Educators/Researchers

Trent Forge from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and drone pilot Richard Delaney search for the critically endangered 'Fletcher's Drumsticks'. Using drones, the cliffs and hanging swamps of Blue Mountains National Park can be surveyed in a way previously impossible.

Blackheath Public School is providing hands-in-the-dirt lessons on how the students can make their school more sustainable. Students will soon be eating spinach and cheese scrolls made by the canteen using garden produce.

Hamish Dunlop attends a talk by Dharug man Chris Tobin. Chris’ talk highlights how learning about other people’s cultures and ways of seeing can increase the resilience of individuals and communities.

In this series of events to restore the songlines of the Seven Sisters across Australia, seven song women from Uluru visited the Blue Mountains to return ancestral knowledge to over 40 women and children who came from east coast mobs living in an area ranging from Queensland to the South Coast.

A Blue Mountains program called Connect at Home started during COVID to support early childhood language development. Through the program families access high quality storybooks and are guided on how to optimise learning at home.

While Blue Mountains residents are all too familiar with the more visible impacts of climate change such as floods, droughts and fires, another lesser known impact of extreme weather is urban forest decline and tree death.

  When you first meet Sherlie McMillan you’re instantly bowled over by her disarming warmth, infectious laughter and wicked sense of humour.   During the last Covid restrictions, when only 10 were allowed into the Rotary meeting room at the Blackheath Golf and Community Club, Sherlie’s laughter rang out from ‘the naughty table’ that met outside in the dining room. …

  In March this year, Japanese journalist Harumi Hayakawa wrote a piece for the Japanese publication Asahi Weekly in which she explained why the terrifying Australian fires of December 2019 actually made her like the Blue Mountains even more.     In her article she described the many ways the community came together during and after the fires and how, …

On World Ocean Day Gabon announces protections for sharks and rays; AGL to replace Liddell coal-fired power station with solar-and-hydro energy facility; and new research shows that reducing light in city buildings during bird migrating season would reduce collision deaths by 60% These stories and more in today’s Solutions Digest: • The Gabon government and conservation NGO Wildlife Conservation Society have partnered to …

You can download this month’s Local News here: BLN  March 2021