HEC Events
Unlock The Secrets
Of The Natural World
Upcoming Events
Get notified of upcoming events by signing up as a member or following us on Humanitix
Hills Harvest Exchange
All welcome.
$10 lifetime membership.
Environmental Grief Support Group (Online)
Many of us are feeling the emotional effects of living through environmental and social change. We may feel grief for what is being lost, anxiety about the future, overwhelm, helplessness, anger, sadness, or simply a growing sense that something is deeply out of balance.
After listening to Kriss Kevorkian’s recent webinar, many people expressed a desire for spaces where these feelings can be shared openly and honestly; without judgement, pressure to “stay positive,” or the need to immediately turn feelings into action.
The HEC Environmental Grief Support Group has been created in response to that need.
These gatherings offer a supportive community space to gently explore the emotional impacts of climate change, ecological loss, and the uncertainty of our times. Together, we will create space for reflection, conversation, connection, and mutual care.
This is not therapy, nor a political strategy session or debate space. It is a facilitated community support group for people wanting companionship, understanding, and the opportunity to process difficult feelings alongside others who may feel similarly.
The groups are grounded in the understanding that grief is a natural and healthy response to loss. When grief is shared in community, it can deepen connection, resilience, compassion, and our capacity to remain present to life.
Peri-Urban Habitat Garden Tour
Join Jenny Deans for a presentation and guided garden tour exploring the design journey behind a unique and steep peri-urban Habitat garden.
Learn how the garden was designed to provide year-round habitat and food for native wildlife, improve bushfire resilience, showcase unusual native plants, minimise maintenance, and work with natural processes rather than against them.
We’ll discuss the overall vision, design process, and the many competing priorities that shaped the final result. Along the way, we’ll share practical examples of what succeeded, what we’d do differently, and why a “don’t let perfection be the enemy of good” mindset helped progress and improve the garden.
This tour will be particularly useful for Adelaide Hills residents with larger urban gardens or acreage properties, especially those managing challenging sites with steep slopes and difficult terrain.
This session will begin at Hills Environment Centre for a short presentation. Then we will car pool to the site at Skye <10 minutes away.
Please note that this site requires walking up stairs and navigating steep slopes and is unfortunately not suited for those with mobility needs.
The presentation and garden tour will offer honest insights, practical lessons, and inspiration for creating your own habitat garden.
Help Protect the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Help Protect the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
If you love our endangered Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, this is a way to help.
Join us for a community awareness and education event about protecting habitat for the vulnerable Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo in the Adelaide Hills. Special Guest Dean Arthurell of Carnaby’s Crusaders WA
This grassroots event brings together landholders, bird lovers, and community members to learn how providing artificial nest hollows and planting native food species can support the future of these iconic birds.
What to expect
Environmental discussion about current threats facing the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
Guest speaker will share artificial nest hollows success stories from WA and how we might adapt these to Adelaide Hills
Local experts on hand to answer your questions
Display of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo nesting boxes and artificial hollows
Information about how to successfully grow suitable native endemic food species
Opportunities for landholders to express interest in future plantings and artificial nesting hollows/box installations
Join our growing network of local Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo supporters
Why attend?
Learn practical ways to help protect Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
Connect with local conservation partners and community members
Find out how your property or community group could become involved
Help build support for future habitat restoration and nesting opportunities
Be part of the future of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
Come along, learn more, and help us create stronger habitat through planting food sources, supporting nesting opportunities, and building a community network for this much-loved species.
Webinar Wednesday: Marine Microplastics
Marine plastic pollution is one of the most significant threats facing our oceans.
In this webinar, Marine Ecologist Dr. Nina Wootton explores how plastics and microplastics move through marine ecosystems, their impacts on marine food webs, and the risks they pose to both ecosystem and human health.
Dr. Wootton works alongside national partners and collaborators to improve how the benefits of coastal ecosystem restoration are measured and valued, to develop practice approaches that integrate ecological, social, cultural, and Indigenous values and perspectives into environmental accounting.
Dr. Wootton is committed to making marine science engaging and accessible, particularly through outreach initiatives such as Toys for Turtles and Finding the Fab Five. These programs are delivered in collaboration with researchers, educators, and students to schools across South Australia and the Northern Territory, inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards.
The session aims to provide participants with valuable insights into the science of marine microplastics and to highlight the importance of research, collaboration, education, and community engagement in protecting our oceans for the future.
Webinar Wednesday
Approximately once per month, we host a webinar to offer low cost, easily accessible seminars on topics related to the environment and sustainability.
Past Webinars
Recordings of past webinars are available to watch online. Contact us to access our catalogue of webinars.
We appreciate donations towards the cost of speakers fees.
Annual Events
Quiet Green Achievers
To celebrate World Environment Day in June, we call for nominations from the community for Quiet Green Achievers.
QGA are environmental volunteers, who live sustainably, or encourage others to be more environmentally aware – and do so without seeking recognition or compensation.
Nominate a 2026 Quiet Green Achiever here
Adelaide Hills Fungi Festival
The first annual Adelaide Hills Fungi Festival was held in 2025.
The inaugural festival welcomed a range of guest speakers covering many aspects of fungi including
ecology
conservation
citizen science
cultivation
medicine
foraging
- art exhibitions
The next fungi festival will be in June 2026.
Details to come.
