring the former coal-fired power station site is remediated effectively.

“This is a complicated remediation project, and we must allow enough time to get it right,” Mr Gordon said.  

“Under the VMP, the site’s current owner will work with environmental consultants to gather detailed information about the contaminants, including how they move through soil and water. 

“Taking the time to thoroughly assess the onsite contamination will ensure the remediation approach selected is suitable and fit-for-purpose to achieve the best long-term outcomes for the community and surrounding environment. 

“We know the community is invested in the clean-up of this site and we’re working closely with the owner to ensure they proactively engage them about the process, as per the requirements of the VMP.” 

Following completion of the first Voluntary Management Proposal, site owner Generator Property Management Pty Ltd (GPM) will submit a second VMP (Phase 2) outlining the implementation of the remediation approach.

The EPA is overseeing the remediation process as part of the site’s regulation under the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (CLM Act).  

Parts of the site impacted by the contamination have been fenced off for several years and are not considered to pose a risk to the surrounding community. Testing has also confirmed that seafood in the Tuggerah Lakes System – connected to Lake Munmorah – remains safe to eat as part of a balanced diet.  

More information about the site’s history and next steps is available here.

School students help Sydney save critically endangered gum

May 12, 2025

Students from Nepean Christian School have put on their gardening gloves to be part of a ground-­breaking conservation project to save the Camden white gum across western Sydney.

Sixty students planted 12 Camden white gum seedlings in the school grounds at Mulgoa to create an insurance population with diverse genetics.

The project is part of the NSW Government's Saving our Species (SoS) program and aims to establish insurance populations of the critically endangered gum by using specially bred plants.

Six hundred seedlings bred by CSIRO Canberra will be planted across Western Sydney this autumn at 14 different sites to grow new populations to reduce the gum's potential extinction risk.

The NSW Department of Environment and Heritage states a small number of Camden white gums remain in the wild along the Nepean River area but have lost their fitness to survive due to their small population size after decades of land clearing. These gums, due to inbreeding, are now effectively "living dead" trees as they cannot regenerate.

Nepean Christian School students and staff will care for the plants for at least two summers, by regularly watering and maintaining the site, so the seedlings can grow into a mature population.

Once established, the trees will provide shade and canopy cover for up to 300 years, given their incredibly long lifespans. The species gene flow will also increase through pollen exchange, connecting with other isolated subpopulations in the Nepean River corridor. Camden white gums (Eucalyptus benthamii) only remain in small areas with pockets in the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney, which is where the school is based.

Eucalyptus benthamii, commonly known as Camden white gum, Bentham's gum, Nepean River gum, kayer-ro or durrum-by-ang, is a species of tree that is endemic to New South Wales. It has mostly smooth bluish grey or white bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds arranged in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped, bell-shaped or conical fruit.

Eucalyptus benthamii is a tree that grows to a height of 35 or 40 metres (115 or 131 ft) with a trunk diameter attaining 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth bluish grey or white bark which is shed in ribbons, except for about 1 metre (3.3 ft) of rough brownish bark at the base of the trunk. The leaves on young plants and on coppice regrowth are arranged in opposite pairs, egg-shaped to heart-shaped, 30–90 mm (1–4 in) long, 20–40 mm (0.8–2 in) wide and sessile. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, 80–230 mm (3–9 in) long, 17–27 mm (0.7–1 in) wide on a petiole 5–35 mm (0.2–1 in) long and the same colour on both sides. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven on a peduncle 4–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long, the individual buds sessile or on a pedicel up to 2 mm (0.08 in) long. Mature buds are oval, 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long, 2–4 mm (0.08–0.2 in) wide with a rounded operculum. Flowering occurs between March and September and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped, bell-shaped or conical capsule 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long and 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) wide.

This tree was well-known to the Aboriginal people of the area, who knew it as durrum-by-ang. Stands of Durrum‐by‐ang were important distinctive landmarks within their country.

Eucalyptus benthamii was first formally described by Joseph Maiden and Richard Hind Cambage in 1915 from a specimen collected "from the banks of the Nepean River near Cobbity". The description was published in Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Maiden and Cambage did not give a reason for the specific epithet (benthamii) but it is assumed to honour George Bentham, an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".

Camden white gum grows on alluvial plains on sand or loam over clay along the Nepean River and its tributaries, in tall open forest, where it either forms a pure stand or is found with other eucalypts such as mountain blue gum (E. deanei) and river peppermint (E. elata). Other associated trees within this tree community itself include grey box (E. moluccana), forest red gum (E. tereticornis), grey gum (E. punctata), cabbage gum (E. amplifolia), narrow-leaved ironbark (E. crebra) and broad-leaved apple (Angophora subvelutina), while associated understory species include blackthorn (Bursaria spinosa), bracken (Pteridium esculentum) tantoon (Leptospermum polygalifolium) and fern-leaved wattle (Acacia filicifolia).

Camden White Gum (Eucalyptus benthamii) Location: Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia Date: 2005-09-21 Source: picture taken by Danielle Langlois. 

The conservation project is managed by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW)'s Saving our Species Program. DCCEEW works with partners including CSIRO Canberra, Australian Botanic Gardens, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service(NPWS), Greater Sydney Local Land Services, Local Landcare Groups, local councils, and private industry such as Sydney Metro Airports.

Threatened Species Officer, DCCEEW, Dr Ahamad Sherieff said:

"Local school students planting Camden white gums in their school's backyard will help save this critically endangered species from potential extinction.

"It's wonderful to see these seedlings planted at the school, where students can learn first-hand about genetic diversity, and the purpose of insurance populations in nature, all while experiencing what a tree needs to grow and thrive.

Principal of Nepean Christian School Dr Cameron Nunn said:

"We are thrilled to be part of this vital conservation effort. Our students are excited to contribute to saving the Camden white gum and learning about the importance of biodiversity.

"This project exemplifies the power of collaboration in conservation. By working together, we can secure a future for the Camden white gum and enhance our local environment."

Four Nepean Christian College students helped save critically endangered gum. Image Credit: DCCEEW

Stakeholders collaborate on chlamydia management strategy for south-western Sydney koalas

On Tuesday May 13, 2025 the NSW Government issued a statement that said the NSW Koala Strategy team recently convened a crucial technical workshop, bringing together over 60 stakeholders from government and non-government organisations to develop a chlamydia management strategy for the south-western Sydney koala population.

Stakeholders involved in koala conservation, including National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, WIRES, Sydney Wildlife Rescue, Wildlife Health Conservation Hospital, Save Sydney's Koalas, National Parks Association and the Sydney Basin Koala Network joined the workshop with koala disease experts. Attendees engaged in discussions around 3 major themes:

  1. The Issues – Understanding koalas and the regional landscape.
  2. The Options – Establishing a vision for the region's koala population.
  3. The Actions – Exploring how rehabilitation, rescue practices and protocols can support effective management actions.

The collaboration will directly inform the chlamydia management strategy that the University of Sydney is developing, commissioned by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The strategy seeks to mitigate the risk of chlamydia in the southern Sydney koala population. It will evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of the full suite of potential intervention methods to develop a comprehensive approach to disease management.

The government states the workshop allowed stakeholders to share insights, align efforts, and work towards the shared goal of managing the ongoing risk of chlamydia in the south-western Sydney koala population.

Safe passage for koalas and other wildlife: Port Stephens Drive

May 13, 2025

Port Stephens Drive was identified as one of the worst koala vehicle strike hotspots in New South Wales, according to a 2019 Transport for NSW analysis of BioNet records.

From 2010 to 2020, there were 89 reported koala incidents along a 4-km stretch of Port Stephens Drive. Located between 2 locally significant koala populations and surrounded by preferred koala habitat, Port Stephens Drive is a key connectivity point for koalas and other animals moving across the landscape.

The NSW Department of Environment and Heritage states the NSW Koala Strategy provided over $1.5 million for on-ground works to reduce koala vehicle strikes along Port Stephens Drive. The project team collaborated with Port Stephens Council, Transport for NSW, and community organisations such as Port Stephens Koala Hospital and Koala Koalition. They obtained best practice designs and consulted with stakeholders to deliver works that reduced threats and maintained connectivity for koalas.

On-ground works included:

  • installation of 4.2 km of new or modified koala-proof fencing along both sides of Port Stephens Drive
  • installation of a specifically designed and constructed 20 m long fauna underpass
  • installation of koala grids across roads and driveways
  • installation of koala connectivity structures such as escape posts and poles.

Since completing the on-ground works in October 2023, motion-activated fauna cameras have been installed in the underpass to monitor wildlife movements. To streamline the monitoring process and reduce resource demands, an Artificial Intelligence program is being trialled to analyse camera images and automatically generate reports. This system has already proven successful, with a koala recorded using the underpass just 3 weeks after project completion, and multiple records of koalas using the structure since.

The Department states analysis of the footage is showing the dedicated koala underpass benefits not only koalas but also a variety of other native species. So far, eastern grey kangaroos, short-beaked echidnas, brushtail possums and eastern land mullets have all been captured on camera using the underpass.

Port-Stephens-drive-fauna-underpass-Koala-phascolarctos-cinereus. Photo: Port Stephens Council

Port-Stephens-drive-fauna-underpass-Short-beaked-echidna-tachyglossus-aculeatuPhoto: Port Stephens Council

Port-Stephens-drive-fauna-underpass-Eastern-grey-kangaroo-macropus-giganteus. Photo: Port Stephens Council

Where do native fish go when water flows in the northern Murray–Darling  basin

Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder: May 12, 2025

Research in the northern Murray–Darling Basin is improving our understanding of native fish and their response and movements with the benefit of environmental water. 

