Community Planting Day Sunday 24 May at 9:30 am
Yellow box, Eucalyptus melliodora, is one of the species we will plant.
Photo by W. Pix.
Join us at Mount Majura Nature Reserve for a community planting day and help to restore the critically endangered Box–Gum Grassy Woodland.
When: Sunday, 24 May 2026, 9:30 am – 1:00 pm
Where: Mount Majura Nature Reserve, meet at the Hackett Horse Agistment Paddocks car park north of Ted Noffs, see this map for the meeting point. Note: Car park is small, so walk, ride, or car-pool.
Register: Please register here for catering and tools supply.
Catering provided, including water, tea, coffee, and a light lunch.
Onsite toilet facilities available.
What to Bring: Water bottle, gardening gloves (highly recommended), gardening trowel or mattock (optional), friends and enthusiasm.
Held as part of National Volunteer Week and World Environment Day, the event celebrates the essential role volunteers and community play in protecting and enhancing biodiversity. Whether you’re new to planting or experienced, you’ll be helping grow the next generation of endangered woodland while caring for Ngunnawal Country and connecting with the community.
This inclusive event is designed to bring people together to restore nature, care for Country, and enjoy time outdoors. For more information see here.
The planting event is prepared by ACT Natural Resource Management
Inquiries: Luke.Doldissen@act.
Reports
Woody Weeds Whacked on Sunday 19 April
Volunteers extracting every last piece of Japanese honeysuckle. The pile of massacred creeper is front left; it filled a large weed bag.
Photo by Jenni Marsh.
A group of volunteers enjoyed a sunny afternoon near the Hackett Houses track tackling garden escapees which are invading the grassy box-gum woodland. Hundreds of Privet seedlings and saplings were removed but the main effort for most people was tackling a large patch of Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica which had climbed three Eucalyptus saplings, and covered the soil as a tangled web, anchored at many woody nodes. Finding and mapping such exotic invaders and then removing them when they are young is the key to keeping our bushland in good condition.
Thank you to all volunteers especially to Max and Jenni who did the introduction and to Margy who provided a delicious citrussy cake with a blueberry topping – yum!
Mondays @ The Fair – Planting Native Sedges in a Gully
On 30 March, the Mondays @ The Fair group planted 116 Tall Sedges Carex appressa in the gully just a little south of the Tay St entrance to the reserve. With help from ranger Rob transporting 20L containers of water to the site, we were able to give each plant in a drink in its guard, which will protect it from grazing. March had nearly 100 mm rainfall, but April has had almost no rain, with warm sunny days, so Max gave some of the more exposed plants another bit of a drink and we plan to water them all again in early May.
Given that the Bureau of Meteorology is saying an El Nino is probably emerging, we may need to keep on watering every few weeks – see story here.
Jodie planting one of the Tall Sedges in the gully.
Photo by Margy Burn.
Other activities have been spreading woodchip mulch on bare areas and spot spraying Paterson’s Curse and St John’s Wort. This is a trial of spraying St John’s Wort (StJW) at this time of the year in locations which missed out earlier when the wort was flowering. The area east of the Fair dam, under the power line, had been sprayed by a contractor in December 2024, but had missed out on follow up spraying in summer 2025, so in January 2026 Mondays @ Fair cut and bagged StJW heads there, and now in April the same area has been sprayed with selective herbicide.
Helping Native Cherries Thrive
We have begun manual weeding of the areas under Native Cherries along Clancy’s track to remove small numbers of Cleavers Galium aparine and other herbaceous weeds, continuing the very satisfying progress in restoring this area. Mondays @ The Fair have worked consistently on this project over several seasons and the transformation of this part of Clancy’s track is amazing – well done, everyone.
Come along any Monday at 9:30 to the Tay St entrance to the Nature Reserve in north Watson to meet the group and join in the varied activities which help restore the endangered box-gum grassy woodland. You will be most welcome!
Our Goanna – Rosenberg’s Monitor
See the Goanna story in the press and read about 1080 ejectors here
Upper Murrumbidgee – Our River
See Bidgee Bites here for quick outlines of the current situation and why a reset of river management is urgently needed.
For a look at the data see the webinar by Anna Maguire and Jamie Pittock here.
Conservation – science stories
Acoustic monitoring of bats: TERN database helping in bat research.
Grey-headed Flying-fox Pteropus poliocephalus – See stories on their economic impact here or here – and how they are vulnerable in the ACT here and nationally and internationally. Seen in suburbs close to the Mt Majura reserve.
Microbats – in the wider Fair we have a sighting of Miniopterus orianae oceanensis or the Large Bent-winged Bat formerly known as the Eastern Bent-wing Bat. See this sighting of migrating Bent Wing Bats dispersing through Canberra from their breeding site at Wee Jasper.
Environmental DNA – what it is and how it can be helpful – here
eDNA from the air here
AI to Help Sort Camera Trap Data – see ABC story here with videos.
Gene Drives – a future fix for ferals, perhaps – see here
The science that shows Foxes and Cats have driven many mammals to extinction – see here
Restoring Birdsong – see here for good news about the Regent Honeyeater
Citizen Science
New Plant ID app here
Rediscovery of a Presumed Extinct Plant – a pussytail, see story here, Australian Journal of Botany paper here and photos here.
