Tag Archives: Australian Conservation

Under Kakadu Skies Is Available for Preorder!

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My new romantic suspense novel, Under Kakadu Skies, is now available for preorder ahead of its release on 15 September.

This book has been a labour of love from the very first page, and I can’t wait for you to meet Jo and Kai — and to lose yourself in the wild, beautiful country they call home.

Under Kakadu Skies book cover

 

The Blurb

Compelling new romantic suspense from the rugged heart of Kakadu, by one of Australia’s favourite authors.

After a painful betrayal, Sydney wildlife biologist Jo Reid takes a job in Kakadu National Park, hoping to escape from the rawness of her shattered life. Soon Jo is exploring vast floodplains, sandstone escarpments and crocodile-haunted waterways – a landscape as beautiful as it is unforgiving.

She finds herself drawn to Kai Walker; an enigmatic ranger whose quiet strength unsettles her in ways she didn’t expect. But the deeper Jo ventures into Kai’s world, the more she senses that something is terribly wrong in the remote country they patrol. When events take a dangerous turn, Jo is forced to confront both the shadows closing in and the truths she’s been running from. In the end she must decide how much she’s willing to risk – for the wild country she’s come to love, and the man at the heart of it.

Set beneath the vast skies and ancient landscapes of the Top End, Under Kakadu Skies is a thrilling story about trust, courage and the healing power of wild places.

Why Kakadu?

Kakadu floodplains and escarpment under a vast sky

When I began writing Under Kakadu Skies, I wanted a setting that felt larger than the story itself — a place of beauty, mystery and danger, where the landscape could become another character. Kakadu has that rare kind of magic.

There are moments when it feels as though you’re looking back through time, seeing Australia as it might have appeared thousands of years ago. Vast wetlands shimmer beneath enormous skies. Ancient escarpments rise from the floodplains, and waterways wind through country that seems untouched by the modern world.

Jabiru wading through Kakadu wetlands

And everywhere, there is life. Jabirus stalk the wetlands. Brolgas dance across the plains. Dingos slip through the grass, crocodiles wait beneath the surface, and flocks of magpie geese rise into skies glowing gold and crimson at dawn.

But Kakadu’s beauty isn’t gentle or predictable. The seasons transform it. Water floods the plains, storms roll across the horizon, and the heat can feel almost alive. It is magnificent country, but it demands respect. That combination of beauty, wildness and hidden danger made it the perfect setting for Jo and Kai’s story. Kakadu gave me the sweeping romance, suspense and sense of wonder I wanted for Under Kakadu Skies. Some places stay with you long after you leave them. Kakadu is one of those places. 💛

Preorder Now

Under Kakadu Skies releases 15 September — and preordering makes such a difference for authors. Every early order helps this story find more readers, and I’m so grateful for each and every one. Thanks for being part of this journey with me.

Preorder the eBook — available at all major retailers. Closer to release date I will have signed copies available directly from me. Preorder print copies from any good bookshop and you can also preorder from online retailers such as Booktopia.

National Tree Day

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National Tree DayToday is the 20th anniversary of National Tree Day, the country’s largest community nature-care and tree planting event. Each year over 250,000 people take part in National Tree Day events at 3,000 sites organised by councils, schools, businesses, communities and Toyota Dealers across the country. Since Planet Ark launched National Tree Day in 1996, more than three million participants have planted 21 million native trees, shrubs and grasses.By taking part in National Tree Day, you’ll be joining thousands of individuals in making a difference, connecting with nature, beautifying your local neighbourhood and inspiring positive environmental change.

Carnaby's Black Cockatoo

Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo

To celebrate National Tree Day this Sunday, WWF-Australia, with the help of supporters and volunteers, are planting 3,000 black cockatoo food trees at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Karakamia Wildlife Sanctuary in the state’s southwest. WWF spokesperson Shenaye Hummerston said planting food trees like banksias, marri and sheoaks would help to bring black cockatoos back from the brink after a dramatic decline in bird populations in recent years.

‘Black cockatoos are well-loved in Western Australia with their characteristic haunting cries and big personalities but they are also under serious threat,’ said WWF-Australia’s Threatened Species Conservation Officer, Shenaye Hummerston. ‘Black cockatoos have lost many of their food trees and homes after many years of land clearing for agriculture and continuing urban development. We need to act now to save these amazing birds from extinction and planting food trees is one way to help do this.’

