Educators/Researchers

Life is made up of complex systems in which everything is inter-connected. Over his decades-long teaching career, Stuart Hill, a retired Emeritus Professor, and Linden resident, has helped hundreds of students understand the critical relationships between human actions and the health of our planet.

While feral cats are considered one of the worst invasive species in Australia, free-roaming domestic cats are collectively responsible for the deaths of 323 million native animals each year. Learn about the impact of cats on our local wildlife and practical solutions and actions needed to keep cats and wildlife safe.

In August 2023, a mass kill of freshwater spiny crayfish took place in a tributary to Hazelbrook Creek. Belle Butler talked to Blue Mountains City Council Aquatic Systems Officers Amy St Lawrence and Alice Blackwood about the incident, how recovery is going and what we can do to protect this keystone species.

Eco anxiety, as a response to the environmental crisis, is an emerging area of study for psychologists, and art therapy is a potential salve for sufferers. Meet Mishy Rowan, and find out what happens when art meets science.

When school kids around the state heard the call: Invent or innovate something that will change our world and leave a lasting impact, Lawson Public School students rose to the challenge.

Agroforestry around the world is demonstrating a promising solution for reducing the climate crisis. In a recent hands-on workshop in Hazelbrook, participants created a food forest and learnt how they could ‘bend time’ by accelerating its growth to help create a fertile earth for all organisms to survive.

Belle Butler visited Lawson Public School during Nude Food Week - an annual event that encourages families to pack school lunches without single-use packaging. The event promotes minimising plastic waste and opting for healthy food choices.

Lawson writer and publisher Sharon Baldwin has written a series of children’s books based on the unique subject matter of permaculture. Read her story here.

While Blue Mountains residents are all too familiar with the more visible impacts of climate change such as floods, droughts and fires, another lesser known impact of extreme weather is urban forest decline and tree death.