Paperbark Writer

Australian nature meets science and art

By Paula Peeters

Latest blog posts

Is a woomera like a heron’s neck?

Is a woomera like a heron’s neck?

This post is co-authored by Gordon Sanson.¹ Early dawn light is creeping across a glassy-still wetland, as wreaths of mist curl upwards. A large white egret stands still, poised ready. Nearby a man is waiting for kangaroos to venture onto the lush grass near the...

The toadfish, the toe-cutter, and the great swimming head

The toadfish, the toe-cutter, and the great swimming head

  I once met a man who could hypnotize toadfish. He would stand ankle-deep, on the mudflats of Bramble Bay, with his heels together like Dorothy. And the little common toadfish would swim into the 'V' created, and become still. Not many people like toadfish, but...

Walk like a man: Was the giant kangaroo too big to hop?

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…

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

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?

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...

The next ‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ design is here!

#3 Eucalypt Woodlands of south-eastern Australia

‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ is a series of designs inspired by the relationship between the many Australian animal species that use hollows and the trees that provide them.

This design is available on posters, art prints and other goodies from my Redbubble store.

Bulk orders of the detailed poster design can be arranged by emailing paula.peeters@paperbarkwriter.com     Click here for wholesale prices.

A simplified version of this design is also available as a Organic Cotton Tea Towel.

Thanks to Prof Don Butler for providing the vegetation map and data.

Read more about this design here.

A walk in the mountain forests

My nature journal of Binna Burra, Beechmont and beyond

Discover the richness of the mountain forests through the playful, diverse and beautiful pages of Paula’s nature journal.

Paperback, 17 x 22.3 cm, 206 pages, full colour throughout with over 196 original illustrations. Printed in Australia on recycled paper.

Download a sample

Play…

Download free colouring books and colouring sheets

Go to free downloads page
 

Enjoy…

Gifts for yourself and others

Shop now
 

Organic cotton tea towels

Greeting cards

Magnets

Books

Redbubble store

Here you can purchase clothing, prints, posters and other goods with my designs. They’re printed on demand and shipped straight to you from Redbubble.

Buy selected garments through my Redbubble store and 25 % of the retail price will be donated to environmental and animal welfare charities

Go to Redbubble store

Come along…

To a nature journaling workshop!

Go to Events page
 

Nature journaling workshop at Binna Burra; Photos by Renata Buziak

Escape…

Into the Wildworld, and discover The Kinship of All. Read Stories of the Wildworld.

Read a sample
Buy Stories of the Wildworld