Native fish surveys and monitoring form part of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder’s (CEWH) science program, Flow-Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (Flow-MER). This research is crucial for assessing the health of native fish populations following the release of environmental water and provide a ‘baseline’ for future years. 

Monitoring in the Macquarie River and Marshes Flow-MER Area discovered that an adventurous golden perch tagged with an acoustic transmitter moved through the northern Marshes, an area that can be a barrier to upstream movement under certain conditions.

A map of golden perch movement through the northern Marshes. Map: CEWH

The tagged fish was captured and released 70 km downstream at North Willewa Station (near Carinda). It was the first to pass through the northern Marshes since tagging began in 2023. 

The fish's journey north coincided with a pulse of around 1,350 megalitres per day of Commonwealth and NSW water for the environment that went through the northern Marshes. This was the largest amount of water through the area since tracking began.   

The research was conducted by Dr Jerom Stocks from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (NSW DPIRD) and the team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) as part of their Flow-MER native fish movement studies. 

Continued monitoring will help establish a more robust understanding of the flows that allow native fish to pass through the Marshes and continue upstream.     

Positive reports of native fish monitoring also came out of the Lower-Balonne late last year.   

Following a couple of unusually wet years from 2021–2023, the Narran Lakes were inundated in March 2024.   

The UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science (CES) Flow-MER fish team seized upon this ideal opportunity to better understand the role Narran Lakes plays in supporting native fish communities in the northern Murray–Darling Basin. The team undertook fish sampling at 11 Narran River and Lake sites. 

Led by Dr Dion Iervasi and Jackson Lamin (Austral Research and Consulting) they identified five native fish species: bony bream, spangled perch, golden perch, Hyrtl’s catfish and carp gudgeon. The most abundant was the bony bream, captured at all sites bar one.

Interestingly, no adult Golden perch were caught. Across all nine sites golden perch from 25 to 50 mm long were captured. These fish were less than a year old and likely a product of water flows in early 2024, to support spawning.

Three invasive fish species (goldfish, European carp and eastern gambusia) were also found. A second survey in the region will take place this year, when the water levels in the river are appropriate. 

Similar fish-monitoring programs are set to kick-off in autumn in the Darling-Warrego, the Gwydir Areas and the Border, Barwon and Namoi areas of the northern Murray–Darling Basin through Flow-MER.   

The autumn fish surveys will be valuable for gauging the health of native fish populations in response to low oxygen events and following summer-autumn environmental flows. This monitoring will be done by NSW DPIRD and Austral Research and Consulting. 

Land Court rules against Ensham (CQ) coal mine due to greenhouse pollution

The Queensland Land Court has made a recommendation that the Queensland Government not approve a mining lease for the Ensham thermal coal mine expansion due to the contribution the project would make to greenhouse gas pollution. 

The Land Court handed down its decision in March, recommending the mining lease for the expansion “not be approved unless and until the applicants show real and significant progress towards mitigating their GHG emissions”.

The Court found that the more than six million tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted in Australia from the mine extension will contribute to climate change and breach the human rights of Queenslanders.

The final decision on whether to approve the lease now sits with Mines and Resources Minister Dale Last who is "carefully considering" the case.

If built, the expansion would allow the joint venture between Sungela Pty Ltd (South Africa) and Bowen Investment (Australia) Pty Ltd to mine up to 85 million tonnes of thermal coal for an additional 20 years up until 2044.

The underground operation produces 4.5 million tonnes of thermal coal every year.

The judgement from Land Court president Peta Stilgoe said emissions from the project would "contribute to climate change directly and indirectly".

Ms Stilgoe said there was no evidence the company had progressed a mitigation strategy to reduce emissions or prioritised energy efficiency.

"The mining lease area may only be small part of the greenhouse gas emissions scenario, but it is still a part," she said.

Sungela has operated the Ensham Mine since Japanese oil company Idemitsu sold off its 85 per cent stake in August 2023.

The court documents noted Sungela had "good environmental records" and "no systematic or ongoing breaches of environmental laws".

While Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved the Ensham thermal coal mine expansion in 2023, the State Government was yet to determine whether a mining lease ought to be granted and was the final remaining assessment. 

Lock the Gate Alliance Head of Research and Investigations Georgina Woods said, “This outcome is entirely reasonable and necessary to protect Queensland’s interests. We urge Resources Minister Dale Last to accept the Land Court’s recommendation. Coal mines must not be allowed to continue polluting dangerous greenhouse gases while Queenslanders suffer the consequences of fossil fuel driven climate change. Pollution from coal mines is undermining Queensland’s emission reduction targets and shifting the burden of emissions reduction onto other sectors of the economy like agriculture and manufacturing.

“In its judgement the Court expressed concern about the lack of action from Sungela, the coal mining company, in fulfilling their existing obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at their mine. This shows the important role of the Land Court in ensuring that coal companies are following the law and doing the right thing by all Queenslanders.”

First big test for the newly elected government: Open Letter

Tuesday May 13,2025

Dozens of Australia’s leading climate and conservation groups have written an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, urging him to put a more ambitious climate policy at the heart of his government’s plans for its second term.

The 55 groups congratulate the Prime Minister on his resounding election victory, which they say has delivered a mandate for “optimistic and ambitious” action on climate change.

The letter – published in several newspapers today – points out that, as well as being an existential threat, climate change has intensified the cost-of-living crisis, pushing up energy, grocery and insurance prices.

The signatories call upon the re-elected Albanese government to commit to a fast and fair phase-out of fossil fuels, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for the Prime Minister,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor at The Australia Institute.

“Anthony Albanese can be a leader who finally brings an end to Australia’s destructive fossil fuel addiction, while – at the same time – helping Australians through a cost-of-living crisis.

“The first and most important thing he can do right now is to stop the biggest, most destructive, most unnecessary fossil fuel project in the country: the expansion of the North West Shelf gas export terminal.

“This project would release more than four billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

“It would also allow the ongoing destruction of one of Australia’s and the world’s greatest cultural treasures – the 40,000-year-old Murujuga rock engravings. These are eight times older than the pyramids and are being ruined by acid gas emissions from the adjacent gas plant.

“The Australia Institute and the 54 other signatories to this letter are ready to work with the newly elected government to support Australia’s transition beyond coal and gas, to rise to the challenge of our time.”

‘1080 pest management’

Applies until Friday August 1st 2025. 

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service will be conducting a baiting program using manufactured baits, fresh baits and Canid Pest Ejectors (CPEs) containing 1080 poison (sodium fluroacetate) for the control of foxes. The program is continuous and ongoing between 1 February 2025 and 31 July 2025 in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Don’t touch baits or ejector devices. Penalties apply for non-compliance.

All baiting locations are identifiable by signs.

Domestic pets are not permitted in NSW national parks and reserves. Pets and working dogs may be affected (1080 is lethal to cats and dogs). In the event of accidental poisoning seek immediate veterinary assistance.

Fox baiting in these reserves is aimed at reducing their impact on threatened species.

For more information, contact the local park office on:

  • Forestville 9451 3479 or Lane Cove 8448 0400 (business hours)
  • NPWS after-hours call centre: 1300 056 294 (after hours).

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

Summer is here so watch your step because 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

Newly discovered frog species from 55 million years ago challenges evolutionary tree

Australian Green Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea). indrabone/iNaturalist, CC BY-NC
Roy M. Farman, UNSW Sydney and Mike Archer, UNSW Sydney

Australian tree frogs today make up over one third of all known frog species on the continent. Among this group, iconic species such as the green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) and the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), are both beloved for their vivid colours and distinctive calls.

In the Early Eocene epoch, 55 million years ago, Australia’s tree frogs were hopping across the Australian continent from one billabong to the next through a forested corridor that also extended back across Antarctica to South America. These were the last remnants of ancient supercontinent Gondwana.

In new research published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, we identify Australia’s earliest known species of tree frog – one that once hopped and croaked around an ancient lake near the town of Murgon in south-eastern Queensland.

This research demonstrates tree frogs were present in Australia 30 million years earlier than previously thought, living alongside Australia’s earliest known snakes, songbirds and marsupials.

A common ancestor

Tree frogs (Pelodryadidae) have expanded discs on their fingers and toes enabling them to climb trees. Despite their name, however, they are known to occupy a wide range of habitats, from fast-flowing streams to ephemeral ponds.

Australia’s previously earliest tree frogs were recovered from Late Oligocene (about 26 million years old) and Early Miocene (23 million years old) fossil deposits. Late Oligocene frog fossils were found at Kangaroo Well in the Northern Territory and Lake Palankarinna in South Australia. They were also recently found in many deposits from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland.

A brown and green frog depicted in a mossy forest.
Artist’s reconstruction of the new species Litoria tylerantiqua (right) and previously described species Platyplectrum casca (left). Samantha Yabsley

It has long been known that South American tree frogs and Australian tree frogs shared a common Gondwanan ancestor. What is unknown is when this common ancestor lived.

Based on some molecular data, it has been estimated that the two groups separated from this common ancestor as recent as 32.9 million years ago.

