Karen's Story

Karen Roberts: Mother, wife, nature based recreation and community bushland education advocate.

My husband (Daniel) and I have two keen butterfly spotting kids: Oliver (9yo) and Owen (7yo). Our real interest in butterflies was sparked by a CWCN ‘kids’ school holiday walk along Cubberla Creek in the 2021 school holidays (just prior to COVID). Following that, our parents gave Owen a butterfly book, Jutta gave Oliver a pocket field guide, and their passion grew (while I quietly guided the excitement from the stalls 😊).

I was surprised for my 46^th birthday with a magnificent poster of Butterflies of NE NSW and SEQ and another showing the Lifecycles of Swallowtails. The best gift was seeing how blown away Daniel was after visiting the house of the president of the BOIC, to collect the posters, and witnessing the butterfly sanctuary he had in his suburban back yard in Indooroopilly.  

We were all hooked in the search for more knowledge about why butterflies visit us in large numbers during the warmer months, what they need to survive, where we could go to see more varieties and how we could learn more about them.

Armed with my amazing new visual resources (and building on the kids interest in wanting to go out into the bush and search for butterflies) I used my birthday as an excuse to drag friends (braving the heat) out on a butterfly walk through the Anstead Bushland Reserve. We had a ball swooping, identifying and releasing.

Between the 4 of us we now own seven (7) nets, including a fold up net that fits snuggly into my mountain biking backpack. Although I have often not known it at the time, I’ve stumbled across a few beauties (as I catch my breath after riding up a ridgeline) in my local bushland reserve and I discover how special they are after sending photos through to BBBC experts for confirmation of identification. I find exercising so distracting between the months of September to April and, although I hope my distraction will never lead me to being stuck in the mangroves on a rising tide over crocodile infested waters of Darwin Harbour looking for caterpillars, I often get home a few hours late from a ride through the local bushland reserves (and having completed only 10km of a planned 30-40km mountain bike ride …but so satisfied with tens of butterfly species counted!).

I’m an active member of my local Catchment Group (Pullen Pullen Catchment Group) and have recently become entangled within the Bradley Method of Bush regeneration at Anstead bushland Reserve (a sensitive weed retardation approach that tips the regeneration power away from the introduced weeds and back towards the natives). Over the past 6 months (give or take Covid bushcare morning cancellations) with the good rains so far this season we’ve already seen so many new native species emerge, which haven’t previously been documented in the Reserve, and the majority of which are important food plants for our native butterflies.

My relatively recent motivation for being involved in bushcare, and butterfly identification, and learning about the local plants and animals, is to encourage Oliver and Owen (and their friends) to visit our natural areas, experience the value, notice the extraordinary and develop caring and respectful connections to our environment. One of our most favourite activities is to wander through the local reserves after a heavy summer storm downpour and watch how the creeks, bush and animals come alive.

I’m also an active member of my local mountain bike club and the Brisbane Off Road Riders Alliance Conservation Committee and trailcare group. I’m passionate about learning as much as I can about our local environs and connecting people with the natural values that support their enjoyment of the bushland reserves (and which support our native flora and fauna within those reserves).

My involvement with BBBC has connected me with some wonderfully knowledgeable and passionate people who have inspired me, and all of my boys, to want to learn more about butterflies and the environment upon which they (and we) depend.

In my quest for knowledge, my fold up net has travelled with me to metropolitan Sydney, Ulladulla, Stanthorpe, Noosa, Canberra and Tasmania so far. My life/our family life, as a butterfly adventurer/s has only just begun and we are so excited to continue learning.