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This podcast digs into power, pain and politics in Australia today. Each episode features communications strategist Nelli Stevenson in sharp, funny conversations with expert guests such as energy analysts, social commentators, research experts, and environmental campaigners. If you're over jargon, both-sidesing, carefully crafted talking points, and instead want sharp, grounded conversations that join the dots between personal pain and political power, this is for you.
The Nelli Stevenson show is recorded on Wurundjeri Country.
Friends,
I have been so excited for our next guest to come on the show.
He is the closest thing I have ever met to a living Steve Irwin.
He is a true blue Aussie legend, all-round nature lover, and nature educator, and he
specializes in pollinators.
theydies and gentlethems please welcome Clancy Lester to the show.
Clancy, thanks for coming on.
No worries thanks so much for having me, Nelli I'm absolutely pumped.
Have a good chat.
it's it's just a joy to have you.
So for those of us who aren't necessarily familiar with your story and your upbringing,
who are you?
Where are you from?
What do you do and what do you love most about it?
Yeah, so I grew up in a small country town of a few thousand people in Numurkah in
northeast Victoria.
And yeah, I grew up obsessed with nature, obsessed with yeah, Steve Irwin and David
Attenborough and have yeah just followed those dreams and passions to educate and advocate
for the environment and nature.
your love for native bees started with researching stingless bees in Arnhem Land with the
Yolngnu people.
What can you tell us about that?
Yeah, so I was super lucky to do a masters research project up in yeah, North East Arnhem
Land right up at the top of the Northern Territory.
And I just learnt so much about, you know, the connection to country and and the like the
importance of native bees in the ecosystem and and just how awesome they are.
And it's just got me absolutely obsessed with native bees, with indigenous culture and and
everything in between.
What's the coolest thing about native bees?
Or I think the fact that there's just so many different types, like there's over two
thousand types of native bees or species in Australia.
And, you know, for every flower that you look at, there's probably a native bee or
pollinator that's like specialised just for that one.
And that's why I find biodiversity so incredible.
So how does that work?
There's there's a a flower and a bee especially for that flower.
Yeah, a lot a lot of the times, like especially over the millions of years that there's
been for these adaptations and evolution to occur, there's some really, really
interesting, like specialized behaviors and adaptations that you see in the pollinated
world.
Like for instance, there's a there's a Euhesma species of bee, which is only a few
millimeters long, and it's over time managed to start to collect nectar from things that
are traditionally
are pollinated by birds, like the one s one sided bottle brush.
And so it's like mouth parts that it extracts the nectar from are longer than its whole
body because it needs to make up for being a small little bee.
my gosh, that's so cool.
And like what do you think is the most fascinating combination of bee and flower that we
have here?
Or I I there's there's species of orchids.
This might be a cheating if it's not particularly bees, but wasps are also pollinators.
And there's species of orchids that trick male wasps into thinking that they're getting
like getting laid a and mating with a flower.
And that's how the flower gets pollinated, thanks to these male wasps.
And either the f the the actual flower itself looks like a female wasp and some of them
even smell like a female wasp.
And they get the yams.
What's the yams?
my god, that's hilarious.
I can't believe that.
So the wasp thinks it's getting a root.
Yes, literally.
And and
goes off and thinks it's getting a root with another flower.
Yeah, and it's pollinating these rare orchids.
How good is nature?
my god.
And so something I really wanted to talk to you about because I feel a bit funny about
insects, right?
And not for reasons that you'd think.
I mean, I have seen pictures of you with like cave spiders crawling across your face,
which makes me want to just hurl my breakfast back up again.
But um when I see insects, sometimes it really unearths my eco-anxiety, particularly
things like butterflies, because
I see a beautiful butterfly and I think, gee, I haven't seen one of you in a while.
And that can sometimes send me into a bit of a spiral.
And something I'm really curious to learn about from you, as you know, someone who is so
passionate about climate change is, you know, Australians understand climate at a high
level, that it causes more droughts, bushfires, and floods.
what are we not seeing?
What is happening to those delicate sort of little ecosystems and small things beneath our
feet that
We really should pay more attention to.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, like we were talking about before, about how there's these special relationships
between pollinators and flowers or between animals and plants.
When you have these tiny little shifts in the ecosystem, it can have such a drastic
change.
Because if you have a a specialist pollinator, like that wasp that gets tricked into
thinking it's getting laid and it's pollinating the flower, if if the temperatures are
warmer, like so if if the the seasons are sort of like shifting a little, they're a little
bit out of whack.
That flower might flower a few weeks earlier or a few month or a month earlier.