A diverse fossil deposit

Our new study was based on frog fossils from a deposit near the town of Murgon, located on the traditional lands of the Waka Waka people of south-eastern Queensland. These fossils accumulated some 55 million years ago. This was between the time when a colossal meteorite took out the non-flying dinosaurs and the time when Australia broke free from the rest of Gondwana to become an isolated continent.

A skeleton of a frog.
CT scans of preserved frogs were used to compare the three-dimensional shape of the fossil bones with those of living species. Roy Farman/UNSW Sydney

As well as ancient frog fossils, the Early Eocene freshwater clay deposit also contains fossils of ancient bats, marsupials, snakes, non-marine birds and potentially the world’s oldest songbirds.

We used CT scans of frogs preserved in ethanol from Australian museum collections to compare the three-dimensional shape of the fossil bones with those of living species. This method is called three-dimensional geometric morphometrics. It has only been used on fossil frogs once before.

Using these new methods, we can unravel the relationships of these fossils to all other groups of frogs – both living and extinct.

Pushing back the evolutionary tree

From its diagnostic ilium (one of three paired pelvic bones), we identified a new species of Litoria from the family Pelodryadidae. We named this species Litoria tylerantiqua in honour of the late Michael Tyler, a renowned Australian herpetologist globally celebrated for his research on frogs and toads.

Litoria tylerantiqua joins the only other Murgon frog discovered so far, the ground-dwelling Platyplectrum casca, as the oldest frogs known from Australia. Both species have living relatives in Australia and New Guinea. This demonstrates the remarkable resilience over time of some of Australia’s most fragile creatures.

Our new research provides crucial new understanding that helps to calibrate molecular clock studies. This is a method scientists use to estimate when different species split from a common ancestor based on the calculated rate of genetic change over time.

Our research indicates the separation of Australian tree frogs and South American tree frogs is at minimum 55 million years ago. This pushes back the estimated molecular separation time for these groups by 22 million years.

Three small pieces of bone.
Three left sided ilia (pelvic fossil bones) which collectively provided the diagnostic information needed to identify the new species. UNSW Sydney/Roy Farman

New insights to help endangered species

Unravelling the deep-time changes in the diversity and evolution of the ancestors of today’s living animals can provide important new insights into the way these groups have responded in the past to previous challenges. These challenges include former natural cycles of climate change.

The more we know about the fossil record, the more likely we will better anticipate future responses to similar challenges, including human-induced climate change.

This is especially important for critically endangered species such as the Southern Corroboree Frog and Baw Baw Frog. Now restricted to alpine habitats in New South Wales and Victoria, they are at serious risk of extinction due to global warming.The Conversation

Roy M. Farman, Adjunct Associate Lecturer, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney and Mike Archer, Professor, Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

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

It’s a hard job being environment minister. Here’s an insider’s view of the key challenges facing Murray Watt

Peter Burnett, Australian National University

Australia’s new environment minister, Murray Watt, is reported to be a fixer. That’s good, because there’s a lot to fix.

Being environment minister is a hard gig. It often requires difficult choices between environmental and economic priorities. In cabinet, the minister is often up against a phalanx of ministers with economic portfolios and overriding political imperatives such as jobs and growth. I saw this repeatedly over the 16 years when I held senior leadership roles in environment departments at territory and federal levels.

In Labor’s first term, this tension played out again. Former environment minister Tanya Plibersek came to the role with big ideas. To that end, she tried to make Australia’s national environment laws fit for purpose and introduce a federal environmental protection agency (EPA).

A cumbersome approach to consultation didn’t help, but ultimately it was development concerns led by big mining companies and West Australian Premier Roger Cook that saw the reform can kicked down the road. Perversely, the only legal reform we saw was an amendment to protect not a threatened species, but the salmon farms threatening it.

Now it’s Watt’s turn. He has a reputation for getting things done and may drive a bargain to get some version of the EPA through. But that’s only one piece of the reform jigsaw and he’ll have to return to the mammoth task of reforming Australia’s national environment laws. He will have to push back against efforts by the Greens in the Senate to broaden the agenda to include climate and forests, and weather opposing pressures from industry and environment groups.

Stalled reforms

Watt’s largest challenge will be to revive the stalled Nature Positive Plan. This was the government’s response to the 2020 Samuel Review, which found Australia’s natural environment and iconic places were declining and under increasing threat, while national environmental laws were no longer fit for purpose.

Samuel’s solution was groundbreaking: create new, legally enforceable national environmental standards to deliver better environmental protection. Last term, Labor committed to introducing the standards, reforming laws and introducing an EPA. Unfortunately, Plibersek ran out of time and most of the reforms were put on the backburner.

Plibersek pitched an independent EPA as a tough cop on the beat, but it wasn’t independent enough for many environmentalists.

Industry didn’t like it either. WA miners used their influence to attack the EPA for being unaccountable. Their lobbying worked and the EPA was pushed back. As one mining figure told the Australian Financial Review: “The heat [industry pressure] was no one’s first preference; it was just required because there was no other way to influence the actual policymaking.”

Miners and other big businesses are likely worried the proposed independent EPA would reduce their influence. At present, the environment minister has near-complete discretion over approvals. Much of this discretion — and the political influence associated with it — would disappear with an independent EPA making decisions based on national environmental standards.

More challenges are looming. Here are two:

Gas extraction on the North West Shelf

Watt will soon have to decide on Woodside’s application to expand gas extraction off Australia’s northwest coast. If approved, the North West Shelf Extension Project would be Australia’s largest resource project. Environmentalists hate it, describing it as a climate bomb. The WA government approved it last year.

If Watt follows the pattern of his predecessors, we can expect to see the development approved subject to numerous conditions, pitched as strict environmental safeguards. Despite such safeguards applying to operations in Australia, the real damage done by the project will be global, not local, as the gas will be burned overseas.

Murray-Darling Basin Plan

The delayed ten-year review of the Murray-Darling basin plan is due in 2026. It will reopen old wounds. The basic problem is there’s not enough water for both the environment and irrigators.

When the draft plan was first released in 2010, angry irrigators burned a copy of it. The government backpedalled furiously, eventually approving a plan with a lot less water returned to the environment. Experts say the plan hasn’t actually helped the environment.

Watt is a former agriculture minister and will have insight into both sides. But he’ll need the wisdom of Solomon to come up with a successful approach.

It’s hard to fix systems

Making environmental headway is downright hard. The underlying problem is that politics is about trade-offs, but nature doesn’t negotiate. Nature is a system of systems, and if we take too much from it those systems begin to break down – usually irreversibly.

In previous decades, governments often dealt with environmental problems by creating national parks and World Heritage areas. If only things were still that simple.The Conversation

Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University

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

Hidden connections of more than 100 migratory marine species revealed in interactive map

Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock
Lily Bentley, The University of Queensland; Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Smithsonian Institution, and Daniel Dunn, The University of Queensland

From the enormous blue whale to the delicate monarch butterfly, animals of all shapes and sizes migrate across the globe. These migrations connect distant habitats, from the tropics to the poles. They are also crucial to both the health of species making these epic journeys, and the habitats where they live.

It is hard to visualise these epic, globe-spanning journeys and the habitats they connect. But an interactive map we developed, alongside an international team of scientists from the University of Queensland and Duke University and in partnership with the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, can help.

Known as Mico (Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean), this map is a valuable conservation tool that demonstrates just how connected our oceans are due to animal migration. It is freely available here, and has just been updated with our newly published research in Nature Communications. This research synthesises thousands of records of more than 100 species of birds, mammals, turtles and fish that connect almost 2,000 crucial habitats.

Map of Earth crisscrossed with arrows connecting the north and south poles.
Mico brings together the migratory movements of more than 100 migratory marine species, including the Arctic tern. Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean/Mico

An evolving science

Humans have contemplated animal migrations for millennia. Representations of and theories about these journeys are observable in Stone Age rock art and the writings of Ancient Greek philosophers. Indigenous peoples and local communities have also long relied upon and understood the seasonal movements of culturally important species.

But for much of human history, identifying specific destinations of migratory species was an inexact science. This has started to change in recent decades, as scientists have developed and deployed animal-borne satellite tags which can record and transmit an animal’s location as it migrates.

These tags can be very expensive to deploy and collect data from. They also require enormous investments of time and expertise. But they are crucial if we are to understand where migratory species go when they’re outside the range of normal human observations.

Two scientists in a boat release a turtle fitted with a satellite tag into the ocean.
Animal-borne satellite tags can be expensive, but are crucial for understanding where turtles and other migratory animals travel. NOAA/NMFS/Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Blog

The journeys of migratory species also span multiple jurisdictions. This means cooperation between countries is required to ensure they are protected.

For example, many albatross species receive significant conservation investment at their nesting islands within national jurisdictions. But they are at high risk of being incidentally caught and killed or injured in longline fisheries operating in international waters.

Synthesising more than 1,300 studies

For our new study, we reviewed the literature on the movements of marine migratory species from 1990 to 2017. We synthesised the start and end points of migrations reported in more than 1,300 individual studies. These studies covered 109 marine species.

This information was then aggregated to remove duplicate data and combine sites very near to each other (on a global scale) into one “metasite” to make it easier to display. Each data point is also linked to the study from which it comes. This means you can always find the work of the original team who tagged those animals.

In synthesising the studies in this manner, we created an interactive map and downloadable dataset estimating the measured migratory connections of the global ocean.

If you look up the green turtle map, for example, you can see just how much information there is for this highly-studied species. The red links show many tracked movements from breeding to foraging areas within each ocean basin.

