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Science & Nature

Science & Nature

Three cheers for the Native Tamarind

I’ve been wanting to write about the amazing Native Tamarind (Diploglottis australis) for a while, but it’s a tricky one to capture ‘on film’ and also a tricky one to explain. A tall, leggy, beanstalk of a plant when it’s young, and a high-canopied...

Science & Nature

Woo-hoo! Powerful Owl returns to Stanwell Park

From time to time at Stanwell Park we are woken up by the screech of a train, a police or ambulance siren, mufferless motorbikes and someone doing wheelies in the parking areas. But it is not often you are woken at 3am by a powerful owl less than 50...

Science & Nature

Waterfalls now and then

Some of us headed north. Some of us headed south. But judging by the number of people we crossed paths with on our way to Maddens Falls in Darkes Forest, it seemed that everyone had had the same thought: Sunday was perfect for waterfall chasing...

Amanda De George

Science & Nature

Small (leaved) is beautiful: Look out for rare Bleeding Heart shrub

Illawarra is home to a number of locally, regionally or nationally rare plant species. Some of them are classified as being threatened with extinction, like the Illawarra Socketwood (Daphnandra johnsonii) or the local population of Scrub Ironwood...

Science & Nature

Beetling About with Weevils

You can read about Zimmie here

Science & Nature

New track to giant of Vine Forest at Illawarra Grevillea Park Botanic Garden

Enter the Vine Forest at the Illawarra Grevillea Park Botanic Garden and you will find a magnificent blackbutt tree believed to be more than 150 years old. Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) gets its name from the rough bark at the tree base which is...

Science & Nature

Odenpa Bushcare’s war on weeds shows Wollongong spirit

Volunteer-driven Odenpa Bushcare group is on a mission to rehabilitate natural habitats in Cordeaux Heights and their dedication has attracted plenty of community praise.

Zachary Houtenville

Science & Nature

Slice of life: Sword Sedges a biodiversity bonanza

Some of the most amazing habitat plants of Australia, including of our region, don’t have a high profile, particularly when it comes to gardening. They may be small or insignificant, visually unappealing to people accustomed to conventions of lush...

Science & Nature

Brilliant Correa at the coast

One of the most well-known of our local shrubs, the Coast Correa or White Correa (Correa alba) is flowering spectacularly at the moment. Not surprisingly, given its name, Coast Correa is a plant of seaside areas, growing in sandy and rocky...

Science & Nature

Scientists celebrate magic of first puggle born in Royal National Park

Yuin Elder Uncle Dean Kelly has named the juvenile platypus found in the Royal National Park ‘Gilli’, a Dharawal word meaning ‘Flame’. “It signifies the flame or life that’s been ignited in the park,” said lead researcher Dr Gilad...

Genevieve Swart

Science & Nature

National Eucalypt Day - time to celebrate the Woollybutt!

National Eucalypt Day is always a meaningful day for me. Eucalypts dominate the Illawarra and Australian landscape, and are quintessentially Australian, their shapes and patterns and smells famous in many domains, from pungent eucalyptus oils used...

Science & Nature

Hedgehogs in the bush?

Last week we had a bit of a discussion about managing feral deer. This week it’s a different animal, the hedgehog! For some reason, the cutest ever local grass has been named after a European animal, when we’ve got echidnas roaming around that would...

Science & Nature

Dealing with deer: A prickly subject for Illawarra gardeners

I love writing articles for the Illawarra Flame mag about our awesome local native plants, where you can see them growing, where you can grow them yourself, and what benefits they have for biodiversity. But unfortunately, there’s an elephant in the...

Science & Nature

Dream of swimming with Grey Nurse Sharks in the Illawarra

Recently I faced one of my fears and deliberately swam with sharks. I say deliberately as seeing as though I’m in the water a bit and it is their home, there’s a chance I’ve been in the vicinity of a shark or two previously. I’m not afraid...

Amanda De George

Science & Nature

Maidenhair Fern: tougher than it looks

I might be showing my age here, but I wonder who else remembers buying a fancy-looking Maidenhair Fern in a pot to liven up a bathroom (this was the seventies, so of course everything was brown, orange and yellow)? They usually struggled and died...

Science & Nature

If ocean users don’t fear shark bites, should funding go to drowning prevention?

By Teaniel Mifsud, PhD candidate, University of Wollongong Every summer in Australia, sharks are discussed in the media, at the beach and across the kitchen bench. These discussions increase whenever there is a recorded incident of a bite or...

Science & Nature

Tree of the Month: Blue Lilly Pilly

Syzygium oleosum (Blue Lilly Pilly) is common in the northern part of the Illawarra escarpment. It is mainly found in the rainforests of the plateau and occasionally on the higher reaches. It is mostly a spindly bush, but it can grow to 10 metres...

Science & Nature

Seeing but disbelieving: Fisherman on jet-ski shocked to see whale shark pop up at Five Islands

When I speak to Tim Williams he is sitting watching the ocean, staring out to Five Islands, Port Kembla. “You’re not going to believe me,” he says. “I’m actually looking at dolphins right now.” There’s a few constants in his life; his...

Amanda De George

Science & Nature

Jasmine Morinda: A fine vine with many names

A common feature of many natural areas in the Illawarra is the presence of vines. Smaller scrambling vines in woodland and sandy scrubland, larger vines like the SilkPod Vine (Parsonsia straminea) among the she-oaks and the eucalypts, and in the...

Science & Nature

Meet our columnist Emma Rooksby, enviro award winner

You can her hear poet’s mind at work, when Emma Rooksby speaks about the Illawarra. There’s this sense that she sees the landscape not just differently, but deeply. Perhaps there’s a touch of the academic philosopher still informing her work...

Amanda De George

Science & Nature

Sandfly Zieria: smelly bush that butterflies just love

The Sandfly Zieria (Zieria smithii) is a low shrub that grows across the Illawarra region, generally in woodlands and wet sclerophyll forests. Its natural range is the coast and ranges, up into Queensland and down into Victoria. You’ll see it at...

Science & Nature

Beware the Blue Dragon?

If you’ve been down to the beach over the last few days you may have been one of the many folks who have spotted a small flash of metallic blue on the sand or floating in rock pools and wondered what on earth you were looking at. There’s been...

Amanda De George

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