Discover a hidden ecosystem beneath our feet, with ABC TV’s Gardening Australia’s Hannah Moloney and Museums Victoria’s Collection Manager, Terrestrial Invertebrates Simon Hinkley.
Celebrating National Science Week and presented in partnership with Now or Never, this discussion takes you underground where vast, interconnected networks quietly sustain life.
Delve into the microscopic organisms that shape healthy soils, support food systems, and lock away carbon. Learn more about how threads of fungi and microbes weave intricate relationships between what grows below and what thrives above.
In this conversation, host of Life Matters (ABC Radio National) Hilary Harper is joined by Gardening Australia’s Hannah Moloney and Museums Victoria’s Simon Hinkley.
Together they will explore how modern agriculture has disrupted these systems, and how regenerative practices might help repair them.
What emerges is a different way of seeing soil: not just dirt, but as a living infrastructure that holds environmental futures in balance.
Ticket includes entry to visit the multisensory Our Wonderous Planet gallery from 8 to 9pm, where guests are invited to discover our world's vibrant living systems four billion years in the making.
Tickets
Adult $30
Senior $28
Child 16 Years & Under $20
Concession $28
Member Adult $25
Member Child 16 Years & Under $15
Date & Time
Thursday 20 August
Panel Discussion 7 to 8pm
Exhibition Viewing 8pm to 9pm
(Doors open 6:30pm)
Key information
Ticket includes entry to visit Our Wonderous Planet from 8 to 9pm.
SPEAKERS
Based in nipaluna/Hobart, Hannah works across a range of fields, including as the lutruwita/Tasmanian host of ABC TV’s Gardening Australia, a permaculture educator, community worker, designer and best-selling author. Over the past two decades, she has been deeply involved in gardening, community change projects, and political and frontline activism.
Outside of work, she can often be found playing the ukulele, attempting a chin-up, plaiting her daughter’s hair, and caring for her puppy, chickens, goats and ducks.
Simon Hinkley has worked at Museums Victoria since 1994, specialising in entomology, with early fieldwork focused on surveying threatened invertebrates and documenting Victoria’s Box-Ironbark ecosystems.
Appointed Collection Manager in 2004, with a focus on Australian ants, he oversees the care and growth of the museum’s terrestrial invertebrate collection. Simon's work supports taxonomic research, facilitates access for national and international scientists, and contributes high-resolution imagery and data to global biodiversity platforms.
Hilary Harper grew up in regional Australia and loves the way radio connects people through storytelling, a practice which transcends time, space and football codes. She's been ferreting out ordinary people's extraordinary stories for over 30 years, including 20 at the ABC, most recently as a weekday host on Radio National. Her life goal is to one day own enough bookshelves.
ACCESSIBILITY
Please view our accessibility page for general information. A sensory map of Melbourne Museum can be found on our Visual Stories page where step-by-step visual and written access guides are available. Contact our team on 13 11 02 or email us at [email protected] to discuss how we can support your visit.
