Great Southern Bioblitz 2026: Castlemaine region

For the sixth year our friends at the Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club is the host for our region’s participation in this annual mega 4-day Citizen Scientist project. Right across the Southern Hemisphere people will be out joining the scientists who desperately need our help to build the scientific databases so necessary for better understanding and management of our local and global environments.

Join the GSB 2026 from midnight 27th November to midnight 30th November. Take your phone or camera into the bush, the park or your garden and record images or sounds of all the wild animals, birds, insects, plants and fungi you can find. You might even find a tiny resin bee, Megachile aurifrons, just like the beautiful little fellow above in the banner. He was photographed by native bee specialist extraordinaire Lynda Wilson in her garden, on a Westringea flower.

Adding your observations to the databases is easy. Simply download the iNaturalist app to your phone or laptop and upload your photos or sound recordings. They will be automatically allocated by their location to Great Southern Bioblitz 2026 – Castlemaine Region.

You might also like to attend one of the GSB special events below to learn from the experts about our amazing local species and/or how to use iNaturalist and add your observations to the global iNaturalist database.

Special Events:
Saturday November 14 th 2026 1.30pm Meet northern end of the car park north of the Railway Goods Shed, Kennedy St. Castlemaine. Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club Monthly Excursion, visitors welcome.
“Bioblitz preparation, use of iNaturalist in the field at Walmer Forest Reserve”

Saturday November 28 th 2026 8.30am to late morning. Morning tea provided.
Red, White and Blue Recreation Area, Muckleford State Forest
“What’s that Bird/Bug/Flower? Learn how to use iNaturalist to explore the natural world”
Building on the success and fame of last year’s Red, White and Blue event, your guides for 2026 will be:
Patrick Kavanagh, creator of stunning bird and macro insect photography;
Andrew Skeoch, nature sound recordist from Listening Earth, who invites us to listen deeply and learn from nature; and
Frances Cincotta from Newstead Natives, whose breadth and depth of knowledge about local flora is rich and outstanding.
The citizen science movement involves millions of people around the world noticing, recording, and documenting their observations. Every observation counts as we continue to add to the biodiversity databases, discovering and learning more about the non-human species with whom we share the planet and its future.