Sperm whales, on the other hand, are globally distributed – you can toggle on the species distribution in the top menu. But we only have information about connectivity for animals in the Atlantic and east Pacific oceans. You can see these sites on the map, mostly in North America and in the Mediterranean.

Because researchers are yet to track animals in all parts of the globe, the map is missing some information about the migratory movements of key species in particular areas. We are planning updates as more information becomes available.

Map of Earth focused on Europe and North America crisscrossed with red arrows.
Sperm whales are globally distributed, but Mico currently only captures their connectivity in the Atlantic and east Pacific oceans. Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean/Mico

A tool for conservation

This summary of migratory information is important for improving global conservation.

Scientists have published many papers on migrations, both of single populations or species, and combining data about taxonomy from several different sources. But these can be difficult to keep up with for managers or policymakers who may not have time to engage with every single piece of emerging scientific literature.

Our information can help identify stakeholders when planning or managing a conservation project. Many of these stakeholders may be across an ocean basin or even in a different hemisphere.

The scientific synthesis we provide can help countries take more informed actions to achieve the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s target of conserving a “well-connected” 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030. This is particularly true in the high seas, as a mechanism to implement protected areas outside of national waters is developed under the soon-to-be-ratified High Seas Treaty.

Grey seabird flying over the ocean.
Various seabirds, including the Amsterdam Albatross, are included in the new research. Sergey 402/Shutterstock

In addition to sharing the enormous scope of work that has been conducted on the migration of large ocean animals over the last decades, our work has already fed into policy processes.

For example, it has been used by seven United Nations conventions or organisations. We hope to formalise the role of our map as a node of the Convention on Migratory Species’ Atlas of Animal Migration at their next meeting in March 2026.

More broadly, we hope this work will support better international collaboration to conserve our incredible oceanic migrants for years to come.The Conversation

Lily Bentley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland; Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Research Ecologist, Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Institution, and Daniel Dunn, A/Prof of Marine Conservation Science & Director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science (CBCS), The University of Queensland

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

Antarctica has a huge, completely hidden mountain range. New data reveals its birth over 500 million years ago

The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains are hidden by deep ice. Merkushev Vasiliy/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Halpin, University of Tasmania and Nathan R. Daczko, Macquarie University

Have you ever imagined what Antarctica looks like beneath its thick blanket of ice? Hidden below are rugged mountains, valleys, hills and plains.

Some peaks, like the towering Transantarctic Mountains, rise above the ice. But others, like the mysterious and ancient Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in the middle of East Antarctica, are completely buried.

The Gamburtsev Mountains are similar in scale and shape to the European Alps. But we can’t see them because the high alpine peaks and deep glacial valleys are entombed beneath kilometres of ice.

How did they come to be? Typically, a mountain range will rise in places where two tectonic plates clash with each other. But East Antarctica has been tectonically stable for millions of years.

Our new study, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, reveals how this hidden mountain chain emerged more than 500 million years ago when the supercontinent Gondwana formed from colliding tectonic plates.

Our findings offer fresh insight into how mountains and continents evolve over geological time. They also help explain why Antarctica’s interior has remained remarkably stable for hundreds of millions of years.

A radar image showing the Gamburtsev mountain range under layers of ice. Creyts et al., Geophysical Research Letters (2014), CC BY-SA

A buried secret

The Gamburtsev Mountains are buried beneath the highest point of the East Antarctica ice sheet. They were first discovered by a Soviet expedition using seismic techniques in 1958.

Because the mountain range is completely covered in ice, it’s one of the least understood tectonic features on Earth. For scientists, it’s deeply puzzling. How could such a massive mountain range form and still be preserved in the heart of an ancient, stable continent?

Most major mountain chains mark the sites of tectonic collisions. For example, the Himalayas are still rising today as the Indian and Eurasian plates continue to converge, a process that began about 50 million years ago.

Plate tectonic models suggest the crust now forming East Antarctica came from at least two large continents more than 700 million years ago. These continents used to be separated by a vast ocean basin.

A map of the topography (a) and surface elevation (b) of Antarctica, measured in metres above sea level; (c) shows ice thickness in metres. Pritchard et al., Scientific Data (2025), CC BY

The collision of these landmasses was key to the birth of Gondwana, a supercontinent that included what is now Africa, South America, Australia, India and Antarctica.

Our new study supports the idea that the Gamburtsev Mountains first formed during this ancient collision. The colossal clash of continents triggered the flow of hot, partly molten rock deep beneath the mountains.

As the crust thickened and heated during mountain building, it eventually became unstable and began to collapse under its own weight.

Deep beneath the surface, hot rocks began to flow sideways, like toothpaste squeezed from a tube, in a process known as gravitational spreading. This caused the mountains to partially collapse, while still preserving a thick crustal “root”, which extends into Earth’s mantle beneath.

Close-up of a brown-orange rock face with wavy fold lines in it.
Mountain building causes deep crustal rocks to deform, fold and partially melt. Jacqueline Halpin

Crystal time capsules

To piece together the timing of this dramatic rise and fall, we analysed tiny zircon grains found in sandstones deposited by rivers flowing from the ancient mountains more than 250 million years ago. These sandstones were recovered from the Prince Charles Mountains, which poke out of the ice hundreds of kilometres away.

Zircons are often called “time capsules” because they contain minuscule amounts of uranium in their crystal structure, which decays at a known rate and allows scientists to determine their age with great precision.

These zircon grains preserve a record of the mountain-building timeline: the Gamburtsev Mountains began to rise around 650 million years ago, reached Himalayan heights by 580 million years ago, and experienced deep crustal melting and flow that ended around 500 million years ago.

Most mountain ranges formed by continental collisions are eventually worn down by erosion or reshaped by later tectonic events. Because they’ve been preserved by a deep layer of ice, the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains are one of the best-preserved ancient mountain belts on Earth.

While it’s currently very challenging and expensive to drill through the thick ice to sample the mountains directly, our model offers new predictions to guide future exploration.

Two people in winter gear stand on a field of white ice with blue sky above them.
Geologists Jacqueline Halpin and Jack Mulder stand on the Denman Glacier during recent fieldwork. Jacqueline Halpin

For instance, recent fieldwork near the Denman Glacier on East Antarctica’s coast uncovered rocks that may be related to these ancient mountains. Further analysis of these rock samples will help reconstruct the hidden architecture of East Antarctica.

Antarctica remains a continent full of geological surprises, and the secrets buried beneath its ice are only beginning to be revealed.The Conversation

Jacqueline Halpin, Associate Professor of Geology, University of Tasmania and Nathan R. Daczko, Professor of Earth Science, Macquarie University

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

Range anxiety – or charger drama? Australians are buying hybrid cars because they don’t trust public chargers

VisualArtStudio/Shutterstock
Ganna Pogrebna, Charles Sturt University

Range anxiety has long been seen as the main obstacle stopping drivers from going electric.

But range isn’t the real issue. The average range of a new electric vehicle (EV) is more than 450 kilometres, and top models offer more than 700km per charge. By contrast, the average car is driven about 33km per day in Australia as of 2020.

What’s really going on is charger anxiety – the question of whether you can find somewhere reliable to recharge when you’re away from home. Australia’s public chargers are not common enough or reliable enough to give motorists certainty they can find a place to recharge.

This is why many drivers are hedging their bets. Rather than embracing battery-electric vehicles, many Australian drivers are opting for hybrids as well as plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which couple a smaller battery with an internal combustion engine. Hybrids and PHEVs accounted for almost 20% of new car sales from July–September last year, compared to 6.5% for fully electric vehicles.

Labor’s reelection could lead to better charging infrastructure. Last term, the federal government set a goal of a fast charging station every 150km along major highways, while state governments are also building more. But so far, these efforts aren’t enough to ensure Australia has reliable chargers in the right locations. Until then, cautious drivers will buy hybrids.

EV charging in rural area
Australia’s charger network has expanded, but many drivers are anxious about availability and reliability. Stepan Skorobogadko/Shutterstock

Public chargers matter

EV owners charge their cars at home an estimated 70–85% of the time. They use public chargers just 10–20% of the time and workplace charging 6–10% of the time.

This makes sense – home charging is reliable and cheap. But these figures also point to a problem: EV drivers don’t trust public chargers.

At present, Australia has about 3,700 public chargers nationwide. Each charging station typically supports one or two EVs, often offering different charging speeds. By contrast, there are around 6,600 service stations, with the ability to fuel multiple vehicles at once.



Other countries have much larger charger networks. The United Kingdom has more than 40,000 and Canada 16,000. China, the world leader, has almost 10 million.

EV chargers in China.
China now has 10 million EV chargers. Tang Yan Song/Shutterstock

Outside major Australian cities, chargers are harder to find and are often broken or in use. Chargers are usually not staffed, meaning there’s no one watching to prevent vandalism or organise maintenance.

EV plugs are not yet standardised. Some plugs may not be available, and using chargers isn’t always easy. By contrast, petrol cars use standard nozzles, payment is simpler and staff and CCTV presence discourages vandalism and ensures the pumps work.

If a petrol car runs out of fuel, the problem can be solved with a lift and a jerry can. But if your EV runs flat in a rural area because you can’t find a charger, you may have to get it towed.

This lack of reliability is more than just a logistical hurdle — it’s a psychological barrier.

Psychological roadblocks

A recent study found the fear of running out of charge was a major psychological barrier to buying an EV – particularly for rural and regional Australians, who drive longer distances. As long as chargers remain unreliable or located too far apart, this anxiety will persist.

