• “UN puts price on Biodiversity Loss ” – article at ABC (by environment reporter Sarah Clark 13th July 2010)
• “Biodiversity loss brings ecological systems closer to a tipping point”  – article at UN “Biodiversity loss is moving ecological systems ever closer to a tipping point beyond which they will no longer be able to fulfil their vital functions,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned  in his message for the International Day  for Biological Diversity, observed on 22 May, 2010.
• A Balance of Faeries .
• “East Coast Corridor to protect Wildlife” – article at SMH ( by Nicky Phillips 14th July 2010 “Australia has an very poor record of wildlife extinction. Close to half of all mammal extinctions that occurred on the planet in the past 200 years have occurred in Australia“
• THREATENED FAUNA of AUSTRALIA – at wikipedia
• FAUNA of AUSTRALIA – at wikipedia
• Creation : God and Endangered Species – at Ecospheric Ethics .
• Global Biodiversity Outlook GBO3 -  “flagship publication of the Convention on Biological Diversity”
• Resourcism , the Ideology of Despoliation &  earth mindless – short essays.
• Steve Keen’s Debtwatch at debtdeflation.com : including monthly reports on debt levels in Australia and USA. In his book “Debunking Economics,” ” Steve let the general public in on a little-known secret: that many widely believed economic models have been shown by economists to be wrong—hence the subtitle to his book, “the naked emperor of the social sciences”.”
• Koala Diaries – HOME - this website shows how people are concerned for the Australian KOALA. Is this concern going to go the same way of the Australia Koala Foundation, lots of furry suits, convenient politicised and sanctioned “scientific” reports, moneys collected, trinkets and badges sold, trackers on koalas, imprisoned koalas in reserves, justification for not considering the koalas of the Scenic Rim Council Region as development in SE QLD further fragments our Koala habitats on the east coast of Australia?

Green energy as a fuel : consequences - habitat loss for threatened species - AUSTRALIA

• “How South East Queensland Regional Plan gives developers power to trample upon residents’ rights” – article at candobetter.org

The Australian Koala is NOT listed as threatened by Australian EPBC laws. The Australian KOALA is at risk from:- Developments and infrastructure, clearing, non sustainable farming, dogs, cars, disease, stress, lack of habitat, fencing, light, noise,  and rural subdivision practices in the Mt Warning Caldera Region – from South of Ipswich, SE QLD, to over the border into NE NSW. All along the coastal strip in SE QLD and NE NSW intense, inappropriate urban development and infrastructure is destroying and fragmenting the BIODIVERSITY & HABITATS for Australian Koalas at an ALARMING RATE. Developments such as KINGS FOREST by Bob Ell and LEDA Group (project 28) signal the beginning of the end of local free Koala populations on the coast side of the PACIFIC HIGHWAY , Tweed Shire, NSW.

• “Stop developer Bob Ell from taking major koala habitat” at candobetter.org – this article reminds us that many people still are authentically concerned for Australian Native Wildlife, but that developer “right of way” has become the “Australian Way”, at the expense of our childrens’ future wellbeing.
  

• Kings Forest Residential Development – Hansard Transcript 10th March 2010 – NSW Parliament – speaker Ian Cohen .
• Phantom Koala and Part 3A of the NSW Planning Law – bluecray
• Australian wildlife should be able to enjoy environmentally sustainable habitats within which to live their lives free from human harm by high energy low sustainability  infrastructure developments created by people who are not acting wisely.
• Phantom Koala and the Goanna – environmental advocacy poem and some ideas about environmental activism

• Individual Responsibility : Biodiversity * Free Will * Part 3A of the NSW Planning Law :
• Local and regional Organic Lifestyles * History of Environmental Sustainability *

• Wisdom in the Land * A Balance of Faeries *
• ** The artwork of me meditating with the Black-footed Rock Wallabies is from Trephina Gorge NT, Australia, summertime, early 1990′s.

The above photo is of the Hinze Dam and the City of the Gold Coast, SE QLD, Australia.

I have also included some of my Astrological Symbolic Collages. These have been based on themes using planetary positionings, Sabian Symbols and Fixed Star locations for particular times of the year (2009). They are more of a curiosity, than anything else.

Firstly, here are some of the Phantom Koala Collages. Phantom Koala (PK) comments for environmental sustainability, Land and Water Stewardship & environmental education issues. He has stories, poems and articles throughout bluecray.org and bluecray’s “Balance of Faeries” blog.

