Aussie Enviro

Time out from the heavy stuff. This video is not only interesting but will put a smile on your face. It is not rude so can be shared with children (but not young ones as they may not understand) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXjfz0N_JXg

Sophie 's bought a 7.5 hectare property in SA which is classified as arid to semi-arid, with less than 350mm of rain a year. It’s baking hot and dry in summer and freezing in winter but she likes the challenge and intends on planting thousands of native plants in an area which was badly degraded by farming practices. By this, she will counteract some of our continual biodiversity loss.

https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/dawn-of-shingleback-farm/106451554

ALL OF US can take small to large actions. Even if you just have a balcony, by planting a few native plants which are sympathetic or endemic to your area you may make the difference to an invertebrate species and with that, make a difference to local native birds and reptiles. If you have a small garden you can do more, and on and on. If you are not the gardening type you can donate to organisations which are restoring habitats and landscapes. You can get involved with landcare groups or support native and vegetable gardens in your local schools and communities, physically, financially or by helping with admin tasks.

With all our climate challenges, plus now war in our midst and possible food shortages in the future, we have to think ahead and do whatever we can to protect those who bear the brunt of a situation they have not caused

No one here seemed to be interested in the petition to support a National Framework. This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking.

The Greens proposed a $20 million-a-year wildlife rescue strategy in March 2025 and are again urging their Canberra colleagues to back the plan.

“Wildlife rescue services across the country are struggling to keep their doors open,” said Greens spokesperson for the environment, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

“Our environment is in crisis, and as a consequence our wildlife are paying the price. We are seeing decreasing native wildlife populations and a number of species, including the koala, are facing extinction...”

Senator Hanson-Young said increasing threats to wildlife meant Australia had a responsibility to act.

“Habitat destruction, motor accidents, all of the other dangers … that humans bring onto them, we’ve got a responsibility to look after them...”

https://thepoint.com.au/news/260312-hanson-young-backs-wildlife-recovery-call-for-urgent-funding-to-save-injured-native-animals

Australians get few benefits from fossil fuel exports.

• High levels of foreign ownership mean most of the profits from fossil fuel exports from Australia go to foreign owners of global energy giants exporting Australia’s resources.
• Big Gas gets more than half the gas they export from Australia for free.
• Australian Treasury revealed that as of 2023, no gas export project had ever paid petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT), the main tax on the oil and gas industry, which has been in place for nearly40 years.
• Gas export companies often pay little if any company tax. For instance,
• Santos have Santos Limited has racked up a 10th straight year of zero corporate tax payments from a total of nearly $47 billion in sales.
• Inpex operated Ichthys LNG Pty Ltd pays no royalties, effectively getting the gas it exports for free, has never paid PRRT, and paid zero corporate tax for the 6th year running, from a total of $43 billion in sales.

https://thepoint.com.au/explainers/260314-make-polluters-pay-why-australia-needs-a-climate-disaster-levy

If you have a garden you can support our frog species by building some frog habitat, whether a frog hotel, a bog or a pond. Or, ALL of the above as this segment from GA shows. There's plenty of info and videos online and it's a great fun project. You can also suggest it to your local school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2RN7gmW3NQ

Australia has more than 240 different frog species, many of which are not found anywhere else on Earth. Close to 20% of Australian frogs (and in the world) are threatened; in the last 25 years, 6 have already been listed as extinct.

This article is a few years old but explains well what is happening and what can be done at an institutional level plus it has some great pics and video of our threatened frogs.

Australia’s native wildlife is in crisis. Add your name to call for a nationally coordinated and sustainably funded system for wildlife rescue, treatment and rehabilitation.

In 2024–25 alone, leading wildlife organisations responded to 320,968 calls for help, undertook 129,280 rescues, and admitted more than 51,000 animals to wildlife hospitals. The average cost of treating just one animal is $550 — largely borne by donations and philanthropy.

The above figures are the tip of the iceberg. I know quite a few wildlife rescuers and carers not attached to any organisation but doing what they do because they CARE about our unique and beautiful native animals, They are overwhelmingly self-funded and their work can be as grief-making as it is personally rewarding. There is little to no support for them. Please sign this petition. https://www.isupportwildlife.com/

In some ways, de-extinction risks becoming a comforting fantasy. It lets us imagine that technology might save us from having to do the harder, less glamorous work of protection, restoration and care. Because biodiversity collapse won't be solved in a lab. It will be solved, if at all, by rapidly reducing carbon emissions, protecting habitat, listening to First Nations knowledge, reducing invasive species, funding ranger programs, and taking conservation seriously while species are still alive.