And then when that wasp emerges, it's looking for, you know, that those females or it's
looking for that flower, but that flower might have already come and gone.
So then when you have these specialist relationships that get wrecked or, you know,
shifted by changes to the climate, that that can, you know, end a whole species.
hate that idea that there's a little bee out there looking for its flower and its flower's
already gone.
that's something that's very well and truly playing out, as we speak, as the as the warmer
weather from climate change or these, you know, extreme weather events that are, you know,
triggering different environmental phenomena that yeah, that bees might there might be
species of bees looking for the flowers that have already finished flowering.
And I understand that, you know, bees are really, really crucial and pollinators are
really crucial in like agricultural level food production.
But like what are the sort of upstream impacts that we could expect to see from something
like a specific pollinator losing its specific flower?
What would what are the sort of cascading impacts that we might see from that?
Well, you have those when you have those mutualisms where, you know, that flower might
depend on that special
pollinator that that is fully disrupted.
Or you might have, you know, just the overall abundance of things.
like we see this in, you know, eucalyptus when all of the gum trees are flowering at the
same time and it's like a mass abundance event of like just a celebration for pollinators.
You know, when if
If the eucalyptus thank thanks to climate change they might be, you know, flowering
earlier, flowering later, then there might be less insects around when the birds are meant
to be nesting or, you know,
they're meant to be collecting insects to feed their babies.
So you see these things like cascading along the food chain.
It's it starts the flower, then it impacts the insects, then it impacts, you know, the
frogs and lizards and birds that are feeding on those insects, then it affects the
predators of those.
frogs and lizards and birds and then it just goes all the way and then it does like a full
loop.
So that there's these tiny little like disruptions to an ecosystem can filter all the way
along.
Gee, it's incredible, you know, because as y as I'm sure you know, Australia is, world
champion of extinctions.
It's it's right up there for deforestation as well.
But do you think that our elected representatives are aware enough of this?
absolutely not.
No, not not for a second.
I think that especially in inside where the decisions are getting made, there's very, very
little environmental representation.
We've seen this in the recent budget, you know, nine nine percent overall decrease in in
funding towards, you know, on the ground biodiversity and and nature based funding.
And, you know, our very environment minister, Murray Watt,
the whole report when it came out, everything he spoke about
was about speeding up the approvals for development and and housing and he never actually
touched on any any sort of thing around the environment.
It was all about yeah regulatory reform and and housing development that was, you know,
grouped in with the with the environmental part of the budget.
So it's yeah it's just it is really concerning.
And that's so insane to me because at least Tanya Plibersek took photos with koalas and
stuff, right?
Like at least she was she was approving all these horrendous coal and gas extensions, but
she was still pretending to, you know, like be really there loving those animals and
stuff.
I mean, what do you think it says about the state of our politics when our Minister for
the Environment is more focused on cutting green tape and speeding up approvals than he is
with the extinction crisis that we're in right now?
Well, I I thi I think it's it can be a reflection on what the public perception is
because, you know, like what you put out the other day around the the the major concerns
of the everyday Australian at the moment and the environment isn't was I'm not sure if it
was in the top ten of the average person, you know, we're numbers yeah, it's way down.
So we're you know, we're very concerned about the cost of living, very concerned about,
you know, housing affordability, all these all these sorts of things.
So you can understand why it's not an immediate issue to some to some people, but the
environment is something that impacts everything.
You know, it if if we don't have, you know, clean rivers, if we don't have
clean air to breathe,
if we don't have healthy soils for agriculture, it's impacting our food security, it's
impacting our health system.
It's it it's going across the board.
So it might not even be something that you immediately think about, but
Across the board it is so, so important that we do protect all aspects of the environment
and nature.
So speaking of politics, I mean we're in a pretty alarming state right now with the rise
and the rise of one nation.
As someone who specializes in pollinators and the environment, what alarms you most about
that?
what alarms me the most is
the policies of one nation is n not particularly suited towards the environment or
indigenous rights.
And they're two things that go um hand in hand in having
healthy country and having healthy people.
And that that's what really concerns me, the
election was won on climate action and we haven't seen that.
And the the fact that this rise in one nation will not be a better solution for the
environment or for climate action.
It'll more than likely be a lot worse.
So that that's what really does concern me.
Yeah, you mentioned
indigenous rights there and it's a big part of, your public identity that you're a big fan
of indigenous knowledge and seasons and like fully acknowledging that we're a bunch of
tidy whiteys from Victoria here.
But what do you wish that other white folks better understood or appreciated about First
Nations knowledge and customs?
it's just everything.
