Danny's Blog on the Midwest Ecology

Along our beautiful Midwest coastline — from the Abrolhos Islands to Kalbarri — there’s a quiet shift happening beneath the ocean...

Some creatures endure the Midwest heat. Meat ants calculate  it. Walk anywhere along Geraldton’s coast or inland scrub - Drummonds, Moonyoonooka, Moresby, even the sandy edges of cul-de-sacs - and you’ll eventually find the unmistakable sign of an Iridomyrmex purpureus  colony: a low, open disc of fine, sun-bleached gravel. No towering mound. No grand castle. Just a flattened circle of stone and sand, raked clean by thousands of mandibles. CSIRO’s ant identification sheets de

Some plants survive the coast. Spinifex builds  it. Along the dunes at Drummonds Cove, Glenfield, and Sunset Beach, the long, tough runners of Spinifex longifolius  stitch the sand together in a way that looks effortless - until you look closely. DBCA’s coastal dune profiles describe this species as one of the primary “sand binders” of Western Australia’s mid-west. A quiet architect of the shoreline. Today at Sunset Beach, the wind had been working hard - scouring the top lay

Some creatures announce themselves with wings or size or confidence.Others work quietly, almost anonymously, shaping the coast in ways most people never see. Trochus and turban shells belong to the second kind — the quiet cleaners of the intertidal zone. Walk the rock platforms at Flat Rocks, Separation Point, or Bluff Point during a low tide and you’ll see them if you slow down enough: small, spiral-shell grazers moving with the tide’s breathing rhythm. WA Museum guides desc

Every summer in Geraldton, people start noticing the same thing: chewed leaves, tiny droppings on verandahs, curled foliage on eucalypts, odd little cases hanging from shrubs, and entire hedges that look slightly “thinned out” overnight. No, it isn’t a plague. It isn’t climate doom. And it’s rarely something to fear. It’s caterpillar season  - one of the most important quiet cycles in the Midwest’s summer ecology. Warm nights, dry heat, and bursts of humidity create perfect

There are birds you go looking for, and birds that simply take hold of your attention.The osprey is the latter - always half in the sky, half in the sea, and wholly stitched into the identity of Geraldton’s coast. From Beresford to the Marina to the exposed edge of Point Moore, these birds build their stories in sticks: high, heavy nests perched on poles or lights, looking out over wind, water, and the long curve of the Indian Ocean. At Point Moore, the nest sits on a pole in

I went looking for mangroves today. Some documents had suggested a small outpost of Avicennia marina  once clung to the edges of the Point Moore peninsula - one of the southernmost mangrove presences along Western Australia’s coast. A 2014 coastal hazard assessment identified “mangroves at the edges of the peninsula”  as part of the local ecological system (WA Department of Transport, Assessment of Coastal Erosion Hotspots in Western Australia , Appendix D). But when I walked

High above the salt-baked rooftops and wind-carved dunes of Geraldton, a small falcon carves out its life. Meet the Nankeen Kestrel ( Falco cenchroides )-often seen hovering in place, scanning the ground below, hunting in the margins of our built environment and natural edges. A resilient resident This kestrel has thrived across Australia, including Western Australia’s Midwest coast. It favours open ground, such as farmland, grassland or coastal scrub-anywhere it can hover, s

Where Science Meets Wonder on the Geraldton Sea The ocean has been stretching its warm arms around Geraldton these last few weeks - slow southerlies, longer days, a November moon swollen with anticipation. Out beyond the horizon, where the reefs of the Houtman Abrolhos scatter like dropped pearls, the corals are preparing for their quiet, annual release of life. This is coral spawning season.A brief window when the reefs breathe hope into the water. It’s one of the great natu

In a world where flame scorches faster and hotter, how we manage fire is no longer simply about fighting back—it’s about fundamentally rethinking our relationship to it. Across forests, woodlands, savannahs, and wild-urban fringes, fire has always been both creator and destroyer. Today, under a warmer, drier climate, the stakes are higher: lives, homes, and ecosystems hang in the balance. This blog explores the current debate on fire-management: the arguments, the evidence, t

Every year, whales travel thousands of kilometres to visit the waters off Geraldton - and every year, we have the chance to meet them...

The ocean keeps secrets. Some of them are beautiful - a whale’s underwater lullaby echoing through the deeps, a shimmer of light caught...

There are stories older than language. You hear them if you listen - not with your ears, but with something deeper. A stillness in the...

It began with a ripple. Not the kind you see skimming a quiet tide pool, but one that travels through communities, radios, and ocean...

Every winter, as the air sharpens and the sea breathes deep, something ancient stirs in the blue beyond Geraldton’s shore. Giants return....

In a world flooded with headlines, tweets, and TikToks, how do we know what's true when it comes to science — especially science that...

Bushfires in WA’s Midwest are rising amid hotter, drier weather, underscoring the urgent need for climate action and community resilience.

This weekend, I attended an inspiring composting workshop hosted by the City of Greater Geraldton. Presented by Sharka from Donut Waste...

The Midwest region of Western Australia is home to an incredible diversity of wildlife, but many species are under threat from habitat...

As a sustainability and environmental science student, I’ve been deeply aware of how fragile our ecosystems can be. Every species, from...