Tag Archives: Biodiversity

Blackheathen Bianca Nogrady is an award-winning freelance science journalist, author and broadcaster. She reflects on conversations from this year’s Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival and shares what she and her family are doing towards planetary health.

The Lyrebird Festival in the Megalong Valley runs between the 23rd and 26th of November 2023. Immersive multimedia experiences, deep listening, conscious eating and art help to reimagine our place in the interconnected web of life.

The Rotary Club of Blackheath has launched a Birds, Bees, Butterflies and Bats Pollinator Project. With 65% of the world’s flowering plants, including crops and trees, requiring some form of animal pollination, helping pollinators is critical to planetary health. Club President Sherlie McMillian explains how we can support pollinators in Blackheath, the Blue Mountains and beyond.

Margaret Gough ran a WIRES animal refuge for more than two decades, was District Commissioner for Scouts in the Blue Mountains, and coordinated the Lithgow Community Centre for a decade. Her home was burnt in Mount Victoria during the 2013 fires, but she’s rebuilt and is now more prepared. She continues to nurture the diverse life on ‘her patch’.  

These hairy, furry balls of cuteness are one of Australia’s most appealing animals, but many wombats are dying painful deaths from an infectious parasite. We joined the volunteers on a mission to save local wombats.

Conservation Volunteers Australia recently facilitated a workshop in Blackheath where volunteers, citizen scientists and experts came together to share knowledge, survey bird populations and monitor nest boxes installed to support antechinus, glider and possum populations.

Keith Brister is on a mission. He and his fellow Bushcare volunteers spent years “achieving the impossible”, protecting Blackheath’s stunning natural bushland, only to see the weeds return when COVID restrictions limited Bushcare. But Keith did not despair. Instead, he asked what else could be done, and set about doing it.

The Swamp Diaries is an initiative of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute. Over 12 months, artists are spending time with precious and endangered upland swamp ecosystems across the Blue Mountains and creatively documenting the flora and fauna they observe.

Hamish Dunlop interviews Deborah Wells in the Blackheath Campbell Rhododendron Gardens. She shares how a group of passionate and dedicated volunteers have created a community space that is a haven for all species, and how they've helped it recover from drought, fire, flood and pandemic.

Blue Mountains City Council has just achieved ECO Destination Certification for the Blue Mountains region after completing a rigorous two year assessment and auditing process.