Fire, frogs, the river and butterbees. A fun day of environmental exploration, education and entertainment at our Riversdale property.
Speakers, guided walks, creative science activities. Celebrate the rewilding of the Stuttering Frog, learn about Indigenous cultural burning practices and get stuck into some art activities with the kids.
It’s also Bundanon Open day. Why not have a tour of the Bundanon Homestead and Arthur’s studio before or after you have joined in the fun at Riversdale?
Download the event program and plan your day.
WALKS
Stuttering Frog Creek WalkLocal scientist and ecologist Gary Daly, co-author of the 1996 Bundanon Flora and Fauna Survey, will lead you on a walk and talk to the Riversdale creek to experience first hand the Stuttering Frog Rehabilitation Project and the work of Bundanon Trust and Shoalhaven Landcare.
Burrawang Walk: Spotted Gums and Creek Circuit
Explore Riversdale’s diverse flora with Kevin Mills, well known local botanist and Chair on the NPWS South Coast Regional Advisory Committee together with NPWS’s Valda Corrigan along our newly established Burrawang track.
Bug Catching Walk & Talk: Capture, observe and release
Megan Halcroft will take you on an adventure through the Riversdale bushland in search of critters above, around and underfoot. Watch your step and be ready to capture, observe and then release our busy and productive friends back into the wild. Glass jars will be available for the walk and talk session.
Megan will be available throughout the day to answer all your questions on the busy bugs that live in our yards and the wider environment. Learn about the work they do to support our diverse eco system and how we can encourage and protect them.
Reading Country Walk
Uncle Vic Steffensen and Oli Costello will connect you back to country leading you through the Riversdale landscape. Traditional fire practitioners, Uncle Vic and Oli will share their extensive knowledge and experience shaped by stories handed down by elders. Reading the country is the key to understanding the land and understanding how to look after it.
Shoalhaven Sand Sausage Walk & Talk
Bundanon Trust’s Natural Resource Manager, Michael Andrews will take you down to our beautiful River during low tide and explain the importance of the sand sausage in battling bank erosion and the impact the work of Riverwatch and Shoalhaven Landcare have had on stabilising the riverbank and protecting fish habitat and riparian vegetation.
TALKS
Listen to talks from experts in natural resource management, conservation and ecology.
Talks will commence at 12.45pm in the Boyd Education Centre.
Stuttering Frog Rewilding
Garry Daly, Ecologist, Shoalhaven Landcre Association
The Stuttering Frog was wiped out in south eastern NSW by the highly infectious Chytrid Fungus, an introduced disease which has decimated populations of Australian amphibians over the past two decades.
To establish disease free populations, chytrid-free individuals will be released at Bundanon Trust’s Riversdale property and a private property along the Cambewarra Range.
Ecologist, Garry Daly has a wealth of experience in population dynamics and habitat management. Garry is leading the project to once again see Stuttering Frog in its natural habitat.
Sharks, The Shoalhaven and Social Media
Dr Michel Mehmet, Lecturer – Faculty of Business, Justice and Behaviourl Science Charles Sturt University
Dr Michael Mehmet specialises in social media marketing and public relations. Michael has been exploring how human-animal co-existence has been communicated and organized in a digital space. Michael is particularly interested in the way social media posts organise meanings and how communities interact through online discussion, particularly those with contradictory views. His work on the sharks of the Shoalhaven gives those species a voice.
The Good Fire: Firesticks and Cultural Burning
Uncle Vic Steffensen, Director – Mulong and Oli Costello, Mudjingaabarge Firesticks
Uncle Vic is an indigenous film maker, musician, and consultant reapplying traditional knowledge into the changing world and today’s society. He has been interested in traditional knowledge since he was a boy. He was inspired by his mother and grandmother’s heritage, the Tagalaka people of Northern Queensland, and their struggles of losing family through the stolen generation years. His work started in 1995 when he realised the urgent need to record the invaluable wisdom of the Elders before it was lost. Through cultural buring practices and the work of Firesticks, Uncle Vic and Oli Costello aim to help improve the health and culture of their areas and for communities abroad.
