Monthly Meetings

Monthly Meeting and AGM:  Friday 10th March, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St

Annual General Meeting: The 2023 AGM will be held before the usual monthly meeting observations and talk.  The AGM agenda will include the Annual Report for 2022, the Treasurer’s Report, and the election of office bearers and committee members for 2023. All positions on the committee will be open, so you are encouraged to consider […]

Monthly Meeting and AGM:  Friday 10th March, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St Read More »

Speaker: John Lewis “The Southern Australian Marine Flora – Diversity and Change”

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 10th February, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St

Rescheduled from last October when floods prevented our speaker travelling here. Learn how to look after this unique and rare plant found only in our backyard. Georgie Custance, an ecologist from the Threatened Species Conservancy (TSC), will talk about a locally endemic plant, the Fryerstown Grevillea (Grevillea obtecta). Although locally common in small areas, it

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 10th February, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St Read More »

Speaker: Georgie Custance “Monitoring Fryerstown Grevillea, a threatened species in our region”

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 9th December, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St

Your turn! A chance for you to share your interesting nature sightings and stories from the year. You can show photos, a video or a short power-point presentation, recite a poem or sing a song. An informal but informative and entertaining evening. Please email your photos to Euan Moore at calamanthus5@bigpond.com by noon on the

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 9th December, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St Read More »

Members Night!

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 11th November, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Chapel (note change of room for this month), Lyttleton St

Mycobacterium ulcerans is a bacterium causing ulcerative skin disease (Buruli ulcer) in humans and animals, mainly in tropical regions, particularly in West Africa. However, the organism was first isolated and described in Gippsland, Victoria, and became known here as Bairnsdale ulcer. Clinical disease continues to occur in some coastal regions as far west as Barwon

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 11th November, 7.30 pm, Uniting Church Chapel (note change of room for this month), Lyttleton St Read More »

Speaker: Dr Christina McCowan (University of Melbourne) “Mycobacterium ulcerans (Buruli ulcer) in our native mammals in the wild”

CANCELLED: Monthly Meeting:  Friday 14th October, 7.30 pm – Georgie Custance “Monitoring Fryerstown Grevillea, a threatened species in our region”

Sadly due to flooding and road closures we have had to cancel tonight’s meeting and Saturday’s excursion. We plan to reschedule these important events in the new year.

CANCELLED: Monthly Meeting:  Friday 14th October, 7.30 pm – Georgie Custance “Monitoring Fryerstown Grevillea, a threatened species in our region” Read More »

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 9th September, 7.30 pm Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St

Deakin University’s Powerful Owl Research Team have been involved with Powerful Owls for over 20 years. At the core, the research aims to understand how increased urbanisation and landscape modification impacts this threatened apex predator, whilst also identifying solutions that can contribute to the conservation of the species. PhD student Nick Carter will describe how

Monthly Meeting:  Friday 9th September, 7.30 pm Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St Read More »

Speaker: Nicholas Carter (Deakin University) “Powerful Owl Ecology – comparison of rural and forested environments”

Monthly Meeting: Friday 12 August, 7.30pm by Zoom

Speaker: Tanya Loos, Nature writer and science communicator  “Window strike: when birds hit windows” Combined meeting with Birdlife Castlemaine District Window strike is a huge problem for common birds – as well as threatened species such as the Swift Parrot and Powerful Owl.  Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of a thud or even a crash

Monthly Meeting: Friday 12 August, 7.30pm by Zoom Read More »

8th July, 7:30 by Zoom – The Old-growth Moss Forests of Antarctica – Dr Melinda Waterman

Because it contains the best moss beds on continental Antarctica, Casey Station is dubbed the ‘Daintree of the Antarctic’.  Individual plants have been growing here for at least 100 years, fertilised by ancient penguin poo. But our new research shows that these slow-growing plants are changing at a far faster rate than anticipated.  The healthy green

8th July, 7:30 by Zoom – The Old-growth Moss Forests of Antarctica – Dr Melinda Waterman Read More »

The lush moss beds that grow near East Antarctica’s coast are among the only plants that can withstand life on the frozen continent.

Monthly Meeting: Friday 10th June, 7:30pm via Zoom 

Understanding the behaviours of native and introduced bees How do we ask a bee a question? Can you train a bee? What types of tasks can they solve? Can they acquire concepts? What is the limit of intelligence in a miniature brain? Scarlett will answer these questions and more using examples from the European honeybee

Monthly Meeting: Friday 10th June, 7:30pm via Zoom  Read More »

Dr Scarlett Howard, Monash University. What’s on a bee’s mind?

Monthly meeting: Friday 13 May, 7.30pm
Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton Street

Peter will talk about the emerging problem of feral deer in Victoria. The talk will discuss the identification and distribution of the 4 main feral deer species in Victoria, the economic, social and environmental impacts they are having, and the cost to the community. Peter will also present on Victoria’s laws that protect feral deer

Monthly meeting: Friday 13 May, 7.30pm
Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton Street
Read More »

Peter Jacobs, Deer Project Officer for the Invasive Species Council, “Feral deer - managing and monitoring”