User Profile

Phebe Fidge

Phebe Fidge is a marine ecologist passionate about repairing nature and mitigating the effects of climate change. She has over five years of experience in environmental education and science communications with an Honours degree in ecology and conservation biology from the University of Queensland.

Health & Wellness

The Eco-Anxiety Epidemic: Why so many young people are anxious about climate change

You’ve heard of COVID-19, you’ve heard of the loneliness epidemic; but there is another invisible malady spreading across the Illawarra community. According to a 2023 YouthGov survey, concerns about climate change are having negative impacts on...

Phebe Fidge

September 2025

Science & Nature

Through Droughts and Floods: What trees can teach us about resilience

If you have ever enjoyed the quiet of a hike on the plateau above the Illawarra Escarpment, you will know how enchanting it is when the afternoon’s golden light twists through Eucalyptus trees, black cockatoos soaring overhead. Lorikeets pick at...

Phebe Fidge

September 2025

Energy Transition

Common Ground: Where a Baby Boomer ex-coal miner meets a Gen Z marine ecologist

Darryl Best and Phebe Fidge are both Illawarra locals and regular contributors to the Illawarra Flame. Despite their vastly different backgrounds – Darryl having worked in coal mines most of his life and Phebe just beginning her career in marine...

Darryl Best

August 2025

Science & Nature

Volunteers have a whale of a time at ORRCA Census

ORRCA volunteers celebrated an exciting 26th annual whale Census in 2025, writes Phebe Fidge. It’s another day in paradise, and these volunteers won’t waste a minute! As the sun rises, Jody, Lyndell and Khynan from the Organisation for the...

Phebe Fidge

July 2025

Science & Nature

Sea Change: Meet the tropical species moving into Illawarra reefs

Sometimes we all need a sea change, though few take this as literally as the critters riding ocean currents from one reef to the next in search of a new home. The Illawarra’s kelp reefs have received some unexpected visitors over the past few...

Phebe Fidge

June 2025

Science & Nature

Urchins of Menace

Source: Recipe by Sea Urchin Harvest from Port to Plate: South Coast New South Wales (2025, porttoplate. com. au)

Phebe Fidge

June 2025

Science & Nature

The Grey Nurse Arc: Mystery of missing sharks

The sharks of Bushrangers Bay have returned as mysteriously as they disappeared! Phebe Fidge reports Beneath the swirling waters of Bushrangers Bay, rich kelp reefs bustle with fish and urchins. Purple sea squirts protrude like alien fingers from...

Phebe Fidge

March 2025