Just Ecology

Environmental law is meant to protect nature—but how well does it actually work?

In this episode, I sit down with Brendan Sydes to unpack the realities behind the legal frameworks shaping conservation in Australia. Brendan is an environmental lawyer and policy expert with decades of experience across the sector. He is currently with the Australian Conservation Foundation, where he works on environmental advocacy and legal reform, and has previously held senior roles with the Environmental Defenders Office. He is also President of Connecting Country and Chair of the Biolinks Alliance, bringing a strong focus on community-led conservation and landscape-scale restoration.

We trace the evolution of environmental law over the past century—from its early focus on resource use to the rise of threatened species protections and national parks from the 1970s onwards. We dig into the limitations of the current system, including how legal frameworks can sometimes enable development rather than prevent it, and the uncomfortable reality that it’s often the community trying to protect nature from government.

Brendan also walks us through the proposed reforms to the national EPBC Act—changes that have been on the table for years but remain largely unimplemented.

A key theme throughout the conversation is that laws, on their own, don’t protect the environment—they create the framework. Their effectiveness ultimately depends on how governments apply and enforce them - and how communities hold them to account.

I hope this podcast is useful for anyone who is trying to protect their local patch.

In this episode, I sit down with Frances Cincotta to talk about growing locally indigenous plants. Frances founded the Newstead Natives nursery in central Victoria in 1999 and has spent decades immersed in the ecology and restoration of the Box–Ironbark region.

We trace the evolution of gardening in Australia—from its European roots in English cottage traditions to a growing recognition of the value and beauty of native species—and what that shift means for how we relate to the landscapes around us.

Frances shares the depth of ecological knowledge behind successful indigenous plant propagation: understanding where species occur in the wild, when seed is ready and how to sow it. We also talk about the value of indigenous gardens as habitat for native wildlife - and how they bring ecology right to our back doorstep. Frances’ knowledge is remarkable, and this is one for anyone interested in plants, restoration or simply seeing their local bushland in a new way.

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In this episode I speak with ecologist and musician Sean McConnell, who also performs his song Baarka Ballad, written about the plight of the Baarka (Darling River).

We talk about Sean’s experiences growing up in the Riverina through cycles of drought and flood, and the extraordinary biodiversity of the region’s floodplain forests and wetlands. We discuss the evidence of Barapa villages across the floodplain, documented in Koondrook State Forest on the NSW side of the river, including extensive pond systems that were used to harvest fish.

Our conversation reflects on the profound changes that have occurred since colonisation: river regulation, widespread land clearing, the early land grabs by squatters and selectors and the short-lived economic booms that were so often accompanied by long-term environmental degradation.

Sean shares what inspired him to write Baarka Ballad: the heartbreaking mass fish kill on the Baarka in 2021, the remarkable voyage of Tuesday Browell down the river in an Egyptian-style handmade wooden boat to draw attention to its plight and the ongoing illegal extraction of water across the Murray–Darling Basin.

Finally, we talk about the power of music to help us process and transmute feelings of helplessness in the face of ongoing environmental destruction, and how the ancient practice of singing to Country has long been part of maintaining life and relationship.

A research paper on Barapa villages and constructed ponds can be found here.

Listen to some of Sean's music here. 

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Many listeners would be familiar with the highly skilled use of fire to manage vegetation that has been practiced by First Nations peoples of Australia for thousands of years. What surprised me was learning that my own ancestors were also using fire to shape parts of the landscape across what is now the United Kingdom — in some places for more than five thousand years. Curious about this long history, I reached out to one of the leading authorities on the subject – Matt Davies.

Matt is a leading expert in fire ecology and land management, currently serving as the Director of Agriculture for the Falkland Islands Government. He is internationally recognized for his extensive research on muirburn—the traditional Scottish practice of managed heather burning—— and on the complex relationships between fire, biodiversity and carbon in these landscapes.

In this conversation we explore the long history of fire use across parts of the U.K., stretching back to the end of the last Ice Age. We discuss how the combined influences of burning, grazing and clearing helped shape the distinctive heather moorlands we see today.

Matt explains what these heather ecosystems look like, how burning practices changed during the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, and how fire became central to the management of grouse shooting estates. We also explore the contemporary debate about whether burning should now be phased out to encourage forest expansion, or whether more nuanced approaches might recognise the ecological and cultural value of these long-managed landscapes.

Some of Matt's research can be found here: Moorland Burning Research and here: https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=CslCJjcAAAAJ&hl=th

For comments, feedback or requests for future content on Just Ecology, please email [email protected]

In this episode I sat down with botanist and ecologist Kate Bennetts to explore the floodplain forests and wetlands of the Riverina. With more than two decades of experience at the forefront of wetland restoration, Kate brings deep insight into how water — and the loss of it — shapes these great riverine landscapes. As Principal of Fire, Flood & Flora, she has dedicated her career to understanding how these ecosystems function, decline and recover.

We begin by exploring what makes floodplain forests and wetlands so ecologically rich and distinctive. From there, the conversation turns to the profound changes these landscapes have undergone — the displacement of First Peoples, widespread tree clearing and the alteration of natural flooding regimes.

Kate explains how environmental water allocations work in practice, and why carefully timed flows are critical to sustaining River Red Gum forests and the diverse wetland plant communities beneath them. We also delve into history, reflecting on observations from the 1850s Blandowski Expedition, and discuss recent research Kate has been involved in examining the allelopathic effects of Red Gum leaf litter on wetland vegetation.

The episode finishes with a discussion about Kate’s on-ground restoration — including collaborative work with Traditional Owners — and what it will take to ensure these floodplain ecosystems remain resilient in a drying and highly regulated river system.

If you have time before the 1st of May 2026, please make a submission for the updated Murray Darling Basin Plan, calling for more environmental water for our rivers wetlands: https://getinvolved.mdba.gov.au/2026basinplanreview

Links to the 1970's research on the allelopathic effect of Red Gum leaves can be found here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2424020

Links to the the recent research on the allelopathic effect of Red Gum leaves that we discussed can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emr.70031?af=R

Some of the books mentioned in the podcast:

Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Life by William Blandowski

The Victorian Bush: its Original and Natural Condition by Ron Hateley