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From plankton to humpbacks, ocean life is riding massive waves of change – including ocean warming, rising sea levels, acidification and algal blooms.  

In the Timor Sea off the Kimberley Coast and over to Agnes Water in Queensland, marine biologists and Wunambal Gaambera Rangers are mapping turtles tracks, monitoring threats to their nests and protecting tiny hatchlings. 

Along the humpback highway, wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta shares how whales are fertilising the ocean and miraculously adapting to a lack of krill.  

And we dive into the world of blue carbon with Dr. Alice Jones – where deep in the waters, we learn that even though our oceans are disproportionately impacted by climate change, they play a mighty role in its defence.  

Topics Covered: 

• How climate change is transforming marine ecosystems 
• Why turtle sex ratios are shifting with rising temperatures 
• The surprising ways whales support ocean health 
• What blue carbon is and why it matters in the climate fight 

Guests: Dr Melissa Staines, Vanessa Pirotta, Dr Alice Jones, Tom Vigilante, Desmond Williams, Tabitha Kowan 

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Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

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Traditional Custodians have recorded sea level changes, volcanic shifts and meteoric events for over 10,000 years through story, song, dance and art. Since colonisation, these knowledge systems have faced immense pressure – but Tiahni is solution focused. She traces her own journey to connect with her ancestry and explores how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge can strengthen Country to help it adapt.  

With Aunty Bernice Hookey, she unpacks epistemic injustice and resilience, before heading to Birriliburu Country to meet Martu women keeping culture strong – and with Joanne Griffin, discovers a powerful new online tool for sharing knowledge, respectfully.  

Topics Covered: 

• How Indigenous knowledge systems inform environmental adaptation 
• The impact of epistemic injustice on Traditional Custodians 
• Martu women's role in cultural and ecological resilience 

Bush Heritage Australia works in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to care for Country, combining millennia-old Traditional Knowledge with modern science – a mission that makes this episode's focus on cultural resilience and knowledge sharing especially powerful. 

Guests: Bernice Hookey, Martu women, Jodi Edwards, Joanne Griffin 

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Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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The landscapes of Southwest Western Australia smack you in the face with their ecological richness, according to Gondwana Link CEO Keith Bradby. He and others – including Bush Heritage – are restoring a 1000km stretch of bushlands in this global biodiversity hotspot, shaped over millions of years by glacial shifts and evolution. For Noongar Elder Lester Coyne it is a place where his people prospered long before the disruptive forces of colonisation.  

Today it is surrounded by monotonal agricultural properties. But that doesn’t mean farmers don’t also feel a deep love for nature. The question is how to balance the need to feed and resource our planet, while preserving biodiversity: our biggest natural defense against climate change.   

Topics Covered: 

• Why south-west Western Australia is a global biodiversity hotspot 
• The vision and progress of the Gondwana Link restoration project 
• How Traditional Custodians and farmers both care for Country 
• The role of biodiversity in climate resilience and food security 

Guests: Keith Bradby, Lester Coyne, Sylvia Leighton, Stephen Hopper 

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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Our planet is getting hotter – and deserts, covering 41% of the Earth and nearly 20% of Australia, are on the frontline. What will the sweltering and scorching temperatures mean for the people and species that live there? At Secret Rocks in South Australia, Tiahni joins Dr Katherine Moseby and Jack Bilby who are braving extreme temperatures to help to protect native animals like bilbies and numbats survive.

Gareth Catt from the Indigenous Desert Alliance tells of how deserts are changing rapidly, making the practice of reading Country more difficult for Traditional Custodians.

Author Clive Hamilton explores resilience as social justice, while Dr. Rebecca Spindler urges bold, science-driven solutions – to make sure people and wildlife alike can handle the heat.

Topics Covered:

• How rising temperatures are transforming Australia’s deserts
• What’s being done to protect desert wildlife like bilbies and numbats
• The challenges climate change poses to reading and caring for Country 
• Why social justice and science must go hand in hand in climate resilience

Guests: Dr Katherine Moseby, Jack Bilby, Gareth Catt, Clive Hamilton 

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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When nature is destroyed and removed, can we ever truly restore it? Across Australia, scientists and communities are sharing powerful stories of ecological restoration – from city rivers to deep-sea reefs. In Adelaide’s River Torrens, urban ecologist Prof. Chris Daniels is leading platypus reintroduction for the city. Downstream near Glenelg beach, one of Australia’s true conservation success stories is occurring underwater: marine scientist Dr Dominic McAfee is restoring oyster reefs, using the sounds of the sea. In Southwest Western Australia – a global biodiversity hotspot – entire ecosystems are being revived from the soil up. Restoration is getting smarter and stronger, one tree, one banksia, one oyster at a time.  

