Art, Rights
Lights in the windows at Waterloo residences

Lighting up the windows of Waterloo to make statement about public housing

Mary Laumua has become an activist for her community of public housing tenants in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo.

The 37-year-old community worker and mother of four, including seven-month-old baby Nayla, wants to shine a light on the struggles of public housing tenants facing large-scale redevelopment and dislocation.

It’s important because we want everyone in Australia and around the world to know that we matter, she said.

Ms Laumua is part of a small team who have reached out to hundreds of tenants in two high-rise towers set for demolition.

They go into homes to install coloured lights in their windows.

There’s a lot of anxiety around it all, so the lights are a way of expressing how they’re feeling.

We’ve been allowed this glimpse to go into these peoples’ homes, not only to install a light, but see a glimpse of who they are and how their lives matter.

You might just be the one person that makes their day by coming [and] installing those lights — via ABC News

Wildlife
Maratus melindae corus

Meet the newest peacock spiders: ‘People still get excited when they see them’

This photo isn’t fake.

These tiny, dazzling spiders are 100 per cent real — and scientists have just discovered another five species and sub-species in Western Australia.

They’re called peacock spiders and self-described peacock spiderman Jurgen Otto has spent years discovering and photographing them.

When he first spotted one of the unique creatures in bushland near Sydney about a decade ago, he said he almost stepped on it.

I took a photograph and then later I went home, looked at it on the computer and was just blown away, Dr Otto said.

When I started with all this, there was not a single picture or video of a peacock spider on the internet.

Nine years later now, you get many thousand hits when you type peacock spider into Google.

The reaction of people when they see the latest finds remains the same.

One could think that the novelty of this would all have worn off by now, but people still get excited when they see them, he said.

Each new species is a complete surprise — the patterns and colours of each species are so different and so unpredictable, you never know what the next one and its display and courtship dance will look like.

Most of the five discoveries were spotted in south-western WA, but peacock spiders can be found across southern Australia.

Dr Otto estimates there are now more than 60 species and sub-species of Australian peacock spiders. Thirty-nine of them were named by himself and fellow spider expert David Hill — via ABC News

Wildlife

Golden Jackal Pups / Burgers’ Zoo

Burgers’ Zoo is now home to five Golden Jackal pups. Until recently, they have been safely tucked away with mum in their underground den, which makes it difficult for keepers to pinpoint their exact birthdate. They are now spending more time above ground and keepers estimate them to be about three-months-old — via ZooBorns