Northern Suburbs Branch, 21 April 2026 Sarah Visser’s (ECU award winner) presentation exploded the myth that deserts are boring, uninhabitable wastelands. The Great Victoria Desert (GVD) is Australia’s largest desert, covering approximately 35 million hectares across both WA and SA. It is characterised by sand dunes, spinifex grasslands, salt-lake systems ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 22 October 2025 Our second walk for the year at Lake Gnangara was a short one, only 1.8km, but it took us through a variety of habitats. We started at the northern end of the lake, which had been subjected to a prescribed burn by the City ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 15 October 2025 Our speaker, PhD Candidate Anna Faber, began her science education in Germany and transitioned into a teaching career, travelling from Germany to Sweden and the UK. Eventually deciding that research was her real interest, she found herself in Perth. With a background in microbiology, ...

Northern Suburbs Branch,17 September 2025 Speaker: Michael Burke, Manager, Shark Response Unit, DPIRD The WA Shark Hazard Mitigation Strategy is a Western Australian Government program to help protect beach, river and ocean users from shark bite incidents. A shark monitoring network that detects tagged sharks keeps the community informed about ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 24 September 2025 The North West Stock Route was formally established in 1889. A strip of land 40 chains wide, starting from Dongara and roughly following the route suggested by Walter Padbury in 1855 after he selected leases at Boongarra and the Junction (Neergabby), was set aside ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 27 August 2025 Our best turnout for the year. Seventeen members and visitors attended our walk led by Dr Mark Brundrett, one of the founding members of the Friends of Warwick Bushland more than 20 years ago. Mark chose the recently revamped Jarrah Trail, one of several ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 23 July 2025 Golly, we were lucky! Just a light sprinkle of rain as we neared the car park – and they had forecast thunderstorms. Lake Gnangara is the most southerly of the Wanneroo wetlands. The surrounding terrain consists of low dunes and undulating sand plains of the Bassendean ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 16 July 2025 NSB member Don Poynton presented a travelogue with a difference, which he aptly subtitled Some things I learnt while travelling from Perth to Alice Springs via the Gibson Desert with Coates Wildlife Tours. His presentation was part narrative, part quiz, part audience contribution, with ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 25 June 2025 Golly, it was cold this morning! A comment was made by everyone arriving at Donelly Park, Wanneroo, the meeting point for our walk around the northeast corner of Lake Joondalup, part of Yellagonga Regional Park. The temperature in Perth when most people left home ...

Northern Suburbs Branch, 21 May 2025 Jeremy Wilson is the newly appointed Curator of Arachnids and Myriapods at the WA Museum. Jeremy started his presentation by showing a slide of the three groups in the order Araneae. The suborder Opisthothelae comprises two families: the Araneomorphae, which have more advanced spinnerets, ...