The sign of a great event is that you get what you went for, but you also walk away having experienced the unexpected. And that’s what happened for me at the fabulous Nature Shake community day held at Wollongong Botanic Garden on Saturday. 

Nature Shake kicked off on the Friday with an event exclusively for local schools. Now, I have been the ‘parent assistant’ on enough school excursions to feel perfectly happy with the masses of school kids having their very own day. By the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, the gardens were teeming with families enjoying the gorgeous Spring day and over 20 interactive stalls.

I expected to fill a couple of hours learning about the local environment and what we can do to help conserve it but by the time I sat down with Amethyst Downing, a First Nations Wandi Wandian woman with European/Irish heritage, I knew I was in for something special. She guided us through weaving Warrigal (dingo) pups, from a pile of vividly coloured fibres at our feet, while talking about the importance of the dingo in balancing ecosystems and the deep concerns about the use of 1080 poison in pest control.

I’d heard about the Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland, an endangered ecological community from around Wollongong to down in the Shoalhaven, when I chatted to senior threatened species officer Dr Beth Mott about microbats (you can read more here). But chatting to Brooke and Lucy about the Guardians of the Grassy Woodlands Project (you can find Emma’s story about the program here), and seeing examples of the seeds that were being collected to ensure the Lowlands survival, I walked away really inspired – and ready to plant some more native species in my yard.

Christie and Alison from the Australian Native Bee Association are always up for a chat about native bees and, luckily for me, I’d dragged my husband along. Having him peer inside their stingless bee hive on display and see the Garden’s own sugar bag bee hive – which was literally buzzing with activity – might just have got my dream of owning my own hive across the line.

Wandering past the gumboot toss, the silent disco bouncing away under the sprawling gum trees, behind kids kicking plastic bottles into bins and racing solar-powered cars along a racetrack, around the tree drawing and the seed bomb making, I took a second to take a breath and enjoy the stunning gardens and all the bird and insect life they support. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hope, seeing so many people coming together to appreciate and learn how to help our local environment.

Okay, that deep breath may have also alerted me to the fact that pancakes and popcorn were cooking away at the Electrify Illawarra stall, powered by the electric car pulled up to the side. No better time to fuel all that learning and playing!