Australia's Nature & Landscape Photography By Di Watson

03/06/2026

I love exploring Woolsheds!

02/06/2026

Today I stopped on my way to my vet nurse shift and removed a dead ibis off the road in Penrith that had just been hit. Nicer to do this than be mutilated further..
Info for kangaroos and other wildlife

*****IMPORTANT POST*****

With the colder weather now upon us, I cannot stress enough the importance of making that call when you see wildlife that has been hit by a vehicle or laying deceased on the roadside.

For many people, they see a deceased kangaroo and continue on their way. What they may not realise is that there could be a terrified, injured, or perfectly healthy joey still alive inside Mum's pouch.
A joey's entire world is their mother's pouch. It provides warmth, protection, food, and safety.
When Mum dies, her body temperature begins to drop. As her body cools, so does the joey.
In these colder months, that drop in temperature can quickly become life-threatening. Tiny bodies simply cannot regulate their own temperature, and before long their organs begin to shut down.

Time is absolutely critical.
Every minute that passes reduces a joey's chance of survival.
There are so many dangers they face:
• Predation from foxes, dogs, and birds of prey.
• Joeys climbing from the pouch and hiding nearby, never to be found.
• Being struck by passing vehicles.
• Exposure to the elements, especially during the extremes of summer heat and winter cold.

If you feel confident enough to perform a pouch check, please do so — but always put your own safety first.
A quick check can save a life.

In most cases, you can determine if a kangaroo is male by carefully lifting a hind leg and checking for testicles.
Female kangaroos have a pouch located around where our belly button would be. Gently pull the fur towards you and the pouch should open, look carefully inside. Very small joeys can be tucked right down at the bottom and can be easy to miss.

For those with a little more experience, gently squeezing a teat may reveal milk, which can indicate there is a joey nearby even if one isn't immediately visible in the pouch.
I strongly encourage anyone interested in helping wildlife to complete a basic wildlife rescue course. It gives you the knowledge and confidence to know what to look for and how to help safely.

But if you're unsure, that's okay.
Please still make the call.
Call if you've hit wildlife.
Call if you've seen wildlife hit.
Call if you see a kangaroo deceased by the roadside.
Never assume someone else has already called.
One phone call could save a life.
One phone call could save a joey from hours of suffering.
One phone call could help a baby with the care it desperately needs.
One phone call could even save two lives.

The kangaroo pictured had been laying roadside for hours before help arrived.
Sadly, her beautiful joey had sustained severe injuries and had to be euthanised.
That baby suffered far longer than it ever should have.
A simple phone call, made sooner, may not have changed the outcome — but it could have spared that joey hours of pain and distress.

Please, never drive past and assume.
Make the call.
Because while it may be another kangaroo on the roadside to some, to a joey tucked deep inside a pouch, it could be the difference between life and death.

Photo credit: Jen and Chelsea.

01/06/2026

My weekend included an amazing photography tour of Zambi Wildlife Retreat at Wallacia.
The most amazing animal welfare sanctuary with a tranquil and enriching environment for every creature.
So many animals from circus and zoo backgrounds and for older animals to give them a loving home
www.zambiwildliferetreat.org

01/06/2026

Great work Umbango South and working with Rosewood Hills Brumby Rescue 🙏🦋💝

01/06/2026

Thanks Rosewood Hills Brumby Rescue for all you are doing to transport and rehome brumbies.

One bay/black mare with black c**t foal at foot one black mare with chestnut filly at foot need new homes so I can take more- call Doddy 0438485125

Please share.
Please call and leave a voicemail.. then send a text.. there is only a few more days.. 💙💜🦋

30/05/2026

Countryside today!

30/05/2026

Thanks for your help Victorian Brumby Association for sharing.

HOW DID WE GET HERE? …..AND WHAT CAN WE DO??

Please read to the end to see what YOU can do for the Brumbies!
We haven’t posted much for a while here. It’s been a real struggle to put our thoughts together into a neat post. I keep asking myself How did we get here? How is it possible that once again, we are about to see an aerial cull of our Kosciuszko Brumbies?

