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Tales of crustacean and human development
Story & photo Mary Gardner Our recent storms have origins in tropic seas far away. In their passing, they leave on the beach nuggets of news. Nature being as it is, the news is in code. I...
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Marine policy set in historical vacuum
Story & photo Mary Gardner On the shore of the ocean, all dead woods are equal now. Whether as wrecks of trees or old ships from the 1800s – all are surrendered to the salty water and the heavy...
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The politics of NSW flathead populations
Story & photo Mary Gardner How did flatheads reach the top of the news last week? From May 3 to 23, the NSW government removed fishing quotas relating to these fishes in state waters (three...
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Befriending the darkness of winter
Sleep researchers … describe dreaming as a virtual world and sages in many of the world’s traditions describe being in dreams as visiting alternate worlds. Story & photo Mary Gardner In an instant,...
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Chance to cure those old environmental fatalism blues
A shag swimming in a local drain surrounded by plastic bottles. You may retreat, panic or get depressed. You give up on the future of the world. The more realistic your assessment, the more profound...
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Prawnography: the big and the small
Ballina’s revamped Big Prawn. Photo Mary Gardner Story & photo Mary Gardner The Big Prawn, now fronting the Bunnings car park in Ballina, is overwhelming: weighing more than 33 tonnes, costing...
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Miniature marine grazers harvest the sun’s bounty
Hyperia macrocephala, a species of zooplankton, in action. Photo Uwe Kils at ecoscope.com. Mary Gardner These past few weeks, the waves drop and surfers are becalmed. As the days lengthen, the spring...
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What’s the buzz at the front door?
Capturing wild bees in a hive. Photo Mary Gardner Mary Gardner The soundscape changed. Startled, I looked up from my book. For weeks, I’ve listened to the wind freshening and soughing around the house....
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Finding hidden history among the paperbarks
Paperbark regrowth in the the Cumbebin wetlands. Photo Mary Gardner Mary Gardner My hiking companion is ahead of me, searching for the old drain which runs through the Cumbebin wetlands. We are in the...
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Discovering bazinga and more in the summer sea
Brunswick’s own species of jellyfish: bazinga rieki. Photo Denis Riek Mary Gardner What’s the summer holiday without a story about animals? We listen to tales about global reindeer and medieval animals...
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The life and times of the local oyster
A bed of oysters at Brunswick Heads. Photo Mary Gardner Mary Gardner In some daring moment, you may have proclaimed ‘the world’s my oyster!’ But exactly what is an oyster’s world? Salty wet morsels on...
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Bringing home the roadkill
The butterfly known as the Common Crow. Photo Mary Gardner Mary Gardner I brought home the roadkill. The raggedy dead butterfly is called a Common Crow, perhaps a female. But imagine: alive she might...
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Complicated sex life of the Banksia
Banksia blossom. Photo Mary Gardner Story & photo Mary Gardner Taking only a photograph of this Banksia, I still ‘nip it in the bud’. Looking closely, only the bottom flowers are blooming. The dab...
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When Byron Bay was a whaling town
Whale activist Dean Jefferys, then just over a year old, sees the result of whaling at Byron Bay in June 1959. Image from migaloo2.com Mary Gardner ‘I saw my first whale this season. They’re early,’...
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Backswamps and development blues
The backswamps of Byron as viewed from Ewingsdale Road. Photo Mary Gardner …trouble’s takin’ place in the lowlands at night.. Backwater blues done call me to pack my things and go – Bessie Smith Mary...
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The mysterious fish which soars like a bird
North coast artist Howie Cooke painted this flying fish, on display at Mandala Cafe, Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast. See more about Howie at www.s4cglobal.org/howies_world.php. Mary Gardner In 1891, when...
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Habitat loss puts us in extinction cliffhanger
Two baby flatback turtles: unborn sea turtles are known to call out to each other from inside their eggs and coordinate their hatching time. (AAP Image/Neda Vanovac) Mary Gardner Like anyone with a...
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Gannets recovering but future still cloudy
Gannets look for fish off the Byron Bay breakers. The group of gannets circle over the back breakers and plunge into the water between the last waves. The dolphins are also in the chase, herding the...
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Shark-spotting drones? How about an ecological reconnaissance?
Filomeno Patacsil riding 800 lb tiger shark as he frees the animal from fishing nets. Photo Honolulu Advertiser, 1957 Mary Gardner Tracking large sharks sounds good on paper, but what’s required for...
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Single-species growth is not natural abundance
Evocative image of Byron wetlands and coast from Ian Walker’s mural on the Paterson Street water tank. Photo Mary Gardner Mary Gardner The growth plan for Byron Bay? To be economically viable, I am...
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