There like like you just said, there's there's so many different aspects, like whether
it's the connection to country, whether it's the the knowledge of the seasons and and the
weather, whether it's the
incredible knowledge around like the the plants and animals and the way that everything
interacts or just being able to care for not only, you know, what's
currently available but also caring for future generations and as well.
And that's really not what we see in you know in modern society at the moment.
Where do you think folks should start on their journey?
What's a good first step and then a good next step for people who want to be better
educated about this?
Definitely learning, you know, whose Aboriginal land you're on for starters and seeing if
there's resources from your local rap and just trying to, yeah, absolutely immerse
yourself.
And then also like going back to the roots and and learning about, you know, Australia's
history, 'cause that's often something that the everyday Aussie doesn't know much about.
There's so much of our of our history that we're not taught and that goes a long way in
understanding
why some so many of these issues are so prevalent in modern society.
The fact that we're not aware of the intergenerational trauma and a lot of these things
which have such deep impacts.
And that's definitely something that we need to get our heads around so that we can that
we can acknowledge that and that we can we can, you know, move forward and walk together
afterwards.
I was also very lucky to go to a school where we had a year 'cause you know, in in year
nine the the year that just sort of doesn't count at high school 'cause that's when people
are going feral and hitting puberty and so like at my school, year nine there's sort of a
write off and one of the things that they do uh through the year is like an indigenous
immersion where all the students can go away for one or two weeks to go and live in an
indigenous community or volunteer at an indigenous school.
So I was very lucky in that um regard that I I had an opportunity to to really see
firsthand and learned and have a lived experience.
but but like my my whole schooling, like I remember, you know, learning Japanese and
Italian and French and I learn about the pyramids.
Like I remember all of this all this history I learnt and it's really not the same in same
degree of
what w what I learn about indigenous culture.
So it's it's definitely something that was was touched on.
But, you know, I I can still recall so much of this foreign history that I learned and and
not so much around about Australia, you
Considering you are a pretty, you know, straight down the line, ridgey diggy, true blue
Aussie bloke, and you know, you can be read that way.
What do you think more Aussie blokes need to be aware of considering this rise of the far
right?
I think that they just need to be aware of more than what they read in a Facebook article
or headline and actually go on to, you know, how they vote and see what one nation is
actually supporting.
Because like like what we we you know, we see so many of the comments that pop up or so
many things that pop up it's like, you know, Pauline speaks for the people or she's not
afraid to to speak her mind or, you know, she's for us, she's for the Aussie Battler I'm
like, do these people not see that
She's literally, has not attended Parliament for more than half of her, paid responsive
duties to be at Senate inquiries and voting in the Senate.
She's not even there half the time Because she's having lunches with mining magnates and
foreign
multinational conglomerates.
Like she's she's not for the Aussie Battler She's she spends all of her time with
billionaires.
I'm not sure if the typical Aussie that thinks that she's gonna speak for them is is
seeing this or like isn't aware.
I don't get this because she's clearly not for the everyday Aussie.
She's she's definitely feeding into the into the lies and into the hands of billionaires.
Absolutely.
And I mean when you look at your her voting record, you can go to places like
theyvoteforyou.org.au and you can see what she has actually voted on throughout her
parliamentary career.
And it's things like reducing women's rights, winding back, bodily autonomy, reducing
workers' rights, cutting, paid parental leave, all of these sorts of things that make the
everyday Aussie's life worse.
And I guess what I would love to know is what are your thoughts?
on what Labor needs to do.
What does Labor need to do between now and the election to win people back?
think maybe it's what what Labor
should not be doing, like approving fossil fuel projects.
You know, that we've seen we've seen nearly forty
in the in the current term that have been approved.
and then also data centres is another one.
We we should not be approving data centres at any point.
how are we gonna be reaching these net zero goals by twenty fifty?
And then,
free public transport is always always good for for the public and actually finding ways
to to benefit the everyday Aussie.
And maybe like not doing things like privatizing our ticketing system in the first place.
Like, I remember when they brought in a privatized ticketing system, I was like, what is
wrong with the Metcard?
Why do we need a corporate ticketing system with Myki This is the stupidest thing I've
ever heard of.
And then you get these pieces of plastic that expire.
That was the craziest thing for me.
It was like I tried to tap on and it was like, no, your Myki has expired.
And I'm like,
a piece of plastic that expires.
What is the purpose of it expiring?
So I pay another six dollars to get another Myki Like it just it blows my mind.
And so thinking about Mykis in Victoria, what is happening right now in Victoria that is
the most concerning to you at a local level?
I would say the most concerning thing that's happening in Victoria is these data centers
popping up all over the place.