Uncle Vic and Oli will be leading Bundanon Trust in cultural burning practices to reinvigorate and assist in the management of the Bundanon properties.
There will be a 15 minute question time at the conclusion of the talks lead by Michael Andrews.
ACTIVITIES AND WORKSHOPS
PRINT MAKING
Bundanon’s education team will lead frog and butterfly inspired print making art workshops for all to get involved in.
FROG CHORUS PERCUSSION & PERFORMANCE
Composer Alexis Weaver will lead a series of percussion and live sound making workshops throughout the day. Come and learn to play natural found instruments and join the cacophony of frog chirps and croaks of Alexis’s Frog Chorus soundscape in an interactive performance.
BEE AND BUG HOTELS
Learn how to build bee and insect hotels with Megan Halcroft from simple designs to the more complex using a range of materials.
SOUTHERN BASS FISH FINDER AND FLY TYING
Our friends from the Southern Bass Club have researched the fish in the Shoalhaven River and work to promote the sustainability of the Southern Bass species. Look in the fish tank and have a chat with the club members to find out about their catch and release monitoring program. Try your hand at fly tying with the club members as they demonstrate how it’s done.
SOUNDSCAPES
Frog Chorus by Alexis Weaver
Frog Chorus celebrates the wonderful diversity of Australia’s wildlife and our own backyards through exploring the sounds of native frog calls. Originally devised for the Australian Museum’s Culture Up Late program, using the collection of frog calls submitted through the Frog ID database and app, Alexis has re-composed the piece layering Bundanon specific frog calls, nature sounds and pulsating beats to highlight the importance of frogs and encourage a renewed wonder in our native wildlife. Sit and immerse yourself in the sound-world or join in and contribute with natural materials in one of the interactive workshop performances throughout the day.
Alexis Weaver is an electroacoustic composer based in Sydney, Australia. She fuses her traditional musical education with the ever-expanding area of music technology to evoke new sensations from once-familiar sounds. She has composed soundtracks for animation, short stories, radio, and 2016 Sydney Fringe Festival theatre piece, Tammy and Kite. Her acousmatic and radiophonic works have been broadcast overseas in France and Scotland, most recently in the 2017 edition of Glasgow’s Radiophrenia festival. Alexis was awarded First Place and People’s Choice Award in the 2016 and 2015 University of Sydney Verge Awards respectively for her acousmatic works, and was recently featured on Electroacoustic and Beyond Vol II, from London music production company RMN Classical. Alexis graduated from a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 2017 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and commences her Master of Music in 2018.
Frog Knot by Keith Barker
Frog Knot delves into the music produced by a collective of frogs – a “knot”. This soundscape of local frogs collected from field recordings cross the Shoalhaven region will be played throughout the day in the Boyd Education Centre forecourt creating a background soundtrack to your event experience.
Keith is a Nowra based musician and composer working with acoustic and electric instruments, found sounds and atmospherics. He is interested in using field recordings to capture the sounds of our environment so as to incorporate them into music and soundscapes.
FOOD & DRINK
RABBIT & CO – POP UP CAFE
Savoury
Spinach & Feta Pie – $7
Persian Picnic Plate: Trio of dips (Hummus, carrot & beetroot), haloumi, fattoush, nuts and warm pita – $12
Sumac lamb pita pockets w/ mint yoghurt – $12
Sweet – $6
Lemon Drizzle Raspberry Birthday Cake
Chocolate pistachio friands
Drink – $4
Pink Lemonade
SHAKY HANDS COFFEE
Serving a selection of delicious Hyper Hyper coffee, hot chocolate and tea.
DRINKING WATER
A reminder that Bundanon Trust does not sell bottled water. Please bring a re-usable water bottle with you to all our events.
Bring your favourite from home, grab one of our 100% compostable bio-cups or buy a stainless steel bottle as a keepsake.There will be water stations across the site for refills.
Plastic water bottles, unlike natural materials, don’t break down. Instead, they disintegrate into tinier and tinier plastic pieces, polluting our rivers and oceans, threatening vulnerable wildlife, and making their way up the food chain and onto our plates.
We appreciate your support in protecting the environment.