Another pussytail from Nangus – see NatureMapr photo, not rare, but rare there, at the eastern edge of its distribution.
Frog monitoring – see here for a story from the Conversation and here for the ACT FrogWatch 2025 results (and training dates in September for this year).
Conservation Funding – Pleas for More Money for Nature
Budget for Birds needed – see here.
Budget for Nature – a clear way to improve the funding for conservation – see the Biodiversity Council’s outline or watch their recent webinar here.
30 by 30 welcomes new land conservation areas and funding under the Australian Bushland Program – see here, and wants to see scale up of government investment to at least 1% of the federal budget, currently 0.1%. See Murray Watt’s media release here.
See the 30 by 30 webinar here 1% for Nature.
Pilunga, a Bush Heritage reserve in Queensland given Special Wildlife Reserve status – see here.
Reptiles and other Critters
For pictures of local reptiles see ACT Herp Soc here
Rediscovered Skink at Nadgee story
See the Diamond Python, first one seen in the ACT for at least 50 years, here
See a tiny crayfish only about 1 cm long here
Spiny Burrgrass Cenchrus longispinus at Kenny high school site. Beware: this exotic grass has the potential to become a problem weed. Report any finds and remove promptly.
Photo by EmilySutcliffe, courtesy Canberra NatureMapr.
Books from the Library
David Attenborough turns 100 on 8 May. No doubt you have watched his nature documentaries on TV over the years. The ACT library has many of his books, often in recent editions. Enjoy!
Peter Wohlleben, a forestry conservationist, or should that be a conservationist forester, has written The Hidden Life of Trees about the forestry ecosystems in Europe’s deciduous and coniferous forests. There is an illustrated edition in the library. Gives an insight into the workings of the deciduous trees which are so spectacular along Canberra’s streets in autumn. Also has implications for our understanding of our ecosystems, the roles of old trees, the importance of epigenetic effects in population resilience. See here for more information about the Wohlleben’s Forest Academy. (And for the conservation importance of the roles of old animals see this story.)
Weeds of the South-East: an identification guide for Australia Richardson, F. J., Richardson, R. G., Shepherd, R. C. H. 2025 edition
This is a comprehensive identification guide to weeds found in the South-East region of Australia, covering the whole of Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, the southern half of New South Wales and the south-eastern section of South Australia. This fourth edition has been thoroughly updated to include recent changes in nomenclature, bringing all species and genus names in line with the current Australian Plant Census. Beautifully illustrated, it includes a key using flower colour and shape to help with identification.
Events and Exhibitions
Wed 6 May 6 pm Opening of Exhibition Beyond – reserve a spot here at Charles Sturt University, Barton.
Thursday 7 May – 23 May Beyond exhibition – Four artists, reckoning with profound environmental and political change, respond to grief in the world with diverse visual responses. See here for more info and opening hours.
Thursday 7 May 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Kristy Gould at Australian National Botanic Gardens Crosbie Morrison Building on ‘Conserving Canberra: Healing country through restoration’ – see here
For more events from the Friends of the ANBG see their website.
Friday 8 May, 6:30 – 7:15 pm Molonglo Valley Astronomy Night by Suburban Land Agency at Whitlam. Register at Eventbrite at the SLA link. Or choose the later session 7:15 – 8 pm.
Friday 8 May – Thursday 21 May Robbie Howard exhibition Familiar Landscapes at Q Gallery at the Ainslie Shops. See here for opening hours.
Sat, 9 May, 9am – 11am Branching Out: Wetlands, Creeks, and Creatures at Croke Place Wetlands, Evatt for information and to register see here
18-24 May National Volunteer Week – see here
Tuesday 19 May 6pm – 7pm Impact Hour presented by SEE Change, Conservation Council ACT Region and Canberra Environment Centre. Michael Mulvaney will talk about Red Hill Regenerators, Red Hill the Gang Gang capital of the world! See here for more info and to register for this event at Dissent Cafe and Bar in the CBD – you could go on the tram.
Wed 20 May 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Masterclass – Creating a Wildlife Haven: The Must-Know Essentials – online zoom $33 – see here for more information and to book
Sunday 24 May, 9:30am Community Planting Day – see lead story above.
Tue, 26 May, 6pm – 7:30pm at The Food Co-op Shop and Café, 3 Kingsley St, Canberra, Conservation Council ACT Region Save our Western Edge (and fund it!) Volunteer Information Session. For more info and to register follow the link under the Conservation Council.
5 June 2026 World Environment Day – see here
Anytime Jewellery – choose your favourite creature on an enamel pin – shop here.
Any Day Forest Sculpture Gallery at the National Arboretum. For Arboretum map and opening hours see here.
Final Feature – Dunnart @ Hackett
A Common Dunnart Sminthopsis murina found in a Hackett garden recently. It is actually rarely seen around Canberra but keep your eyes open for this mouse-sized marsupial, as where there is one, there may be more.
Photo by Kmeng, courtesy Canberra NatureMapr.