KarakamiaTwo species of black cockatoo – Carnaby’s and Baudin’s white-tailed black cockatoos – are found only in the internationally-renowned biodiversity hotspot known as Southwest Australia. Karakamia Wildlife Sanctuary, named for the red-tailed black cockatoo (“karak”), is home to all three threatened species of black cockatoos. Southwest Australia has the highest concentration of rare and endangered species in Australia and is considered one of 34 global biodiversity hotpots but land clearing for agriculture and urban development, along with introduced species, have exacted a huge toll.

‘The loss of habitat not only affects the availability of black cockatoo nesting hollows but also food availability. Loss of food is a major contributor to black cockatoo decline,’ Ms Hummerston said.

I will plant some more trees in honour of National Tree Day. Hope you can plant some too! BB14

Happy Endangered Species Day!

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Endangered Species DayLast Friday was international Endangered Species Day, designed to highlight the plight of many at-risk and critically endangered plants and animals. They are disappearing between 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural rate – with dozens going extinct every day. Over 40% of the world’s species are estimated to be at risk of extinction, primarily from human activities driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species and global warming.

Australia is far from immune. In fact it is facing an extinction crisis, with the worst mammal extinction rate in the world: 30 native mammals have become extinct since European settlement. To put this in a global context, 1 out of 3 mammal extinctions in the last 400 years have occurred in Australia.

Rewilding Australia 1I love to write about our unique wildlife, and the people who fight to protect these birds and animals. My current work-in-progress explores the concept of rewilding. Rewilding means restoring habitats to their original condition (as much as possible) and reintroducing animals and plants that are locally extinct.

Rewilding Australia is a registered charity that supports the reintroduction of our apex species like devils and quolls. With the re-establishment of these predator species, combined with a range of large-scale fox and cat control programs, our other smaller Quollsmammals may then be able to survive. Farmers and community organisations from all around Australia are embracing this vision and pitching in to help. Some examples include predator-proof fencing, breeding programs and protecting wildlife corridors. Click here to read a story on an exciting quoll rewilding project.

I’m excited about the concept of not only conserving, but of actively rebuilding eco-systems. It has also given me the idea for my new book. I’m sure the challenges involved will make for some dramatic story-telling!

BB14

Celebrating Women In Conservation

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Women in conservation breakfast

Bush Heritage Australia and Trust for Nature are pleased to invite supporters to the fourth annual Celebrating Women In Conservation fundraising breakfast 2015.

Held in Melbourne in the week of International Women’s Day, this fourth annual breakfast is an opportunity to discover new perspectives, as well as celebrating the role that women play in conservation. I’m hoping to be there. It’s for a very good cause!

The MC is science journalist and bestselling author Tanya Ha.

Molly Harriss Olsen

Molly Harriss Olsen

Guest speaker Molly Harriss Olson will share her transformative ideas about decision making in conservation. Named as one of the 2014 Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence, Molly has convened, chaired and been a member of numerous sustainability initiatives over more than three decades, including The World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders of Tomorrow Sustainability Index Initiative. Molly worked in the White House as the Founding Executive Director of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, appointed by President Clinton.

Molly is the Founder and Convenor of the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development and co-founder of EcoFutures and Earthmark. She serves on the Green Building Council of Australia and the AMP Sustainable Investments Alpha Advisory boards, and is CEO of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand.

2015 CELEBRATING WOMEN IN CONSERVATION BREAKFAST

DATE: Thursday, 5 March 2015
TIME: 7.00am for a 7.15am start
VENUE: RACV City Club, 501 Bourke Street, Melbourne
COST: $75 per person; $700 for a table of 10

Book here. Please direct all enquiries to Amelia Easdale at Trust for Nature on (03) 8631 5809 or at ameliae@tfn.org.au.

BB14

National Tree Day

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Nat Tree Day 1Today is National Tree Day. Combined with Schools Tree Day it is Australia’s biggest community tree-planting and nature care event. Co-ordinated by Planet Ark, these are special days for all Australians to help out by planting and caring for native trees and shrubs to improve the environment in which we live. National Tree Day started in 1996 and since then more than 2.8 million people have planted almost 20 million seedlings! It is held on the last weekend of July every year – this is the optimal planting time for the majority of Australians towns. However this might not suit certain areas, so you can find a date that suits you. As Planet Ark says, “every day is Tree Day”.

