Environment Matters Spring - Summer 2023

What’s in this issue 4

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Celebrate Sustainable Ipswich in October

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Co-designing a productive future

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Increasing resilience to future floods

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Home Sweet Home – Microbat style

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The danger of urban heat

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A solution in urban greening

10 Pollinating ideas 11

Reclaiming our waterways naturally

12 What’s On 13 Kids Corner

Ipswich’s first FOGO school leads the way

16 At your library

CREATURE FEATURE One of the first signs you’re near a Chestnut- breasted Mannikin ( Lonchura castaneothorax ) is their distinctive bell-like “tink” call. With a range stretching from Papua New Guinea, through the Kimberley region in the Northern Territory, down along eastern Australia and into New South Wales, the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin is well-known to birdwatchers, including in Ipswich. The birds prefer to inhabit swamps, mangroves and open grasslands. As omnivores they will happily snack on grass seeds or the occasional winged termite. Chestnut-breasted Mannikins are a highly social bird and can be found in large groups. They nest in colonies, their nests close together in grass clumps or reeds, less than two metres from the ground.

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Image: Chestnut-breasted Mannikin. Photographer: Gail Bryant