Citizen Science Show

What happens when a weatherman trades the studio for the bush? In this episode, Dani talks with Graham Creed – former ABC weather presenter and author of The Weatherman Goes Bush – about a life shaped by science, community, and a deep love of the natural world.

Graham shares the journey from watching Cyclone Tracy on the news as a nine-year-old in Melbourne, to twenty-one years as a broadcast meteorologist, to a tree change on a flower farm near Stroud, NSW. He talks proteas, platypus, and the unexpected flourishing of native bees after Varroa wiped out his thirteen honeybee hives.

But this episode is as much about community as it is about the land. Graham co-founded the Stroud Community River Care Group, working to restore Mill Creek in the Karuah River catchment – pulling invasive weeds, replanting riparian vegetation, detecting platypus with environmental DNA, and building an indigenous history walk in a town celebrating its 200th European anniversary.

He also takes us inside the world of weather modelling – from AI tools that predicted the 2025 Taree floods days ahead of every other model, to a CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology tool that can tell you what your local climate will feel like in 90 years. And in a town that broke a 135-year rainfall record in 2025 before swinging straight into drought, those tools feel more urgent than ever.

This is a story about observation, adaptation, and finding hope in the people quietly doing good work that rarely makes the news.

More Information
https://www.grahamcreed.com.au/about

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Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sydney's iconic White's seahorse is in trouble. Habitat loss has pushed this endemic species, found nowhere else on Earth onto Australia's endangered list.

But at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, marine scientist Mitch Brennan and his team are fighting back with one of the most charming solutions in conservation: the seahorse hotel.

In this episode, Mitch explains how these metal reef structures work, why male seahorses give birth, and how a three-pronged strategy of captive breeding, artificial habitat, and natural restoration is giving White's seahorses a fighting chance in Sydney Harbour.

He also shares how school kids are designing their own hotels, complete with rope disco balls, and how you can contribute sightings from your next dive to help monitor these incredible animals.

If you've ever wanted to check in to a seahorse hotel, this is the episode for you.

Get Involed
Sydney Seahorse Project: https://sims.org.au/research/flagship-programs/the-gamay-initiative/project2-4-5/
Project Humble School Group: https://projecthumble.com.au/
Hong Kong Seahorse Project: https://www.lcf.gov.hk/filemanager/content/conservation/RE-2024-07-ENG.pdf
Handfish Project: https://handfish.org.au/
NSW DPIRD logging: https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/species-protection/report-a-threatened-species-form

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.
It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if you could save a plant from extinction and have it flowering in your garden within eighteen months? In this episode, Dani sits down with Helen Howard, horticulturist and nursery manager at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens in NSW, to explore the remarkable world of plant grafting.

With over thirty years of experience and a career that spans Ireland, England, and across Australia, Helen has dedicated herself to grafting Australian native plants from grevilleas and brachychitons to rare species teetering on the edge of disappearance. She explains how grafting works, why it matters for conservation, and how backyard gardeners can try it themselves.

Along the way, we hear about Frankenstein trees, the mummy graft technique, near-extinct grevilleas brought back from the brink, and why hygiene is the one thing every grafter must never skip.

If you've ever wondered why native plants can be so expensive, why grafted citrus fruits grow so much better, or what it takes to actually save a species — this episode is for you.

🌷 Find Helen and the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens
🪷 Search "Botanic Gardens Heatherbrae"
🌼 Grafting workshops run every two months, limited to 6 participants.

More Information
https://www.huntergardens.org.au/
https://www.facebook.com/helen.howard.108152
https://austplants.com.au/
https://anpsa.org.au/study_group/grevillea-study-group/

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.
It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it actually take to save a whale? Not the twenty-second clip you see on the news — the full story, from the Sunday afternoon phone call through to the night run home in the dark, 22 kilometres south of where you started.

In this episode of the Citizen Science Show, host Sarah Han-de-Beaux sits down with Adam and Amelie from Forster Dive Centre on the NSW mid coast — a couple who have turned their dive shop into a community conservation hub, and who spend their days off responding to marine rescues, removing hooks from Grey Nurse Sharks, and teaching people that the ocean is worth protecting because they finally understand what's in it.

Amelie brings a marine biology background and a gift for translating science into something anyone can feel. Adam brings deep local knowledge, a boat, and a willingness to spend seven and a half hours on the water on Father's Day.

Together they share the full behind-the-scenes stories of:
🐋 The entangled humpback whale whose pod tail-slapped to show them where the line was and who breached at sunset after she was freed
🐋 The juvenile humpback stranded in the Wallis Lake system in just 60cm of water, which made the New York Times and needed two separate rescue operations over three days
🦈 Ten Grey Nurse Sharks rescued from fishing hooks over a single weekend
🤿 The 'Diving with Challenges' program and the diver who taught them that underwater, there is only one language

Plus: their top three tips for citizen scientists, their hopes for their kids' ocean, and the local motto that says it all. There's no hurry in Tuncurry.

🐬 To report a marine animal in distress: contact ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia)
🦈 To contribute to shark citizen science: Spot-A-Shark
🤿 To dive with Adam and Amelie: Forster Dive Centre, NSW mid coast

More Information
https://www.orrca.org.au/
https://seaworldfoundation.com.au/
https://spotashark.com/
https://ladyelliot.com.au/sustainability/project-manta/
https://www.forsterdivecentre.com.au/

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.
It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He was practically born in a nest. At just 22 years old, Ziggy Gow-Webb has spent his entire life surrounded by birds of prey at Raptor Refuge in Kettering, Tasmania — the facility his father, Craig Webb, built from the ground up over 26 years.

In this special short episode of the Citizen Science Show, host Dani Lloyd-Prichard sits down with Ziggy to hear his story: what it's like to grow up among eagles and owls, how raptors develop individual personalities, and what it feels like when a wild bird finally decides to trust you.

Ziggy also opens up about the refuge's 30–40% rehabilitation success rate, the reality of loss in wildlife care, and how every setback only strengthens his drive to return more birds to the wild.

And as a bonus, Ziggy reveals he's been living a double life. After just three months of posting social media videos about his daily work with raptors, he was approached to appear on The Floor Australia (Channel 9), a high-pressure game show where his expert category was nocturnal animals. Did he make it to the grand final? You'll have to tune in to find out.

This episode pairs beautifully with Episode #170, featuring Craig Webbn, the father behind the refuge, and together they tell a remarkable story of a family devoted to protecting Tasmania's most powerful birds.

🦅 To support Raptor Refuge: become a member or book a private tour at raptorrefuge.com.au
📞 Report a dead or injured raptor anywhere in Tasmania: 1800 RAPTOR
📱 Follow Ziggy's raptor videos on social media and keep an eye out for him on The Floor Australia, Channel 9.

More Information
https://raptorrefuge.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/raptorrefuge
https://www.youtube.com/c/RaptorRefuge
https://www.instagram.com/raptor_refuge/

If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts.
Leave us a review and share this show with your friends.
It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you.

Contact the Show
We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events.
You can email us at: info@citizenscienceshow.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.