Nat Tree Day 4The organisers put great store in local provenance. This term describes native plant populations that naturally occur in a given area. Many native plant species can be found to occur across a broad geographic area or range. For example, hairpin banksia (Banksia spinulosa) naturally occurs across 3 states, from coastal Victoria to Cairns. However, the plants growing in a specific area have adapted to the local conditions over a long period of time. Although of the same species, a hairpin Banksia from southern Victoria will have a different genetic makeup to it’s cousin in Cairns, just as the same species of plant found on the coast will be different from that growing in the mountains. Different populations containing local genetic variations are called provenances. For true local provenance, the individual plant is grown from seed stock from parent plants within the same population (or as close by as possible). Preserving local provenance populations is an important way of protecting biodiversity. For more information visit the Benefits of Local Natives page.

Nat Tree Day 3One of my favourite singers, country music legend and former Australian of the Year, Lee Kernaghan has supported National Tree Day for over a decade.

“I grew up out in the bush and everyone living and working in regional Australia knows how important trees are to the land. National Tree Day is all about individuals, communities and the country coming together to plant trees and to make a big and positive impact for our great nation and future generations,” Lee says.

This year the campaign aims to reach the milestone of planting its 20-millionth seedling. Everyone can help by getting involved in one of the hundreds of organised community events, or just planting an indigenous tree in your own garden. Every tree makes a difference!

BB14

Bush Heritage Australia

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Bush Heritage 2Since I dedicated my last book Billabong Bend to Bush Heritage, I thought I should write a post about it. Bush Heritage is a non-profit conservation organisation dedicated to protecting Australia’s unique animals, plants and their habitats for future generations. They have a simple and practical formula for protecting the bush – buy land of outstanding conservation value, then care for it

Liffey Valley Reserves in Tasmania – the first Bush Heritage Reserve. Photo: Wayne Lawler

Liffey Valley in Tasmania – the first Bush Heritage Reserve. Photo: Wayne Lawler

The organisation began in 1991, when Dr Bob Brown bought several hundred hectares of old-growth forest in Tasmania to save it from logging. Using prize money from an environmental award as the deposit, he sought donations to gather the remaining funds, and Bush Heritage was born.

My fictional property of Billabong Bend is based in part on the beautiful Naree Station, acquired by Bush Heritage in 2012. Located on the inland floodplains of northern NSW, Naree sits at the head of the nationally significant wetlands of the Cuttaburra Channels and Yantabulla Swamp. During flood events it becomes home to an incredible fifty thousand breeding water birds and is rated as one of the twenty most important water bird sites in Australia.

Bush Heritage 4Bush Heritage currently owns and manages thirty-five reserves throughout Australia, covering nearly one million hectares. Reserves are managed like national parks – the land is legally protected, with the intention of safeguarding it forever. Bush Heritage also builds partnerships with farmers. These partnerships account for a further 3.5 million hectares of land under conservation management. Their long term goal is to protect more than seven million hectares by 2025. This will only be possible with our help.

Bush Heritage 2If you need a gift for someone who cares about the environment, how about sending a Bush Heritage WILDgift? Not only does your friend or family member receive a beautiful card featuring stunning photography from the Australian bush, but together, you also make a real and lasting contribution to nature conservation in Australia. For ten dollars you can provide a warm, safe nesting box for the endangered red-tailed phascogale. For twenty-five dollars you can save a slice of the outback, helping to buy one hectare of native habitat. Every hectare makes a difference!

BB14

 

 

Lights Out For The Reef

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Great Barrier Reef 3Last night thousands of Australians, including me, took part in Earth Hour, an event that kicked off a year-round campaign against climate change. It is a worldwide movement for the planet organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and it began right here in Australia as a lights off hour in 2007. Earth Hour engages a massive mainstream community on a broad range of environmental issues.  Households and businesses turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol of their commitment to the planet. The event has now been embraced by 7001 cities and 152 nations across the globe. And in 2014, Earth Hour will focus attention on one of the world’s most iconic and threatened places: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Barrier Reef 1This topic holds particular significance to me, as the new novel I’m writing is set on the Queensland coast at the southern tip of the reef. It is about a zoologist with a passion for marine mammals. As the largest living structure on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef stretches for over two thousand, three hundred kilometres, and is so large it can be seen from space. It contains three thousand individual reefs and nine hundred islands. Incredibly rich and diverse, it extends over fourteen degrees of latitude, from shallow estuarine areas to deep oceanic waters.

