This is not the best photo, but it was a special moment today while I was at a #TrustForNature tree planting at @birdlifeoz.bsky.social #Clarkesdale Sanctuary, SW of Ballarat. My first ever sighting of a powerful #owl (the wonderfully-named Ninox strenua). #Birds at Clarkesdale in full song today.🪶

theconversation.com/jolene-i-wil... This, from Wendy Hargreaves via @theconversation.com , is a great celebration of #Dolly #Parton 's musicality.

Jolene, I Will Always Love You and 9 to 5: the genius of Dolly Parton in three songs

The biggest legacy Dolly Parton leaves is her songwriting, and three songs define her more than any others.

theconversation.com

www.theguardian.com/membership/2...

This is not a natural calamity: it is being done to us knowingly

Global heating is an outrage, not a tragedy. We deserve the facts about the climate crisis – I choose the Guardian because it’s one of the few places left to share them honestly

theguardian.com

youtube.com/watch?v=xXm-... A thoughtful discussion on the significance today of the American Declaration of Independence, on the occasion of its 250th anniversary. From a Christian perspective per Australia's @cpx-media.bsky.social, but with much to ponder for those of any faith, or none.

City on a Hill? America’s 250 Year Experiment

YouTube video by PublicChristianity

youtube.com

This came last week from @wilderness.org.au, and sums up many of my 3 a m. thoughts, and reasons to keep on with #Landcare work. Is it hoping too much that the same thoughts may niggle in the sleepless small hours for those in positions of power?

There'd be few former typing teachers around now, but surely many of their students recall learning to use a #QWERTYUIOP keyboard. Back then, it was to prepare (female) students to be office secretaries, but for me, being in a typing "club" at high school set me up for adult use of a laptop. /2

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 2w ago

Primary school students using digital devices still lack computer skills, education expert says

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... I'm one of the minority of #SBS OnDemand subscribers who've already opted out of #gambling ads on that platform. If only one could opt out on #YouTube too. Just love the use by those bought by the gambling "industry" of the phrase "gamble responsibly". Whaaat???

Labor pledges opt-out register for online gambling ads as Pocock calls out shortfalls in government’s bill

The new measure falls short of calls for gambling ads to move to an opt-in model, or for an outright ban

theguardian.com

Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) are powerful single-feed poisons used to kill rats and mice. Secondary poisoning: Slow-dying, disoriented rodents are easily caught by predators and scavengers, transferring lethal doses up the food chain.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... From @australia.theguardian.com : The #ASIC suggests that customers challenge insurers on the increase in premiums beyond inflation, but have they tried to challenge insurers? I tried with RACV, but my objections were brushed aside. /2

Car owners should challenge insurers on steep price hikes and ‘call their bluff’, Asic says

Regulator finds many insurers raising premiums faster than inflation and advises customers to ask for better deals

theguardian.com

Yes. Yes. Yes. An Australian trends section please!! Retweet if you agree. #aussietrends

Peter FitzSimons@peterfitz1.bsky.social · 2y ago

So, how are you all finding Bluesky? I am mostly enjoying it, just finding it a little lacking in the hard edge breaking news aspect of twitter? It really needs an Australian Trends section.

Superb work from the #RBG #Melbourne to save this and other #orchid species from extinction. A fitting story for #LandcareWeek. There are so many "tree-changers" whose blocks may harbour native orchid plants. On our place, they've come up even in paddocks long cleared and previously grazed.

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 4w ago

The race to save Australia's rare rosella spider orchid

"Segal holds power over what Australians may say, teach, report and believe. No election gave it to her. No Parliament ratified it .. Nobody asked you." Andrew Brown #auspol #antisemitism michaelwest.com.au/the-segal-st...

The Segal State: the office Australia never voted for - Michael West

Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal holds power over what Australians may say, teach, report and believe. No election gave it her. Andrew Brown

michaelwest.com.au

youtube.com/shorts/A-yga... For #LandcareWeek . A beaut affirmation from our #Landcare #Australia President @petergarrett.com.au. 'Tis all true as he says.

Landcare Week 2026 - Message from Peter Garrett AM | Landcare Australia

YouTube video by Landcare Australia

youtube.com

www.australiangeographic.com.au/nature-wildl... From @austgeo.bsky.social , a good summary for this week, #LandcareWeek, of the benefits & joys reported by #Landcare volunteers, and the challenge to more people to get involved. /2

Landcare volunteers ‘come for nature, stay for community’ - Australian Geographic

A national Landcare volunteers survey has revealed caring for nature also helps Australians care for each other.

australiangeographic.com.au

www.theguardian.com/environment/... Thanks to Patrick Greenfield @pgreenfielduk.bsky.social for this beaut article on the #fungi in, um, ordure - one of a great #NatureHeroes series from @theguardian.com . Some wonderful work done by enterprising #scientists with more exciting discoveries likely. 🧪🌱

‘I have an understanding housemate’: the student who makes videos of fungus on faeces

Alfred Drummond-Herdman’s extraordinary timelapses have been viewed by millions – and led him to identify new species

theguardian.com

The @andrewdessler.com article addresses facts that seemed to have only a momentary impact here in #Australia. Those 2020 fires did something never seen before - they extended from the sclerophyll forest into (normally wet) rainforest. And our gov't is spruiking cheap fossil fuels worldwide.

