Blog
Latest posts
Free grassy woodland colouring-in sheet
Bimblebox Nature Refuge protects a large tract of grassy woodland that provides habitat for many native animal species. Bimblebox, ironbarks, rusty jackets, brigalow and many other tree and shrub species provide food, shelter and breeding sites. This colour-in is free...
Free canopy birds colour-in sheet
Many gorgeous birds make their home in the Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The extensive woodlands of bimblebox, ironbarks, rusty jackets and many other tree and shrub species provide food, shelter and nesting sites. This colour-in is free for you to download, print and...
Free squirrel glider colour-in sheet
Squirrel gliders roam the Bimblebox Nature Refuge in central Queensland, eating nectar, gum, insects and more. The squirrel glider in this colour-in is filled with the many sweet flowers it sups on during the tranquil woodland nights. This colour-in is free for you to...
Reflecting on place
How much do you know about the place where you live? No doubt you know where to buy food and other essentials. Perhaps you know where to catch the bus / tram / train, or the quickest way to drive to work or school. But what about the landform you live on? In this week of reconciliation, how much do you know about the humans who first lived in this place? And what about the plants and animals who share your place? Are they recent arrivals, or are they the modern descendants of very ancient lineages? Use this activity to reflect on your place.
How a call from Dubbo shook me out of my corona-daze
We're all a bit tired after packing and sending all of those books! So how are you going in this strange time of COVID-19? Feeling overwhelmed, or embracing a slow-down? Missing friends and family, but perhaps also discovering new ways to connect? Out of work and...
Beechmont Nature Journal Autumn 2020
A family of yellow-tailed black-cockatoos have been a steady presence over the last few weeks. Mum, dad and a baby, it seems. The baby is often whining - in its loud, creaky way - for something. Is it food, is it just attention, who knows? We see them sailing...
Free froggy colouring book to download
Follow the Southern Bell Frog’s journey, from tiny egg, to tadpole, to a young frog, in this beautiful colouring book. Yours to download for free!
Inspiration from chooks
Chooks are irrepressible, despite the uncertainty of their lives. They give me inspiration. Here's a nature journal spread of our backyard flock that I completed last night. In case you're interested in doing some nature journaling yourself, here are the steps I used...
Finding joy and calm
The earth seems to be shifting under our feet. Nothing seems certain, and it's easy to let our anxieties and fears grow. That is, if we focus on human affairs only. Because out there, in nature, the world is going on. Lives are born and lives end. Trees that are...
Rain returns to Beechmont – woohoo!
Rain has emphatically returned to Beechmont in the last few days. Overnight we received 167 mm! I don't like to complain about the lack of rain here, since we still tend to receive far more rain than many drought-ravaged places in Australia. But I guess it's all...
How we saved summer
A message of hope from the future. If you like this, please share!
Just a nice tree meme to brighten your day
Please feel free to share!
Tales of Science
Lullabies for life
A pair of fairy wrens are in our garden - their calls are shrill, sweet and curiously penetrating. And for the first time ever, I think they might stay. This is terribly exciting. When we moved here eight years ago, we transformed a backyard of kikuyu grass into a...
Christmas curlew update
Earlier in the year, I brought you the story of Rowena and Herbie, the courting stone-curlews from Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary near Canberra. Their budding romance was mentioned in 'Rewilding Weeloo, the enigmatic bush stone-curlew'. Well, as a special Christmas...
The wisdom of pelicans
I was sitting on a nearly-deserted Bribie Island beach last week, with only sand, sea, and bushland all around. An osprey was hunting nearby, and a few terns drifted past. The tide was up, and we’d just been for a dip - but only as far as a shallow sand spit, only...
The kingfishers that don’t fish
Every summer, in our street, there was a loud insistent “pip-pip-pip” that rang out, at intervals, nearly all day. The Sacred Kingfishers were nesting in a large old tree near the corner. The tree is gone now, and I need to walk further to be within earshot of the...
