On Sunday the 12th March , at the Berowra Community and Cultural Facility (Berowra Community Centre) we held the Berowra Fauna Fair.
The Fair opened with a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony by Uncle Laurie a Traditional Owner in the local area.
The event was designed to engage all ages in experiencing our native wildlife and also to learn from experts in their field on 30 min talks ranging from fungi, spiders, koalas and platypus, marine life, birds, native bees and native orchids.
Over 350 people enjoyed the stalls featuring many organisations that work with our local flora and fauna. The greater Hornsby area is a native animal hot spot and home to some of Australia’s most iconic animals. Learning about these animals is a great step towards making sure they are still here for future generations to enjoy.
A big thank you to Uncle Laurie and all of our speakers:
- Vanessa McPherson and Michael Gillings, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University who spoke on Fungi.
- Wendy Grimm from the Australian Native Plant Society on Native Orchids.
- Jenny Sistrom from Sydney Wildlife Rescue on The Benefits of Wildlife in our Gardens.
- Dr Helen Smith from Australia Museum on The Secret Life of Spiders.
- Judy Harrington from Birdlife Australia on our local threatened species the Glossies and Powerful Owls as well as some of the other local birds people can see in their backyards or surrounding bushland.
- Sue Martin and Pat Schwartz from CHEN and Glenorie Environment Centre and Hills – Hornsby Rural Koala Project on detecting Platypus and Koalas in the local area.
- David Booth and Gigi Beretta, Marine Ecologists from UTS on Sydney as a major hub of marine biodiversity but also a hotspot for climate change. They discussed their work in Sydney on seadragons, seahorses, invading tropical fishes and new subtropical coral beds off Sydney
- Abbie from Kids Connecting Nature on our local native bee species and who also ran a workshop on how to make bee hotels that work.
We were also very fortunate to have many fabulous organisations contribute their local wildlife including:
- Frog and Tadpole Study Group (FATS) who brought the threatened Green and Golden Bell Frog and a Cane Toad.
- The Australian Walkabout Wildlife Park and and Sydney Bats were a hit with echidnas, blue tongue lizards and the threatened Flying Fox.
- Jabiru Wildlife who gave a fascinating demonstration of local snakes, including the red-bellied black, the Brown Snake and many others with lots of tips on safety around snakes.
- Australian Environmental Education and Nature Know Australia brought us live insect and other Mini beasts.
- Australian Wildlife Displays who brought a ringtail possum, Tawny Frogmouth, Bluetongue Lizard, Green Tree Frog, Diamond Python, Lace Monitor and Long-necked Turtle.
Other stalls included:
- Australian Native Plant Society
- Berowra Garden Club
- Apex BBQ
- Friends of Berowra Valley and their fabulous hollow tree
- Nature Conservation Council
- Birdlife Australia
- Sydney Wildlife Rescue
- Hornsby Shire Council Bushcare
- Cattai-Hills Environment Network (CHEN) & Glenorie Environment Centre
A very special thanks to Hornsby Shire Council for the community event grant that made the fair so much easier to run and Apex for contributing their entire takings on the day. Also to all of the members of Friends of Berowra Valley who contributed their time and effort in organising and running this community event.