Latest News
Photographers of the Big Scrub: Iain Stych
Story and photos by Babette Weatherell What makes a talented wild photographer? For Iain Stych it started as a zookeeper. Iain’s zookeeping career of 20+ years saw him working with snakes, birds, mammals and monotremes across Scotland, New Zealand and Australia. His extensive conservation work and passion for wildlife eventually landed Iain at the Healesville Sanctuary as the Wildlife Supervisor...
Big Scrub Day’s Silver Jubilee: 2023 Event Wrap & Photos
Last weekend, we hosted our 25th annual Big Scrub Rainforest Day Celebrations, with over 15 events across 10 Big Scrub locations – a quarter of a century of Big Scrub Rainforest Day. The weather was on our side and we had a wonderful four days of walks, talks and workshops attended by around 500 people. We increased the size of some of the events to accommodate more people, including the...
Big Scrub Schools Project Starts to Grow
By Dr Ray Moynihan Many readers will already know the joy of planting trees to help regenerate the region’s lost forests. Few will know that more and more local school students are being offered a chance to connect directly with this most positive of narratives. Late last year I helped coordinate a series of short hands-on workshops in public primary schools across the Byron Shire, where...
Searching for the Elusive Southern Pink Underwing Moth
Words: Georgia Beyer. Photos: Iain Stych. As the last of the evening light faded from the sky above the tree canopy, red-tinted torches were switched on, casting an unreal glow around the forest. A small team led by Iain Stych from Envite was hopeful of a rare sighting of the southern pink underwing moth. Daytime surveys at the Eltham Big Scrub remnant had revealed over 70 of the moth’s...
Bush Regenerator Profile: Darren Bailey
Growing up on the edge of the bush in Sydney’s northern beaches, Darren developed an early passion for wild places. School holidays to the Northern Rivers included several hikes to Wollumbin National Park and drives through the Border Ranges which sparked a keen interest in rainforest botany. That interest transformed into action in the mid-80s when the Queensland government decided to push a...
Dawes Bush: Eltham
Dawes Bush: Eltham Valley’s Earliest Tale of Conservation The story of Dawes Bush is a tale of stewardship passed down through generations – a long-term restoration project that has flourished under its current owners, the Lennon family, who live on the site today in a dwelling built from rainforest timber many years ago. Talking to Ian Lennon about the regeneration of his family’s land gives an...
Koalas in the Big Scrub: A Conservation Dilemma
The Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy, landowners, land managers and regenerators have been working hard for 40 years to protect, regenerate and replant the vegetation that once flourished on the red ferrosol soils of the Big Scrub. That vegetation type is lowland subtropical rainforest – a complex and diverse ecosystem that evolved 40 million years ago in the times of Gondwana. An estimated 600...
Science in the Pub: Tim Low and Mark Dunphy entertain birdos at the Eltham
The long awaited – two years in the making – Science in the Pub with Tim Low finally took place last week at the Eltham Hotel. After being delayed by Covid and the floods, Lismore City Council, Richmond Landcare Inc and the other presenting partners staged the event in front of over 100 attendees, who were treated to Tim’s fascinating insights into the evolution of bird song and bird...
Shy, cute but with an iron stomach: Can you guess this Big Scrub favourite?
By James Hagan As the sun rises to strike the giant trunks of the rainforest, dawn light begins to cascade over the meadows of herbs and grasses and it is time to retreat once again deep into the protection of the shadows for yet another day. As they softly pad between walls of buttress roots and mounds of soft damp leaves, their ears stay pricked and nose to the ground. Scatterings of fleshy...
Alex Floyd Tribute: “Unsurpassed knowledge” of rainforest botany
One of the pioneers of rainforest botany, and a formative personality of conservation in our region, Alex Floyd, passed away earlier this year. In an insightful and touching obituary published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Rob Kooyman shared many of the amazing facts from Floyd's life and career. Kooyman describes Floyd's knowledge of rainforest botany as "unsurpassed" – a contribution to...