Calling all freelance photographers, cartoonists, journalists, podcasters and media workers! Tell us about your experiences as a freelancer, to shape the next phase of our campaign to set a floor for rates and conditions in our industry: freelancers.org.au/2025-industr...

Pleased to see #SwanHill made it onto this map of Australia 🇦🇺 available at Aldi, but can’t for the life of me imagine what J.B.T. (East of ACT) represents 🧐

Congratulations @squigglyrick.bsky.social on being shortlisted for the 2025 Walkley Book award for Mean Streak. I'm sure you'd prefer not to have had to write it, but your forensic examination of Robodebt hell means a lot to many. #booksky

Swan Hill makes top 10 of Australian towns with the cleanest air www.timeout.com/australia/ne... #airsky #pollutionsky

Wanna see some #snake bites in slow motion? Aust researchers filmed 36 species of snake lunging at a cylinder of warm, muscle-like medical gel. Fastest were vipers at 4.5m/sec. Watch where you walk! h/t @aussmc.bsky.social static-movie-usa.glencoesoftware.com/source/10.12...

How wonderful! 👏👏👏

Is Google is giving users what they want and we all have to adapt, or is AI answer mode a rug pull, asks ABC tech reporter James Purtill #journalismsky www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Between the national conference & awards, September was a big month for the #Landcare community. Delighted to see three of the Victorian finalists get the nod, including Bryce Watts-Parker, Tavish Bloom and the Merri Creek Management Committee.

Could the deals newsrooms signed with Google be used to prevent them pursuing legal action over the use of news to train AI bots?

How cute is this? Thank goodness she said yes! #agsky www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Issue 90 of Victorian Landcare & Catchment Management magazine (edited by yours truly) is live online & on the way to print subscribers. #agsky Read it here ⬇️ www.landcarevic.org.au/landcare-mag...

New blow for South Australian #beekeepers already enduring drought & low honey production with routine PIRSA surveillance detecting #varroa mites in hives east of Waikerie that were moved from Qld with permit. #agsky #beesky

Potential new niche for Australian fathers put out of work by AI - farming iguanas (and legless horses)?!🦎#agsky theconversation.com/australiana-...

Freelancers have had enough of low rates and poor conditions and are coming together to demand better across our industry. Join over 200 photographers, journalists, cartoonists, podcasters and other media workers this week to plan the next phase of our campaign! RSVP -https://meaa.io/47arUCu

The Productivity Commission’s interim report, ‘Harnessing data and digital technology’, is a blueprint for the wholesale theft of Australia’s art, media, and cultural heritage that will do nothing more than further enrich the billionaires in Silicon Valley. #StopAITheft

Idk why the productivity commission believes productivity can be derived by giving away other people's labour for free to companies with way too much money. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Over 100 freelancers have already RSVP'd for our mass meeting on August 20! Join your fellow freelance journos, cartoonists, podcasters, photographers and other media workers to plan how we take our fight for fair minimum rates across the whole industry. meaa.io/47arUCu #MEAAmedia

Non members also welcome 💪

Is it possible that AI will do to broad sectors of the economy what mechanised farm equipment did to #agriculture since the 1960s? Unlikely, says @randfish.bsky.social #agsky

So Meta has permanently disabled my Insta account (& my FB account is now suspended) because it claims I posted ch!ld exploitation material & breached community standards. I did not. Do you have contact info for a human who can fix this? Preferably an email address and/or phone number

Excellent story on ABC Landline today on the S.A algal bloom. Apart from one thing: only the wise oyster farmer at the end mentioned climate change. The cause is warmer water, altered weather patterns & excess nutrients possibly from floods. @abcnewsbot.bsky.social iview.abc.net.au/video/RF2404...

“We either choose to sustainably harvest these kangaroo populations or we will see kangaroos starve in their many thousands during droughts, and habitats will be overgrazed and degraded. It’s a choice.” Excellent article from @readfearn.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Guardian donkeys can play an important role in protecting livestock against attack by dingoes, but they must be contained and not allowed to roam conservation areas. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

'.. we don’t need to fear the “woke mind virus”. We need to grow up. And growing up takes inner-work, courage, and the humility to admit we’re all still evolving .. (plus) a few more leaders willing to go to therapy' writes @simongerman600.bsky.social www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2025...

