The Board of Eucalypt Australia is delighted to announce the 2025 Dahl Fellowships.
Jessica Harwood’s fellowship “Our Home Among the Gum Trees: A comic art education project about Australia’s eucalypts and the conservation challenges they face“ has the primary aim of inspiring love for and increasing understanding of Australia’s eucalypts. Jess will produce a suite of educational resources in the comic artform that can be freely used for education to protect and raise awareness of Australia’s eucalypt trees, forests and the biodiversity they support. Jess will make these resources freely available for community groups, teachers, not-for-profits, and individuals wanting to protect remnant forests and street trees. Please keep an eye on socials and contact Eucalypt Australia to access these resources.
Jess is an emerging cartoonist, and her work has already been featured in the Guardian, and appeared in the annual “Behind the Lines” Political Cartoon Exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Government House for 2023. You can follow Jess through her instagram @jessharwoodart
Peter McHugh’s fellowship “The Working Forest – telling the story of Victoria’s rich forests and bushfire heritage.“ will see Peter consolidate and advance his documentation of Victoria’s native eucalypt forests and their bushfire heritage over the last two centuries into an e-book format. Peter started this work seven years ago and has amassed considerable research. Social media resources will accompany this. Peter will illustrate the importance of native forests and public lands to Victoria’s economic and social development since the 1850s and the evolving community and political attitudes towards native eucalypt forests and bushfire management, together with the progressive shifts in the balance of their preservation and productive use.
Peter is a retired forester with deep experience in forestry and bushfire emergency management. The Board of Eucalypt Australia feels that this is an important and timely work to complete with the cessation of native timber harvesting in Victoria’s public forests in 2024.
You can follow Peter through his facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/forestcommisionheritage
Vicky Shukuroglou’s fellowship “ACE Guide to Eucalypts Melbourne” acknowledges that identifying eucalypts can be (is) difficult. This project aims to create a locally-specific, compact, user-friendly guidebook for the 33 Indigenous species of eucalypts in the Melbourne area. Following the success of Eucaflip (Tas), and modelled on the ACE Guide to Eucalypts Brisbane, the guide will equip people with local knowledge. This will help people feel more connected to place, make better informed decisions, and be motivated to take protective and regenerative action. The importance of the ecology of eucalypt forests will be highlighted.
The Board saw a practical need for the ACE Guide. Vicky produces some incredible photography, has co-authored “Loving Country” with Bruce Pascoe, and is active in local conservation efforts via Nillumbio, a biodiversity-focused group she co-founded in the Nillumbik Shire. https://www.nillumbio.org
The Board acknowledges and appreciates all applicants for the 2025 Dahl Fellowships. We are consistently impressed with the diversity of applications, and this year, the quality was exceptionally high.
