Thank you to all those who supported the recent Nature Exhibition through exhibiting, volunteering or simply visiting. We hope it has inspired those who didn’t exhibit this year to join us next year.
And thanks to everyone who voted in the People’s Choice Award… the image with the most votes was ‘Connecting Dragonflies #2’, by Marg Huxtable – congratulations Marg! Marg’s winning image is shown above.
The lucky voter was: Maria Mally.
Congratulations!!
Both Marg and Maria have won a copy of the The Great Ocean Road, Sea Breeze and Surf book by late member Bryce Dunkley. The People’s Choice Award prizes were kindly donated by Estate of Bryce Dunkley, 1952-2021; MCC Member 2019-2021.
The Exhibition was opened on Friday 26 May 2023, by Dr Franciscus Scheelings – Dr Scheelings has had a passion for nature from a very early age so it was only natural that he would pursue working with animals as a profession. After leaving school, Franciscus gained a degree in veterinary science then worked in private practice and later for Zoos Victoria. He also completed an ecology based PhD from the University of Melbourne and is currently working as a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne focussing on reptile ecology and physiology.
We were very fortunate to have Franciscus to open our exhibition as he is not only very knowledgeable about the natural world but is also a wonderful nature photographer, having made it twice to the final round of judging for the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year, a competition which attracts tens of thousands of entrants.
See below for a selection of images from the opening event, images by Tuck Leong.
