The weather looked threatening but a group of six naturalists (including a new member) braved the forecast on July 15 and met at the Mount Observation picnic area. This is in the Wandoo National Park, some 80km east of Perth. After a cuppa (and a sprinkle of rain) we set off ...
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Contains reports from meetings and excursions
Our July meeting was a talk given by Laura Skates, who is doing her PhD with research at UWA. Early work on carnivorous plants was carried out by Charles Darwin, who raised them in his own greenhouse and wrote a book about them. He said “Drosera is a wonderful plant ...
Read more →At our July meeting we had two presenters. The first was Chris Punter, who showed some photographs taken during the recent (May) camp stay at Cue (see report in the August newsletter.) There were a few photos of the areas visited during the stay, including two showing KRMB members on ...
Read more →Our speaker, Bob Dixon (ex-BGPA), chose a clever but very apt title for his talk. As Bob remarked, ‘Prescribed burning is a contentious issue, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.’ He also commented that ‘…the general public have no idea what effect burning has on ...
Read more →Ashleigh Wolfe, a PhD candidate at Curtin University, presented us with a lively and interactive talk about reptiles. The presentation broadly covered reptile species most likely encountered in and around Perth and a study of people’s perception and responses to reptiles. Her postgraduate studies into ‘How living in the city ...
Read more →Our GOLLY Walk was planned as a follow up to Bob Dixon’s talk on bushland regeneration after fire and proved Bob knows his stuff. Twelve Nats members and three visitors were guided by members of the Friends of Warwick Bushland (FOWB) around the southwestern part of the reserve before returning ...
Read more →Mike Freeman from the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum spoke to us about dune mobility and geo-hazards. In particular, he referred to the mobile sand dunes of our Midwest coast and their impacts on infrastructure. Mike has worked in some very remote and lonely places, in a wide variety ...
Read more →The Branch Chairperson filled in for a missing speaker by showing members how microfossils can be used to determine: The age of a rock Where it came from If it could produce oil and gas, and most importantly Has it produced oil or gas? Microfossils are the remains of microscopic ...
Read more →The GOLLY Walk on June 28th was our first in the Star Swamp Bushland, despite our monthly meeting place (the Henderson Environment Centre) being located at its entrance. Star Swamp Bushland is a 96 hectare Class-A reserve comprising four hectares of semi-permanent freshwater lake with paperbark trees and 92 hectares ...
Read more →There is nothing like the announcement of a fungi foray to bring together the hard-core ‘mushroomers’, the curious, and those who just enjoy a day in the bush. Jolanda organised a weekend foray at ‘Cypress Farm’, the property of Kingsley Dixon and Lionel Johnston, on the western scarp between Waroona ...
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