And the fact that they're managing to even skip the public consultation level, which is,
you know, for for development and these sorts of things that that's going to be impacting
local people.
So like I lived in Port Melbourne, for example, and three new data centers popped up and
there was never even any chance to give any feedback or to, you know
There was no public consultation done.
They were just they just streamlined the approval of these places.
And what makes it worse is they're they're surrounded by Westgate Park, which is one of
the one of the few awesome nature reserves, you know, in an urban environment.
And it's just gonna be, you know, littered now with data centres that are gonna be
producing noise and sound and all sorts of pollution.
Tell our listeners about Westgate Park.
What do you love about it?
It's well what what what I really love about it is the fact that it was originally a w
like a dumping ground and through decades and decades of volunteers planting and planting
trees and plants and cleaning it up turned into this like nature oasis and there's so many
species of birds and native plants, all sorts of things in between and it's within ten
minutes of the C B D.
It is really awesome and I spend heaps of time there on the massive
Massive fan of it.
something that I have always been a big fan of is the idea that
Action is the antidote to despair.
So for people like you and me who care heaps about nature, who care about the environment,
often we are compelled to do something, to start volunteering, to join local groups.
And I have been really inspired lately about your passion for young people and what young
people are doing to tackle both the climate and the biodiversity crisis.
Tell me about young people.
Well, absolutely.
We're we're we care the most.
You know, we're we're the ones that are stepping into this this future that um and we need
to be the ones that know about it and we need to be the ones that are looking after it.
And I definitely find that, you know, looking at the numbers of these surveys and reports
and research about, you know, youth mental health, it is just on the sharpest decline and
climate anxiety and there's so many things that are contributing to, you know, such
such concerning mental health of our young people.
And one of the best ways that I I find, you know, one of the best solutions is to be out
in nature.
And, you know, going out and planting plants and volunteering and like be being part of
the change to make the world a better place is one of the best ways to, you know, address
the climate anxiety and and the the feeling of, you know, despair that that people
people are being met with in in recent times.
when there is like sort of no hope, you you're you're seeing your headlines, your doom
scrolling, you're seeing all the negativity in the world.
Sometimes you are the hope and like the act of doing something and getting out there and
and making the world a better place is what what not only gives you hope but what is the
hope.
So that's why I just absolutely advocate for people to go and get involved in these, you
know, nature groups and and volunteering groups.
And it can be completely life-changing as well.
Like I was a fashion photographer in that was the first sort of wave of my career.
And I was at probably one of the loneliest and saddest points of my life when I I heard
that Sea Shepherd was based in Melbourne.
And I went up and I sort of knocked on the side of one of the ships and was like, Hey,
I've got some vegan groceries for you guys.
You guys are really cool.
I could never dream of doing what you did.
And then I started volunteering with them and here I am sort of twelve years later and I
have built a career, um, a quite a successful career of being a communications consultant
for environmental and climate issues.
And so it's like
It not only gets you out of the house, you meet people you like, you meet like-minded
people as well.
Cause like when you're sitting there churning up like I was about the fact that, my god,
there are whales being harpooned to death in Antarctica every year, pregnant ones so they
can double their take.
What the actual fuck?
And then I meet other people who are also worried about that.
I don't know if you've ever seen the film Lady in the Tramp, but there's this scene where
they're in the pound and there's this old Russian, like saggy old Russian dog, and he
goes, Miserable beings, find other miserable beings, then he's happy.
And it's like, I sort of felt like that when I started volunteering.
It was like I was really miserable.
I was so t torn up about this issue, and then picking little nurdles and doing beach
cleans on Williamstown Beach with other people who were
really worried about the same thing as me, like completely changed my life.
Yeah, absolutely.
There there is there's definitely something in that.
Like f you do find your people.
And that that's also part of it.
Like it there there was just there was just research that came out the other day about how
there was like a survey that was asking people, would you like donate to climate action?
And then people like, yeah, like I'd do that.
And it was something like two thirds of people were willing to, you know, give give up
something for climate action to, you know, help the environment.
And then the next question they asked
was do you think other people are willing to do that?
And the the results were like so, so much further negative as to what so they they thought
that so much less people out there were also willing to give and help the environment.
Something like less like way less than half is what they thought.
But then they actually found that it was more than like two thirds of what actually
willing.
We we all think that nobody cares or we all think we're like just all
on our own, but you we're actually all in this together.
And that's where, like you said, when when you find your people and you when you come
together you think, we are actually we are all in this together and there's other people
out there that wanna wanna see better and want to do better.
Absolutely.
And that's why, like, the most powerful thing we can do is talk to people about
these issues that we care about.
