Goolay'yari Home River Bioblitz
Description
Join us at our Home River Bioblitz along Goolay'yari (the cooks river) in Marrickville!
What: A morning to discover our home river and the plants and animals that live there! We will spend an hour exploring and trying to find as many different species as we can. We will log these via our iNaturalist project. You can download the iNaturalist app ahead of the bioblitz if you would like. We will then spend some time sitting and drawing our favourite creatures and plants while we picnic.
Where: Goolay'yari (the cooks river) in Marrickville. Meeting Point at Cooks River Canteen in Gough Whitlam Park. Walk from Tempe Station, or there is a carpark at the park.
When: Saturday 19th September 2026, 10am - 12pm.
What to bring: Hat, water and sunscreen, and comfy clothes and shoes. Optional: snacks to share, charged phone with iNaturalist downloaded, drawing materials.
Who: Everyone is welcome! The event is being run by Dr. Zuhairah Dindar (marine ecologist and artist), Milly Caley (marine ecologist and artist) and Erin from Trash Fish Recycled (artist and facilitator of community art-making and beach cleanup events).
This event is held on unceded Gadigal and Wangal lands. We acknowledge their ancestral connection and ongoing stewardship of the river ecosystem.
Find our bioblitz iNaturalist Project below! All observations in the park on the day will automatically appear on this page, so we can see what we find.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/home-river-bioblitz-goolay-yari
The Home River Bioblitz is a global event that focuses on the biodiversity in and around rivers, which are at the heart of all ecosystems. The event connects the stories of the people that protect, restore and celebrate these valuable places. This is our local bioblitz for this event. Visit their website or read our FAQs to learn more! https://rivercollective.org/home-river-bioblitz/
FAQs
- What is a bioblitz?
A bioblitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record a wide variety of species on a specific location within a certain timeframe. Bioblitzes are a way to connect people to their environments, zooming in to details they normally pass by and at the same time generating useful data for science and conservation. We will use iNaturalist to record species and help with ID! But if you don't want to download iNaturalist don't worry, one of us can record your species for you!
- Are there bathrooms, transport?
There are public bathrooms at the location. There is also a canteen. You can walk to the site from Tempe Station, or drive and park at Gough Whitlam Park parking.
- How does iNaturalist work?
iNaturalist is a citizen science project, where you upload photos of species with the date, time and location, and other people help identify them. Download the iNaturalist app and make a profile so you can log species on the day. All iNaturalist observations in Gough Whitlam Park on the 19th of September will be counted in the project, and we can see what species we saw. They will also be included in the global Home River Bioblitz records.
Our bioblitz iNaturalist project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/home-river-bioblitz-goolay-yari
How to get started on iNaturalist: https://inaturalist.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/151000195690-how-to-sign-up-for-an-inaturalist-account
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