An inspiring talk was given by Dr. Charles Meredith at SGA’s Annual General Meeting recently.  He is a highly respected ecologist with extensive experience in natural systems and conservation biology, is a trustee for the Trust for Nature and a councillor on the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council.  He founded Biosis Research, Australia’s largest ecological and heritage consulting firm, from which he retired 5 years ago.

His talk discusses how biodiversity is under threat throughout the world for a range of reasons and at a range of scales, nowhere more so than in urban and peri-urban environments.  Examples of losses over the last 50 years in Victoria set the scene. He addresses the need for active biodiversity management at larger scales and how an expanded concept of ‘gardening’ might be needed to achieve this. Then, examples of unexpected survival of biodiversity in greater Melbourne reveal how home and professional gardeners can contribute to the maintenance or even the improvement of local and regional biodiversity.