I’m thrilled to announce a new colouring book about Australian wildlife. Dynamic Lagoons: Colour the world of the upland wetlands celebrates the wonderful ‘Upland wetlands of the drainage divide of the New England Tableland Bioregion’ an ecosystem that is listed as threatened at State and National level.
Download your free copy of Dynamic Lagoons: Colour the world of the upland wetlands here.
“Only 59 of these rare wetlands remain in the New England Tablelands. These lagoons are shallow waterbodies that occur in depressions in the landscape. They are home to an incredibly rich plant and animal community. Yet each lagoon is very different. They can be small or huge, deep or shallow, mostly wet or mostly dry. They also change over time, and can be full of water one month and dry the next. We hope you enjoy finding out more about the lagoons as you colour in these ancient landscapes.”
Manu Saunders, Deborah Bower and John Hunter are the dynamic team from the University of New England, Armidale, who secured funding for the book, and provided the concept, scientific information and story. I designed the pages, created the illustrations and published the book.
The funding for this book was provided by the New South Wales Environmental Trust’s Saving our Species program, and the project is part of a larger a partnership with the University of New England, Northern Tablelands Local Land Service, Armidale Council, Uralla Council, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Traditional Owners, and the local communities of the New England Tablelands.
Learn more about the Dynamic Lagoons project, including how you can participate, at dynamiclagoons.org
This book was a long time in the making. I visited the New England Tablelands in February 2020, and was shown around some of the dynamic lagoons by Manu, Deb and John. I also explored more of these diverse wetlands myself, taking lots of photos and doing some sketches. As always, I like to spend time in an ecosystem and take in as much detail and variation as possible, before I start to create the illustrations for a book like this.
Above: Deb Bower looking for waterbirds at Dangars Lagoon
Dynamic Lagoons: Colour the world of the upland wetlands is my fifth colouring book exploring threatened species, ecosystems and places of Australia. Previous titles are:
Bimblebox Wonderland
Riverina Grassland Ramblings
The Southern Bell Frog Story
Wondrous Box-Gum Grassy Woodlands
And a sixth colouring book about Mount Kaputar is in preparation.
But Dynamic Lagoons: Colour the world of the upland wetlands is my only colouring book so far to be created around a story, thanks to the creative vision of Manu, Deborah and John. We hope you enjoy it!
“Discover the dynamic world of upland wetlands, a threatened ecological community of the New South Wales Northern Tablelands. Join Billie and friends as she discovers the special ecosystem on her property and finds out how she can protect it.
An amazing variety of plants and animals call these wetlands home. Peer beneath the water to find yabbies and turtles. Find the baby birds hidden in the reeds. Colour in the wildflowers and butterflies. A key at the back of the book will help you identify them, and show you who to look for.
Where do your favourite wetland plants and animal live?”
