Darling Range Branch meeting, February 2012 “The Nature of Japan” was the subject of our first meeting for 2012 and it was presented jointly by Hirono and Mike Griffiths. Following their recent visit to Japan in October 2011, Mike and Hirono conducted us on a travelogue from a Naturalists’ viewpoint. ...

June Butcher, founder of the Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and our member and guest speaker for the general meeting, gave us an insight into the aims and functioning of the rehab centre now located in the now very well rehabilitated wildlife centre at 120 Gilchrist Rd, Lesmurdie. The main thrust ...

Dr Kayley Usher, from the CSIRO, was our guest speaker for the October meeting and presented a talk entitled ‘How marvellous microbes made our world’. We were introduced into the world of the microscopic and sub-microscopic through a series of images and were presented with some interesting aspects of microbial ...

Some 20 intrepid DRB members and visitors travelled to Twink Smurthwaite’s ‘Topsy’ garden in Boya on Sunday September 18th – ‘intrepid’ because the day promised to be truly equinoxal. About half of those people continued to inspect rehabilitation work by the Helena River Catchment Group (HRCG) along the Scott Street/Pumpback ...

Eric McCrum, past President and active member of the Darling Range Branch, presented a talk on grasshoppers entitled ‘The bizarre world of grasshoppers’. Eric’s talk was well illustrated from his extensive collection of slides, a selection of which showed the wide morphology and colourful varieties of grasshoppers from WA. Eric ...

Although showers were forecast, the morning was beautifully warm and sunny, allowing about 30 members and visitors to enjoy a leisurely walk along the slope of the Darling Scarp above Lesmurdie Falls. Many people were surprised to see how many of the shrubs in the heath land were already in ...

They’re shy, secretive, seductive, endangered and very well camouflaged. That is the picture painted by Brenda Newby of the Western Ground Parrot. Numbers of this little, largely mottled green and yellow, ground parrot are estimated at around a mere 140 at present and being endemic to WA’s south eastern coast ...

 Vicky Laurie’s passion for the Kimberley became very evident as she introduced our audience to aspects of remote areas that a very few would get the chance to view – with the aid of a light plane and a helicopter! So much easier to spot new and rare flora and ...

On a fine, winter’s day in July 30 people met at Tomato Lake Kewdale. This included members of Kate’s regular Nature Walking Group. Although it is less than 2 km around the lake, the walk took us 2 hours because there was so much of interest. Originally this lake was ...

The long weekend of 4-6 June, 2011, found 13 DRB members along with Diana’s ‘3 girls’ camped at Lake Brown out of Nungarin, which is roughly 60 km north of Merredin. What a great spot – picturesque granite rocks which were honeycombed around the fringes near our c one large ...