The Thylacine should not just be a symbol of loss. It should be a warning. And perhaps also a lesson. The people who knew this animal on Country understood something important straight away. Rather than indulging in techno-fantasies about resurrecting the dead, we should be protecting what remains. That is the real test of whether we have learned anything at all.

Good run-down of 1080 poison use in Australia at the moment. Leaves me thinking I've overlooked the policies negative effects too easily, and have assumed its positive impacts are actually occurring and wanted.

Every shopping item is likely to go up in price as petrol has already done. Rents and mortgage interest rates ditto. People and nature are going to really feel the fallout from the situation in the Middle East. Now is really the time to live life in ways that are more frugal, less wasteful and look after our patch in whatever ways we can. This guide shows some ways: https://www.natureaustralia.org.au/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/australia/Sustainable-Living-Guide-AU.pdf

There is so much we can do including passing on tips or 'hacks' to others, even those who loathe 'environmenty', 'greeny' stuff. By showing them they can save money, we may be able to do more that's positive for the earth.

If you want to share some of your tips in the comments, we can all learn some more.

I'll start with one area, ** dental care**. For at least a dozen years I've been making my own tooth-cleaning powder (various recipes online) as well as mouth wash (which is as simple as (not-too-salty) salty water with a couple of drops of essential oil (various you can choose from - also see online). I use bamboo toothbrushes. The brush heads are still plastic but the handles can be snapped off and composted. I use an electric water flosser but I do have solar panels on my roof.

What an interesting project with hopefully very happy outcome 💚 🐦

Here is the project's website: https://www.bogong.org/

Follow oomphie for more moths https://bsky.app/profile/wa-moths.bsky.social/post/3mgoa42rwmc2b

The environment minister, Murray Watt, has given the green light for the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory without an assessment under Australia’s nature laws.

Top End Pastoral Company’s development would clear 2,723 hectares of woodland – an area 10 times the size of Sydney’s CBD – on Claravale farm and station in the Daly River region for crops, including sorghum and cotton.

The region is home to threatened species such as the vulnerable ghost bat, Gouldian finch, pig-nosed turtle and red goshawk.

Environment groups and a scientific expert on tropical savanna have expressed dismay at the minister’s decision to declare the development is not a controlled action – meaning it can proceed without an assessment under Australia’s laws for its potential impact on threatened species and ecosystems. It follows longstanding concerns that pastoral land-clearing has rarely been assessed under the national laws.

Our governments, at all levels, are selling out our natural heritage, which together with climate heating and the effects of world war is going to go into more rapid decline than it already is. We mustn't let that happen. There's no more time for apathy.

In short:

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has declared second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides a restricted chemical product.

The ruling means popular, commercially available rat baits could only be sold to licensed operators, such as pest controllers.

What's next?

The AVPMA will work with state and territory governments to enact the ban in coming months.

Scientists are deliberately breeding the invasive cane toad in Western Australia's far north as part of a strategy to protect native wildlife.

Exposing predators like goannas to small, non-lethal toads helps them develop a lasting aversion.

Given the program's success in other parts of the Kimberley it is expanding into the Roebuck Plains outside Broome.

There is currently no consistent national definition of a culturally significant entity, meaning they are not treated by policy-makers and conservation practitioners in the same way as other entities, like threatened species. Under Western conservation frameworks, action to monitor and protect a species is typically only triggered once a species is listed as threatened - a threshold that falls short of Traditional Custodians’ obligation to care for culturally significant entities.

In order to develop a meaningful and collaborative approach to managing culturally significant entities, Indigenous researchers, as part of a project with The Resilient Landscapes Hub, set out to establish a consistent definition of culturally significant entities and propose an approach to recognise them in national legislation, policy and strategic-planning mechanisms.

Article also contains a video.

If you or someone you know has fruit trees, make sure they are using wildlife-friendly netting.

The study used a best-practice OECD-developed method to identify subsidies, including cash payments and tax concessions, and evaluate the potential harm to nature from the activities that they support.

“We identified 36 separate subsidies for activities that are driving environmental decline, such as native forest logging, fossil fuel mining and projects that clear native vegetation,” said Mr Elton.

“They include $22.5 billion per year in direct payments from the government and an additional $3.8 billion per year in tax concessions, totalling $26.3 billion per year, based on 2022-23 data.

“This represents about 4% of the total federal budget. That is twice as much as the federal government invests in supporting government schools nationally, and 25 times more than they spend on looking after nature.

And this ever expanding horrific war, and the possibility that Israel might use nuclear weapons, will just make global warming intensify even more.

Those of you who are on this page will know most of the ways but it doesn't hurt to be reminded and to share with others who many not know as much as you.