Monthly Meetings

Like many other kinds of animals worldwide, snakes in Australia are in trouble: many populations are declining. In order to reverse that trend, we need to understand why it’s happening and find evidence-based ways to conserve snake populations. In this talk, eminent researcher Professor Rick Shine describes research projects that have addressed that aim – […]

The June meeting will be the first of our 3 winter meetings by Zoom for 2026. Brown Brood Frogs have sadly experienced a significant population decline across Victoria, attributed to habitat loss, altered water flows and the deadly disease, chytrid fungus. It is also likely that changes in seasonal rainfall, driven by climate change, may

Bev Lewis is a local artist with particular expertise in natural history illustration. Bev says of her work: “Why do natural history art? Why not take a photo? My aim is to do with the human eye and pencils more than can be achieved with an electronic ‘eye’ and pixels. Direct connection between eye and

Lynda grew up with a passion for the natural world. She undertook studies in Applied Science with post-graduate studies in Environmental Science at Monash University. Lynda spent her career working within industry, always with the aim of trying to improve the environmental performance of the industries that support our demands. Only in retirement has she

The meeting will commence with the 2026 AGM. Meeting papers are available from the following links: All positions on the committee will be open, so you are strongly encouraged to consider joining and becoming more involved with the operations of the club. Members with a range of skills and interests are very welcome. For more

We are privileged to have local entomologist Patrick Kavanagh launch our new “Butterflies of the Mount Alexander Region” brochure at our February Monthly Meeting. Patrick has lived in a patch of box woodland at Strangways for 30 years. He uses macrophotography to discover the tiny invertebrate life that makes the local ecosystem work. Following the

A chance for you to share your interesting nature observations and stories from the year. Did you see some interesting wildlife behaviour? A new reptile for your property? What interests you will interest us! Email your photos of observations to Jill Williams (jilliwill33@gmail.com) by noon on the day of the meeting or, if you have

Uniting Church Chapel, Lyttleton St. With backgrounds in computer programming and a passion for recording bird observations, Richard and Margaret Alcorn developed the world’s first on-line bird atlassing system called Eremaea Birds, launched in 2003. This proved very successful and after 10 years it was merged with eBird, a global database managed by the Cornell

Drawing on a biography she is translating, club member Cathrine Harboe-Ree will talk about the extraordinary efforts the Norwegian field naturalist and polar explorer Johan Koren made to study fauna in north-eastern Siberia in the years 1909-1919. Koren survived shipwrecks and other maritime disasters, winters as cold as minus 65 Celsius, frostbite and isolation. He

Linden Ashcroft is an award-winning climate scientist and communicator from the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on historical climatology, using pre-1900 documents and weather observations to improve understanding of Australia’s past climate so we can better prepare for the future. The impact of human-induced climate change is