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PODCAST

Finding Melbourne"s Nature

Finding Melbourne"s Nature

Finding Melbourne’s Nature is a walking conversation series exploring the wild places within the city.Ecologist Ben Cullen walks through reserves, wetlands and remnant bushland across Melbourne/Naarm with Traditional Owners, First Nations voices, conservationists, scientists and community members, each choosing a place that matters to them.Together they walk and talk about what lives there, what’s changed, what needs protecting, and their own journey in learning about and caring for nature.You’ll

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All Episodes

44:26

Darebin Creek, Reservoir with Neil Blake

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/09/30

Send us Fan Mail Neil Blake OAM has spent decades noticing and protecting nature in Melbourne’s urban landscape. We walk along Darebin Creek in Reservoir, a place Neil knows incredibly well. He’s the Port Phillip Baykeeper, founding director of the Port Phillip EcoCentre and, in his own words, a “Tawny Tragic”. As we search for Tawny Frogmouths along the creek, Neil shares his journey from growing up beside the Murray River to becoming a St Kilda park ranger and a lifelong advocate for urban ...

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35:07

Mullum Mullum Park with David De Angelis

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/09/14

Send us Fan Mail Some of us have a relationship with Mullum Mullum Park without even realising it. If you’ve travelled through the EastLink tunnels, you’ve passed beneath this patch of bushland in Melbourne’s east. Above the tunnels is a whole world that’s easy to miss. Forests and creek lines are home to an incredible diversity of wildlife, including the threatened Southern Toadlet. I walk through Mullum Mullum with ecologist and herpetologist David De Angelis, President of Frogs Victoria. W...

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34:35

Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne with Eilish Roberts

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/09/01

Send us Fan Mail Southern Brown Bandicoots were once among the most common and widespread mammals around Melbourne. Today their populations are much more fragmented, making the population at Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne especially important. For this episode, I walk through the gardens with Eilish Roberts, Southern Brown Bandicoot Outreach Officer at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. We talk about what bandicoots need to thrive, why Cranbourne has become such an important stronghold for the...

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44:03

Nepean Peninsula with Gidja Walker

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/08/24

Send us Fan Mail Gidja Walker OAM has spent more than four decades helping people understand and care for the Mornington Peninsula. An ecologist, ethnobotanist and artist, she has an extraordinary ability to see the connections between geology, plants, animals, water, history and culture. In this episode, we spend time with Gidja on the southern Nepean Peninsula, exploring the Coastal Moonah Wodlands and Calcareous Swales that make this part of Melbourne so distinctive. Our conversation moves...

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29:02

Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area with Bruce Quin

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/08/10

Send us Fan Mail Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area is a fascinating place. Covering around 600 hectares of forest, swamps and winding creek lines in the Yarra Valley, it is home to two critically endangered species: the Helmeted Honeyeater and the lowland population of Leadbeater’s Possum. In this episode, I join senior ornithologist Bruce Quin on his rounds through Yellingbo, walking between supplementary feeding stations and encountering Helmeted Honeyeaters along the way. Bruce has spent ...

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37:39

Newport Lakes with Dr Dominique Hes

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/08/02

Send us Fan Mail Newport Lakes is one of Melbourne's most remarkable examples of ecological restoration. Once a working bluestone quarry, it has been carefully transformed into lakes and a rich variety of habitats that now support a remarkable diversity of wildlife. It isn't a recreation of the landscape that once existed here, but an example of how a profoundly altered place can become ecologically rich once again. In this episode of Finding Melbourne's Nature, I walk through the reserve wi...

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52:33

Gresswell Forest with George Paras

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/07/15

Send us Fan Mail George Paras has spent more than four decades caring for Gresswell Forest. For more than 36 of those years, he worked as a ranger at La Trobe’s Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary, helping restore this forest and the surrounding bushland. Today, he continues to work in ecological restoration and environmental education, and is an incredible source of knowledge when it comes to how these systems actually work. In this episode, we walk through Gresswell Forest in Melbourne’s nor...

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49:37

Uambi Reserve with Dr Kaori Yokochi

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/07/08

Send us Fan Mail What happens when we make the night brighter? In this episode of Finding Melbourne's Nature, we head to Uambi Reserve in Heathmont with wildlife ecologist Dr Kaori Yokochi from Deakin University to explore the hidden world of microbats, darkness and urban ecology. Kaori explains why darkness is just as important to ecosystems as daylight, how artificial light is affecting wildlife across Melbourne, and why something as simple as closing your curtains or changing the lights ar...