We talk to people about climate change.
We normalize these conversations.
Because, you know, in in my line of work, I'm constantly looking at, you know, polls and
pieces of research that show how high concern about the, you know, climate and environment
and stuff actually is amongst Australians.
Like, yes, cost of living is so prevalent with people that often there's not a lot of
space when you say rank the things you really care about.
But if you were to ask people, you know, how concerned are you about climate change or
about the extinction crisis, they hey, yeah, that's pretty fucked up.
Like, yeah, I am concerned about that.
But it's only if you ask people, you know, hey, out of this list of 20 things that are
terrible in the world right now, what are you most concerned about?
That they go, Oh, yeah, cost of living, housing, this, that, that, that, the, the, the,
the, the climates down there.
And so this is why I think what you do is so great, you know, educating people.
inspiring people, you know, spreading the word as such an accessible and, you know,
excitable character, that does more at it really does more benefit than you think it does
from like a statistical level, I can tell you that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we and we need more people out out here that are, you know, make having these
conversations, advocating for nature, for the environment.
And yeah, just spreading that awareness of, you know, the the cool, awesome stuff there is
out in nature to to be enjoyed and to be protec protected.
Yeah, so so as a successful um environmental and nature communicator, what would you what
would your first piece of advice be to someone who doesn't really know where to start?
I think my advice is to just start.
But I was I was speaking to someone the other day who has just started.
But we we talked, you know, for like at least a year ago and they're like, Oh, I th I'm
thinking of doing this so just d like just do it.
But who actually cares?
Like who genuinely gives a shit whether you start or not?
And they're like, Oh yeah, yeah And then but who cares whatever and then a month or two
ago they actually
started posting and then have already like gotten tens of thousands of of videos and then
they said to me they're like, thanks for like encouraging me to start or whatever.
I wish I had started like when we first spoke and I go, No, who who gives a shit?
Like you you've you've started now.
Like that that's the main the main the main thing.
Just yeah, just get in out there and have a go and just not care.
And it doesn't even have to be as a content creator.
It can just literally be with your family, like, guys, look at this cool stick I found.
Like finding that childlike joy.
And I think that's one of the things that I I'm noticing as a parent is like how cool the
world is if you look at it through a child's eyes, of like, oh my god, mummy, look at this
stick.
How cool is this stick?
Look at these rocks I found.
Like, cause
Nature is so unbelievably cool and it was like something that I didn't notice.
So my husband is a naturalist and a wildlife photographer.
And for me everything was as the journalist from the age Bianca Hall has has mentioned, an
LBB, a little brown bird.
Like a lot of people just see all birds as little brown birds, these little LBBs.
Everything was a sparrow to me until the first time that my husband went, ooh!
He's from New Zealand.
He went, my God, what is this incredible tropical-looking parrot thing up there?
I was like, that's an Eastern Rosella.
Like, what?
It's an Eastern Rosella.
He was like, Are you for real?
That thing is magical.
And I was sort of.
And then I went on this journey where he he became a Twitcher.
He got really interested in Australian birds.
And now I can, I can look at.
David Pocock in Senate Estimates and be hey, that's a spotted pardalote on his pin just
there,
And suddenly there aren't just little brown birds anymore.
There are Eastern pardalotes There's natives spotted something or other.
there's the superb fairy wren.
There's a sublime fairy wren.
There are 15 different types of bin chickens out there.
And they're all so cool in their own little way.
Like, you just have to look.
I saw this article come up in The Guardian, and I was
Really keen to talk to you about it because I just so want your take.
Now, the headline is They Surprise Me Every Time.
Bees can use tools to solve problems, study finds.
Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate
their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities.
The bees were given an adapted version of an experiment that 100 years ago first
demonstrated chimpanzees could work out how to retrieve an out-of-reach banana by stacking
boxes.
Since then, various other primates, elephants, and crows have joined an elite cohort of
species known to be capable of this level of insight and spontaneous problem solving.
In the latest research, bees were shown to be able to roll a polystyrene ball to a
specific location and climb on it in order to access an artificial flower on a low
ceiling.
The findings challenged the longstanding assumption that insects operate purely on
instinct and mindless trial and error learning.
It's incredible, isn't it?
Bees using tools.
Like I remember when they they found octopuses using tools in aquariums.
They were using like a rock to smash open a jar or something and it was like, my god,
octopus uses tools.
Tell me about the intelligence of bees.
It's actually what mate what even makes it more impressive is the number of neurons that
bees have is only like in the millions.
