Top 100 – What’s in your backyard?

Biodiversity

This is a lizard, they eat the bad bugs in the garden. And help our plants grow. We love seeing the lizards enjoying their days.

Biodiversity

This is Biscuit, one of the kookaburra chicks that visit my farm in Palmwoods sunshine coast. She eats frogs and digs for bugs.

Biodiversity

Scotch Oakburn College Junior School

Worms are important because they help plants grow. They make more soil by eating leaves and fruit scraps, and pooing more soil out.
Annabelle, 5

Biodiversity

My name is Bailey and I am 11. I love how the falling bark makes a home for spiders and other insects.

Biodiversity

My name is Benjamin, 11 years old. LOVE AND AFFECTION, common traits depicted by all living beings. This reminds me of HAPPINESS regardless of your environment.

Indigenous Perspectives

This is our Lilly Pilly and it is fruiting for the first time ever! How cool! I tasted the fruit. The carrawongs love them.

Biodiversity

Every backyard has some weeds, I just thought this was beautiful, even though weeds can be annoying, they are also truly beautiful.

Biodiversity

This Blue-Faced Honeyeater perched in our banksias soon after the bushfires came through our property; one of the first birds to return after the fires.

Food Production

My name is Eamonn. I am 8 years old and living in south west of Sydney NSW. My backyard has chicken, fruit trees and a veggie bed. The photo here is our chickens grazing. It is important for me to have various sources of food at home to learn the process of food production from the very beginning.

Waste Management

Hello, I’m Emily and I’m five. The soldier fly larvae in our compost bin are special because they eat our scraps and turn it into compost. They are fun to play with too. Kinda squishy.

Biodiversity

My name’s Grace and I’m 8 1/2. This toadstool has grown on my farm. It’s a sign of new life and means the soil is good.

Waste Management

I like to put fruit and vegetable scraps into the composter. My brother is getting out the good compost. I like to wheel the cart.

Food Production

This came from seed out of my green house! It is important because we are selling seedlings to our friends to raise money to adopt a koala.

Biodiversity

Love discovering homes of animals who share our backyard. This sac is tightly woven, almost a perfect sphere. I wonder who calls this home?

Indigenous Perspectives

My name is Jessie. I am 11 years old. I love eating saltbush! When we were in Victoria, we learnt about saltbush being a bush tucker food and decided to grow some of our own.

Biodiversity

My name is Juliet. I’m 10 and I love to go on bush walks and paint flowers and I found Mistletoe Moth on a mistletoe in Jerrabomberra Reserve. It is special to me because they are one of a kind, they have red, orange and black on their body. I took this photo by myself on 15 April 2020.

Indigenous Perspectives

Benowa Early Learning Centre

We created our bush tucker garden with our Yugambeh elder, Uncle Allan. We even put curry leaves on our kangaroo that we wrapped in paperbark and cooked. We love our bush tucker garden.

Food Production

Littlehampton Primary School

My name is Levi and I’m 9. I love working on my school garden. We can plant, harvest, cook and compost. My favourite part is getting my wheelbarrow license. I also like to weed.

Indigenous Perspectives

My name is Lucy. This is a Sheoak it has yummy leaves that taste lemony and of vinegar. I love eating them at school.

Biodiversity

This forest kingfisher slammed into our window, she was frightened but surprisingly not injured, we nursed her back to good health and she was set free soon after.

Biodiversity

Hi, my name is Noemie, I am 10 and I live in Brisbane. When we renovated, we replanted the garden with plants to attract native birds like Lorikeets. The Grevillea not only attract them, they also attract Honey Eater birds and bees. Our native bees love them!

Biodiversity

I’m Owen. I’m 8. My Pa helped me ID this photo. Mantinae. Genus; Tenodera. Species; australasiae. Pa is an entomologist who lives in Tassie. I take pictures and send them to Pa to ID them for me so I can learn.

Food Production

My sister and I are germinating seeds for our garden in egg cartons. Its important to reduce waste, reuse and recycle.

Food Production

My name is Tali, we are recycling pasta glass jars and giving our neighbours mini mint gardens to connect our community and keep us all planting!

Biodiversity

Rouse Hill High School

RHHS’s Youth Environmental Society (YES), recognises that fungi recycles nitrogen so it can be used again, showing the importance of all life in our ecosystems.

Biodiversity

Wollemi Support Unit, Dapto High School

We love our native bees. Watching our busy stingless pollinators visit flower after flower reminds us to keep working hard, as a team at school.

