Blog
Latest posts
Beechmont Nature Journal 22nd September 2019
In this cartoon, spring has come to Beechmont, while Binna Burra has become like Shangri-la: mysterious and inaccessible.
Beechmont Nature Journal 14th September 2019
A cartoon about last weekend’s unprecedented fire at Binna Burra. It’s wobbly because that’s how I feel right now. But all around our house the birds are singing and I heard a koala bellow just before I posted this. So life goes on, and I’m hopeful for the future.
Materialism
These mountains are my home, these forests are my refuge, these rainforests are my sacred place. But climate change is taking this away from me. If my house burns down, I can rebuild it somewhere else. But I can’t rebuild this landscape the same as it was. Not while the weather continues its relentless march into new territory that’s hostile to humans and rainforests alike.
Ideas sheet for nature journaling
In the spirit of sharing something handwritten and messy, and to give you more ideas for your nature journaling adventures, here’s an ‘Ideas sheet’ I created a few months ago. It was only meant to be a ‘draft’ that I was going to work up into something ‘nice’. But I ran out of time, started giving it out at workshops, and people seem to like it. Maybe they find it helpful because it’s messy? I don’t know, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The Rainforest Ball
How did the rainforest trees find which animals could carry their seeds far and wide? By inviting everyone to The Rainforest Ball, of course! A story to celebrate National Tree Day, from my book ‘Stories from the Wildworld’.
Beechmont Nature Journal 20th July 2019
Recent nature journaling adventures in Beechmont. Plus an exciting announcement!
Return of the bellbirds?
Bellbirds are cute, they make beautiful chiming noises, but they also kill trees. And now they’re back at Binna Burra, after a long absence. What will happen next?
Beechmont Nature Journal, April 30th 2019
Autumn in Beechmont brings clear, calm days. Rose robins squawk softly from the trees, while yellow robins inspect the pea and bean seedlings emerging in the vegie patch. Soft rain and bright sunshine brings out the greens. The dogs are frisky now the hottest weather...
How do you describe a fig?
With pen and pencils, I try to catch glimpses of the world of a strangler fig. And of the people who are studying them.
Beechmont Nature Journal, March 17th 2019
A weird rollercoaster week, where nature journaling merged with student protests, TV, cafes and markets.
Beechmont Nature Journal, March 10th 2019
Welcome to Issue 3 of the Beechmont Nature Journal. Here you’ll find rain-fresh fungi, squabbling parrots, a hungry ladybird, and more…
Beechmont Nature Journal, March 3rd 2019
Issue two of the Beechmont Nature Journal, features baby (or moulting?) birds, bell birds popping up in a surprising place, and a giant of the forest.
Tales of Science
Walk like a man: Was the giant kangaroo too big to hop?
Many years ago, Franz Kafka imagined a creature that was elusive, and remained tantalizingly out of reach, so that its exact nature was never quite discerned: The animal resembles a kangaroo, but not as to the face, which is flat almost like a human face, and small...
Egrets? I’ve had a few…
Over the last couple of months four species of egret have been frequenting Dowse Lagoon. Sometimes I see them together in the same muddy corner near the bird-hide. They are the great egret Ardea alba, plumed or intermediate egret Ardea plumifera, little egret...
The strangler fig: everyone’s favorite killer
A rainforest tree is subject to many mortal perils: shade, cyclones, fires, chainsaws. One of the most grotesque and extended deaths is carried in a tiny seed, rained down from above by complicit birds and bats. Many such seeds drop harmlessly to the forest floor, or...
Why is the house gecko noisy while most lizards are silent?
A recent visitor to our house - a keen naturalist from southern Australia - was startled the first time he heard the sound of an Asian House gecko, and was even more surprised that a gecko was responsible for the call. It is unusual for a lizard to be so loud. I don’t...
Of bugs and booyongs
The rainforest holds many secrets in its high vaulted green ceilings, swooping loops of vines, a million soft mossy pockets and damp rotting piles of leaves. So many tales to tell. Of tree and leaf, beast and bug, season and storm. This one is about the black booyong,...
Little red nomads head north for the winter
Around Easter-time it starts. The stirring of retired folks - the ‘grey nomads’ - as they load up their 4WD’s and caravans and head north for the winter. In south-east Queensland you see them on the freeways, mostly up from the colder south. On their way,...
Nature journaling
Beechmont Nature Journal, April 30th 2019
Autumn in Beechmont brings clear, calm days. Rose robins squawk softly from the trees, while yellow robins inspect the pea and bean seedlings emerging in the vegie patch. Soft rain and bright sunshine brings out the greens. The dogs are frisky now the hottest weather...
How do you describe a fig?
With pen and pencils, I try to catch glimpses of the world of a strangler fig. And of the people who are studying them.
Beechmont Nature Journal, March 17th 2019
A weird rollercoaster week, where nature journaling merged with student protests, TV, cafes and markets.
Beechmont Nature Journal, March 10th 2019
Welcome to Issue 3 of the Beechmont Nature Journal. Here you’ll find rain-fresh fungi, squabbling parrots, a hungry ladybird, and more…
Beechmont Nature Journal, March 3rd 2019
Issue two of the Beechmont Nature Journal, features baby (or moulting?) birds, bell birds popping up in a surprising place, and a giant of the forest.
Welcome to the Beechmont Nature Journal
Welcome to the Beechmont Nature Journal. Here you’ll find real news, collected from around where I live (the northern end of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area). The content is ever-changing, and I’m learning as I go. You never know what will turn up next in this amazing place. Come along for the ride!
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
Playing with watercolour pencils
Watercolour pencils are great for nature journaling, since they combine the accuracy of a pencil with the vibrant colour and flexibility of watercolour pigment. But I've found them tricky to use because the colour of the pencil applied dry to the paper can change a...
Dipping into the Murray-Darling wetlands
River Red Gums, raucous with white corellas screaming from their upper branches, their gnarled trunks splashed grey-and-cream, rise up out of a flooded wetland. The water is strewn with green wetland plants, and smeared yellow with floating pollen. Ducks and moorhens...
Wonders of Western Australia
This morning, I'm feeling a bit sad that I'm not in Freemantle, Western Australia. The opening sessions have just started at the Ecological Society of Australia's annual conference, with a buzz of ecologists: old and young; enthusiastic and weathered; well-published...
Animals need trees
Many people consider themselves animal-lovers. Every day, strangers in the street exclaim at how gorgeous my two dogs are, and ask for a pat. Cat videos easily go viral on social media. Baby farm animals in petting pens are often the most popular attraction at...
Drawing on Queensland’s present to recreate New Zealand’s past
This story starts and ends with a duck. It also includes volcanoes, subtropical rainforest, an idyllic lake and a team of dedicated scientists. But let’s begin with the duck. I met the duck in Germany, in 2008. The lovely Ray, my palaeobotanist partner, was...
How to draw a grassland Part 3: What lies beneath?
Go for a wander in the grasslands of the Riverina and you might notice an abundance of holes in the ground. If you see critters scurrying in and out of the holes (like the meat ants in the picture above) at least you know what type of beast lives in them. But often...