Friends of Belmont Park Balwyn

18/10/2025

03/10/2025

This year, the ABC's audience will determine Australia's Insect of the Year! 🪲

The poll officially opens on the ABC website today.

Head to the link to vote your favourite insect: https://ab.co/4o7CuzL

03/10/2025

03/10/2025

Join us for a webinar focused on the importance of Melbourne local bats to our environment. Learn more about our local mega-bat species, the grey-headed flying fox, as well as the micro-bats that call our city home! Free event - book in via mysmartgarden.org.au

Tamsyn from the Fly By Night Bat Clinic will describe the life cycle, habitat and the role bats play as pollinators. We will discuss the human impacts and how to protect them from getting tangled in garden netting by using the correct netting mesh size for your vegetables and fruit trees.

30/09/2025

Get involved! The annual Aussie Bird Count is on until 20 October.

Register here.
https://aussiebirdcount.org.au/

27/09/2025

Invertebrates, like bees, butterflies and spiders, are in decline worldwide, but in Australia we’re in the dark about the true scale of the problem.

Unlike other regions, like Europe, Australian governments don’t have long-term monitoring programs for invertebrates. Without them, we can’t identify population declines or changes in distributions, which would allow us to respond effectively to support agriculture and manage ecosystems.

Until Australia addresses this major gap in monitoring, citizen scientists can make a big contribution to public databases:

📷 Snap pics of invertebrates and upload to iNaturalist.org, especially as part of the Great Southern Bioblitz initiative: https://www.greatsouthernbioblitz.org/about

🐞 Get involved in Invertebrates Australia's Christmas beetle count over summer: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/christmas-beetle-count

🦋 Submit pics of butterflies to Butterflies Australia: https://www.butterflies.org.au/

Read more at The Conversation Australia + NZ: https://theconversation.com/spring-air-is-humming-with-insects-but-were-blind-to-whats-happening-to-them-265200

14/09/2025

11/09/2025

I am pleased to announce that a Friends of Belmont Park group will be launched Thursday 9 October 11 am.

The group will be under the supervision of the Boroondara Council Biodiversity Team - who will be at the launch.

Belmont Park is very special - with pre-settlement tress in the heart of Balwyn!

Most of the remainder of the trees are self-sown from these very old trees.

Belmont Park's special trees face multiple threats to their health - particularly from insect attack due to the absence of small insect eating birds.

It is nearly 30 years since Willie Wagtails and Silver Eyes have been observed in the park. The current open planting favours aggressive Noisy Miners.

22 years ago it was recommended to preserve the health of the trees by planting understory shrubs to encourage small birds.

The aims of the new Friends of Belmont Park group would be to help the Boroondara Council Biodiversity Team support biodiversity in Belmont Park and increase community understanding of the special nature of Belmont Park.