There is also a bluecray.org article about some of Phantom Koala’s Collages, history and stories HERE.

You will also notice that I use photos of  Benoit, my little crow friend in many of the Collages, as well as photos of  his Father. They are wild Torresian Crows that live nearby to me.

Environmental Advocacy collage reminding us that Caring for our Country is also about Caring for Our Children

protected by more than money can buy, our hearts, prayers and loving visions for this beautiful blue planet can help change the world

Astrological Stories and Myths for a Modern Age – at Wisdom in the Land .

As the creative director of bluecray, I would like to tell you more about myself and my journey for  Wisdom in the Land. I gained a Bachelor of Applied Science, majoring in natural landscape management,  plant strategies for survival, roadside vegetation management and habitat restoration, relating in particular to human activities and their interactions with natural landscapes, mid ’80′s.

After that?  Post graduate work in Aboriginal education, pesticide application technology & safety,  landscape architecture. I was also  teaching and coordinating community environmental activites, sitting on advisory committees and creating innovative community projects with others (as well as a rather exhausting stint at environmental activism). Finally I came to these realisations:-

• Whilst Australia is full of caring, hardworking environmentally aware people, there still remains many mainstream sustained myths about the value of nature’s biodiverse garden (earth).

• Many young people today have much information thrown at them via the media, corporate hype, political rhetoric and peer pressure. To simply live within the parameters of  nature’s balances is a hard task for many.

• Our sustained myths about what is required for a full and meaningful life is based on economic propagandas and social expectations. These myths actively foster consumerism and hedonistic behaviours at the expense of the planet’s health, biodiversity resilience and dynamic life processes.

• To live a simple life in a sharing and loving way is not honoured by our leaders of society and industry. Our children are being fed stories that there is a value and righteousness in striving for wealth of property, possessions and personal power.

Archetypal “demons” abound and simple grace has been swept out our humble abode’s door to be replaced with a multiplicity of sociopathic obsessive drives to “own”, “control”, “deny” and “destroy”.
Science and industry have basically reeled us in hook line and sinker. And as they reel us in, we bring with us a sad, toxic mess of waste, poison, useless possessions, extinct species and destroyed habitats. This coats us all.
Our collective focus is on destruction (be it often in the name of healing and “growth”) instead of joy, love, sharing and caring for our children’s future – their country, their skies, their waterways.

Industry and corporate greed has a face, so carefully hidden,  that it is a sick secret, chronically denied by wealthy “corporate and political” gamesmanship.

Have  compassion here for those less fortunate – those people who are dragging us into extinction – those people who, at the expense of biodiverse health, spend their life weaving more and more denial into their complex lifestyles as their ego slowly eats up their spiritual credibility and worth.
Individual champions who work , often without realising it, to alert us to these issues and who have lived simple spiritually worthy lives are few and far between.  Mostly, we follow blindly, falling prey to that human condition so well known to many Australians -
“she’ll be right, mate”.
Well, “SHE” is NOT right. “SHE” is very sick. The parallel of the collective earth to the individual human health condition is astounding.

• We fill our lungs with toxic fumes just as we fill the earth “breath” with the same.

• We clothe ourselves with functionless adornments just as we adorn our society and lifestyles with functionless “stuff”.

• Our inner organic systems of liver, heart, arteries and colons  are as choked as our wetlands, habitats, waterways,  and estuarine systems.

• Our skins and bones brittle, diseased and ill as are our soils, infrastructures and urban expansions.

• Our minds have become narrow, hollow and depressed just as our biodiversity has become thinned, weakened and sad.

• Our irrational minds, bent on extremities of lust, hate, greed, glory and imbalance are as extreme as the weather patterns that  greet each day. All the while our precious blue earth turns in space.

Individual responsibility has packed it’s bags and gone on holiday to that beautiful River flowing through Eqypt -  whilst corporate and political responsibility frantically creates more holiday destinations for our ego’s diversion.
Yet each day,  the world turns. Each day, I see in the life outside my door incredible beauty, complex balances and eons old life forces trying to recreate themselves with the best tools they have – adaption, resourcefulness, grace and steady tenaciousness.
Sometimes  -   Grace, that powerful gift from our one true GOD is not enough.
Sometimes, we must go further than Grace. We must stand our ground, walk our talk and summon reality with it’s consequences to that great tribunal, TIME.
And sometimes, TIME’s tribunal catches up with US.

The Sea, Belongil Beach, Byron Bay, Time and then…….?

