Links

  • The Australian National Botanic Gardens specialises in Australian Native Plants. As well as maintaining gardens at Black Mountain in the ACT and the Booderee (formerly Jervis Bay) National Park on the NSW South Coast, it carries out research and catalogues and records species. The web site provides access to some of this information and is continually being enlarged and improved. Extend your botanical skills and identify local Australian plants using plant identification tools, microscopes, and a public reference herbarium collection at the Botanical Resource Centre. Open seven days a week from 9.30am to 4.30pm and free of charge, visitors can browse the public reference herbarium of plants from ACT and south-eastern New South Wales, test their identification skills or bring specimens to identify (from ACT and south-eastern NSW region). Trained volunteer facilitators are present on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings and can be booked to give an introductory tour on other days. Focusing on identification of flora from the Australian Capital Territory and south-eastern New South Wales, the centre is a great resource for students and researchers, plant surveyors and native plant enthusiasts and amateur botanists. The following interactive computer keys are available on the computers in the Botanical Resource Centre:
    Families of Flowering Plants – key to the families
    Euclid – key to the eucalypts of Australia
    Wattle – key to the genus Acacia
    Australian Orchid Genera – key to the genera of Australian orchids
    The Pea Key – interactive website to identify Australia’s pea flowers
    Australian Tropical Rain Forest Trees Shrubs and vines – tropical rainforest plants
  • The Federal Department of the Environment has a large biodiversity database on Australian flora (ABRS Flora Online). Their biodiversity database on Australian fauna (ABRS Fauna Online) is also worth a look.
  • The Australian Native Plant Society has a great web site for Australian plant enthusiasts. Their on-line journal is here and you can access their electronic blog “Gumnuts“.
  • The ACT’s Planning and Development Directorate (formerly the Department of the Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water) has information about ACT Nature Parks and Reserves. The Red Hill Reserve is part of Canberra Nature Park. Wikipedia also provides some information about the Red Hill Nature Park.
  • If you want to know more about the native birds of Canberra, and how to attract them to your garden, try the Canberra Ornithologists Group.
  • EcoVoice provides a forum for extensive, up to date information on the environment and sustainable development. Eco Voice provides a regular and broad overview of environmental information. It covers everything from renewable energy and sustainable building to natural living and organic agriculture.