Guests:  

• Dr Dominic Mcafee, shellfish restoration expert
• Professor Chris Daniels, University Professor and Chair of the Board of Green Adelaide
• Alex Hams, former Healthy Landscapes Manager, southwest WA, Bush Heritage Australia

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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On an island at the edge of the Earth – Lutruwita/Tasmania – Tiahni sits down with legendary environmentalist Bob Brown. Among flowering blackwoods, they explore tree conservation and community, courage and staying optimistic. She speaks with Pakana Elder Hank Horton on deep cultural ties to trees, and with arboriculturist Dr Gregory Moore about a sobering truth: without trees, humans can’t exist.  

These biodiversity magnets store carbon, support life and help us breathe – so why are we still clearing trees? What would the world look like if we protected them instead? Find out more about the vital role of trees in fighting climate change. 

Topics Covered: 

• Why tree conservation is critical to our survival 
• The emotional and ecological power of trees 
• The importance of Indigenous ties to Country 

Guests: Dr Bob Brown, Gregory Moore, Uncle Hank Horton

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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Prepare for Big Sky Country Season 3, our most expansive season yet. In six captivating new episodes, we take you down the backroads of this diverse country to investigate how biodiversity quietly – and powerfully – offers solutions to the climate crisis. 

Hosted by wildlife conservation biologist and proud descendant of the Kaurareg nations Tiahni Adamson – the 2024 Young South Australian of the Year – this series introduces you to people with moving, personal stories who are restoring and protecting ecosystems one block, one banksia, one oyster at a time. If you’re familiar with our first two seasons, you’ll notice one big change - we’ve ventured into the broader conservation space, offering up big ideas, big voices and big solutions.  

You'll meet die-hard conservationists safeguarding tree species that dinosaurs once ate. Scientists measuring the body temperatures of desert animals to help them survive climate change. Traditional Custodians who are reading the signals from plants, animals, landscapes and Country – physically, spiritually, emotionally – and lending their knowledge to show us all how to live in balance, so that we don’t simply survive, but thrive.

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Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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It’s a two-day drive from Darwin to Robinson River, on Garawa Country in the NT, just south of the Gulf of Carpentaria. While the road there can be long, the destination is worth it. The annual Waanyi Garawa Biodiversity and Culture Camp brings together Elders, rangers and kids together to keep their culture and language strong.  

While remote communities face many challenges without easy access to country, these camps create an opportunity for dance, storytelling and play, and for community leaders to pass down important ecological and cultural knowledge to the next generation. 

Featuring Aunty Nancy McDinny, Uncle Jack Green, Karen Noble, Donald Shadforth, Dr Terry Mahney, and Kelly Retief. 

Produced by Will Sacre and Eliza Herbert. 

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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It might seem strange for an ecologist to spend time on pastoral lands, but that’s exactly what Imogen Semmler does. She ‘meanders’ across paddocks to measure the health of their ecosystems and quantify their biodiverse value. 

With over 58% of Australia managed for agricultural production, Imogen’s work is part of a new ‘natural capital accounting’ initiative that recognises that if we are to feed and clothe our planet, while protecting it, then we need to be looking at innovative ways to boost ecosystem health across agricultural lands. Part of the solution? Putting biodiversity on the books.  

Featuring Imogen Semmler, Associate Professor Jim Radford, Angela Hawdon and Anna and Gus Hickman.
Produced by Bee Stephens and Eliza Herbert.

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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In 2021, Wiradjuri Elder Uncle James Ingram and Bush Heritage’s Aboriginal Partnerships Manager and Yuin Walbunja woman, Vikki Parsley, walked across Tarcutta Hills Reserve in southern NSW in search of cultural artefacts. Immediately, they called for a cultural burn. The land was in need of controlled fire, and it presented an opportunity to get Wiradjuri people back out on Country.  
 
This was to be the first cultural burn held on a Bush Heritage reserve in New South Wales, and the beginning of a significant conversation about how fire has and hasn't been used in the continent’s southeast for centuries.

Featuring Uncle James Ingram, Vikki Parsley, Dean Freeman, and George and Win Maine.
Produced by Will Sacre and Eliza Herbert. 

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X

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What does it take to restore a native woodland? A bucket, hammer, trowel, seedlings and a whole heap of people power. These ingredients are abundant at Scottsdale Reserve on Ngarigo and Ngunnawal Country in New South Wales where for over seven years, volunteers have been showing up week after week to help plant over 40,000 trees. While their efforts might seem small in a global context, what they prove is that where there’s a will, there’s a way. And where’s there’s people, there’s the power to change the world for better.  

Conservation is a people issue; we’ve caused the problems and we have the power to fix the problems – while having a whole heap of green-thumbed fun.  

Featuring Phil Palmer, Kim Jarvis, Antia Brademann and Scottsdale volunteers. 
Produced by Coco McGrath and Eliza Herbert.

Support the show

Bush Heritage Australia is a leading not-for-profit conservation organisation that works to protect and regenerate millions of hectares of ecologically important land across the continent. This podcast's focus on trees and Country is especially vital to understanding and advancing Australia's conservation future.

Get email updates: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/news/subscribe

Learn more about the show and our work at www.bushheritage.org.au or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X