I love the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. I love all conservation groups but the AWC has an astounding success rate. Not only are they re-establishing populations of highly threatened species, they are achieving the job at discount rates. They run a mean, tight ship as far as admin spending goes. Income goes almost entirely to field projects. So a trip in … Read More
Help the Regent Honeyeater and Enjoy Nature Too
Helping our endangered wildlife doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can be a lot of fun. The Regent Honeyeater is responding to the help the species has received in recent years. But he’s not out of the woods yet and is still listed as critically endangered. Here are two great projects that not only help this bird, but … Read More
The Story Behind the Green And Golden Bell Frog Image
It was the magic year of 2000. Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief that our computers and systems hadn’t gone haywire. In Sydney it was the time of the Olympics. Energy was high. Somehow the threatened Green and Golden Bell Frog became emblematic of this productive and heartfelt era. I was on assignment for Australian Geographic to do a story … Read More
Behind the scenes on this month’s magazine feature
This week I’m taking you behind the scenes of my current published assignment for Australian Geographic. It’s only a short feature and you can see it in the November December 2016 issue called “Raptor rehab”. Here are some notes as to how and why I shot some of the pics. I was allowed very limited access to these injured birds of … Read More
Judging The Nature Conservancy Photo Competition 2016
Nature Conservancy Australia contacted me in June to see if I’d be interested in being a judge for this year’s Nature Photo Competition. Of course I would! I’ve admired the work of the Nature Conservancy in the US for years. They also spread their activities around the globe and have successfully protected over 48 million hectares of land and thousands of … Read More
5x Growth – a Conservation Success Story
Several years ago, I partnered up with science writer Karen McGee to produce a feature on Gould’s Petrel for the UK magazine, Geographical. Most stories of endangered species I find confronting, but this one turned out to have a happy ending. Gould’s Petrel nests almost exclusively on a tiny bunch of rocks off the coast of New South Wales. One of them is … Read More
Hunting in National Parks? Er, I don’t think so.
Last week about 100 people protested against a bill that would allow hunters to shoot feral animals in national parks. Much of the protest is spearheaded by rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW. They claim that hunters won’t discriminate – that they are just as likely to shoot native wildlife as pest species. I’ve had personal … Read More
The Secret’s out at Secret Creek
Once upon a time, in a deep gully, protected by rocky wooded slops, lived a quiet community of coal miners. Today, apart from a few stones marking the ruins of their homes, lives an equally quiet community of local residents. But these aren’t human. They are secretive mammals, little known and little seen by most Australians, and most of them … Read More
Marysville, Healesville, Kinglake: Names Burned into Our Minds Forever
In 1999, as I sat at this cafe in the centre of Marysville, I had no idea of the consequences of my upcoming assignment. David Lindenmayer and I were outlining the chapters of a new book, Life in the Tall Eucalypt Forests, and planning my shooting schedule for the next 12 months. Over the following year, I toured the ranges … Read More
To Kill or Not to Kill Our Whale?
The question is moot. The deed has been done. Last week, as a community, we decided to euthanase baby Colin, the whale who had come adrift from her mother, and who had been sucking the hulls of boats moored in Pittwater, one of Sydney’s harbours just a couple sea miles from my house. What a difficult decision – yet I … Read More
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