• New frog species gives hope for the future

    Open Forum     |      May 7, 2022

    In an age when many frogs and other amphibians are facing extinction due to habitat loss, disease and climate change, the discovery of a new frog species in a national park on the border of Queensland and New South Wales gives hope that all is not lost for the future.

  • Australia faces an avalanche of extinctions

    Open Forum     |      April 25, 2022

    A new report lays out a range of ways an incoming government can act to avert the threat of mass extinctions facing Australia’s unique wildlife.

  • The return of the platypus

    Open Forum     |      April 19, 2022

    Recent surveys have found no sign of the duck billed platypus in the Royal National Park south of Sydney, but environmentalists are optimistic the iconic animal can be successfully reintroduced.

  • Sixth sense

    Alan Stevenson     |      April 18, 2022

    Neither Labor or the Coalition are keen to discuss the parlous state of Australia’s environment and existential threat of climate change in the current election campaign, but the issue remains of the utmost importance for the future of this country and the world.

  • Australia’s yellow crazy antagonist

    Open Forum     |      March 30, 2022

    In a setback to Australia’s iconic Wet Tropic World Heritage Area, the federal budget has failed to explicitly fund the successful yellow crazy ant control program run by the Wet Tropics Management Authority in Cairns.

  • Walking on water

    Open Forum     |      March 22, 2022

    From the Murray-Darling system to Great Artesian Basin, ‘invisible’ underground groundwater is often the only available water supply but its over-exploitation is threatening the future of this vital resource.

  • Improving urban wetlands

    Open Forum     |      March 22, 2022

    Today is World Water Day, an appropriate time to note new studies at Flinders University into removing toxins from polluted waterways and improving infiltration at urban wetlands.

  • Native life returns to NSW’s ‘wild deserts’

    Sherry Landow     |      February 28, 2022

    Three native mammal species – bilbies, crest-tailed mulgaras and Shark Bay bandicoots – are booming since their recent reintroduction to Sturt National Park in the far-west NSW outback.

  • The mysterious case of the sea scorpion

    Open Forum     |      February 19, 2022

    A fossil ‘cold case’ in Queensland Museum’s geosciences collection has led to the description of a new species of sea scorpion, and the first of its kind in the state.

  • Watching the river flow back

    Open Forum     |      February 10, 2022

    Even after they have closed mines still leak poisoned water into the environment, but the Wollangambe River in the Blue Mountains is an encouraging example that a clean-up is possible in even the most polluted environments.

  • The mystery of the megamountains

    Open Forum     |      February 6, 2022

    Giant mountain ranges at least as high as the Himalayas and stretching up to 8,000 kilometres across entire supercontinents played a crucial role in the evolution of early life on Earth, according to a new study by researchers at The Australian National University.

  • In search of the buff-breasted button-quail

    101magnum007     |      February 5, 2022

    The last known buff-breasted button-quail was shot by a collector in humid savanna on Cape York Peninsula a hundred years ago, but there are hopes the species may still survive in remaining pockets of its habitat.