Blue Mountains News

The book includes drawings, photos and information about three Blue Mountains gliders: the Feathertail Glider, the Sugar Glider and the threatened Greater Glider.  It shows how to look closely at gliders with an artist’s eye, and then create your own artworks, whether these be life-like or more fanciful.

The book’s author, Kate Smith, is a visual artist now living in Canberra. Her Blue Mountains ecologist parents, Judy and Peter, contributed accounts of the life histories of the gliders. This children’s book follows on from their 2019 book, Native Fauna of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

Drawing Australian Gliders was launched by the ABC’s Costa Georgiadis at Taronga Zoo in August. Attendees at the launch were treated to a close view of several gliders in Taronga’s Woodland classroom. The book’s launch coincided with the uplisting of the conservation status of the Greater Glider, from Vulnerable to Endangered at national level.

The book was initiated by the Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala Conservation Partnership, one of the regional partners of the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, a major conservation initiative that brings people together to protect, connect and restore healthy landscapes across 3,600 km of eastern Australia. Preparation of the book was jointly funded by the NSW Government’s Saving our Species program and the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife. Proceeds from the book will be used to fund further conservation efforts in the Great Eastern Ranges.

Drawing Australian Gliders (author Kate Smith, 30 pages, 6 glider photos, drawings throughout, soft cover, ringbound, RRP $15) is published by P & J Smith Ecological Consultants and is available direct from Peter and Judy (email here), from the K2W Glideways website (here) and from bookshops throughout the Blue Mountains.

A YouTube video by Richard Snashall about the book and its subjects, the gliders, can be viewed at here