Kevin and Ros O’Bryan admit they knew next to nothing about poultry farming when they bought Australia’s oldest game bird farm more than 15 years ago. It was supposed to be semi-retirement…
“We saw it when it was quite run down… We weren’t going to make a big, commercial entity out of it. We had retired from running the news agency in town for 17 years and just wanted a vegie garden, an orchard and a dog, you know,” says Kevin.
A rare and elusive native rock-rat, re-discovered near Mt Sonder in Central Australia’s West MacDonnell National Park 12 months ago, has thrilled researchers by popping its head up again in a different location.
The team has just found another breeding population of the endangered Central Rock-rat (Zyzomys pendunculatus), this time on nearby Mt Giles. It’s a significant and exciting discovery of an endearing little creature that is now only found in the MacDonnell Ranges.
The oldest sign of life on earth has recently been discovered in Western Australia’s Pilbara region – a scientific breakthrough which actually changes the perception of how we came to be…. or at least pushes the story back by 300 million years.
Strelley Pool, a remote region of the Pilbara around 60 kilometres west of Marble Bar, is the scene of this unique discovery. While the earth has been around for about 4.5 billion years, 3.4-billion-year-old rocks at Strelley Pool are home to the oldest and most well preserved microfossils ever to be found on Earth.
It’s the muster that put the town on the map. Thirteen years ago, when 2,839 utes created an official Guinness World Record at a community sporting reserve in a quiet, agricultural town in New South Wales’ Riverina, local mayor Brian Mitsch says any mention of ‘Deniliquin’ to those outside the district was usually answered with a puzzled expression or a vacant nod.
She’s famous for the stunning and creative baby pictures that first circulated in the 1990s, but never before has Anne Geddes been attached to wool – not professionally that is…
But here it is, the Woolmark Company and famed photographer Geddes, have joined forces to highlight the health benefits of Merino wool for babies - from baby wear through to swaddles and blankets.
And just look at the results...
Staff at the Alice Springs Desert Park have been celebrating a rare and exciting success – two babies born to the first pair of Dusky Grasswrens ever known to have been kept in captivity.
Specialist bird keeper Lisa Harris says staff worked hard to create the right breeding environment after the park acquired the two adult grasswrens two years ago.
Hold onto your hat! The latest research from CSIRO scientists shows the average speed of wind in Australia is increasing – and there’s hope the findings can benefit the country’s growing wind energy sector.
Detailed wind mapping and analysis of long-term wind speed trends in Australia have helped scientists understand the causes of wind speed variations. Research leader, Dr Albertso Troccoli says they’ve gathered a “good picture” of wind energy available across Australia and, with the growth of wind farms, there is now an emerging need to understand how climate change can affect the resource of wind.
Derby, on the Western Australian north coast is being tipped as the next boom town for real estate investment.
With a median house price of $400,000 and an annual growth rate of 11.11 per cent, the magazine “Your Investment Property,” is tipping the remote mining town as the next big thing.
Part II of Love in the grotto of the red hot mineral collector
The Albert Kersten museum in Broken Hill houses some amazing specimens, including a few international super stars who’ve been photographed for magazines the world over, and others who’ve been loaned for display at the biggest and most prestigious mineral shows across Europe and the US.
THEY’RE BACK– and that’s good reason for Arthur and Sheryl Keates to be excited!
Peering through their spotting scopes, they record ‘significant sightings’ among the thousands of shorebirds sharing the sand-spit with the resident seagulls on Darwin’s Lee Point Beach. One is a Great Knot sporting a black-and-white leg band.
“Now, this one’s been banded in Shanghai,” Arthur announces. “We get quite a few birds from Shanghai around here and it always gives me goose bumps just thinking about how far they travel. It’s spine-tingling stuff.”