Waste Management

My name is Ahlia, I am eleven and live in Nymboida. This is a photo of some melons in our backyard. After the bushfires we started throwing our scraps in our yard for the wildlife and then a few months later some melons grew. I love seeing re-growth especially things we can eat!

Biodiversity

This is a male Giant Carpenter Bee, he pollinates our garden. We did not know what it was, but now we do.
Arlie, 10

Biodiversity

My name is Banjo, I am 7 years old. Green ant bottoms are very tangy, you can eat them, but watch out because they bite!

Biodiversity

I love these Lorikeets in our garden, they are really funny and they hang upside down to reach the flowers to feed.
Callum, 10

Biodiversity

Hello My name is Charlie. I’m 13 years old and I really enjoy watching cicadas change/develop in our environment. Did you know that cicadas actually spend 17 years underground living off of tree root sap roots until they climb up to the top of the tree where they shed and take off into the wild?

Biodiversity

We found caterpillars in our backyard. They are friendly and will turn into butterflies. I love learning about them and feeding them leaves.
Clancy, 3

Biodiversity

Hi, my name is Daniel, I’m 15 years old. Through this photo, I’ve attempted to demonstrate the importance of indigenous plants in Australia. It is important to plant indigenous plants to help preserve the natural wildlife in Australia.

Food Production

This Sugar Baby Watermelon is important to me because I grew it from a packet of seeds. 12 seedlings grew and I planted them all into my garden but only one vine grew. I had to self pollinate the flowers and I also planted some plants to attract the bees. I love watching it grow.

Food Production

I am Eva and I am 6 years old. I helped make this scarecrow as something ate all our cucumbers. We call him ISO scary man. The scarecrow scares all the birds away.

Waste Management

We have had this compost and it is going great and lots of worms have moved in and that is the best.

Biodiversity

My name is Isabella. I love all types of animals even spiders. This is important to me because I love spiders and photography. These beautiful arachnids are so interesting and found all over my backyard and along the south coast of QLD. The Silver Orb Weaving Spider, by far, is the best creature in the world.

Biodiversity

My name is Janan. I loved seeing this butterfly. Most people think of bees pollinating. But just like bees, without butterflies we wouldn’t be here.

Biodiversity

Hello my name is Jaxon. The photo I took is of a koala in my backyard! It makes me happy to know that koalas like living in my backyard because I really love them.

Indigenous Perspectives

Jett, 11 live at Tinbeerwah, traditional owners Gubi Gubi. We have many scar trees around us, this one is special at Tinbeerwah mountain. Feels magic.

Biodiversity

My name is Kaitlin, I’m 13. I saw the frog’s shadow through the banana leaf above my head. I wanted to see what kind of frog it was. I love the curl of the leaf and how cute the frog is.

Biodiversity

We have put in a frog bog, bee hotel, veggie patches, chook house… but our newest visitors – these two blue tounges were a fabulous sight! We must have good habitat!

Biodiversity

My name is Lewis. I am four years old and I live at Elliott Heads in Queensland. I am a bug man. I like bugs because they are my pets. I like their colours and seeing them change from caterpillars to butterflies, and tadpoles to frogs. I collect everything, like geckos and cockroaches. I want to be a wildlife carer for real life.

Biodiversity

My name is Malu and I am 6 years old. I love mushrooms because some of them you can eat. The mycelium is good for the soil and I found my favourite mushroom which is rare. My backyard is the Tasmanian bushland.

Waste Management

McDonnell Creek State School

Marvelous organic mulch, fantastic for our worm cafe, giving our red worms a cosy, comfy and warm mulch bed while they work hard. Lovely.

Food Production

Hi, My name is Nuveesh. I am 6 years old. We have a vegetable garden in our backyard. We have broccoli, cabbage, silverbeet, snow peas, capsicum, beetroot, lemon trees, and lots of things. I help mummy and daddy to water everyday. And we have a reading spot… too. I love my garden.

Food Production

My name is Patrick. I am 6 years old. I like quinces because they taste yummy made into quince paste and quince jelly. I think it is a beautiful tree with nice leaves. I like hiding in the garden.

Biodiversity

Hey, I’m Seth, I’m 14 years of age and my garden is full of my mum’s cactus and plant pots. There is always a lot of bees and butterflies around the place. But this clever critter found his perfect hiding spot.

Biodiversity

Mossman C&K Community Kindergarten

Our names are Elle-Sandra and Mersane, we found earthworms while digging in our Kindy Veggie Patch. They were wiggly, squirmy and we asked our teachers so many questions about them. Finding worms was a magical learning experience!

