The Living Pavilion (1-17 May 2019) was a recyclable, biodegradable, biodiverse event space, and Hub for CLIMARTE’s ‘ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE’ Festival (April 23 – May 19 2019) at the University of Melbourne. The Living Pavilion was an Arts/Science event aimed at revealing and celebrating Indigenous perspectives of biodiversity, as well as hosting events and performances by local Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, artists, knowledge-sharers and scientists. The unique design brought together Indigenous knowledge systems, community arts, theatre, music, sustainable design and ecological science to showcase how trans-disciplinary initiatives can sow the seeds of community vitalisation and environmental stewardship.

This paper focusses on the multitude of ways The Living Pavilion worked to forefront and celebrate the Parkville campus within its cultural context as a Wurundjeri place, telling the hidden stories which illuminate the cultural connections and continued custodianship of Wurundjeri peoples, their ecological knowledges, belonging and histories
which have been erased within the built environment of this urban space.
Further, this exploration will also look more broadly at the potential of trans-disciplinary strategies to build people’s understanding, appreciation and care of place and the consideration of how ecological ‘stories of place’ can be reimagined through Indigenous, scientific, performative and participatory design-based approaches, celebrating our socio-ecological communities by engaging people in the making, celebration and contribution to inclusive and thriving public spaces.
The presenter will tell the story of The Living Pavilion from her perspective as an Aboriginal researcher within the context of her roles as lead researcher, co-producer and co-designer.

Over three days in May 2019, I produced Frog Fest: a family festival and celebration of Melbourne’s frogs at the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne. Frog Fest formed part of The Living Pavilion – a transdisciplinary project linking Indigenous knowledge, ecological science, sustainable design and the participatory arts. I created a sound installation, ‘Frog soundscape at The Living Pavilion’, to represent four seasons of frog activity in Melbourne and to highlight the diversity of frogs that would have lived along the Bouverie Creek (which was piped and paved over when the university was constructed). The installation provided a portal through which listeners could connect with the past – and possibly future – biodiversity of the site. I ran regular tours of the soundscape, with approximately 250 participants in total. I also ran three sessions of frog choir for anyone who wanted to sing like a frog, about frogs, or both, including a song I wrote for the occasion (Growl, growl green frog); I provided costumes for frog dress-ups; there were live frogs on display plus frog craft activities and frog face-painting. Over the three days, more than 500 people participated in Frog Fest. Responses to a social survey about their experiences at The Living Pavilion highlighted the sense of peace participants experienced through hearing the sounds of nature, and an increased feeling of connectedness to biodiversity in the city.

Experiments examining cognition and behaviour often require innovative techniques to manipulate rewards and cues. While the use of artificial flowers to manipulate floral attributes when studying pollinators is widespread, researchers adopt a range of methods for creating flowers, with little consistent framework for creating artificial flowers. We reviewed the use of artificial flowers in experiments from different fields including cognition, behaviour, pest control and pollination. We analysed 153 papers for their experimental context, study species and reward. Researchers used a diversity of artificial flowers. However, most consisted of simple-shaped landing areas with central nectaries, where visual attributes including colour, size and shape were manipulated. Nectar was the most common floral reward, with pollen underrepresented as a reward. Most studies (63%) involved hymenopterans, of which, 32% were focused on Apis mellifera, 28% on Bombus terrestris, and 27% on B. impatiens. A further 16% studied Lepidoptera. Artificial flowers provide significant opportunities for ecologists to manipulate floral traits influencing pollinators. However, it is difficult to understand at what point a floral visitor stops distinguishing between artificial flowers and real flowers, limiting their use in the field. They are successful in enclosed environments where floral resources are limited but seem to be less effective when real flowers are also available. This raises the question of how “artificial” artificial flowers appear to flower visitors. We develop a framework to promote consistency and generality when using artificial flowers, suggesting the inclusion of multimodal cues in artificial flowers when studying free-flying flower visitors to increase overall visitation.

The critically endangered Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus) is a small, ground-dwelling bird that inhabits native tussock grasslands of eastern Australia. The Plains-wanderer is unrivalled in regards to conservation importance amongst the world’s birds. This is supported by the fact that the Zoological Society of London has prioritised the Plains-wanderer as the highest priority in the world for conservation amongst birds. Although the Plains-wanderer is diurnal, it is rarely observed during the day because of its excellent camouflage and ability to avoid detection. As consequence, there is little known about where and how far it moves, how it uses its habitat, and how birds interact together.