Excellent explainer ⬇ #agsky #droughtsky #climatesky #weathersky

Australia 🇦🇺 here #ShowYourStripes day

Winter solstice at #SwanHill 🇦🇺 and yes, many of our trees and shrubs are confused

Arachnophobes look away NOW 🕷️ Did you know a young tarantula can run just as fast after losing two legs? According to US research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, they alternate between limping & running like ants 🤯 h/t @aussmc.bsky.social www.scimex.org/newsfeed/a-y...

When 74% of Australians have concerns about misinformation & 43% consider news media & journalists a major threat, you have to wonder where things went wrong. womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-b...

New from me. 🐄 🥛 Hundreds of dairy farmers are likely to pull the pin this year. Can you blame them?

Can't decide whether my #smartphone is Toxoplasma gondii, pork tapeworm or a Cordylobia anthropophaga (don't google mango worms if you have a weak stomach). What's yours? #parasites

Wowsers. The window view during an Adelaide to Queensland flight on Monday shows clouds of dust rolling into rain clouds. ✈️ 📷via ABC North & West www.facebook.com/share/p/1HvV...

Myopi Dick: Humpback whales' eyesight may be worse than we thought ... for an animal of that size, suggesting the cetaceans may more accurately be called "can't see-taceans". 👏👏 Excellent pun game from Scimex ANZ (I'll ignore the typo in the url) #sciencesky www.scimex.org/newsfeed/myo...

I do love me a good AI fail

This is a really good explainer if you’re curious about southern Victoria’s drought from two of the very best. 👇

#ICYMI A piece I wrote for @australia.theguardian.com about the relentless drought that has been marching across southern Australia (with apologies to folks in Tas & WA who are also affected) #agsky #droughtsky #climatesky www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

A good explainer for anyone wondering why we haven’t unpacked the winter woollies, trees are still flowering & bees haven’t stopped laying or storing honey #beesky #agsky #climatesky theconversation.com/its-almost-w...

... #agsky

A glimpse of what all the fashion forward farmers will be wearing this season?! #agsky #farshunsky

Five reports of #varroa mite in Victoria in the past 16 weeks, incl one north of #SwanHill. Much too close for comfort. #beesky #agsky bees.agriculture.vic.gov.au/Public/Varroa

Varroa mites and small hive beetles are threatening Australian #honey producers. Here’s how backyard #beekeepers and everyday honey lovers can help. #beesky #agsky theconversation.com/australian-h...

Jeremy Story Carter asks ‘can Australia afford the pub, coffees and Friday night takeaway?’ www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...

Job alert: Editors & senior #journalists looking for a new gig - The Guardian #SwanHill (biweekly) & Gannawarra Times (weekly) have an opening for an editor, paying 85k-105k #jobsky Details ⬇️ www.seek.com.au/job/83535039

Great webinar with Tony Windsor next week scheduled by Grain Producers Australia - register on the link #agsky www.grainproducers.com.au/post/gpa-ele...

Apparently today is #NationalPetDay. Timely then that I spotted this sticker in a library car park this morning. Is #petsky or #dogsky a thing?

I freelanced regularly (weekly, sometimes more) for Fairfax/Nine for more than a decade; the rate was $450 a piece, no expenses, and zero super. When I started working casually as a uni tutor in 2017, it was the first time I'd earned regular super. Solidarity with Nine freelancers in this fight.

Staff and freelancers at The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, WAtoday, and Australian Financial Review are standing together! Read the statement from the National House Committee below and sign the petition NOW - meaa.io/4lblCar #FairGo4Freelancers #MEAAmedia

As a freelance journo this cause is close to my heart - please sign and send a message to Nine that it's high time they sat down @withmeaa.bsky.social for meaningful discussions about rates and conditions for freelancers: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/fr...

As a reader/subscriber, the money Nine mgmt makes off you is not going to staff or freelancers. Mgmt agreed to meet freelancers last year - they've not offered anything meaningful yet on rates. Pls sign & share this. Ask where your $ go if not to staff. www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/fr...