So the the cognitive function of their brains, like if we tried to, you know, estimate
what it would be, it doesn't make sense that they are able to be this like cognitively
intelligent with such a small amount of of neurons.
'Cause you know, human brains are in the like
you know, billions and billions of trillions of of these neurons and insects like bees are
such a fraction of that, yet they're still able to have this cognitive ability to, you
know, communicate.
There's been studies on like recognizing, you know, quantities and even like grasping, you
know, basic mathematics.
And yeah, c being able to like do the do the waggle dance using tools now.
Like
It's actually super incredible that that you s that we can see this in insects.
And tell tell tell our listeners about the waggle dance.
Also that the waggle dance is something that European honeybees and um and other bees that
live socially can do where if they find a like stash of flowers, they will, you know, have
this particular dance they do called the waggle dance.
And the the intensity that they do, like if they go super crazy, that means like there's
hella flowers.
And then the
the amount of laps that they do 'cause they'll do this in like laps.
So they watch the dance and they go, there's hella flowers and then they watch the dance
to see the sort of direction and how far away.
And then they'll go off and try and find that that pollen signal or that stash of flowers
that the bees just come back and collected from.
this little bee flash mob that like, yo, there's hella flowers over here.
Yeah.
It's like at a party when there's a dance circle and someone's in the middle, like doing
their thing.
Just like breakdancing.
Yeah, so
you mentioned that European honey bees live socially.
W Tell me about bees living socially.
What does that mean?
So yeah, we have like what I was saying earlier of how we have thousands of species of
bees in Australia, over two thousand six hundred is how many we think there are.
We currently know there's about one thousand seven hundred, but that's only the ones we
have names for.
So we're still finding more and more.
Um and we think there's, you know, over two thousand once we find most of them.
And only out of all those, only eleven of those actually live socially, like the European
honeybee that we, you know, love and and and always think about.
And that's just one type of the way that bees live and so socially or eusocial bees, this
is when they have a queen and a hive and h make honey and that's like their way of life
and they you know they have workers and drones and nurse bees and all these different
types of things in in a part of a colony.
But then you've also got semi social bees.
So these are bees where they sometimes they might like share the same house and there
might be a a few of them.
This happens in things like carpenter bees because the adults live old enough to see the
babies grow up into adults.
So sometimes they'll like share the same house that they've built with their babies that
have grown up.
So they're sort of like semi social.
Then you have communal bees.
These are like bees in the inner north of Melbourne.
Like they live in like share houses or they might live in like little towns where
for the socialists.
Yeah, that so they're they're like they're called communal.
So they're they're more more so solitary, so they'll like build their own house but they
might like live together or or they might, you know, have the same entrance but make their
own like little apartment or bedrooms inside the house.
And then you have things that are fully solitary, just live all all by themselves, make
their own nest and don't interact with other bees at all, just live all by themselves and
are fully solitary.
So you have a whole spectrum of how bees live their they live their lives.
That's so fascinating.
And like t so that they're I guess they're sort of like whales, right?
Because there are some whales that live socially, like pilot whales.
They they live socially, they live in these huge pods, and then you've got other whales
that are much more solitary.
So I guess it's this is the thing that people don't really understand about
bees or or just insects more broadly is how complex they are.
Like to to have that level of social complexity.
Like you mentioned nurse bees.
What is a nurse bee?
What does a nurse bee do?
What's their role?
they're have designated roles within the hives there's either bees that have to drag out
when there's dead or dying or sick bees, they have to clean out the the hive.
And then there's also bees that are responsible for feeding the babies and raising the
next generation.
And then there's also bees that are responsible for guarding the nest.
So there's all of these different roles that happen within a colony of these social bees.
But then like the solitary bees that live by themselves, they're every type of bee.
They're just they're just solo baddies that that do everything.
Yeah.
baddies.
I love it.
The little solo baddies.
And so what is um what is different about life for a solo baddie?
she's the equivalent of that meme that's going around that if women don't lower their
standards, they are gonna live in their beautiful apartments with their pets.
Like, is she the she the version, is she like the bee version of that?
Yeah, a bit.
The they the female bees do everything in the insect world.
especially the solitary ones.
They find the nest or they dig the they dig the nest into the ground.
they collect the pollen and nectar, they lay the egg, all they need the males for is
sometimes a little bit of protection.
but but depending on the species.
But yeah, mainly just for just for breeding, just for reproducing.
There's not much
Not much else that um male bees do.
That is unreal.
You mentioned wasps earlier.
Now I feel like wasps have a pretty bad rap.
What are Australian wasps like?
And is that fair that they have that rap?
Well it's absolutely not fair that they have that rap.
Absolutely not.