One of my great joys as an Australian has been spending time in the wilder parts of our beautiful country. Watching wild Brumbies is a thrill that it’s hard to put words to. If you know, you know. The disappointment when you think you won’t find any and the sheer joy when you do. As a parent, that joy has been even deeper when I have taken my children and we have gone Brumby watching together. We’ve spent time observing Brumbies at Bogong High Plains in Victoria, where the Brumbies are all bot gone now, as well as Barmah National Park, where only the echoes of the Brumbies remain and of course, Kosciuszko.

Last week, we went up to Kosi to look for Brumbies. We spent days walking around Currango, Long Plain, Kiandra, Three Mile and many other places where we used to be able to see Brumbies. Places that have been so special to us, as they have been to many other Aussies. Last week, the evidence was stark – so few Brumbies remaining and even those will face the firing squad from the air in just another week.

I’ve spent the better part of the last 25 years saying that we simply couldn’t be the generation that could only show their grandchildren photos of wild Brumbies in books. Yet here we are. Facing that reality.

ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES?

Of course there are! We have been working actively for Fifteen years to get fertility control used in our Brumby populations. It has been used with great effect in the USA for more than Thirty years now (look up Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and many more)! When we started asking government to trial it, we were told it would take too long to see a population decline. Although less foals are born immediately, one of the ‘side effects’ is that the mares live for longer due to not spending so much of their energy having and raising foals, so it takes around Seven years for a population decline to be visible statistically. Seven years! Imagine if they has started when we first put a detailed plan in front of them?! Its worth adding that that plan was completely funded by us – no cost at all to the government!

Rehoming groups have done an incredible job with no government support at all. For many years, we as rehomers, along with other groups have asked for government funding to make it possible to save even more Brumbies. Once again, the government has rejected this.

So, on the 8th of June – just eight days time – our Kosciuszko Brumbies will once again face death from the skies. To those who say it is humane, I would challenge them to have their riding horse ‘euthanised’ in this manner. Time after time, Brumbies have been found with more than 10 bullet wounds. Shot in the face, the belly, the neck, time after time. The RSPCA has not only turned a blind eye, they have actively supported this. NPWS haven’t even been required to have cameras on the helicopters to prove that they were ‘humanely’ shooting!

WHAT CAN YOU DO??

First, please sign this petition! If you are not a resident of NSW, please send it to any NSW friends you may have to sign: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=BmohXScSptUiwqbMm5kfBg&fbclid=IwY2xjawSDhdlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR6VsFdt5XuOzbNce9v-qxkpNI5T-A0iQNuqdUTMq5cfhFxsWi63u2fXFV-d_w_aem_g9fgm7YumWUgMqgpsiOtDA

Next - You can write respectful, clear emails to any of the following:

RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman: [email protected]
NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe: [email protected]
NSW Premier Chris Minns: [email protected]
NPWS Wild Horse Team: [email protected]
NPWS Ryan Petrov, Manager Southern Ranges: [email protected]
NPWS Anthony Evans, Director Park Operations Projects: [email protected]
Find your local minister here: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/all-members.aspx

WHAT COULD YOU SAY?

You could tell them that:
- Aerial culling must not go ahead - you do not accept aerial culling as a humane control method for Brumbies
- Fertility control must be used to lower the Brumby population humanely
- Rehomers need government support to continue to save and place as many Brumbies as possible
- The current Passive trap program is well run and humane in the way that the Brumbies are trapped, handled and managed by Parks staff but it is badly let down in the way that the Brumbies are them not supported through supporting rehomers.
Is there any point? YES! Every single letter and email is logged in. Historically, although many people will comment on posts, they don’t go on to write those emails and get in contact with their local government minister or relevant authority. This is your chance to have your say!

The Brumbies can’t speak for themselves – will you speak for them?

Photos are some of the beautiful Brumbies we saw in Kosciuszko last week. It was heartbreaking thinking of what they will face in just over a week.

HOW DID WE GET HERE? …..AND WHAT CAN WE DO??

Please read to the end to see what YOU can do for the Brumbies!
We haven’t posted much for a while here. It’s been a real struggle to put our thoughts together into a neat post. I keep asking myself How did we get here? How is it possible that once again, we are about to see an aerial cull of our Kosciuszko Brumbies?