Great Barrier Reef 2Channel ten screened a special television event last night just prior to Earth Hour. It revealed the true story of what’s happening to the reef due to climate change, dredging, pollution and over-fishing. The program was grim viewing. The Great Barrier Reef has shrunk by fifty percent in the last twenty-seven years. Let’s hope 2014 can mark a rally to action, and we can convince politicians to protect this unique wonder of the natural world.

And now to the winners of the prize draw. Congratulations to Karen Stalker, Mary Preston and Jenna O. You have each won a book. I’ll be emailing you all shortly. 

BB14

 

 

 

In Praise of Paddock Trees

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Paddock trees 2Picturesque paddock trees, providing shade and shelter for stock and wildlife alike, are an iconic image of rural Australia. We’ve all seen sheep and cattle seeking protection from the baking summer sun, under the spreading boughs of a lone gum tree. Such old-growth giants can be centuries old, the last survivors of long-vanished  forests. They will not last forever though. Thousands have been lost recently in Victoria’s Wimmera, for example. It’s important to properly appreciate their value, so we can protect those we have, and replace those we’ve lost.

Paddock Trees 3Paddock trees are much more than a shady spot for stock to camp under. They provide vital information about what existed prior to massive landscape change – genes, local provenance, microbial communities, soil fungi etc. They act as wildlife corridors, and help to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems. They form a leaf-litter layer for insects to live in. They provide forage, roosts and hollows for bats, birds, possums and koalas.

Buloke Red Tailed Black Cockatoostrees, for example, are the preferred food tree for endangered south-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, but less than two percent of this important food species remains. It takes a hundred years for a Buloke (a type of casuarina) to provide a decent feed, and they are not being replaced at a high enough rate to support Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos into the future. Click here to find out more about a wonderful recovery project aimed at protecting these magnificent birds.

Paddock trees 4Paddock trees also reduce erosion and salinity, enrich soils and provide a seed source for regeneration – the benefit list goes on and on. If these trees continue to disappear, future generations will inherit a vastly different landscape. Landholders, governments … all of us who own or care for paddocks, must rise to the challenge of reversing tree loss in grazing and cropping landscapes, whether the result of active clearing or simple neglect. Old growth paddock trees have taken hundreds of years to grow. They cannot be replaced in a person’s lifetime – we need to protect what remains while we can.

BB2013_Nominee

Bush Heritage Australia

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Bush Heritage 1With Christmas fast approaching, I have a present suggestion. Why not a WILD gift from Bush Heritage Australia, an organisation committed to protecting Australia’s plants and animals and their habitats? One of the best ways to conserve land is to own it. Bush Heritage acquires land and water of outstanding ecological importance for Australia’s biodiversity and ecology. They also build partnerships with farmers to support conservation on privately owned land. Starting out with just two reserves in 1991, Bush Heritage now owns and manages more than a million hectares, in over 30 reserves around Australia.

Bush Heritage 2The WILD Gift concept is very cool, and makes a real difference to conservation in Australia. Each gift represents an area of Bush Heritage’s work on reserves right across the country. For ten dollars you can provide a warm, safe nesting box for endangered red-tailed phascogales. Forty dollars can help monitor the health of a threatened species, like the small but feisty Mulgara. My personal favourite is their Slice of the Outback gift. Twenty-five dollars can buy one hectare of native habitat, providing a safe haven for countless plants and animals. Every hectare makes a difference!

Brolga on Naree Station

Brolga on Naree Station

For each gift purchased, you’ll receive a beautiful gift card which you can send to a friend or relative, letting them know about the thoughtful contribution you’ve made on their behalf, and about the conservation successes they’re helping to achieve – plus you can add your own personal message. If you choose an electronic card, you have the further choice of opting that it be sent direct to the recipient on your behalf. As a giver, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re part of Bush Heritage’s big plans to rescue Australian wildlife and landscapes. All WILD gifts are tax deductible.

 

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