You know, in Australia, we have thousands of bees, we have tens of thousands of wasps.
Because like what bees are specialised particular flowers, we have wasps that are
specialized to parasitizing s particular caterpillars or particular spiders.
And there's so, so much diversity of wasps for the different things they parasitize.
for the things that that they predate on, for the things that they pollinate as well.
So there's such a diversity.
when you say parasitize, it sounds pretty disgusting.
What does parasitize mean?
So parasitize is when a wasp will either inject their eggs into something that's living,
like a caterpillar, that like slowly will consume them from the from the inside out.
Um or yeah, they'll like paralyze a spider.
So instead of killing it and then it like, you know, might break down, they'll just
paralyze it so its bodily function continues to go on while the eggs will consume them.
Like the baby wasp will consume them from the from the inside out.
Um and sometimes sometimes yeah, c hold your stomach.
Sometimes the w the wasp babies have even like sort of evolved to know what parts of the
caterpillar, what parts of the prey to eat first so that they will survive like the prey
will survive longer.
You're not doing a very good job of deleting that bad rap.
That's fucking disgusting.
Why is that important?
help me understand why that's important that there are wasps doing hella disgusting things
to other insects.
Yeah.
So for instance, people people listening might have roses in their garden or might have
plants that are prone to getting aphids.
And the re Yes.
And the Yes, and the reason why aphids will take over is because you have no parasitic
wasps in your garden.
Because if you have parasitic wasps in your garden, if you have ladybugs in your garden,
they will keep the numbers of those aphids down.
And so
and not the wasps?
Uh, you could try.
But it's same but same goes for if people have like, you know, silver beet or you know,
cabbage or like vegetables that get eaten by caterpillars.
That's because you have no parasitic wasps to control the numbers of caterpillars.
Yeah, f fuck cabbage moths.
Like they're the only of the little pretty flying butterfly type things that I see in my
garden and I'm like, fuck, get away from my silver beet, you stay away from my broccoli
and kale.
Fuck off.
so there's there's a great example in itself as to why you need to have parasitic wasps.
the so we need the parasitic wasps to stop the cabbage moths and to stop the aphids.
Alright, I'm sold.
I'm sold.
Now, Clancy, you are quite infamous for some of your shenanigans, I was trying to find the
news article on this shenanigans, and I searched Man in Speedo's Nature Strip.
Insects.
And this is what Google, you know how Google forces its AI upon you?
Speaking of data centers earlier.
This is what Google said to me.
A man striking poses in a speedo on a residential nature strip in Victoria can technically
do so as long as his genitals are covered and the act is not for a sexual purpose.
However, it is generally considered socially inappropriate and could result in legal
consequences.
So, Clancy, tell us about the time.
You posed in your speedos on a nature strip.
Why'd you do it?
What happened?
Well, I see a nature strip and it frustrates me because I think, why is that not, you
know, native flowers?
Why why have we just got this pointless grass?
You know, and I I was thinking to myself, or like having a conversation, I'm thinking, you
know, why is why is it actually there?
Like what am I gonna do?
it's not for recreational sport.
I'm not gonna, you know, kick a soccer ball on it, it's just a little strip of grass along
the roadside.
You know, I'm not gonna have a picnic on it because like, you know, there's there's cars
coming.
You know, I'm not gonna sunbake on it.
Like what is the actual point?
And then I was like I was like, actually, how funny would it be if I did each of those
things to show people how stupid I look doing it?
You know, so I kicked the footy on it, I had a picnic on it, and then I sunbaked in my
budgie smugglers on it.
And and that that like and then it it looks so dumb.
And it was actually funny when you talk about the legal obligations because someone
actually rang the cops and a cop car a cop car when I was filming
The cop car pulled up next to next to me and said, Mate, what are you actually doing?
And I said, I'm protesting nature strips.
And they're like they're like, So why are you they're like, why in your speedos?
And I was like, Because, you know, what's the point of this grass here?
What am I gonna do?
Like sunbake on it, and they're like, Yeah, that that's dumb.
And I'm like, Exactly, that's the whole point.
And they're like, Good luck with your video.
They probably thought of some fruit loop, but I'm I'm tipping that the cops probably
watched the video because it's got
You know, millions of views.
That's hilarious.
And have you seen the one of the my favorite type of like heartwarming timeline cleansing
content at the moment is I follow a bunch of people in um America who are skateboarders,
rollerbladers, roller skaters, and they get these little like shakers and they'll go like
hooning along the road and they shake these native wildflower mixes over these pointless
nature strips.
And then they document them being sort of rewilded and they'll they'll specifically time
it so they do it before a ton of rain.