In Australia, it’s easy to find reports of broken chargers, long queues at charging stations, gaps in the rural network and personal anecdotes of EV owners struggling to find a way to charge.

A 2023 survey found almost 70% of EV owners had come across an inoperable charger at least once over the previous six months.

What can Australia take from overseas experience?

Australia’s government wants to increase EV uptake. While EVs are getting cheaper, the supporting infrastructure isn’t good enough yet to make them the norm.

Across the European Union, chargers are being installed every 60km along major highways and efforts are being made to tackle psychological barriers to uptake.

Federal and state governments in the United States have invested heavily in filling gaps in the charger network and working with consumers to encourage more sustainable commuting.

woman holding EV charger plug and fuel nozzle.
Plug-in hybrids are powered by batteries and an internal combustion engine. algre/Shutterstock

Choosing a hybrid is rational but not ideal

It should be no surprise more Australians are buying hybrids as a safety net, given there are plenty of service stations and not as many EV chargers. City driving can allow near-total use of the electric motor, while longer trips still require petrol.

The choice is rational. But it’s not ideal from an environmental point of view. Traditional hybrids are still largely powered by an internal combustion engine, while PHEVs can run as electric for longer but still use their combustion engines.

While plug-ins have lower emissions than traditional vehicles, they often fail to deliver the full emissions savings drivers and regulators might hope for. Many drivers don’t charge regularly and rely instead on petrol.

Chargers aren’t the only factor, of course. A tax break for PHEVs boosted their popularity for several years before ending in April, while sales of Tesla EVs have fallen off a cliff due to the unpopularity of owner Elon Musk.

What needs to change?

The solutions are straightforward: expand the charger network, especially in regional and rural areas. Improve maintenance schedules and ensure existing chargers are reliable. Make sure data on their availability is accessible in real time so drivers can avoid anxiety and frustration. Counter EV misinformation and anecdotal biases with information campaigns.

When EV ownership and charging in Australia is practical and low risk, the sluggish EV transition will accelerate. But until then, many drivers will keep buying hybrids as a compromise.The Conversation

Ganna Pogrebna, Executive Director, AI and Cyber Futures Institute, Charles Sturt University

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

Farmers fear dingoes are eating their livestock – but predator poo tells an unexpected story

Kristian Bell/Shutterstock
Rachel Mason, Deakin University and Euan Ritchie, Deakin University

Killing carnivores to protect livestock, wildlife and people is an emotive and controversial issue that can cause community conflict. Difficult decisions about managing predators must be supported by strong scientific evidence.

In Australia, predators such as dingoes and foxes are often shot or poisoned with baits to prevent them from killing sheep and cattle. Feral cats and foxes are also killed to protect native wildlife.

But research elsewhere suggests public perceptions of how predators affect ecosystems and livestock are not always accurate.

Our recent study sought to shed light on these controversies. We examined the scat, or poo, left behind by dingoes, foxes and cats. We focused on the mallee region of Victoria and South Australia where there are calls to resume dingo culling to stop them killing livestock.

A contentious issue

Our study took place in the Big Desert-Wyperfeld-Ngarkat reserve complex in the semi-arid mallee region of Victoria and South Australia. This continuous ecosystem comprises about 10,000 km² of protected native mallee bushland, and is entirely surrounded by crop and livestock farming areas.

Fox-baiting is conducted along the boundaries of Victorian-managed reserve areas. Dingo baiting occurs in the South Australian-managed section of the park.

Since March 2024, the small dingo population has been protected in Victorian-managed areas due to their critically low numbers in the region.

Prior to the change, Victorian farmers and authorised trappers could control dingoes on private land and within public land up to 3km from farms. Farmers say they have lost livestock since dingoes were protected.

What are predators eating in the mallee region?

We collected and analysed 136 dingo, 200 fox and 25 cat scats to determine what each predator in the area was eating and how their diets differed.

Livestock was not a major part of the diet of dingoes, foxes or cats. Some 7% of fox scats contained sheep or cattle remains. This was more than that of dingoes, at 2% of scats. No feral cat scats contained livestock remains.

The dingo diet was dominated by kangaroos, wallabies and emus, which comprised more than 70% of their diet volume.

Cats and foxes consumed more than 15 times the volume of small native mammals compared with dingoes, including threatened species such as fat-tailed dunnarts.

Our data must be interpreted with caution. Scat analysis cannot differentiate between livestock killed by predators and those that are scavenged. It also can’t tell us about animals that a predator killed but did not eat.

In 2022–23, when we collected the scats, rainfall in the area was high and prey was abundant. So, while we found livestock were not likely to be a substantial part of these predators’ diets at the time of our research, this can change depending on environmental conditions.

For example, fire and extended drought may force predators to move further to find food and water. They may move from conservation areas to private land, where they could prey on livestock.

A taste for certain prey

A predator’s poo doesn’t tell the full story of how it affects prey populations.

To understand this further, we used motion-sensing wildlife cameras to assess which prey were available in the ecosystem. We compared it to the frequency they occurred in predator’s diets. This allowed us to determine if dingoes, foxes or cats target specific prey.

We found foxes and cats both consumed small mammals proportionally more than we expected, given the prey’s availability in the study area. Cats consumed birds at a higher rate than expected, and dingoes consumed echidnas more than expected.

Further intensive monitoring work is needed to determine how these dietary preferences affect the populations of prey species.

Embracing the evidence

The findings build on a substantial previous research suggesting foxes and cats pose a significant threat to native mammals, birds, reptiles and other wildlife, including many threatened species. Our results suggest foxes may cause more harm to sheep than dingoes overall – a finding consistent with research elsewhere in Victoria.

Dingoes were the only predator species that regularly preyed on kangaroos and wallabies. These species are abundant in the region. They can also compete with livestock for grazing pastures, consume crops and degrade native vegetation.

Currently, dingoes are killed on, or fenced out of, large parts of Australia due to their perceived threat to livestock.

Lethal control of invasive species remains important to protect native wildlife and agriculture. But such decisions should be based on evidence, to avoid unforeseen and undesirable results.

For example, fox control can lead to increased feral cat numbers and harm to native prey. Fewer dingoes may mean more feral goats and kangaroos.

Non-lethal and effective alternatives exist to indiscriminately killing predators to protect livestock, such as protection dogs and donkeys. These measures are being embraced by farmers and graziers globally, often with high and sustained success.

In Australia, governments should better embrace and support evidence-based and effective approaches that allow farming, native carnivores and other wildlife to coexist.The Conversation

Rachel Mason, PhD candidate in Conservation Biology, Deakin University and Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

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

David Attenborough’s Ocean reveals how bottom trawling is hurting sealife in horrifying detail

A bottom trawl net hanging to dry in the harbour of Harlingen in the Netherlands, showing the rockhopper rollers on the footrope that contacts the seabed. 365 Focus Photography/Shutterstock
Callum Roberts, University of Exeter

In one of the most powerful scenes of Sir David Attenborough’s new film Ocean, the audience sees industrial fishing from a fish’s perspective.

Confronting a bottom trawl net as it thunders across the seabed, terrified fish scatter in desperate but futile attempts to escape the vast net swallowing them. The heavy chain that holds the trawl down sweeps away sponges, corals, seagrass and other seabed life, leaving behind utter devastation.

Attenborough’s latest nature documentary is a visually magnificent and highly personal meditation on the relationship humans have with the sea. It is the most important part of our world, he says. But we have taken it for granted.

A century of intensifying and destructive fishing has culminated in bottom trawl nets, some as big as cathedrals and weighing many tonnes, being towed along the seabed to catch fish. To allow them to fish more effectively in areas of rough seabed, which is where most marine life is found, fishers in the 1920s invented “rock-hopper” gear: rollers placed along the foot rope that touches the bottom, allowing the net to bounce over obstacles.

This innovation followed the trajectory of many fishing methods, which was to become more destructive over time to sustain the size of catches in the face of declining fish stocks.

An open trawler net suspended over the sea surface.
Trawler nets are designed to gobble up marine life indiscriminately. Anney_Lier/Shutterstock

Shellfish dredging, another fishing method that destroys as it catches, is shown in a second horrifying scene. To catch scallops, steel dredges armed with spikes (imagine the harrows farmers use to break up soil on ploughed fields) drag along the seabed, smashing and pummelling everything. In minutes, seabed life of astonishing diversity and beauty is erased.

Together, Attenborough explains, bottom trawling and dredging wreak their havoc across an area of seabed larger than the Amazon rainforest every year.

Attenborough invites viewers to wonder how on Earth these fishing methods are still allowed when the damage is so obvious. Viewers may be even more surprised, and very probably angry, to learn that most marine protected areas in Europe, and indeed worldwide, permit bottom trawling and dredging within their boundaries.

To understand why this is the case, we have to go back in time.

A medieval practice

We know from the parliamentary records of Edward III in 1376 that fishers in southern England were practising bottom trawling as far back as the 1300s. Long-held traditions are hard to change, even when there is irrefutable evidence that they cause harm.

It is telling, however, that this early description of trawling is a petition urging the king to ban the method for its reckless destruction of habitat and waste of fish.

Nevertheless, these fisheries expanded because trawling was an efficient means of landing huge quantities of fish. Trawling’s success came at the expense of what we call marine animal forests, habitats built by animals like oysters, horse mussels and sponges – all swept away to leave behind vacant shifting sands, mud and gravel that predominate over vast swaths of seafloor today.

