Finding Melbourne's Nature

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Neil Blake OAM has spent decades noticing and protecting nature in Melbourne’s urban landscape.
We walk along Darebin Creek in Reservoir, a place Neil knows incredibly well. He’s the Port Phillip Baykeeper, founding director of the Port Phillip EcoCentre and, in his own words, a “Tawny Tragic”.
As we search for Tawny Frogmouths along the creek, Neil shares his journey from growing up beside the Murray River to becoming a St Kilda park ranger and a lifelong advocate for urban waterways and wildlife. We talk about citizen science, Little Penguins, microplastics, Imperial Blue Butterflies, the importance of communication in conservation, and why building relationships can be as important as the science itself. 
Neil has also used music throughout his life to connect people with environmental issues. And at the end of the episode, you’ll hear a song written and performed by Neil beside Darebin Creek, with the creek itself as his backing band.

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Some of us have a relationship with Mullum Mullum Park without even realising it. If you’ve travelled through the EastLink tunnels, you’ve passed beneath this patch of bushland in Melbourne’s east.
Above the tunnels is a whole world that’s easy to miss. Forests and creek lines are home to an incredible diversity of wildlife, including the threatened Southern Toadlet.
I walk through Mullum Mullum with ecologist and herpetologist David De Angelis, President of Frogs Victoria. We talk about the fight to protect the Mullum Mullum Valley, the decline of Southern Toadlets around Melbourne, chytrid fungus, burrowing crayfish, and the reptiles and frogs that David has spent much of his life studying. Along the way, an unexpected encounter with a Tiger Snake takes the conversation in a slightly different direction.

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Southern Brown Bandicoots were once among the most common and widespread mammals around Melbourne. Today their populations are much more fragmented, making the population at Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne especially important.
For this episode, I walk through the gardens with Eilish Roberts, Southern Brown Bandicoot Outreach Officer at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
We talk about what bandicoots need to thrive, why Cranbourne has become such an important stronghold for them, and what it will take for them to persist in Melbourne’s growing suburban landscape. Eilish also explains why bandicoots are such important ecosystem engineers, turning over huge amounts of soil, spreading fungi and seeds, and helping create healthier conditions for plants and other wildlife.
Eilish cares deeply about bandicoots, and her work with communities is helping people understand the importance of this endangered native mammal.
The bandicoots at Cranbourne are a great example of what conservation around Melbourne can look like, and what it will take to keep threatened species as part of our suburbs into the future.

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Gidja Walker OAM has spent more than four decades helping people understand and care for the Mornington Peninsula. An ecologist, ethnobotanist and artist, she has an extraordinary ability to see the connections between geology, plants, animals, water, history and culture.
In this episode, we spend time with Gidja on the southern Nepean Peninsula, exploring the Coastal Moonah Wodlands and Calcareous Swales that make this part of Melbourne so distinctive.
Our conversation moves through ancient Moonah, fungi and orchids, lost fauna, the wildlife living in Gidja’s own garden, and the importance of protecting the remnants of vegetation that have survived around us. Along the way, Gidja reflects on a lifetime spent observing, learning and working to protect the natural world.

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Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area is a fascinating place. Covering around 600 hectares of forest, swamps and winding creek lines in the Yarra Valley, it is home to two critically endangered species: the Helmeted Honeyeater and the lowland population of Leadbeater’s Possum.
In this episode, I join senior ornithologist Bruce Quin on his rounds through Yellingbo, walking between supplementary feeding stations and encountering Helmeted Honeyeaters along the way.
Bruce has spent more than 33 years working with the Helmeted Honeyeater and has become one of the people most closely associated with its recovery. At its lowest points, the wild population fell to just 60 birds. Today, there are around 230 Helmeted Honeyeaters living in the wild across three populations. 
Their story is a remarkable example of what it takes to bring a species back from the brink of extinction. Habitat restoration, supplementary feeding, captive breeding, genetic rescue, monitoring and the work of many organisations and people have all played a part. 
As we walk, Bruce shares some of the extraordinary knowledge he has built over more than three decades with these birds. It’s a story not only about the Helmeted Honeyeater, but about what we can learn from its recovery and how that knowledge can help us care for threatened species into the future.
Finding Melbourne’s Nature is a series of walking conversations through reserves around Melbourne.