One of my great joys as an Australian has been spending time in the wilder parts of our beautiful country. Watching wild Brumbies is a thrill that it’s hard to put words to. If you know, you know. The disappointment when you think you won’t find any and the sheer joy when you do. As a parent, that joy has been even deeper when I have taken my children and we have gone Brumby watching together. We’ve spent time observing Brumbies at Bogong High Plains in Victoria, where the Brumbies are all bot gone now, as well as Barmah National Park, where only the echoes of the Brumbies remain and of course, Kosciuszko.

Last week, we went up to Kosi to look for Brumbies. We spent days walking around Currango, Long Plain, Kiandra, Three Mile and many other places where we used to be able to see Brumbies. Places that have been so special to us, as they have been to many other Aussies. Last week, the evidence was stark – so few Brumbies remaining and even those will face the firing squad from the air in just another week.

I’ve spent the better part of the last 25 years saying that we simply couldn’t be the generation that could only show their grandchildren photos of wild Brumbies in books. Yet here we are. Facing that reality.

ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES?

Of course there are! We have been working actively for Fifteen years to get fertility control used in our Brumby populations. It has been used with great effect in the USA for more than Thirty years now (look up Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and many more)! When we started asking government to trial it, we were told it would take too long to see a population decline. Although less foals are born immediately, one of the ‘side effects’ is that the mares live for longer due to not spending so much of their energy having and raising foals, so it takes around Seven years for a population decline to be visible statistically. Seven years! Imagine if they has started when we first put a detailed plan in front of them?! Its worth adding that that plan was completely funded by us – no cost at all to the government!

Rehoming groups have done an incredible job with no government support at all. For many years, we as rehomers, along with other groups have asked for government funding to make it possible to save even more Brumbies. Once again, the government has rejected this.

So, on the 8th of June – just eight days time – our Kosciuszko Brumbies will once again face death from the skies. To those who say it is humane, I would challenge them to have their riding horse ‘euthanised’ in this manner. Time after time, Brumbies have been found with more than 10 bullet wounds. Shot in the face, the belly, the neck, time after time. The RSPCA has not only turned a blind eye, they have actively supported this. NPWS haven’t even been required to have cameras on the helicopters to prove that they were ‘humanely’ shooting!

WHAT CAN YOU DO??

First, please sign this petition! If you are not a resident of NSW, please send it to any NSW friends you may have to sign: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=BmohXScSptUiwqbMm5kfBg&fbclid=IwY2xjawSDhdlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR6VsFdt5XuOzbNce9v-qxkpNI5T-A0iQNuqdUTMq5cfhFxsWi63u2fXFV-d_w_aem_g9fgm7YumWUgMqgpsiOtDA

Next - You can write respectful, clear emails to any of the following:

RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman: [email protected]
NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe: [email protected]
NSW Premier Chris Minns: [email protected]
NPWS Wild Horse Team: [email protected]
NPWS Ryan Petrov, Manager Southern Ranges: [email protected]
NPWS Anthony Evans, Director Park Operations Projects: [email protected]
Find your local minister here: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/all-members.aspx

WHAT COULD YOU SAY?

You could tell them that:
- Aerial culling must not go ahead - you do not accept aerial culling as a humane control method for Brumbies
- Fertility control must be used to lower the Brumby population humanely
- Rehomers need government support to continue to save and place as many Brumbies as possible
- The current Passive trap program is well run and humane in the way that the Brumbies are trapped, handled and managed by Parks staff but it is badly let down in the way that the Brumbies are them not supported through supporting rehomers.
Is there any point? YES! Every single letter and email is logged in. Historically, although many people will comment on posts, they don’t go on to write those emails and get in contact with their local government minister or relevant authority. This is your chance to have your say!

The Brumbies can’t speak for themselves – will you speak for them?

Photos are some of the beautiful Brumbies we saw in Kosciuszko last week. It was heartbreaking thinking of what they will face in just over a week.

30/05/2026

Today at Old Errowanbang Woolshed