Lisa Cox

4 days ago | theguardian.com | Lisa Cox

A former magistrate and one of Australia’s most experienced scientists have launched an extraordinary attack on the New South Wales government’s logging agency, describing it as effectively a “criminal organisation” that should be shut down after a string of court convictions. Prof David Heilpern, a NSW magistrate between 1998 and 2020 and now the dean of law at Southern Cross University, said the state’s Forestry Corporation should be “disbanded” as it was was no longer fit for purpose.

6 days ago | theguardian.com | Lisa Cox

A 6km bicycle and pedestrian path that will run along a 100-year-old rail corridor and connect two of Sydney’s most popular waterside walks is set to open later this year. The Minns government said on Friday that the GreenWay, stretching north from the Cooks River in Earlwood through the inner west to the Bay Run on Parramatta River at Iron Cove – was 80% complete. The $60m project will intersect with the south-west Metro line due to be completed in 2026.

6 days ago | theguardian.com | Lisa Cox

For the first time in 42 years, critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters have returned to Cardinia in south-east Victoria, where they were found until the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983. Helmeted honeyeaters are charismatic, energetic and curious, according to Dr Kim Miller, the manager of threatened species at Healesville sanctuary. Even though the birds can be quite territorial, they’re social and will shake their gold and black feathers in “a really beautiful greeting to each other”.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Lisa Cox

An Australian boatbuilder has launched what it describes as the world’s largest battery-power ship, describing it as a “a giant leap forward in sustainable shipping” and the “most important” project it has ever done. Incat, a manufacturer based in Tasmania, constructed the ship – called Hull 096 – after being contracted by the South American ferry operator Buquebus to build a vessel to run between Buenos Aires and Uruguay.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Lisa Cox |Graham Readfearn

A common agricultural pesticide caused the mass deaths of 200 little corellas across Newcastle in March, the New South Wales environment watchdog has confirmed. The Environment Protection Authority said toxicology tests had detected the presence of barley grain and the pesticide fenitrothion in all the deceased birds. Fenitrothion is a pesticide commonly used in agriculture to control insect pests.