Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ...

Are these the four three-month seasons we experience every year? No! This seasonal calendar was brought to Australia at European settlement. Some parts of Australia have five seasons, while other regions experience as many as eight or nine.

Unfortunately, much of the Aboriginal knowledge about the natural cycles of Australia has been lost.

Researchers from the Gould League of Victoria are coordinating the Timelines Australia project. The project aims to rediscover the true seasons of Australia by recovering natural history information held in diaries and notebooks, and analysing it to seek patterns of environmental change.

The four major patterns of change that have been identified are: seasonal or cyclical changes which vary according to local climate; developmental or successional changes such as growth/ageing; catastrophic changes such as floods, droughts, bushfires and storms; and managed changes creative or destructive, wrought by humans.

The project also aims to encourage the setting up of ongoing event monitoring programs and databases to assist members of the community with environmental management and planning.

AEE Western Sydney has asked Natural History groups in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment to help establish a database for the region during 2000-01, then continue to report significant sightings to this central recording point. For simplification, researchers have asked for bi-monthly records, which began in July-August.

The groups are being asked to verify the information listed in the bi-monthly calendar, and add records of reliable and conspicuous indicators of seasonality and/or add indicators of the health of the local environment.

For further information contact: Ken Schaefer, schaefer@pnc.com.au.