Join Aunty Jo Russell to hear about various plants used by First Nations Peoples for food, fibre and medicine, planted at the Westmeadows Indigenous Community Garden. Wander into Broadmeadows Valley Park to record more plants and any animals or insects for City Nature Challenge.
Car parking is available at the end of Redan Court, Westmeadows and enter the community garden through the rear gate (link to Google map).
Encourage your family and friends to join you in the great outdoors, connecting with nature. This a fun, free, and family-friendly event hosted by Hume City Council.
City Nature Challenge 2025
This community biodiversity survey is for the global City Nature Challenge (CNC) running from Friday 25 April to Monday 28 April 2025. It’s free, easy, and fun to get involved.
Bring your mobile phone or digital camera to take pictures of the wild plants, animals and fungi you see, or make sound recordings of frog or bird calls. Any observations taken over the four days, need to be uploaded to iNaturalist by Sunday 4 May, to be included in the City Nature Challenge 2025. These observations are automatically added to the CNC projects.
In this worldwide BioBlitz, over 500 cities are participating; for some cities it is a competition to make the most observations of the most species by the most people. Hume City is collaborating with over 20 local government areas and several organisations to form the Greater Melbourne project. Everyday people with no expert ecological knowledge can contribute as citizen scientists to help nature, and also learn more about the local environment.
Here are links to the iNaturalist project leader boards for CNC 2025:
To prepare for the guided walks and talks
- Install the iNaturalist app on your mobile phone and create an iNaturalist account
- Make sure your phone battery or camera is fully charged
- To learn more about iNaturalist and how to set up an account, view this recording of an iNaturalist training webinar with Dr Luis Mata from 2021
- Wear weather-appropriate clothing, bring a rain/wind-proof jacket
- Wear safe, fully-enclosed walking shoes to go in long grass
- Bring your own drink bottle and snacks
- Some binoculars will be available to borrow, or bring along your own
- Hard copies of the Birds of Hume and Fauna of Hume will be available at the event, or find digital versions at Discover Nature in Hume.
Contact for more information
Laura Gabriel
Urban Biodiversity Officer, Hume City Council
environment@hume.vic.gov.au
(03) 9205 2200
Important City Nature Challenge 2025 dates
25 April to 28 April: take photos of wild plants, animals and fungi in your garden, local park or creek
4 May: upload all your observations to iNaturalist
25 Apri to 4 May: identify observations submitted to iNaturalist
5 May: global winners announced
Hume City's Guided Nature Walks and Talks