Well, TIME always catches up – as it is an ever present constant in our human condition here in on our dear blue planet.
And time, my friends, whilst one of the biggest illusions of all, is there to show us exactly who we are.
It is a great mirror in a hall of mirrors, and every frame of existence is there, for all to see.
And whilst we, the great masters of humanity move “forward”, time is there from beginning to end.
To echo the words of John Keel, “the universe does not exist as we think it exists, and we don’t exist as we think we exist”
Much of my life I have been gifted with visions. Travelling beyond time, through the eons I have  watched many events and processes, both past , present and future. I have been beckoned by both the “devil’s” gifts of abundance and “God’s” gifts of abundance. I KNOW that love is the pathway, always through time, no matter how painful it may seem at the time. LOVE is the only healing measure that works. And Abundance ?- it comes from within and shines outwards.

Compassion comes from God and works through us. It is one of God’s greatest gifts to us, if only we can unwrap this precious gift and share it with ALL.  Remorse, self acceptance and the hard yards of love yield an eternity of bliss. Disdain, denial, the easier yards of hate driven anger and our ego’s thoughtless actions yield an eternity of suffering and torment. Choice, through our free will, comes to us through our stories. The stories we play in our head, the stories we hear from each other.

Choice through LOVE and innocence, comes straight from God. The choice to adorn ourselves in the same clothing that our rich “emperor’s wear,  cut for them by those deceiving “taylors”, is up to our free will. Our innocence, nurtured by love allows us to move beyond the idea of any choice and instead, walk hand in hand with God.

and… folks, just a few more photos to look at:- the bottom right one is of an environmental weeds workshop I conducted with some year 7 students back in the early nineties, in Ipswich, SE Qld. Back then, the Dept. of Environment & Heritage had only just started to compile Environmental Weeds lists and strategies for management. Climate change was not even a “buzz” word and yet many many people were aware of species extinctions, habitat threats etc. Vegetation surveys were scarce and development, which was running rife,  was known to be threatening the Koalas of the SE QLD region by many people, yet little was being done to help the Koalas. Developers and government officials largely ignored the plight of Australian wildlife, and whilst there were  dedicated “on the ground workers” and environmental campaigners, politics, corporate greed, corruption and deceit was the order of the day. How much has changed? I’ll leave that to you to tell the story.

**(From my stats figures, I gather that quite a few people use them as a  study resource to find further information on environmental, astrological and in particular habitat care issues.)

PK looks out over the Hinze Dam and the Gold Coast in SE Qld. Where there was once a diverse network of wetlands, littoral forest and heathlands, interspersed by dry and wet schlerophyll forest and rainforests, there are now drains, canal estates, shopping centres, roads and housing acreage mowed bare and lacking in biodiverse health. The water aquifers are mostly unmonitored throughout this region and the ground water tables have been altered dramatically over the past decades to accommodate unsustainable development at the expense of future native  wildlife habitats.

PK’s adventures it seems, are far from over.  He journeys about, looking at infrastructure and development management by governments and corporations/powerful developers, human settlements, habitat restoration,  land & water custodianship, and land stewardship in general, within the Mt Warning Caldera Region of eastern Australia.

PK travels to Mt Warning to visit his family in “Corridors Conservation & Phantom Koala”

PK travels to Mt Warning, and on the way he meets up with Chin Ting, the dragonfly, who gives PK a Warning!!! in   “Phantom Koala and the Roadworks”

Phantom Koala ponders a big fire in the Mt Warning Caldera Region in “Australia’s Bushfire Legacy : an Ash Oracle”

PK travels to Beechmont (hinterland of the Gold Coast, SE Qld – Mt Warning Caldera Region) in “Organic Gardening & Growing the Biosphere”

PK then heads toward Kings Forest, past the developments on the Tweed Coast, NE NSW in “Pk ponders past Pottsville for Food”

PK and Litoria (a little native frog) meet at the roundabout. They have been facing strenuous peril on their holiday north across the coastal border of NSW & QLD  in “Holiday time for PK and Litoria at Egg Rock”

PK learns about the spraying of glyphosate in the catchments of the Mt Warning Caldera Region in “PK and Litoria look for Rufous Bettong – a threatened species listed as vulnerable by the NSW Government” and later find out  the “Wildlife leaves the Glyphosate Bank to find refuge in an Organic Garden”

A Balance of Faeries

Phantom Koala (PK) and Litoria decide it is safer to stay in the forest, than venture to the Australian Treasury and plead their case for more Biodiversity. They trust that Nature will teach Australians in the end, to care for the Land and it’s “Balance of Faeries”. How caring for Koalas and caring for their forest corridors can lead us into a sustainable future is woven into “Australia’s drop in the Ocean – the Draft Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill is open for comment”

PK worries for the fauna of Kings Forest and their wellbeing in “Kings Forest Project Development – sleepless days and nights to come for endangered species”

Pk and the Planner have a dream together……..