A recent estimate has suggested that oyster reefs once covered at least 17,000 square kilometres of European seas – an area the size of Northern Ireland. All of this was gone by the beginning of the 20th century. This ecosystem cannot recover until it is offered protection from trawling and dredging. So, why haven’t we protected it?

Degraded habitats, profoundly altered by trawling, were what scientists and then conservationists found when they first ventured below water after the invention of scuba diving in the mid-20th century. These early submarine explorers mistook them for natural and wild, failing to see the role industrial fishing had played in their creation.

Being now occupied almost exclusively by creatures used to the passage of trawls – animals that live fast and die young like worms, prawns and whelks – these habitats were labelled as resilient, and not in need of protection.

This warped perspective fooled us into thinking that marine protected areas left open to bottom trawling would be fine. In the few cases where protected areas exclude trawling, like around the Isle of Arran in western Scotland, the swift resurgence of seabed life has revealed how wrong this assumption was.

In only five years, sea-moss, sea-nettles, scallops and brittle stars have reoccupied the seafloor, a transformation that is nevertheless just the beginning of a recovery that will carry on for decades.

Seabeds protected from trawls and dredges can rebound, like this one off the Isle of Arran. It offers a glimpse of what existed before industrial fisheries. Henley Spiers/Blue Marine Foundation

Giving up the trawl and dredge does not mean an end to fishing, as the film explains. In fact, recovering fish populations in protected areas replenish those in fishing grounds nearby, leading to better and more sustainable catches.

Calling time on destructive fishing

Perhaps now, at last, the writing is on the wall for bottom trawling and dredging, because they do a more insidious form of damage we have only recently become fully aware of. The ocean floor is one of the planet’s largest carbon stores. A snowfall of sinking organic matter and sediment accumulates on the seabed, where the carbon it contains is buried for thousands of years.

Left undisturbed, this carbon is out of harm’s way. But when churned up by the passage of trawls and dredges, some is turned back into CO₂, some of which will end up back in the atmosphere.

The magnitude of these seabed carbon emissions, and their role in climate change, is hotly debated. Getting more reliable estimates is the mission of a five-year project I lead, the Convex Seascape Survey. One thing is already clear from our research, however: there are places underwater – like peat bogs or permafrost on land – that we should not disturb because they harbour immense quantities of carbon.

Ironically, these muddy basins have in the past few decades become some of the most intensively fished places in the sea because they are home to valuable prawns, which are among the few species still able to support viable fisheries.

Any country serious about meeting net zero in time to prevent dangerous climate change must act swiftly to protect its seabed carbon stores. And any country serious about ocean conservation knows that marine protected areas are useless if they don’t exclude trawling and dredging.

David Attenborough, Silverback Films and the Open Planet Studios team have brought these truths to a mass audience, leaving no space for further evasion and denial. What we need now is action.


Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.The Conversation


Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation, University of Exeter

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

From nuclear to nature laws, here’s where new Liberal leader Sussan Ley stands on 4 energy and environment flashpoints

Justine Bell-James, The University of Queensland and Samantha Hepburn, Deakin University

Sussan Ley has been elected Liberal leader after defeating rival Angus Taylor in a party room vote on Tuesday. Now the leadership question is settled, the hard work of rebuilding the party can begin.

In the wake of its election loss, the Coalition has foreshadowed a sweeping policy review. Where the Coalition lands on the contentious nuclear energy policy will be keenly watched.

The majority Labor government is likely to easily push legislation through the lower house. However, the Senate numbers mean Labor needs backing from either the Greens or the Coalition to pass bills into law.

So where does Ley stand on nuclear energy and other pressure points across the environment and energy portfolios? Ley’s stance on four key issues, including during her time as environment minister in the Morrison government, provides important insights.

1. Nuclear power and gas

The resounding Coalition election defeat suggest the prospects for nuclear power in Australia are now poor. But the Coalition’s nuclear policy may yet resurface, given the Nationals still support it.

During the election campaign, Ley backed the Liberals’ call for nuclear power in Australia, arguing nuclear can provide a zero-emissions option that’s needed in the shift to renewables.

In a 2023 speech, Ley suggested nuclear power had a big future in Australia, saying:

The fact is the latest technology reactors in nuclear-powered submarines in operation today don’t need to be refuelled for 30 years. And the money being invested into research and development is only going to make these new nuclear technologies even better.

Ley has also argued Australia needs to keep gas in the system for longer, rather than “trying to do everything with renewables”.

2. The energy transition

A second-term Labor government will further progress its existing energy policies, including measures to reach its target of 82% renewable energy in the the National Electricity Market by 2030.

Ley has accepted the need for a renewable energy transition, but says it should be led by nuclear power and gas.

She has suggested enormous wind turbines and large-scale solar farms are dominating the landscape in rural areas. She also claims renewable energy projects generate insurance risks because battery storage increases fire risks.

Ley has consistently voted against increasing investment in renewable energy, and is likely to seek to ensure policy addresses rising energy prices and reliability.

3. Nature law reform

The Albanese government intends to complete reform of Australia’s federal environment laws, known collectively as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (or EPBC Act). Labor’s proposed reforms stalled in the Senate last term.

The independent review that preceded the reform, led by Graeme Samuel, was initiated by the Morrison government under Ley, who served as environment minister from 2019 to 2022.

An interim report from the Samuel review was released in July 2020. Ley seized on recommendations that suited her government’s agenda – notably, streamlining the environmental approvals process to speed up decisions on proposed developments. She vowed to start working on them even before the review was finalised, and before public comment on the draft was received.

Ley put bills to parliament in August 2020 and February 2021 seeking to amend the laws. The first sought to hand powers for environmental approvals to the states. The proposal was criticised for lacking environmental safeguards.

This prompted Ley to introduce a second bill which sought to ensure state agreements were monitored and audited. It also provided for new “national environmental standards” to guide approval decisions.

But both bills lapsed before the 2022 election after failing to secure Senate support.

National environmental standards were a key recommendation from the Samuel review, and also a centrepiece of Labor’s proposed reforms. However, Labor’s proposed standards were more robust and focused on outcomes.

The bills Labor introduced to parliament in 2024 also sought establish Australia’s first national environment protection agency to carry out compliance and enforcement. This body would have had more power than Ley’s proposed commissioner.

So while Labor’s proposed reform package was bolder, both Ley and her then Labor counterpart Tanya Plibersek’s proposals were comprised of similar ingredients. Given Ley has shown support for some elements of Labor’s reform package before, namely devolving powers to states and implementing standards, there may be some grounds for negotiation.

4. Coal and climate change

As environment minister, Ley welcomed the Coalition’s approval of the huge Adani coalmine in central Queensland. She also gave the green light to other coal projects. Plibersek took a similar approach to coal projects in her time as minister.

In 2021, the Federal Court found Ley, as environment minister, owed a duty of care to future generations to avoid causing climate harm through her decisions. Ley successfully appealed the ruling.

Separately, Ley has also claimed climate change is not part of the environment portfolio.

When the Coalition reflects on the resounding defeat at the election, Ley’s hard stance on climate may soften.

Finding common ground

Ley brings a deeper understanding of nature law reform to the position of Liberal leader than her predecessor Peter Dutton. This raises the prospects for overhauling the EPBC Act this term.

However, Ley’s priority is likely to be streamlining the environmental approval process rather than increasing protections afforded to threatened species and ecosystems.

On the topic of gas playing a significant ongoing role in Australia’s energy mix, Ley will find many like minds in the Labor government.

When it comes to the energy transition, much rests on the party room decision on whether to persist with a nuclear power policy. Nevertheless, with or without nuclear, Ley’s previous statements suggest she will continue to argue against wind and solar generation energy on cost and reliability grounds.The Conversation

Justine Bell-James, Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland and Samantha Hepburn, Professor, Deakin Law School, Deakin University

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

Two lizard-like creatures crossed tracks 355 million years ago. Today, their footprints yield a major discovery

Marcin Ambrozik
John Long, Flinders University; Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, Uppsala University, and Per Ahlberg, Uppsala University

The emergence of four-legged animals known as tetrapods was a key step in the evolution of many species today – including humans.

Our new discovery, published today in Nature, details ancient fossil footprints found in Australia that upend the early evolution timeline of all tetrapods. It also suggests major parts of the story could have played out in the southern supercontinent of Gondwana.

This fossil trackway whispers that we have been looking for the origin of modern tetrapods in the wrong time, and perhaps the wrong place.

The first feet on land

Tetrapods originated a long time ago in the Devonian period, when strange lobe-finned fishes began to haul themselves out of the water, probably around 390 million years ago.

This ancestral stock later split into two main evolutionary lines. One led to modern amphibians, such as frogs and salamanders. The other led to amniotes, whose eggs contain amniotic membranes protecting the developing foetus.

Today, amniotes include all reptiles, birds and mammals. They are by far the most successful tetrapod group, numbering more than 27,000 species of reptiles, birds and mammals.

They have occupied every environment on land, have conquered the air, and many returned to the water in spectacularly successful fashion. But the fossil record shows the earliest members of this amniote group were small and looked rather like lizards. How did they emerge?

The oldest known tetrapods have always been thought to be primitive fish-like forms like Acanthostega, barely capable of moving on land.