To address these knowledge gaps, I’m using miniature GPS wildlife trackers to follow the fine-scale movements of individual birds. This study is taking on Victoria’s Northern Riverine Plains; one of only two population strongholds for this species. Over the past year, I have successfully tracked the movements of nine Plains-wanderers. In spring 2019, I aim to track a further five birds. Data captured by these trackers has begun to provide fascinating new insights into the behaviour of the Plains-wanderer. For instance, tracking data has shown birds are utilising some habitat types that were previously thought to be unsuitable for this species. The early findings from this research have already begun to greatly improve our knowledge of the basic biology and ecology of the Plains-wanderer, and have the potential to transform the way we perceive and manage habitat in the future.

Reintroductions programs of endangered species are resource intensive and often have low success rates, mainly due to
predation by invasive predators in the case of Australia. Fenced reserves are appearing across the globe, yet the impacts of these fences on both native animals and the animals being introduced may not be aligned with conservation goals. Behaviour is becoming an increasingly important part of conservation programs, and these behaviours may be correlated as a syndrome commonly referred to as “personality.” Variation in personalities may have important consequences for reintroductions, as fenced reserves may favour bolder individuals. My study examines changes in different behavioural measures of personality in native marsupials prior to the reintroduction of an endangered marsupial. Animals inside and outside the fenced enclosure exhibit different behavioural responses, while there is also behavioural variation amongst the marsupials being reintroduced. These “behavioural syndromes” can be used in screening of individuals for reintroduction programs and may have consequences for long term survival.

Futhermore, I am working as a science writer and science communicator to highlight the plight of endangered species from across the world. My work in photography, film, and science writing, via my personal website, will combine with the support of conservation organizations to amplify the research of myself and others to bring local Australian issues to the attention of global news outlets. Additionally, my own work in Peru, focusing on the Andean cock-of-the-rock, served as a prototype of my methodology in combining scientific research and art.

Dryland ecosystems are increasingly degraded, with implications for environmental resources, at a global scale. Resources are also often patchily distributed across space and time, with booms and busts driven by highly variable rainfall events. To forage and reproduce successfully in these environments, animal species must select suitable habitats. While affected by bottom-up effects of rainfall stimulated growth, the vegetation can also be limited by top-down trophic effects of apex predators. I investigated the selection of foraging habitat by arid birds in Sturt National Park, NSW in May-June 2019. Transect surveys were completed either side of the dingo-barrier fence to determine how avian communities were affected by complex trophic interactions driven by dingo exclusion in the eastern Strzelecki Desert. GPS locations of birds on transects were recorded, and vegetation was identified and measured in nested quadrats. Vegetation density was measured from remotely-sensed imagery across a broader region. Patterns in habitat and bird presence were explored. Short foraging activity budgets of species which differed in recording rate across the dingo-barrier fence (White-winged Fairywren, Purple-backed Fairywren and Red-capped Robin), and two species which did not differ as clearly ( Black-faced Woodswallow) were observed and recorded, to investigate how these species were utilising their niches at a fine scale. Preliminary findings showed that Red-capped Robins were more abundant in NSW, while White-winged Fairywrens, Singing Honeyeaters and Willie Wagtails were more abundant in SA. Both fine- to broad-scale analyses promise to inform how future land management can minimise impacts on arid avian communities.

The Golden Sun Moth (Synemon plana) is an endangered, diurnal moth species that occurs in the critically endangered natural temperate grassland community. It is believed to be associated with sunny conditions and the impacts of shading is thought to have a detrimental effect. However, the impacts of structural shading on the Golden Sun Moth, and the associated vegetation community has not been previously examined. In this study, we investigated the effect of building shade on the abundance of flying Golden Sun Moth, presence of emergent Golden Sun Moth pupae and change in vegetation metrics in a 0.6-ha remnant grassland patch over a 5-year period. We also looked at the impact of shade on soil temperature, and grassland vegetation (cover, and richness). Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of these small remnant patches for improving our understanding the biology of threatened species and associated grasslands, and the importance of retaining these long-term research sites.