“When Phantom Koala was Young” tells the story of how PK lost his mother when she went on her yearly journey to the coastal trees, their saga, &  how eventually he found her, only to be separated by a huge road and high fences.

After travelling yearly to the meeting place and long nights of talking with his mother, across the giant highway, separated by fences, Phantom Koala finally grows into adulthood. He (PK) is told by the Birds of the Land that “There is a Way!” to find his Mom.

PK journeys a long hard trek in the poem “There is a Way”, and after many weeks, he finally finds his mother. FACE to FACE at last.! His mother recounts how she has been trapped in a forest (Kings Forest),  surrounded by farmland, degraded bushlands and developing housing estates. But in “There is a Way” they are finally reunited. However, the journey was hard.

PK had to brave long, terrifying  roads, wild and domestic dogs, expanses of wasteland and fenced human settlements. His journey to find his mother turned him into a “HERO”. He now travels about the Mt Warning Caldera Region of NE NSW and SE QLD, Australia. The native wildlife are his friends. He has no tracker attached to him from inquiring scientists, and he can now travel just about anywhere he likes, because, he is a  “HERO”.  Protected by the Spirit Guardians of the Land and more than money can buy (love)-  PK is a miracle “HERO”, full of love, laughter and immortality. He shares his insights to us about our human lifestyles and habits. His mission is to help all his friends in the bush regain their natural HERITAGE.

there is a way

Phantom Koala was first conceived back in 1995, when a Koala came knocking on my door, late one night, as I was starting to create a piece of artwork, high up on the Beechmont Plateau, near Lamington National Park, in the Gold Coast Hinterland of SE QLD. I have developed his concept over the years, and finally he has joined me on this bluecray website, as an educational and artistic form of environmental advocacy for helping native wildlife regain their natural heritage in Australia.

Growing by Organics-food Gardens & Sharing : Article at Bluecray Journey for Wisdom in the Land

Wildlife leaves Glyphosate Bank – finds refuge in Organic Garden : article at Bluecray Balance of Faeries

Lantana : This page will take you to the following:-

• Lantana National Priority Framework –  PDF file
• Lantana Weed Spread and Management Actions – the National Management Map (PDF file)
• Lantana control and Management Manual – (6 PDF files)
• Documents and Resources
• National Strategy Download – (PDF file)

weeds.org.au – An Australian Weeds Committee National Initiative – Weeds PORTAL

Weeds.org.au - about John Thorp – policy and weed strategy directions

The Well Trained Activist‘s article “Can Corporate Leadership Theorists Help Activists?”  - This is a great website full of great inspiration, with links to Daniel Goleman’s : Ecological Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence page.

Lantana Management : Weeds of National Significance – Strategic Plan for the Commonwealth of Australia and National Weeds Strategy Executive Committee 2001

CSIRO – Lantana – the “Horror Story” – media release 2002

Qld Government : Biosecurity

Introduced Species and the Australian Environment : links at Earth and Environmental Science (UniServe Science at the  University of Sydney)- including links for the Bradley Method, the Australian Association of Bush Regenerators, Fire Ants, Cane Toads, Fish, Water weeds and much more

NWS Lantana Plan : Implementation

NSW Threatened Species : Habitat Management and Weed Control – priority actions

The Dynamics of Lantana camara Invasion of subtropical Rainforest in SE Queensland by Daniel Stock – at Australian Digital Thesis Program (Griffith University 2005)

Pest and Diseases forum at ivillage Garden Web – seems like plenty of people have had lantana experiences in this Gardening Forum

search for  Aboriginal  (Indigenous peoples) research literature for the North Coast of NSW at the Libraries Australia Search

Philosophy of  Environmental Destruction in the Name of Healing : bluecray.org article

The Richmond Birdwing Butterfly is cited as one of the many outstanding evolutionary features of the World Heritage Listed Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves that occur in the Mt Warning Caldera Region.

This large green, black and yellow butterfly has inspired community action resulting  in many Pararistolochia praevenosa (see picture below) and P. layehana vines to be planted back into the region. There is still, however, much more work to be done. Although the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly is dependent on these vines for its continued lifecycle, it will be the planting of biodiverse forests, woodlands and other vegetation communities, that will help it’s long term survival.