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46:16

Professors Hill Reserve with David Cameron

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/06/27

Send us Fan Mail This is our most botanical episode yet. Prepare to get a little plant nerdy. Professor's Hill Reserve, in North Warrandyte within Nillumbik Shire, might only cover five hectares, but it contains one of Melbourne's richest and most significant patches of native bushland. In this episode, I walk with botanist David Cameron, whose work has shaped the way Victoria understands and protects its native flora. Over five decades, David has surveyed vegetation across the state, helped ...

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31:36

Pinkerton Forest with Daryl Akers

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/06/17

Send us Fan Mail At Pinkerton Forest in Mount Cottrell, on Melbourne’s western edge, we’re walking through one of the last remaining patches of grassy woodland in this part of the state. In this episode of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, I sit down with Daryl Akers, who’s been closely involved in caring for this reserve over many years. We talk about what this place once was, a much larger landscape of woodland and grassland, and what’s left now. As we walk through the site, Daryl shares the stor...

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45:59

Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands with Kinjia Munkara-Murray

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/06/09

Send us Fan Mail At the Edithvale Seaford Wetlands, I’m walking with Kinjia Munkara Murray, a proud Tiwi and Rembarrnga woman, and someone who sees a whole world most of us miss. From the start, we’re stopping constantly. Looking at ants, watching movement on the ground, noticing things I would have walked straight past. Kinjia has been into insects for as long as she can remember, and it shows. As we walk, she opens up the diversity of ants around Melbourne, how different species live, and h...

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36:45

St Andrews with Wendy Probert

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/06/02

Send us Fan Mail Out towards St Andrews on Melbourne’s north-eastern edge, some of the most important habitat isn’t in reserves at all, it’s along the roadside. In this episode of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, I walk with Wendy Probert, a long-time member of the Australian Native Orchid Society and a director of the Australian Orchid Foundation. Wendy has spent decades searching for native orchids, and as we move slowly along the roadside, she introduces me to the species that occur around Melb...

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39:15

Braeside Park with Judith Sise

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/05/26

Send us Fan Mail Braeside Park in Melbourne’s south east is a big reserve with a mix of wetlands, grassy woodlands and heathland, and a history that’s shifted a lot over time. In this episode of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, I walk through the park with Judith Sise OAM, president of the Friends of Braeside Park. As we move through the reserve, we talk about what this place has been. Carrum Carrum Swamp, grazing land, a horse training track, then a sewage farm, and now a park that’s still changi...

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31:16

Westgate Park with Naomie Sunner

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/05/19

Send us Fan Mail At the edge of the Birrarung, beneath the West Gate Bridge, sits one of Melbourne’s most unexpected urban landscapes. Westgate Park wasn’t always like this. Once a heavily modified and neglected site shaped by landfill and industry, it has been transformed over decades into a mosaic of wetlands, grasslands and habitat. In this episode of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, we walk through the park with Naomie Sunner, who in the late 1990s, as a young woman, led and established the Fr...

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51:46

Banyule Flats with Dr Jacinta Humphrey

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/05/11

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, we walk through Banyule Flats Reserve with urban ecologist Dr Jacinta Humphrey. Moving through wetlands, billabongs and remnant vegetation along the Birrarung, Jacinta shares her journey into conservation and her work exploring how birds persist, adapt and even thrive in urban environments. We talk about what cities are missing, and what they need to better support biodiversity. From the importance of dense understorey vegetation...

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66:38

Docklands with Dr Kylie Soanes

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/05/05

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I’m joined by urban ecologist Dr Kylie Soanes. We meet in Docklands, in Melbourne/Naarm, beside the floating wetlands Kylie helped bring to life. It’s not a typical conservation setting. Concrete, water, buildings and movement surround us, and right there, a small patch of habitat quietly doing its work. We talk about how these wetlands came to be, what they’re already supporting, and what they represent in a city like Melbourne/Naarm right now. Kylie also sh...

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37:19

Darebin Parklands with Peter Wiltshire

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/04/24

Send us Fan Mail In this first episode of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, we walk through Darebin Parklands with Peter Wiltshire, long-time ranger with the Darebin Creek Management Committee. Once a quarry and later a tip, Darebin Parklands is now a much-loved nature reserve with wetlands, thriving wildlife and rich native flora. Peter has spent over 40 years working in this landscape. As we walk, he shares his journey as a ranger, the history of the reserve, and what it has taken to restore and ...

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1:25

Finding Melbourne's Nature Introduction!

Finding Melbourne"s Nature ·

2026/03/01

Send a text Finding Melbourne’s Nature is a walking conversation series exploring the wild places within the city. In each episode, guests choose a reserve and walk together with Traditional Owners, conservationists, scientists and community voices. They talk about what lives there, what has changed, what needs protecting, and the personal journeys that have shaped their connection with nature. This trailer introduces the series and what to expect as the walks begin.

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