Check out what is in our new website.

Also find out what has been happening over the last few years. Cane toads have arrived.

We are now using iNaturalist to record and identify species.

Find out what we have been doing for the last few years.

It is the start of summer in 2022 so it is December. The goannas are out including the stunning bells phase. The bandicoots are very active. We caught on camera the short eared possum and a Melomys. What is a melomys?

Lots of plants are flowering including the egg and bacon, eijllow hakea and the vine Travellers Joy. The hatpins are out around the wetland.

This summer was the summer of floods. We had three floods with the biggest almost reaching the house.

The ground was already wet from record high summer rains. December and January delivered 404mm of rain here. The earth was saturated …

The floods started …

After a summer of rain it ended with the biggest flood we have ever seen.

See how the days unfolded as the big flood nearly entered the house.

This Letter from Istari includes a sighting of a dingo on our wildlife camera, how the dingo suddenly made an impact on our chickens which resulted in the construction of a dog proof chicken fence.

When we aren’t constructing new chicken runs we also attach the weeds and check on a koala who has been here for weeks.

Also check out what is flowering in January and our stunning photographs.

The rain finally began to fall in December. A little at first leading to great excitement when we had 8mm overnight. November only registered 9mm so 8mm in one day was really something to get excited about. The earth was dry after so little rain for so long.The rain finally began to fall in December. A little at first leading to great excitement when we had 8mm overnight. November only registered 9mm so 8mm in one day was really something to get excited about. The earth was dry after so little rain for so long.

Winter and the bush. Featuring our beautiful red-necked wallabies. A new joey pokes its head out of the pouch for the first time and the big bucks are fighting.

Magpies are active and we saw a koala.

The ground orchids are flowering and some of the grass trees are flowering.

Autumn is my favourite season. The days are clear and sunny with temperatures in the mid twenties. Everything is green after the summer rain. The streams are still running well. The wetland filled, overflowed and gradually diminished until it stranded thousands of fish and other water creatures.

The summer is almost over and it has rained. The fires have stopped. The days are almost constantly hot but unlike the later part of 2019, during the fires, the humidity is high now. A bit like a normal summer really.

It rained - a little. Enough to wet the dust.

Just nine millimetres for the month of September. August was just fourteen millimetres. At least it rained, I suppose. Two years ago it didn't rain for three months straight. Maybe that is when the dry really started here. Of course it had been dry over the range for a while by then, years in some places.

The creeks are dry except for a few shallow pools. We set up a sensor camera on one of these refuges and watched it disappear. The wildlife visiting this small waterhole was extraordinary. A great number of birds, a water dragon, giant water spider, many Red-necked Wallaby’s, a feral cat and feral pigs!

A few light frosts arrived in June and the grass died off. Then came the real frosts. It dropped below zero several days in a row, freezing the hose and leaving a layer of ice on the water bowls left out for the animals.

We had seen them around this area but didn't really know what they meant apart from the obvious. It wasn't until our local council, while searching for an endangered plant species in our area, put us in contact with The Clarence Environment Centre.

The Community Environment Network (CEN) and specifically in this region the Clarence Environment Centre (CEC) run the "Land for Wildlife" project. It aims to encourage and assist private landholders with nature conservation.

One of the many magic things about living in the bush is the wildlife. It is a privilege to have them so close and living their life in front of us.

The young forest is cool. The swamp turpentine and the flooded gums fight for the light forming a protective canopy. The forest ferns love the shade too, flourishing this close to the creek. The path winds through the trees following the creek.

Winters on the north coast of NSW are usually beautiful blue sky days and we have already had quite a few of them already.

Black swans arrive. Purple swamp hens are mating. Plumed whistling ducks fly in each morning and fly out at night. Red-necked wallaby mother and joey play. Echidnas are found and the beautiful five finger orchids are in bloom.

Goannas can jump! They are smart and learnt as we adapted our chicken pen to try to keep them out.

See how we stopped the goanna getting into the chook pen.

We had a visit from the plumed whistling ducks (dendrocygna eytoni) again but this time two adults we shepherding 13 ducklings. So wonderful. They hung around the pond and gave the little fluff balls their first swim. Later in the day they brought them up onto our front lawn seemingly on display to us.

Check out what the carpet snake has eaten lately. We have other snakes too.

It all begins with an idea.

Summer has arrived but thankfully the cicadas haven't started to 'sing' yet.

The crunchy grass is finally beginning to grow again after months of little rain. The wetland is still dry even though we've had several thunderstorms rumbling off the mountains to our west. The creeks are all flowing again but only just. We still need more rain. Summer is our rainy season so hopefully the storms will continue.