Rewilding Weeloo, the enigmatic bush stone-curlew
Cold wind buffets my breath as the small boat bounces along the waves. We are heading towards a tiny, sun-bleached rocky nub of an island, one of the many that cluster about the sprawling, inverted triangle of Eyre Peninsula, like small fish shadowing a large,...
A frog’s tale
This is Fleay's barred frog, one of several species of large frog in the genus Mixophyes that occur in or near streams associated with Australian wet forests. Now when you look at a frog, you might think that it's a short-lived, rather ephemeral creature....
Nature journaling
Inspiration from chooks
Chooks are irrepressible, despite the uncertainty of their lives. They give me inspiration. Here's a nature journal spread of our backyard flock that I completed last night. In case you're interested in doing some nature journaling yourself, here are the steps I used...
Finding joy and calm
The earth seems to be shifting under our feet. Nothing seems certain, and it's easy to let our anxieties and fears grow. That is, if we focus on human affairs only. Because out there, in nature, the world is going on. Lives are born and lives end. Trees that are...
Rain returns to Beechmont – woohoo!
Rain has emphatically returned to Beechmont in the last few days. Overnight we received 167 mm! I don't like to complain about the lack of rain here, since we still tend to receive far more rain than many drought-ravaged places in Australia. But I guess it's all...
Beechmont Nature Journal 24th December 2019
The Queensland Lacebark Tree Brachychiton discolor Along a path strewn with brown fire-killed leaves; dried, drought-killed leaves, and scattered with charcoal and ash – I find this: Opulent pink flowers, freshly tumbled, two hundred or more. While above me springs...
Reasons to be cheerful
I’m finding it a bit hard to be cheerful these days. Heat, smoke, prolonged drought and more fires. Frustration at the lack of action on climate change, while its effects are becoming more and more obvious. My beloved Lamington National Park is still closed, so I can’t go and lose myself in its leafy depths. But life continues, in all its beauty. When I take the time to look about, and look closely, I find many reasons to be cheerful.
Impressions of Barambah
I visited the Barambah Environmental Education Centre (about 50 km west of Gympie, Queensland) back in August. I ran a nature journaling workshop for the staff, and did some field work for a series of illustrations for a little book about the centre. Here are some...
Forest portraits
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Cartoons
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Wildlife illustration
Free Riverina Grasslands colouring book to download
Two summers ago I set off to the Hay Plain in southern New South Wales to explore and draw the remarkable Plains-Wanderer and its grassland habitat. Ray and I stayed in the old homestead at Oolambeyan National Park while I did the preliminary work for the Riverina...
Topknots at Tullawallal
We usually only glimpse the topknot pigeons flying high and fast overhead, a steady workmanlike beat of strong grey wings and a flash of pink beak. But last week they were in the treetops at Tullawallal. It’s the highest point of the forest near Binna Burra, crowned...
Rose-crowned fruit dove – nature study
I'm still 'getting to know the neighbours' in Beechmont. I mean the plant and animal neighbours! And I suspect this might take a lifetime, what with the amazing and beautiful diversity up here, and the extensive Lamington National Park right on out doorstep. This is...
Hunter Valley happenings
Hello and Happy New Year! I hope your 2018 will be full of good things. This post is about some good things that happened to me last year thanks to the Ecological Society of Australia. The first was a commission to create a conference bag design for EcoTas2017, the...
Meet the rainforest neighbours
Nearly 3 weeks ago I planned to draw A plant a day for a week. Part meditation, part nature journaling, part learning new species. Well, life got in the way, as it does. I didn't draw a plant every day. I didn't always stick to my own rules. Sometimes I got frustrated...
A plant a day
What would happen if the first thing people did every day was contemplate nature? Well I know there are certain things that might need to be done first, like visiting the bathroom, getting dressed, having a caffeine hit, etc. (What’s your morning ritual?). But what...