An early tetrapod, Acanthostega, from the Devonian period.
Acanthostega, an early tetrapod that lived about 365 million years ago, was a member of the ancestral stock that gave rise to amphibians and amniotes. The authors

Most scientists agree amphibians and amniotes separated at the start of the Carboniferous period, about 355 million years ago. Later in the period, the amniote lineage split further into the ancestors of mammals and reptiles-plus-birds.

Now, this tidy picture falls apart.

A curious trackway

Key to our discovery is a 35 centimetre wide sandstone slab from Taungurung country, near Mansfield in eastern Victoria.

The slab is covered with the footprints of clawed feet that can only belong to early amniotes, most probably reptiles. It pushes back the origin of the amniotes by at least 35 million years.

Fossil trackways found near Mansfield in Victoria showing the oldest known reptile prints.
Mansfield slab, dated between 359-350 million years old, showing positions of early reptile tracks. The authors

Despite huge variations in size and shape, all amniotes have certain features in common. For one, if we have limbs with fingers and toes, these are almost always tipped with claws – or nails, in the case of humans.

In other tetrapod groups, real claws don’t occur. Even claw-like, hardened toe tips seen in some amphibians are extremely rare.

Claws usually leave obvious marks in footprints, providing a clue to whether a fossil footprint was made by an amniote.

Close up showing the oldest known tracks with hooked claws from Mansfield, Victoria. Left, photo; right, optical scan. The authors

The oldest clawed tracks

The previous oldest fossil record of reptiles is based on footprints and bones from North America and Europe around 318 million years ago.

The oldest record of reptile-like tracks in Europe is from Silesia in Poland, a new discovery also revealed in our paper. They are around 328 million years old.

However, the Australian slab is much older than that, dated to between 359 and 350 million years old. It comes from the earliest part of the Carboniferous rock outcropping along the Broken River (Berrepit in the Taungurung language of the local First Nations people).

This area has long been known for yielding many kinds of spectacular fossil fishes that lived in lakes and large rivers. Now, for the first time, we catch a glimpse of life on the riverbank.

The world oldest reptile came from outcrops of red sandstone in the Mansfield area, Victoria.
Fossil hunters search the Carboniferous red sandstone in the Mansfield area of Victoria. Such outcrops recently yielded the trackways of the world’s oldest reptile. John Long

Two trackways of fossil footprints cross the slab’s upper surface, one of them overstepping an isolated footprint facing the opposite direction. The surface is covered with dimples made by raindrops, recording a brief shower just before the footprints were made. This proves the creatures were moving about on dry land.

All the footprints show claw marks, some in the form of long scratches where the foot has been dragged along.

The shape of the feet matches that of known early reptile tracks, so we are confident the footprints belong to an amniote. Our short animation below gives a reconstruction of the ancient environment around Mansfield 355 million years ago, and shows how the tracks were made.

A short animation showing the creature making the tracks and its scientific significance. By Flinders University and Monkeystack Productions.

Rewriting the timeline

This find has a massive impact on the origin timeline of all tetrapods.

If amniotes had already evolved by the earliest Carboniferous, as our fossil shows, the last common ancestor of amniotes and amphibians has to lie much further back in time, in the Devonian period.

We can estimate the timing of the split by comparing the relative lengths of different branches in DNA-based family trees of living tetrapods. It suggests the split took place in the late Devonian, maybe as far back as 380 million years ago.

This implies the late Devonian world was populated not just by primitive fish-like tetrapods, and intermediate “fishapods” like the famous Tiktaalik, but also by advanced forms including close relatives of the living lineages. So why haven’t we found their bones?

The location of our slab provides a clue.

Big evolutionary questions

All other records of Carboniferous amniotes have come from the northern hemisphere ancient landmass called Euramerica that incorporated present-day North America and Europe. Euramerica also produced the great majority of Devonian tetrapod fossils.

The new Australian fossils come from Gondwana, a gigantic southern continent that also contained Africa, South America, Antarctica and India.

In all of this vast landmass, which stretched from the southern tropics down across the South Pole, our little slab is currently the only tetrapod fossil from the earliest part of the Carboniferous.

The Devonian record is scarcely much better. The Gondwana fossil record of early tetrapods is shockingly incomplete, with enormous gaps that could conceal – well, just about anything.

This find now raises a big evolutionary question. Did the first modern tetrapods, our own distant ancestors, emerge in the temperate Devonian landscapes of southern Gondwana, long before they spread to the sun-baked semi-deserts and steaming swamps of equatorial Euramerica?

It’s quite possible. Only more fieldwork, bringing to light new discoveries of Devonian and Carboniferous fossils from the old Gondwana continents, might one day answer that question.


We acknowledge the Taungurung people of Mansfield area where this scientific work has taken place.The Conversation

John Long, Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders University; Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, Lead Scientist, Mesozoic Ecosystems, Uppsala University, and Per Ahlberg, Professor of Evolutionary Organismal Biology, Uppsala University

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
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 - Ingleside Escarpment Trail Walk Spring 2020 photos by Joe Mills
Irrawong - Mullet Creek Restoration
Katandra Bushland Sanctuary - Ingleside
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
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
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
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

New Shorebirds WingThing  For Youngsters Available To Download

A Shorebirds WingThing educational brochure for kids (A5) helps children learn about shorebirds, their life and journey. The 2021 revised brochure version was published in February 2021 and is available now. You can download a file copy here.

If you would like a free print copy of this brochure, please send a self-addressed envelope with A$1.10 postage (or larger if you would like it unfolded) affixed to: BirdLife Australia, Shorebird WingThing Request, 2-05Shorebird WingThing/60 Leicester St, Carlton VIC 3053.


Shorebird Identification Booklet

The Migratory Shorebird Program has just released the third edition of its hugely popular Shorebird Identification Booklet. The team has thoroughly revised and updated this pocket-sized companion for all shorebird counters and interested birders, with lots of useful information on our most common shorebirds, key identification features, sighting distribution maps and short articles on some of BirdLife’s shorebird activities. 

The booklet can be downloaded here in PDF file format: http://www.birdlife.org.au/documents/Shorebird_ID_Booklet_V3.pdf

Paper copies can be ordered as well, see http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/shorebirds-2020/counter-resources for details.

Download BirdLife Australia's children’s education kit to help them learn more about our wading birdlife

Shorebirds are a group of wading birds that can be found feeding on swamps, tidal mudflats, estuaries, beaches and open country. For many people, shorebirds are just those brown birds feeding a long way out on the mud but they are actually a remarkably diverse collection of birds including stilts, sandpipers, snipe, curlews, godwits, plovers and oystercatchers. Each species is superbly adapted to suit its preferred habitat.  The Red-necked Stint is as small as a sparrow, with relatively short legs and bill that it pecks food from the surface of the mud with, whereas the Eastern Curlew is over two feet long with a exceptionally long legs and a massively curved beak that it thrusts deep down into the mud to pull out crabs, worms and other creatures hidden below the surface.

Some shorebirds are fairly drab in plumage, especially when they are visiting Australia in their non-breeding season, but when they migrate to their Arctic nesting grounds, they develop a vibrant flush of bright colours to attract a mate. We have 37 types of shorebirds that annually migrate to Australia on some of the most lengthy and arduous journeys in the animal kingdom, but there are also 18 shorebirds that call Australia home all year round.

What all our shorebirds have in common—be they large or small, seasoned traveller or homebody, brightly coloured or in muted tones—is that each species needs adequate safe areas where they can successfully feed and breed.

The National Shorebird Monitoring Program is managed and supported by BirdLife Australia. 

This project is supported by Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority and Hunter Local Land Services through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program. Funding from Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and Port Phillip Bay Fund is acknowledged. 

The National Shorebird Monitoring Program is made possible with the help of over 1,600 volunteers working in coastal and inland habitats all over Australia. 

The National Shorebird Monitoring program (started as the Shorebirds 2020 project initiated to re-invigorate monitoring around Australia) is raising awareness of how incredible shorebirds are, and actively engaging the community to participate in gathering information needed to conserve shorebirds. 

In the short term, the destruction of tidal ecosystems will need to be stopped, and our program is designed to strengthen the case for protecting these important habitats. 

In the long term, there will be a need to mitigate against the likely effects of climate change on a species that travels across the entire range of latitudes where impacts are likely. 

The identification and protection of critical areas for shorebirds will need to continue in order to guard against the potential threats associated with habitats in close proximity to nearly half the human population. 

Here in Australia, the place where these birds grow up and spend most of their lives, continued monitoring is necessary to inform the best management practice to maintain shorebird populations. 

BirdLife Australia believe that we can help secure a brighter future for these remarkable birds by educating stakeholders, gathering information on how and why shorebird populations are changing, and working to grow the community of people who care about shorebirds.

To find out more visit: http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/shorebirds-2020/shorebirds-2020-program

Surfers for Climate

A sea-roots movement dedicated to mobilising and empowering surfers for continuous and positive climate action.

Surfers for Climate are coming together in lineups around the world to be the change we want to see.

With roughly 35 million surfers across the globe, our united tribe has a powerful voice. 

Add yours to the conversation by signing up here.

Surfers for Climate will keep you informed, involved and active on both the local and global issues and solutions around the climate crisis via our allies hub. 

Help us prevent our favourite spots from becoming fading stories of waves we used to surf.

Together we can protect our oceans and keep them thriving for future generations to create lifelong memories of their own.

Visit:  http://www.surfersforclimate.org.au/

Create a Habitat Stepping Stone!

