David Neate

Just ONE WEEK to go until the Aussie Bird Count kicks off! 🐦

From 20–26 Oct, Australians everywhere will spend 20 mins counting the birds!

One in six Aussie birds faces extinction – which means every bird counts!

👉 aussiebirdcount.org.au
#AussieBirdCount #BirdLifeAustralia #BirdLifeOz

A superb example of the value of ongoing, regular water testing as part of a #CitizenScience program, in establishing links between monitoring water quality, calling out pollution and protecting biodiversity. #Landcare #platypus

This is not just the appearance of conflict of interest, it is corruption of democracy pure and simple.

Gee, if only those First Nations people had thought of having a Voice to Parliament via a “Sports Club”.

Azaleas in bloom, October, Ballarat Botanical Gardens.

And more azaleas..

Azaleas close up

One of the busts in the Prime Ministers Avenue, Ballarat Botanical Gardens - this is Gough Whitlam.

The #Azaleas beside the Prime Ministers Avenue at #Ballarat #botanical gardens are looking their best right now. Gough Whitlam looking sanguine amidst the colour.

Still voting for Team #SpottedPardalote - with a couple setting up home on our back verandah, I have to be in their team for #AustralianBirdOfTheYear.

So that's how the Australian Parliament rewards a Senator with integrity and the guts to let us know how compromised things can be there. Pitiful. @davidpocock.bsky.social , thank you for all you do.

If only we could go back in time and say "No, please don't" to those who introduced the fox to Australia. Our quiet nights where once there would have been the energetic presence of little marsupials is their legacy. All so some faux land barons could have something easier to chase than kangaroos.

A full two months after our jonquils heralded the close of winter, their cousins the hoop petticoat daffodils (Narcissus bulbocodium) are brightening a grey mid-spring day. So "my heart with pleasure fills", etc.

Now it's apple blossom time. Chiming away in the background is one of the crimson rosellas 🦜 that will be back in autumn to strip all the crab apples. Just have to enjoy the flowers, and the summer shade ahead.

3. The sad fact is every extinction under their mad rush to clear & mine habitats will have Watt's name, not the Opposition's, on it. And, lest he beat all the blame, our generation's shame will be in the stewardship we failed to enact while we could.
Ah well, off to do #Landcare stuff again...

2. I questioned the crazy decision to forfeit emu-wren habitat on Eyre Peninsula for rocket testing, of all things.
I think Labor are working on the 'Unicorse principle' ("Aaaand - whyshouldicare?") - that we fundamentally needn't care about the depleted ecology we leave to future generations. /3

While Murray Watt is the latest in a long line of incompetent protectors of the environment, from both sides of politics, he is just the buffoon in the hot seat. The @australianlabor.bsky.social party is 100% behind him - I had confirmation of this when I contacted my local member a while back. /2

The cover of the latest in the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman - "The Impossible Fortune".

Just finished my September buy: #TheImpossibleFortune by @richardosman1.bsky.social.
As ever, this #ThursdayMurderClub tale was superb. I loved Richard's wry insights into the human condition. From Ch. 46:
[Danny] "has what passes for pride in men who grew up with pride denied to them." #booksky

3. So in the end we had to walk outside, rain or shine, so that we couldn't break the law by our kids walking past a gaming room.
There are provisions & 'protections' like that all around the public face of the many forms of gaming. Whether the Vine Inn or the AFL, it's integral to their profits.

2. So we set off down the corridor to the restaurant, past the gaming room. "Oh no! You can't take children past there!" Well no, I replied, I don't wish to take the kids gambling - we're walking along this corridor to get to our meal. Panic stations; threats that the police would be called. /3

The normalisation of gambling runs deep.
Over 20 years ago, we were staying at the Vine Inn, Nuriootpa, South Australia, with our young family. The food at the Inn was great, & we were ready for dinner. In their wisdom, the proprietors had built a gaming room between the guest wing & restaurant. /2

Watch The Lives of Others Watch The Lives of Others for free with SBS On Demand, your ultimate destination for diverse entertainment. Stream now!

www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/mov...
Occasionally, you watch a movie that not only doesn't disappoint, but draws you in to imagine what the lives of the characters would feel like. Not finished yet!
#TheLivesofOthers is one such film. So fortunate to have it streaming on Australia's #SBS.

You said it, Ronni.

For a while, I've seen the role of the #ABC, in an age where the "big" sports are captured by commercial media, as being the chronicler of our smaller, but nevertheless more 'on-the-world-stage' successful, sports. Field #hockey is the most obvious. Many others, like #softball here, could be named.

Agreed! One of our photos of #TeamLab from last November.

Now, my esteemed @abcnewsbot.bsky.social , please go away & do some historical analysis. It'll be easier for you than me.
For instance, in Victoria, what was the effect on land values:
- the Latrobe Valley power stations were connected to the grid?
- Anglesea PS was connected to Alcoa Portland?

OzCLO – The Australian Computational & Linguistics Olympiad share.google/YzH0z3DyvPkH...
There are some great para-school programs out there for students who are curious & eager to stretch their thinking. I was lucky enough to manage my school's involvement in #OzCLO. Much quirky, mind-opening fun.

The gentle sunlight of a #spring day filters through wattle blossom and new leaves on the crab apple - soon to be in flower. My favourite spot for the Birdlife Australia #AussieBirdCount later this month. Trees are already full of chirping. #Ballarat

In the background he's painted for #Costa's portrait, artist Rob McHaffie has captured perfectly Costa's and #GardeningAustralia 's support for Landcare and greater environmental understanding. And it's a great pic of Costa too.

Loads of them here - #Floriade, #Canberra, on a glorious spring day with the floral displays at their peak and a superbly creative juggler entertaining us.

#BREAKING | Greta Thunberg: “I'm not scared of Israel. I’m scared of a world that has seemingly lost all sense of humanity.”

Congratulations to a most worthy recipient. Tony Rinaudo's book #TheForestUnderground is a marvellous record of a man of faith, perception & determination, and of the tremendous good that's been done around the world as a result. @worldvision.bsky.social

Old-fashioned economic thinking is driving biodiversity loss—study calls for shift in how we value nature Old-fashioned economic thinking is driving biodiversity loss, according to a new international study led by Aberystwyth University academics, which calls for a fundamental shift in how nature is value...

Old-fashioned economic thinking is driving biodiversity loss—study calls for shift in how we value nature phys.org/news/2025-09... via @physorg_com

YouTube video by firstdog onthemoon Boreholes!

It's the return of First Dog on the Moon's Spoken Cartoons. Testing to see if it works... youtu.be/XCTyvpAvsG8

As ever, @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social , your written narrative here speaks truth to the ruthlessly powerful. Reading it to us with such deliberation focussed me on the truth even more. Brilliant. Shame that #CoalAustralia aren't here on Bluesky...