The first Mimosa Rocks National Park Bioblitz is set to occur on November 7-8, following on from other successful events in Bermagui and the Panboola Wetlands. 

“We have had three here and only half a dozen of them have happened in Australia,” organiser Libby Hepburn said. 

“So you could say we are leading Australia in this thing.”

The bioblitz is a chance to record wildlife and explore the 30km of coastline as well as the forest in the park. 

“It is our most beautiful national park, so we think this will be a good bioblitz,” Ms Hepburn said. 

“Hopefully by the end we will have a really good list of as much biodiversity as we can, and possibly even a few new species.” 

Part of the reason why the Bega Valley has had so many bioblitzes compared to the rest of Australia is due to the efforts of Ms Hepburn, who first learnt about them in England and thought they would complement the work done in the Atlas of Life. 

The first bioblitz took place in Bermagui in 2012, and Ms Hepburn said because everyone enjoyed it so much they wanted to do it again. 

The Mimosa Rocks Bioblitz will have many researchers around to answer questions about the environment. 

“One of the benefits of the bioblitz is that we can a large number of scientists and naturalists together, I think we have 25 this time, so if you have any interests or questions now is the time to talk to the experts,” Ms Hepburn said. 

She was hoping to have around 250 people attend, but it would depend on the weather. 

What makes this event even more special is delegates from around the world attending the World Park’s Congress in Sydney will visit Mimosa Rocks during the bioblitz.

Occurring once every 10 years, the congress aims to demonstrate the role of protected areas in conserving nature in addition to delivering ecosystem services. 

For more details on the Mimosa Rocks Bioblitz visit www.alcw.org.au. 

PLENTY of surveys are getting prepared for the Mimosa Rocks National Park Bioblitz.

Around 40 are lined up, which include activities such as spotlighting for possums, small mammal, bird and reptile surveys as well as looking for rare birds.

More unique activities include surveys for ground parrots, which are quite rare, searching for eating habitats of glossy black cockatoos and activities while snorkelling.

There have been reports of koala sightings around the national park and so there will be a survey for evidence of a remnant koala population.

Participants will spot birds with binoculars, look at animals in traps to decide what they are, takes photos of flora, canoe on Tanja Lagoon and look at bugs under a microscope.

Doug Reckord will be running school programs, leading the 19 pupils from Tanja Public School in an intensive bioblitz at Gillards Beach.