Food Production

This year we wrapped our peach to prevent fruit fly. When we unwrapped them, we were surprised because they were massive. And they are delicious!

Food Production

My name is Ada and I am 7 years old. I’m growing a pumpkin in my backyard. It is important to me because we don’t use sprays because sprays kill not only bad insects but good ones too. We know it’s safe to eat. Growing home-grown plants means they’re more fresh and yummy.

Biodiversity

Bees are important because they go to flowers and get pollen, then fly to other flowers and spread the pollen to help flowers grow.

Biodiversity

My name is Arlo, I am 7. I love being in my garden finding creatures. I found this huge moth. It’s a convolvulus hawk moth.

Biodiversity

Hi, I am 12 years old and have really been getting into gardening since we have been staying at home every day. Right now, there is a lot of biodiversity in the garden, many little creatures. This Praying Mantis visited us today!

Biodiversity

Hi I’m Catherine, 11 years old. While sitting outside in my front yard, these weird little birds kept coming to our plant with purple flowers. We searched them on google and found out they were Humming Bird Moths. They come out at dawn and dusk and have a long proboscis (tongue). They look exactly like a Hummingbird.

Biodiversity

I’m entering a photo of an echidna that lives on our farm and regularly visits us and I think they’re an extraordinary animal.

Biodiversity

Walliston Primary School

Kids at our school together build and create amazing cubbies using natural materials from the bush playground. We are lucky to play in nature every day.

Biodiversity

My name is Davin. I am 7 years of age. I see lots of Magpies in my backyard. This photo is The Beatles Magpies Band. Because they sing a lot!!!

Biodiversity

My name is Elliot, 7. I found a blind snake in my pool! I thought it was a giant earthworm but we looked it up online and found out that it eats termites. Now my house won’t get eaten!

Indigenous Perspectives

My name is Flynn, I am an aboriginal kid living on the mid north coast. I am 4 years old. My dad is a native bee keeper, we have these stingless bees flying around. These bees are important for the environment and our veggie garden pollination, also our culture. We opened a hive to take some sugarbag honey out. Yum yum!

Biodiversity

Hi, I’m Harvey. I’m 8 years old. This picture is special to me because Echidnas come into our backyard and not everyone has an Echidna in their backyard. I love Echidnas because they are harmless and shy too.

Biodiversity

My backyard is the NSW Snowy Mountains, it is important to me because although bush fires and snow impact us, fresh growth comes back.
Isabella, 12

Biodiversity

My name is Jarrah, I’m 7 years old and I like nature. When I was with my Mum I found a beautiful camouflaged moth on the tree.

Waste Management

I’m Jay, I’m 10. I saw a magpie eating bread scraps. Bread is not good for birds. People should compost their food scraps.

Waste Management

My name is Joe, I am 13. This is my compost area I made recently next to my vegetable garden. Composting is important to me because it gives plants and soil nutrients for growth and it’s a good way to get rid of your vegetable scraps.

Food Production

Sacred Heart School Tatura

Our garden at Sacred Heart is part of our Wellbeing program. It gives children a place of tranquility and peace. It also gives the students involved a sense of accomplishment to watch the plants grow and harvest them.

Biodiversity

I feel so lucky to have a flock of Carnaby Cockatoos come into our backyard as they are endangered and only found in WA.

Waste Management

My name is Lily and I made this self watering plant system, out of recycled materials. This is important to me because it will help the environment and there won’t be plastic bottles wasted.

Biodiversity

I found this beehive in a log when I was going for a walk in one of our paddocks. Bees pollinate plants in our ecosystem.

Biodiversity

My name is Naomi and I am 3 years old. I found this golden Stag Beetle and loved its bright green colour. It flew away seconds after this photo!

Biodiversity

My name is Olivia and I’m 15 years old. I photographed this ladybird and aphids on our hibiscus in our backyard.

Biodiversity

I discovered a freshly hatched butterfly opening it’s wings. I like its long tongue! They are important pollinators and also bring me joy.
Poppy, 6

Biodiversity

My name is Shaelea, 12 yrs old and I live in Blackall in the middle of Queensland. It has been very dry for a long time, but this year is the first time I have ever seen so many butterflies in my yard and around my town. I found this caterpillar on my front fence yesterday, we think it is just a moth…. but I still think he is cute.

Biodiversity

My name is Tanner and I’m 6. My mum showed me this bug and we researched it. It was a blue flower wasp who was hunting for beetle larvae.

Food Production

I’m Veronica. I am 6. I saw some wasps on my back fence. Wasps pollinate my mango trees which provide yummy mangoes for me. I am glad their home is far from my house!