Increasing biodiversity helps the survival of many plants and animals, in their complex lifecycles, just as increased diverse  community involvement in  projects for the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly has helped improve the Butterfly’s survival chances.

25th March 2009 – interview with Ray Seddon,  Co-ordinater of the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Network, Qld.

Richmond Birdwing Butterfly : at the Queensland Museum PHOTO

Insects of Lamington National Park – Richmond Birdwing Butterfly PHOTO

Richmond Birdwing Butterfly  (Ornithoptera richmondia) : Queensland Threatened Species Listing – VULNERABLE.

• The 2009 link I had to the QLD EPA is now not working, as the Qld Government keeps changing their website links and departmental names and responsibilities : they have not kept a redirection to their new link for the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly. However, you can now access information on the vulnerable listing and this butterfly HERE ( the Qld Department of Environment and Resource Management ) . The information on the new Qld Government  DERM webpage will give you the conservation status, habitat and distribution, description, threatening processes and actions.

Richmond Birdwing Recovery Network : lots of information here on the butterfly, it’s host plants, it’s life cycle, mapping, photos & community networking. This is a volunteer network based in QLD, Australia

The cultivation of Pararistolochia layehana from richmondbirdwing.org and much more on other Pararistolochia species –  Vines, Nurseries growing vines.

Please note that vines are covered by Qld legislation, and as such, you should be careful where you buy your vines from, lest they have been stolen from wild habitat areas.

Qld Society for Growing Australian Plants – native nurseries, plant information, local branches and more

Maroochy Birdwing Butterfly Project at the Maroochy Catchment Centre, Qld, Australia.

The Richmond Birdwing Project – photos, results, information – Qld.

Richmond Birdwing Butterfly vines (Parastolochia praevenosa and **P. laheyana)  : listed as RARE  ( Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 2006) under the  Qld Nature Conservation Act 1992 .  This rare status may change over the coming months, due to a reorganising of the threatened species listing categories . Pararistolochis praevenosa is the main vine being used in SE QLD and NE NSW for the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly recovery

Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Ornithoptera richmondia : Biodiversity Assessment NSW North Coast – species at risk, and their recovery process . This document recommends research, habitat retention through reserves, and records that there is little data known (Australian Government’s  Australian Natural Resource Atlas)

Australian National Botanic Gardens

Park and Fire Management Plans – NSW Government

Lismore City Council encourages planting of the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly vine (Parastolochia praevenosa)

Case study 3: Adopting caterpillars – the Richmond Birdwing butterfly :This is  one of 13 case Studies of Community Involvement in Recovery and Threat Abatement at the NSW Department of Environment & Climate Change :  Community Involvement Guide for Threatened Species

“Australian Butterfly performs for World Media” -CSIRO media release Sept. 2000 – this article will give you a little history on the Richmnond Birdwing Butterfly and why is a THREATENED SPECIES

Ecos Article Jan. 2001 “Changing habitat: the revival of the Richmond birdwing butterfly offers hope that through research, education, dedication and teamwork, local communities can secure a future for threatened species.”

Land for Wildlife – Queensland

Land for Wildlife – New South Wales

Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Part2 : Their Host Vines by Deborah Metters (Regional Land for Wild Life SEQ Catchments) April 2007 Newsletter Land for Wildlife SEQ.

Land for Wildlife at Greening Australia .

Land for Wildlife at SEQ Catchments .

Wildlife Preservation Society of Qld .

** Pararistolochia laheyana PHOTO – is this species the fomer Aristolochia deltantha var. layehana?

• I have seen one Richmond Birdwing Butterfly at Lower Beechmont, SE Qld, from memory back in about 2000, then another flying through Upper Burringbar, NE NSW, in 2009, and as an update to this article, in late September, 2010, I observed three Richmond Birdwing Butterflies flying high in the air at Upper Burringbar within the space of three days.  They really do look like small birds, at first, until you realise that the wings are going very slowly compared to a small bird flying, and on closer looking, you see the green and black of the wings. Each time that I have seen them flying, they have been about  10-20 feet up in the air, and at elevations over 750 feet above sea level.

• Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Project – search results   :  at Bluecray Regional Environmental News – Mt Warning Caldera

Pararistolochia praevenosa - drawing of a plant near the Lamington Plateau, SE QLD

Try the Bluecray’s Environment Search for Litoria latopalmata  – Mt Warning Caldera