The recent earthquake activity around Hawker in the Flinders Ranges can be monitored at Geoscience Australia. If you feel an earthquake, you can register your data on the site.
Earthquake: Hawker
Great Aussie Bird Count 2024
Aussie Bird Count
Take part in the citizen science Aussie Bird Count by recording birds you see in a 20 minute period.
20 minutes at the Copley Retention Dam:
Plants of Outback South Australia: new edition
After nearly 15 years out of print, the second, fully revised edition of Plants of Outback South Australia has been published. A collaboration between the State Herbarium of South Australia (Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium) and the Pastoral Unit (Department for Environment and Water), this is a key field guide to South Australia’s arid lands.
Flooded Lake Torrens featured on NASA Earth Observatory
After the wettest October on record, Lake Torrens to the west of the Flinders Ranges is flooded. This event was captured by The Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 on October 28, 2022. Read more about the flooding of Lake Torrens on NASA’s Earth Observatory site.
Neville Bonney – bush tucker guru
Neville Bonney is an experienced researcher, author and producer of Australian bush foods. His recent road show through the Flinders Ranges was received with great enthusiasm, covering botany and propagation techniques as well as a surprising culinary array. The Leigh Creek Library collection includes Neville’s publications:
- What Seed is That?
- Plant Identikit – Common plants of the Flinders Ranges
- Jewel of the Australian Desert – Native Peach (Quandong)
- Knowing Growing Eating Edible Wild Native Plants for Southern Australia
- Adnyamathanha and beyond – useful plants of an Ancient Land
- Knowing, Growing Acacia for Food and Conservation.
Pre-dawn planetary line up
Jupiter and Venus move into conjunction, visible on May 1, 2022. Neptune is also indicated in this array but unlikely to be seen with the naked eye.
Bookworms! Hawk-moth caterpillars in the library
The butterfly breeding project in the Leigh Creek School Community Library has branched into the wonderful world of Hawk-moths. These fat babies feed vigourously on local Boerhavia groundcovers and daily donations sweet potato vines, growing up to 12cm.
Butterfly breeding at the Leigh Creek Library
The Leigh Creek School Community Library in the Northern Flinders Ranges is hosting a live display of locally cultivated Milkweed plants that are home to a dynamic microcosmic world of Milkweed Aphids, Ladybugs, Australian Lesser Wanderer Butterfly caterpillars and more. The insect lifecycles have captured the imagination of many people in the community, young and old.
The installation has tied in with STEM and English studies at the school, and has already expanded into host and nectar plant cultivation in the school nursery, and an outdoor butterfly enclosure. The project has also grown to include the emergence of various Hawk-moths and other insects found in the local area.
The star of the show, however, has been the stunning Australian Lesser Wanderer Butterflies, which after pupating in surprising places around the library are emerging day by day in the Library.
Great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter
The Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, viewable in the night sky just once every 800 years, seen over the Flinders Ranges, 21st December 2020.