On Tuesday the 16th of April the 2rog/UNE team hosted a workshop in Armidale with communication and engagement staff from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH), Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), Inspector General Water of Compliance (IGWC) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Read about our discussion here.

Paul Frazier and Neil Argent recently spoke at the University of New Englands GeoPlan Seminar. Their presentation, titled Kularku dreaming on Baakandji Country: Aboriginal knowledge meets Western science perspectives on cultural water, focused on the Toorale Cultural Day held in June 2023. Use the link in the article to watch the full presentation.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder is embedding First Nations wisdom and knowledge into The Flow-MER Program – their dedicated science program. This comes after a successful pilot program that took place in the Gwydir and Warrego-Darling catchments. The CEWH shared their latest edition of Rivers, the Veins of Our Country read their article about the success of the pilot program here.

World Frog Day is a day dedicated to raising awareness for frogs and other amphibians. Frog populations have been under threat and many species are disappearing, or have already gone extinct! Studying wetlands and floodplains means we encounter frogs during our monitoring frequently, particularly in times when flows in the systems are good. To celebrate World Frog Day we’re shared some frogs we’ve come across in the Guwayda (Gwydir) and Warriku-Baaka (Warrego-Darling) catchments.

The eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis), called the wirlu-wirlu by the Kurnu-Baakandji, has the second most toxic venom of any snake in the world. This species of brown snake can be found in both the Warreg-Darling and Gwydir Selected Areas. In this story we highlight some interesting facts about this venomous species.

Check out our report for monitoring in the Guwayda (Gwydir) over September to December 2023.

Newly titled Dr Lindsey Frost recently completed her PhD investigating how warrambool (wetland) food webs respond to environmental watering in the beautiful Guwayda Warrambools (Gwydir Wetlands). In this issue, Lindsey shares her experience of completing her PhD.