When a green change brings a giant leap in career

Key points

• Dr Alison Haynes, a writer and conservation biologist, is introducing a new nature series for the Illawarra Flame. She moved to the Illawarra from Sydney in search of space and a garden.
• Rediscovering her interest in biology led her to a conservation biology degree, then a PhD studying how urban mosses survive city stresses. Her work has included field surveys of lizards, small mammals and bandicoots, and a four-week research trip to Antarctica in 2020.
• She plans to write about urban moss, city nature and community walks.