Gecko Talks

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) has delivered a lot of ‘firsts’ for the Gold Coast. Now the real challenge is how we, as a community, adopt its legacy in areas such as environmental behavioural change.

Katie Barton-Harvey, Sustainability Marketing Manager for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC), will outline the major ‘behind the scenes’ work that’s been done to ensure the Games’ success continues after the closing ceremony.

She’s guest speaker at Gecko Talks at Currumbin RSL later this month and will outline some of the work done over the past four years or more to ensure the success of GC2018 and that there’s a continuing positive legacy for our local economy, environment and society.

Internationally-known film maker Lin Sutherland will be sharing her story with us and a sneak preview of her next series Endangered (Channel 9) at Gecko Talks at Currumbin RSL later this month.

When Kevin Tracy talks about bees, it’s not just about how to produce raw unprocessed honey. He believes they also have much to teach us as humans—and can aid our psychological and physical health.

‘Bees are intriguing animals,’ he says. ‘Hives are very complex and act as a super organism where it’s never about the individual, but about the colony. We’d be a more peaceful world if we learnt from them.’

Paul Revie is a zoologist and ecologist currently working with Seaworld’s penguins while undertaking a number of research projects in southeast Queensland.

Gecko’s online magazine Hills to Headlands, is also lucky to have Paul as a regular article contributor. Paul’s popular and informative articles also include his up close and personal photographic encounters with wildlife, As his passion is small carnivorous mammals, notably the spotted-tailed quoll, it was no surprise that his Hills to Headlands’ article ‘Quolls of the Gold Coast Hinterland, Our Last Carnivores’ was soon picked up by local mainstream media, further leading to the activation of a Facebook page called QuollSA (Quoll Society of Australia); to help raise awareness and funds for the dying species in the Gold Coast Hinterland and surrounding areas. In other Hills to Headland’s articles, Paul has introduced readers to the fascinating world of penguins; our feathered fishermen the ospreys; the amazing frogs of the Coastal Wallum, and more recently our largest migrating locals, the humpback whales.

After dreaming of visiting the Galapagos for much of his life, Paul finally had the opportunity to travel there earlier this year as part of a small group of environmentalists. His talk will discuss how the special flora and fauna of the Galapagos have evolved, and convey his first-hand impressions of the conservation issues facing these remarkable islands.

Dr Tuszynska will talk about fungi’s vital impact on the environment, and humans, covering areas from transforming pollutants such as pesticides and petrochemicals, to fungi creating soils and nourishing all life forms by munching on rocks and wood, to how universities and companies are actually growing myco-plastics, clothing, furniture and buildings with fungi.

Come along to Gecko Environment Council’s Guest Speaker Night this
month to hear experienced environmental scientist Sam Howard from Wild
Encounters talk to you about his close encounters with both furry and scaly
wildlife who visit our gardens. Animals can be safely captured and returned to
a suitable habitat by a trained expert like Sam, providing the best outcome for
both the beautiful but uninvited animal guest and its reluctant host.

Trees bring different reactions from delight in their beauty to exasperation in their habit of shedding leaves on the driveway. However trees are essential to life on earth and they need our protection and preservation, the more trees we have the healthier is the planet and the human species.Trees are also crucial for their role in removing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Professor Pickering is active in developing technology to promote biodiversity conservation, and will be introducing us to the new GroNATIVE App. It showcases 400 local native plants with images and information about each species and the native wildlife it supports. Users can select from 16 different garden styles and 40 eco-systems naturally adapted to their suburb to provide their garden with year-round excitement, colour and wildlife

Gecko Talks March speaker is Adrian Nathaniel, a licensed financial advisor who champions the conscious creation of wealth in this world through values-based, ethical and responsible investment.

Australia is home to 24 species of raptor, from the small sparrowhawk to the impressive wedge-tailed eagle. Few people get close enough to appreciate the vast wingspans and powerful talons and beaks of these avian hunters unless they visit a zoo or wildlife centre. This month’s Gecko Talk will offer the public the opportunity to learn more and get close to these magnificent birds.

Paul Mander is one of the rare people to keep company with birds of prey, and we are proud to present him as our first speaker for 2017’s program of Gecko Talks. Paul is a master Falconer and licensed raptor trainer in Queensland. He has worked with raptors for nearly 30 years and has trained many birds for free-flight shows around the country. His collection of birds at his training and rehabilitation centre on the Gold Coast is impressive, including falcons, eagles, kites, buzzards and owls. Here injured birds are taught to ‘free-fly’ to rebuild their strength before being returned to the wild. As falconry is not a sport practiced in Australia, Paul’s skills and birds are in high demand. Soren, his 16-year old wedge-tailed eagle, is an apex predator whose threatening presence has been used to rebalance local wildlife populations in areas where intrusive animals take up residence.