The Ellis Brook Valley Reserve covers a scenic area and forms part of the western scarp of the Darling Plateau. The Reserve is part of the Banyowla Regional Park, named after a Nyoongar elder. Ellis Brook is named after Captain T. Ellis, a police superintendent of the 1830s. A City ...

Western Swamp Tortoise breeding facility at the Perth Zoo On April 21, a group of 17 members and friends met at Perth Zoo for a ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour of the Western Swamp Tortoise (Pseudemydura umbrina) captive breeding facility. Head keeper Bradie Durell met us inside the zoo gate and led us ...

Fred and Jean Hort have worked on a voluntary basis for CALM (now DEC) over many years, during which time they have contributed a considerable amount of natural history information, especially botanical. Some of their achievements have been the rediscovery of three floral species only collected previously by the first ...

As with any good field trip preparation the organizer conducts a recce (aka Twink Smurthwaite). As such, the week before the DRB Avon Valley National Park excursion, a quick trip up the Toodyay Road was made to check out the opportunities for the weekend ahead. On arrival, however, the park ...

To paraphrase the hackneyed term, ‘one good tern led deservedly to another’ at Penguin Island, during DRB’s March outing. Twenty two members and friends braved an exquisite day and crossed the water to the largest of the islands in the Shoalwater Marine Park. Various terns – Caspian, Fairy, Bridled, Crested – were ...

Gill Basnett, at very short notice, gave us a truly wonderful insight into Gouldian Finches and Fire regimes in the Kimberley, a topic she was well qualified to handle having done extensive ecological fieldwork in central Kimberley. Gouldians live in the largest savannah in the world and one which has ...

On Friday 9th February 2013, Hills’ community member and secretary of the Darling Range Branch (DRB) of the WA Naturalists’ Club, Dr Arthur Conacher (retired UWA geographer), presented a talk titled “Researching the salt problem in the Southwest of WA.” Arthur has mentored and supervised several students researching aspects of ...

Our guest speaker for the final meeting of 2012 was our Treasurer, Eric McCrum, who presented us with a slide show and talk entitled “The night sky”. By way of introduction we were reminded that, as a natural science, star gazing would have been one of the earliest sources of ...

DRB October 2012 Excursion: Darling Scarp On a warm Spring day 21 members and guests of the Darling Range Branch explored the wildflowers of the Darling Scarp south of the Lions Lookout in Lesmurdie. Situated at the top of the Welshpool Rd East hill near the intersection with Crystal Brook ...

Guest speaker Marnie Giroud, from the Swan River Trust, presented a talk entitled the ‘Natural history of the Swan/Avon and its management’ to our DRB naturalists group. Marnie brought along information sheets and booklets, that relate to fish life, species identification and water quality in the Swan River and Swan-Canning ...