Praxis Environmental

16/12/2025

Big things afoot in 2026 — watch this space! 👀

13/12/2025

Trailer restoration ✅

24/11/2025

Truganina Swamp, Altona 🌱🦅💧

27/10/2025

Anglesea, Victoria 📸 🌱

03/10/2025

This cracking clay profile — exposed due to sewerage and drainage works for a subdivision development near Mickleham, Victoria — was formed on the basalt plains of the Newer Volcanics Province (between ~4.5 million and ~5,000 years ago).

The dark, blocky clays are derived from the slow weathering of lava flows, creating soils rich in smectite group clay minerals that shrink and crack when dry, and swell when wet. Known as Vertosols, these soils are highly reactive — challenging for engineers and farmers alike — and yet they are also productive, supporting native grasslands and grassy woodlands, intensive cropping, and livestock grazing.

It’s a poignant landscape that serves reminder of western Victoria’s dynamic volcanic past. 🌋 🪏

23/09/2025

Fresh logo 👌

23/03/2025

09/02/2025

Garden Evolutions #1:

Gardens are never static, which is part of the reason I am so intrigued by them. As vernacular spaces, they are constantly being reimagined and reconfigured. 🌱

These photos capture the evolution of the car-port at the side of my (rental) house between January 2022 to February 2025.

The fake grass had to go, pronto. 🙅‍♂️

24/11/2024

I managed to get out of the office last Thursday for a tour of Melbourne Strategic Assessment (MSA) Conservation Area 24, which includes Kalkallo Commons and Donnybrook Cemetery. Hume City Council’s Conservation Team, the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action’s MSA team, and Steve Sinclair from the Arthur Rylah Institute also attended, eliciting a fertile cross-pollination of ecological knowledge.

Kalkallo Commons is one of the last remaining grassland swards in Greater Melbourne that exhibits a shrub-pea strata. This unique floristic layer includes species such as Chaffy Bush-pea, Creeping Bossiaea, and Grey Parrot-pea.

This often overlooked and yet fascinating gilgai plain landscape is also home to nationally significant plant species, including Gilgai Blown Grass, Matted Flax-lily, and Yam Daisy. It also serves as an important corridor for fauna, including Button Quail, Tussock Skink, and Little Whip Snake, linking habitat at Craigieburn Grasslands and Bald Hill. 🌾

18/11/2024

Latest DIY project: A ‘rustic’ chest I constructed (mostly) from recycled materials.