That’s me, in the orange bus. It’s the 1970’s, this bus is our family campervan, and we’re driving through wet sclerophyll forest north of Healesville, in Victoria.

Welcome to the first issue of A Cartoon Guide to Australian Ecology: Australian forests and where to find them (Part One). In this blog series I’ll explore ecological patterns and processes big and small, using science and my own personal journey to tell the story, all through the visual language of cartoons.

Let’s get started!

I'm very excited to announce 'Nature Journaling Shakespeare's Plants', four school holiday sessions for ages 8 to 16 years, at the lovely Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha.  Discover and record some of Shakespeare’s favourite plants by creating your own nature...

A simple concertina book can be a great way to record your next holiday, road trip or nature journaling adventure.

I’ve also found that simple concertina books can unlock inspiration in kids and adults when a flat blank journal page may be too daunting or dull. Perhaps it’s the tactile nature of these books, the way that people tend to open and close them, and look at them from all angles, that stimulates different neural pathways in the brain.

A simple concertina book is essentially just a strip of robust paper (high GSM watercolour paper or mixed media paper works well) that is folded to form multiple small pages. But it feels like a little book, that unfolds alluringly, to tell a story….

“It’s a book to be shared and taken into your soul!” – Amanda

That’s a reader’s impression of my most recent book ‘A walk in the mountain forests’, sent to me this morning via email. Thanks Amanda!

I offered the manuscript of ‘A walk in the mountain forests’ to four major publishers, and all four rejected it. Then I found an Australian company who could print it at a price I could afford (that’s Fast Press Print in Nerang, Qld), and I went ahead and published it myself. Now this little book is bringing joy to many readers, and sharing the wonders of nature with others gives me a great deal of joy and satisfaction too.

I’m really pleased to announce that my new book A walk in the mountain forests is now in stock. It’s my tenth self-published book and is a rare thing in Australian publishing: a nature journal about Australian places, created in contemporary times. I hope you enjoy it.