Friends of Wilson Reserve, on the north bank of the Yarra in Ivanhoe, has operated since 1996. It gets me out into the Yarra flood plain every day, always with camera, and has brought me hundreds of birds, skinks, spiders, insects, wallabies, wombats, fungi, and serious weeds. It's been a great learning experience for an amateur. Along with doing much bushland restoration work, it has taught me how species-rich such a degraded area can be