Category: Newsletters

Mick Roderick is the Woodland Bird Program Manager at BirdLife Australia – Australia’s largest bird conservation and research organization. In this role, he manages a suite of projects aiming to protect and recover threatened woodland birds, especially the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater, which will also be the focus of his talk.

Evolution of a garden (and gardener!) as I go native Heather Miles From Native Plants for NSW journal, October 2015 Perched on the top of a windswept hill in the Hunter Valley, this Australian native garden started with some lofty goals: to offer beautiful views from the house; create a haven for local fauna; be…

Challenger Track – On this sunny winter’s morning, 16 of us enjoyed this delightful bushwalk. The vegetation for the first three-quarters of the walk is heath. Imposing specimens of Eucalyptus haemastoma and Corymbia gummiferum are dotted about. Banksia serrata is common, and Banksia ericifolia is in full flower. Everywhere you look there’s something of interest…

“This daisy didn’t evolve a new ‘make a fly’ gene. Instead, it did something even cleverer.” A male fly approaches a flower, lands on top of what he thinks is a female fly, and jiggles around. He’s trying to mate, but it isn’t quite working. He has another go. Eventually he gives up and buzzes…

An epic global study of moss reveals it is far more vital to Earth’s ecosystems than we knew – Mosses are some of the oldest land plants. They are found all over the world, from lush tropical rainforests to the driest deserts, and even the wind- swept hills of Antarctica.

The Xanthorrhoea australis plants in the garden at the Community Environment Centre Annangrove have been major attractions and talking points. They flowered for the very first time last Spring. Chris Jones and I collected seeds and put them in a moist seed-raising mix.

A Wide and Open Land – This is the title of Peter Ridgeway’s book telling the story of his walk across the Cumberland Plain in 2019. We were fortunate to have Peter as our guest speaker at the February meeting.

Ferns are a distinct group of vascular plants and have been around for about 360 million years. Those early forests of fern ancestors produced the coal that we so rely upon today. The ferns are separated from the other vascular plant groups, conifers and flowering plants, in that they do not produce seeds, but spore.…

On Saturday 24 September we celebrated 50 years since the Parramatta Hills Group was established. The venue was the Muirfield Golf Club, where we had a panoramic view over the golf course trees and greens. 34 guests sat down to a delicious two-course meal followed by tea and coffee and birthday cake.

Fleurs de Villes FEMMES – In August there was a stunning exhibition at the Calyx in the Royal Botanic Gardens. This exhibition was a fresh floral celebration of 16 remarkable women. Some were household names, such as Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Malala Yousafzai. Included were two women who have contributed to the study of…

The colour blue in nature – The colour blue accounts for less than 1 in 10 plants, and far fewer animals are blue. Part of the reason is that there isn’t really a true blue colour or pigment in nature, and both plants and animals have to perform tricks of the light to appear blue.

Jones Road Fire Trail walk Kenthurst – One of the upsides of this walk was that we were able to identify the beautiful Boronia that is widespread here. Previously we thought it to be Boronia ledifolia, but thanks to Wendy and Sue, concluded that it is B. rubiginosa