Meeting the Warrnambool Field Naturalists Club
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of giving a talk to the Warrnambool Field Naturalists Club. They were interested in hearing about Nature Glenelg Trust after a reference by a previous speaker, some weeks beforehand. When you consider that the club was established in 1958, we are very much a new kid on the block and making these links with such well-established groups is an important part of our development as an NGO in the region.
It was a great opportunity to talk about what we do and also discuss some of our achievements, particularly in relation to wetland restoration. It was also very reassuring to have such a wealth of expertise express their enthusiasm for what we are achieving. After all, the club has made a number of very significant contributions to conserving and improving sites such as Tower Hill, Goose Lagoon, Lake Pertobe, Deen Maar at Yambuk and the Framlingham forest, not to mention their extensive, collective knowledge around the regions flora and fauna.
The monthly meetings of the club offer a great opportunity to draw on years of experience and to develop contacts for finding out background information on sites of interest. I’ll definitely be making an effort to get to more meetings and I encourage anyone else with an interest in the region and its biodiversity to get along. The club meets at 7:45 pm on the fourth Wednesday of each month at the CWA hall on Kepler St.
One particular highlight from last weeks meeting was a book that I was presented with. It is titled “The nature of Warrnambool” and is a compilation on the natural history of Warrnambool. This is a must-have for anyone with an interest in natural history that resides in and around Warrnambool. With a great description of the local landscape, its flora and fauna, along with accounts of major events like the 1946 floods, there’s even a few surprises such as a shark attack in the Hopkins River!