Mark Gongloff@markgongloff.bsky.social · last mo.

"With great sorrow, we are able to watch as the Earth is rebuilt into a different, warmer planet." - @andrewdessler.com wrote this about the wildfires and extreme climate events in 2020, but it's even more relevant more than six years later open.substack.com/pub/theclima...

Hanson told Tommy Robinson that Australia’s migration problems started in 1973 when Whitlam scrapped White Australia. The timeline is wrong & so is the tidy story of this history. New post on what actually happened — and what it does and doesn’t tell us about 2026 blakandblack.com/2026/07/27/t...

The White Australia Policy: Origin and Evolution as Present-day Warning

The White Australia Policy enabled the usuary maltreatment of South Sea Islanders and Indigenous people, ultimately excluding them from society.

blakandblack.com

Just watched #IfYou'reListening on @news.abc.net.au tv with @mattbevan.bsky.social . Investigated so well the crypto dealings of a cynically corrupt presidency. A beaut show, but disturbing stuff. I don't get how American evangelicals still support this bloke. iview.abc.net.au/show/if-you-...

If You're Listening: Trump's rise from bunker boy to billionaire

In 2020, Trump was rushed into a bunker with just $92 million to his name. Now he's made $2.2 billion in just a year, through crypto hype and access-selling podcast bros. So is this just what being pr...

iview.abc.net.au

Ups & downs of biodiversity across 24 hours. 1. Members & friends of our #Landcare group spent a winter's day yesterday alongside 60 enthusiastic school kids planting a biodiverse mix of grasses & forbs alongside the school wetlands. Photo shows part of our planting, viewed from the birdhide. /2

From Prof Jason Goroncy of Melbourne's Whitley College, a timely message for #Australian #Christians. Per @news.abc.net.au #ReligionAndEthics www.abc.net.au/religion/chr...

Christianity both creates and can resolve the problem of monoculturalism - ABC Religion & Ethics

From the fourth-century councils to Australia’s White Australia policy, the Christian tradition has supplied theological warrant for cultural exclusion — but the same tradition has also, at specific m...

abc.net.au

Longitudinal studies of nature, like this #CitizenScience, are invaluable. We're coming up 26 years in our present locality, & still discovering "new" #bird species I've never noticed before. I hope Mr Connor shares his records with @birdlifeoz.bsky.social 🪶

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 2mo ago

Mike Connor visited the same park for 40 years. His notebooks filled with birds are invaluable

One of the blessings of having a dog is their relentless enthusiasm for a morning walk, whatever the conditions. So one gets to see views like this - morning light diffusing through the distinctive silhouettes of #eucalypts, #Ballarat.

Australia Institute research shows that almost one in three 12-17 year-olds gamble. In fact, Australian teenagers are more likely to gamble than to play soccer, basketball, cricket or any other sport. ✍️ Add your name now to join the call for gambling reform: https://theaus.in/4vg4wvS

This, from Andrew Brown of @michaelwest.com.au.web.brid.gy is pure gold. Once the Yanks interpret the ockerisms, there is so much truth there for them to digest. michaelwest.com.au/red-card-a-b...

Red card. A birthday message from Australia to America - Michael West

As Belgium responded to the corruption of Trump and Infantino in the best way by thumping the US soccer team, birthday greetings to the USA

michaelwest.com.au

Yesterday, skies around #Ballarat were filled with silken strands carrying #ballooning #spiders. They were only visible when I looked sunwards, hence no photo. Got me researching - I didn't know that this relies on electrostatics! See 2015 @news.abc.net.au article: share.google/rAlUYx6f8dVY...

Sea of cobwebs covers farm in ballooning phenomenon

Spiders have begun falling from the sky in south-western Victoria, as cooler conditions make way for a phenomenon known as ballooning.

share.google

#nature #climate #auspol

Ross Creek #Wetlands, #Ballarat hail.to/woady-yaloak... Posting this particularly for @toritorihkd.bsky.social - you can finally see the photos of #LathamsSnipe that you shared with us last year, used in wetlands signs (scroll down the report until you reach the heading "Ross Creek wetlands"). /2

Acting Principal's Message (Week 10, Term 2) — Woady Yaloak Primary School Term 2, Week 10 Newsletter

Welcome to Week 10 of Term 2. Please take a moment to read our latest school update below

hail.to

There's not *one* mention in this @news.abc.net.au article on the effects of the record heatwave on Europe's human population of how it has affected the wider environment. What has been its effect on forests, on birds, or on mammals that can't turn on an air conditioner? You'd think we lived alone.

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 2mo ago

Europe's record heatwave causes 4,000 deaths in France, power outages and wildfires

Australia has never been culturally homogeneous. First Nations plurality predates European settlement by 65,000 years. The First Fleet’s own diversity — African, Bengali, Jewish, Irish, Scandinavian — 1973 policy choice formalised what was always structurally true blakandblack.com/2026/06/25/i...

Impossible Monoculture: Diversity, Pluralism and the Australia That Actually Exists

I. Two Arguments That Must Not Be Confused The case against monoculturalism in Australia rests on two distinct foundations that are often conflated, and the conflation weakens both. The first is a des...

blakandblack.com

It's been a wet, mild winter so far in #Ballarat. These are the #fungi I found today along a 500m section of our roadside. Some, like the earthstar and puffball, clearly past their best, others looking beautiful.