Imagine if someone shook some native
wildflower seeds out before all this free rain.
Like, what can we do here in Australia if we are in a position where we can do something
about our shitty grass nature strips?
Like, what can we do?
Yeah, absolutely.
So what the first thing you can do is look at what council that you live in.
Cause this is something we I don't want to get people into trouble and say, you know,
stuff the whoever's in charge and go and do whatever.
Um, 'cause sometimes that can do more harm than good.
So look up your local council and then look at the local guidelines for nature strip
planting.
And quite often local councils are really supportive because it's free work for them.
You know, they don't they don't have to do the
Maintenance on mowing the lawns and and it looks better, it's better for cleaner air,
biodiversity.
There's so many things that's so much better for.
So a lot of councils are supportive of it.
And then once you see your laws, they might say there's certain height restrictions
because sometimes they don't like you know having tall trees and things um next to roads
or whatever.
So try and follow your guidelines and then go to your local native nursery.
Always, always um and I'm an advocate for
for going to local native nurseries and getting indigenous plants to your local area
because they're gonna be more suited to your climate, your soils, everything, better for
your local biodiversity.
And then just, yeah, get get planting.
That's it's it's not not a whole lot to it, but to do it.
Why not Bunnings?
Why not Bunnings, Clancy?
I I to be fair, there's still a number of like native plants and and things you can get
from from bunnings.
But at the same time, you know, bunnings will literally sell invasive plants like gazinias
and agapanthus that are, you know, registered weeds that are illegal for sale in some
places.
Nobody should be selling agapanthus they're the stupidest fucking plant.
Like, they're so dumb.
It should be illegal to sell them just full stop because they're just a shit plant.
Yes, exactly.
we're on the sa wave length here.
So fuck Lawns, fuck Agapanthus, and fuck Bunnings.
Pretty much.
I've actually
Alright, Clancy, I got one more study I want to run past you.
So in 2019, a research team led by Melbourne University investigated 47 neighborhoods to
determine how much green space was actually just nature strips.
36.7% was just nature strips.
What the fuck?
Yep.
That's incredible.
Like a third.
What are we gonna do?
Well I
we need to all get out in our budgie smugglers?
I think but I yeah, well well well read out the the the legal the legal guidelines of of
how to do it without getting into trouble.
but yeah, like but the the thing for me is that sounds like it's something that's, you
know, super concerning, right?
But there's also an aspect to that that is just awesome that it that's how much potential
there is.
Because if you can imagine if we had a third of our cities
that were planted with native plants.
Like how incredible that would be for biodiversity.
And you know, and similar studies or like studies that would tie nicely into this is what
they've done around urban biodiversity.
And when they've looked at, you know, parks, gardens, nature strips, reserves all these
sorts of things.
What they've looked at the most important things for encouraging biodiversity, number one,
was
the amount of native or indigenous plants.
So like if you have a biodiversity of plants, you're going to have a biodiversity of
animals and pollinators and and so like yeah, biodiversity of plants in encourages
biodiversity, an overall biodiversity of everything else.
So that was the most important thing.
What they didn't find was that size was not an im an important thing.
So size doesn't matter in this, in this context.
And you know, a small little little patch with a heap of different
plants, different diversity would be better than a large park with only a few things.
So that was two interesting things I found.
Another one was connectivity.
So if you have a little patch with heaps of biodiversity, and then another little patch
with heaps of biodiversity, then another little patch, and all of a sudden you have three
that are connected, then that's goes a long way in the over yes.
So when you when you say a third of our city is nature strips
That's a third of the whole city that could be connected with biodiversity plantings.
So that's how I like to look at it, the amount of potential that I c that we can see, you
know, for these initiatives.
Alright, folks, you heard it here first.
Get some shakers, get some seeds, get your skates on, and let's fix this biodiversity
problem we have here in Australia.
Clancy Lester, it has been an absolute joy having you on the show today.
Thank you so much.
Now, where can people find you online?
Uh searching up like what you said, Crazy Man and Budgie Smugglers on Nature Strip.
or my handle is Bees and Blossoms across pretty much everything.
Thank you so much for coming, it's been a real joy.
No, thanks so much.
Appreciate it, Nelli And I love the work that you do as well.
You're you're all doing the stuff behind the scenes.
Anything that I've ever worked on, Nelli's probably written the basic structure and
strategy for it.
So appreciate you.
Thank you so much, Clancy.
You have a great day.
and if you enjoyed this podcast, please be sure to leave a comment, send it to someone
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We're @thenellistevensonshow Have a great one.
We'll see you next time.