Over 50 Pittwater households have already pledged to make a difference for our local wildlife, and you can too! Create a habitat stepping stone to help our wildlife out. It’s easy - just add a few beautiful habitat elements to your backyard or balcony to create a valuable wildlife-friendly stopover.

How it works

1) Discover: Visit the website below to find dozens of beautiful plants, nest boxes and water elements you can add to your backyard or balcony to help our local wildlife.

2) Pledge: Select three or more elements to add to your place. You can even show you care by choosing to have a bird appear on our online map.

3) Share: Join the Habitat Stepping Stones Facebook community to find out what’s happening in the natural world, and share your pics, tips and stories.

What you get                                  

• Enjoy the wonders of nature, right outside your window. • Free and discounted plants for your garden. • A Habitat Stepping Stone plaque for your front fence. • Local wildlife news and tips. • Become part of the Pittwater Habitat Stepping Stones community.

Get the kids involved and excited about helping out! www.HabitatSteppingStones.org.au

No computer? No problem -Just write to the address below and we’ll mail you everything you need. Habitat Stepping Stones, Department of Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University NSW 2109. This project is assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust

Newport Community Gardens

Anyone interested in joining our community garden group please feel free to come and visit us on Sunday at 10am at the Woolcott Reserve in Newport!


Keep in Touch with what's happening on Newport Garden's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newportcg/

Avalon Preservation Association


The Avalon Preservation Association, also known as Avalon Preservation Trust. We are a not for profit volunteer community group incorporated under the NSW Associations Act, established 50 years ago. We are committed to protecting your interests – to keeping guard over our natural and built environment throughout the Avalon area.

Membership of the association is open to all those residents and/or ratepayers of Avalon Beach and adjacent areas who support the aims and objectives of our Association.

Report illegal dumping

NSW Government

The RIDonline website lets you report the types of waste being dumped and its GPS location. Photos of the waste can also be added to the report.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA), councils and Regional Illegal Dumping (RID) squads will use this information to investigate and, if appropriate, issue a fine or clean-up notice. Penalties for illegal dumping can be up to $15,000 and potential jail time for anybody caught illegally dumping within five years of a prior illegal dumping conviction.

The Green Team

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This Youth-run, volunteer-based environment initiative has been attracting high praise from the founders of Living Ocean as much as other local environment groups recently. 
Creating Beach Cleans events, starting their own, sustainability days - ‘action speaks louder than words’ ethos is at the core of this group. 

Australian Native Foods website: http://www.anfil.org.au/

Wildlife Carers and Organisations in Pittwater:

Sydney Wildlife rescues, rehabilitates and releases sick, injured and orphaned native wildlife. From penguins, to possums and parrots, native wildlife of all descriptions passes through the caring hands of Sydney Wildlife rescuers and carers on a daily basis. We provide a genuine 24 hour, 7 day per week emergency advice, rescue and care service.

As well as caring for sick, injured and orphaned native wildlife, Sydney Wildlife is also involved in educating the community about native wildlife and its habitat. We provide educational talks to a wide range of groups and audiences including kindergartens, scouts, guides, a wide range of special interest groups and retirement villages. Talks are tailored to meet the needs and requirements of each group. 

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Found an injured native animal? We're here to help.

Keep the animal contained, warm, quiet and undisturbed. Do not offer any food or water. Call Sydney Wildlife immediately on 9413 4300, or take the animal to your nearest vet. Generally there is no charge. Find out more at: www.sydneywildlife.org.au

Southern Cross Wildlife Care was launched over 6 years ago. It is the brainchild of Dr Howard Ralph, the founder and chief veterinarian. SCWC was established solely for the purpose of treating injured, sick and orphaned wildlife. No wild creature in need that passes through our doors is ever rejected. 

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People can assist SCWC by volunteering their skills ie: veterinary; medical; experienced wildlife carers; fundraising; "IT" skills; media; admin; website etc. We are always having to address the issue of finances as we are a non commercial veterinary service for wildlife in need, who obviously don't have cheque books in their pouches. It is a constant concern and struggle of ours when we are pre-occupied with the care and treatment of the escalating amount of wildlife that we have to deal with. Just becoming a member of SCWC for $45 a year would be a great help. Regular monthly donations however small, would be a wonderful gift and we could plan ahead knowing that we had x amount of funds that we could count on. Our small team of volunteers are all unpaid even our amazing vet Howard, so all funds raised go directly towards our precious wildlife. SCWC is TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

Find out more at: southerncrosswildlifecare.org.au/wp/

Avalon Community Garden

Community Gardens bring people together and enrich communities. They build a sense of place and shared connection.

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Avalon Community Garden is a community led initiative to create accessible food gardens in public places throughout the Pittwater area. Our aim is to share skills and knowledge in creating fabulous local, organic food. But it's not just about great food. We also aim to foster community connection, stimulate creative ideas for community resilience and celebrate our abundance. Open to all ages and skills, our first garden is on the grounds of Barrenjoey High School (off Tasman Road)Become part of this exciting initiative to change the world locally. 

Avalon Community Garden
2 Tasman Road
North Avalon

Newport Community Garden: Working Bee Second Sunday of the month

Newport Community Gardens Inc. is a not for profit incorporated association. The garden is in Woolcott Reserve.

Objectives
Local Northern Beaches residents creating sustainable gardens in public spaces
Strengthening the local community, improving health and reconnecting with nature
To establish ecologically sustainable gardens for the production of vegetables, herbs, fruit and companion plants within Pittwater area 
To enjoy and forge friendships through shared gardening.
Membership is open to all Community members willing to participate in establishing gardens and growing sustainable food.
Subscription based paid membership.
We meet at the garden between 9am – 12 noon
New members welcome

For enquiries contact newportcommunitygardenau@gmail.com

Living Ocean


Living Ocean was born in Whale Beach, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, surrounded by water and set in an area of incredible beauty.
Living Ocean is a charity that promotes the awareness of human impact on the ocean, through research, education, creative activity in the community, and support of others who sustain ocean health and integrity.

And always celebrating and honouring the natural environment and the lifestyle that the ocean offers us.

Our whale research program builds on research that has been conducted off our coastline by our experts over many years and our Centre for Marine Studies enables students and others to become directly involved.

Through partnerships with individuals and organizations, we conceive, create and coordinate campaigns that educate all layers of our community – from our ‘No Plastic Please’ campaign, which is delivered in partnership with local schools, to film nights and lectures, aimed at the wider community.

Additionally, we raise funds for ocean-oriented conservation groups such as Sea Shepherd.

Donations are tax-deductable 
Permaculture Northern Beaches

Want to know where your food is coming from? 

Do you like to enrich the earth as much as benefit from it?

Find out more here:

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What Does PNHA do?

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About Pittwater Natural Heritage Association (PNHA)
With urbanisation, there are continuing pressures that threaten the beautiful natural environment of the Pittwater area. Some impacts are immediate and apparent, others are more gradual and less obvious. The Pittwater Natural Heritage Association has been formed to act to protect and preserve the Pittwater areas major and most valuable asset - its natural heritage. PNHA is an incorporated association seeking broad based community membership and support to enable it to have an effective and authoritative voice speaking out for the preservation of Pittwater's natural heritage. Please contact us for further information.

Our Aims
  • To raise public awareness of the conservation value of the natural heritage of the Pittwater area: its landforms, watercourses, soils and local native vegetation and fauna.
  • To raise public awareness of the threats to the long-term sustainability of Pittwater's natural heritage.
  • To foster individual and community responsibility for caring for this natural heritage.
  • To encourage Council and the NSW Government to adopt and implement policies and works which will conserve, sustain and enhance the natural heritage of Pittwater.
Act to Preserve and Protect!
If you would like to join us, please fill out the Membership Application Form ($20.00 annually - $10 concession)

Email: pnhainfo@gmail.com Or click on Logo to visit website.

Think before you print ; A kilo of recycled paper creates around 1.8 kilograms of carbon emissions, without taking into account the emissions produced from transporting the paper. So, before you send a document to print, think about how many kilograms of carbon emissions you could save by reading it on screen.

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

Pittwater's Environmental Foundation

Pittwater Environmental Foundation was established in 2006 to conserve and enhance the natural environment of the Pittwater local government area through the application of tax deductible donations, gifts and bequests. The Directors were appointed by Pittwater Council. 

 Profile

About 33% (about 1600 ha excluding National Parks) of the original pre-European bushland in Pittwater remains in a reasonably natural or undisturbed condition. Of this, only about 400ha remains in public ownership. All remaining natural bushland is subject to encroachment, illegal clearing, weed invasion, feral animals, altered drainage, bushfire hazard reduction requirements and other edge effects. Within Pittwater 38 species of plants or animals are listed as endangered or threatened under the Threatened Species Act. There are two endangered populations (Koala and Squirrel Glider) and eight endangered ecological communities or types of bushland. To visit their site please click on logo above.

Avalon Boomerang Bags


Avalon Boomerang Bags was introduced to us by Surfrider Foundation and Living Ocean, they both helped organise with the support of Pittwater Council the Recreational room at Avalon Community Centre which we worked from each Tuesday. This is the Hub of what is a Community initiative to help free Avalon of single use plastic bags and to generally spread the word of the overuse of plastic. 

Find out more and get involved.

"I bind myself today to the power of Heaven, the light of the sun, the brightness of the moon, the splendour of fire, the flashing of lightning, the swiftness of wind, the depth of the sea, the stability of the earth, the compactness of rocks." -  from the Prayer of Saint Patrick