The Great Australian Nut
I love Macadamia nuts. Two things I did not know about them; they are native to Australia, and most of the world’s population can be traced to a single Queensland …
Killer Irridium… (from Space!)
65 million years ago, the earth had a very bad day, which did the dinosaurs in. The key to what happened, was a rare substance from deep space. THE NATURAL …
Fox Stories
Hunted as pests, kept as pets, known in popular culture as shrewd and clever, known in South America as ‘Zorro’; there are a million fox stories. Here are a few. …
The Secret History of Ambien
Ambien is the world’s most popular sleeping tablet. Side effects include; sleep driving, night terrors and sexting. THE NATURAL WORLD Your body’s sleep cycle is governed by your hypothalamus, situated …
The Last Thylacine
In 1936, the last known Tasmanian Tiger died in a zoo in Hobart. This is Benjamin’s story. THE NATURAL WORLD FIRSTS and LASTS The Thylacine species first appears in the …
Mungo Lady (and Man)
50 years ago, an archaeological discovery in remote NSW turned the history of human evolution on its head. THE NATURAL WORLD Jim Bowler was the son of a Gippsland onion …
How the Yarra Changed Its Course
The Yarra River is an intrinsic part of Melbourne; but did you know its current course is a man-made construct, very different to how it flowed out to sea originally? …
The Lyrid Meteor Shower
Every April 22nd, for as long as that date has existed, the night skies in both hemispheres are lit up with a streaky sequence of fiery trails. This is the …
The St Kilda Solar System
Stretched along the St Kilda foreshore, south west of the city, is something unlikely; a to-scale model of our entire Solar System. St Kilda is one of the few places …
Melbourne’s Only Honey Locust
Standing on the corner of King and Bourke St in Melbourne is a living piece of history; the city’s only Honey Locust tree, growing on this same spot for 160 …