AS WE HEAD into autumn, we leave behind the hottest Australian summer on record. Not that we need official statistics to tell us what we can already feel as we swelter through weeks of searingly hot days and toss and turn throughout uncomfortably war

As an Aussie living in England, but able to visit and travel in Australia fairly often, I always look forward to AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC and the inspiration it gives me to see more of the country on each of our visits. Your article about birds collidin

I recently read a small article in Wild Australia (AG 131), about Queensland’s largest butterfly the Richmond birdwing, which described the Dutchman’s pipe vine as a native plant. I live in the northern rivers of NSW and some years back attempted to

Barry Humphries isn’t known for his love of animals. As an Australian abroad, he’s told the world that he’s not fond of marsupials because he once met a cameraman who’d had his nipple bitten off by a koala. The koala, according to Mr Humphries, likel

THIS BEACH CAN SING…sort of. While the surrounding beaches are predominantly the creamy yellow sand variety, at low tide this 30mwide cove is o€ en covered in ovalshaped, multicoloured pebbles. When waves wash across these, the sound they make as the

DEPENDING ON HOW you count them, Australia has some 17 deserts. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to cross 15 of them. Most have sand dunes. But so does every observed astronomical body in the Solar System that has both a hard surface and at lea

Q Do animals lose their vision as they age, in a similar way to humans? Animals can experience a range of vision changes with advancing age, although in the wild many may not live long enough to be substantially affected. The degree and types of chan

It’s easy to join a Clean Up. Head to the Clean Up Australia Day website (cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/join-a-clean-up) and you’ll be prompted to enter your postcode. When you do, registered Clean Ups will be displayed and you can choose which one you

In April 1954, Soviet spies Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov, masquerading as Canberra diplomats, defected to Australia. This Cold War saga and the information the couple passed to local authorities had global implications, identifying spy networks around

Leeton has 21 buildings listed in the Art Deco Society of NSW register. Most of the buildings are on Kurrajong and Pine avenues. With Art Deco, the functional aspects of buildings are made aesthetic and beautiful in a rather extravagant way by variou

WHEN WE FLOCK to our beaches to enjoy Australia’s spectacular sun, sand and surf, we’re constantly reminded of the need to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. But we need also to be mindful of the resident birds that nest on our bea

IN EARLY JANUARY the worrying news came that more than a million fish had died along a 40km section of the Darling River in western New South Wales. The incident at Menindee, near Broken Hill, was the second of three mass fish kills during a period o

The Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Project is aimed at ridding this World Heritage site of the ship rat and house mouse. Both arrived on the first ships to visit the island in 1788 and have been implicated in more than 20 extinctions there. Vari

FLYING_FOX COLONIES across Australia have been devastated by record heatwaves this summer. In far north Queensland, about 23,000 (onethird of the Australian population) spectacled flying-foxes, listed as vulnerable, dropped from their roosts when tem

BOOK A GUIDED tour between April and October to experience the National Heritage-listed Nilpena Fossil Site firsthand. Tours led by specialists from Dr Mary Droser’s research team start at $143pp, while more general tours of Nilpena Station, includin

SOME SCIENTISTS BELIEVE falling atmospheric oxygen levels killed off many Ediacaran life forms long before the Cambrian Explosion. Mary Droser isn’t convinced they were simply outcompeted as many people believe. “To lose a whole suite of Ediacaran fa

Join desert ecology experts on scientific surveys ranging from 9 to 19 days in the Simpson Desert. All treks are remote walking surveys, assisted by a team of 20 traditionally outfitted packcamels carrying your gear. This is a unique and authentic bu