We will finish updating this new page by June 2025.

Books and printouts

In the office we have several hard copy guides to plant identification, from enormous botanical tomes, to more user friendly rainforest identification books and booklets.

It is well worth printing out these small guides to eucalypts and similar trees (Dorrigo version) (Valley version) 

This printout will help you identify the endangered Bellinger River snapping turtle, Myuchelys georgesi

Use your phone

Apps are becoming increasingly popular and useful, some key ones are:

iNaturalist, which will attempt to identify plants and animals based on previously submitted photos, it does a good job in our Shire for the more common species, and is backed up by an enthusiastic community who voluntarily verify or suggest ID. Anybody can help with this, so IDs are not guaranteed. It can record observations offline, and upload them when you get back into range. You can also obscure the exact locations of your entries, or keep them private. It has a fantastic mapping function, and you can search for observations of particular species or areas. There are 36,000 records for our Shire so far (map)!

NaturMapr, only allows verified experts to ID submissions, making the ID guaranteed, but also slower. Save it for species you know or suspect are rare or threatened, as once processed they end up in BioNet, where government agencies and research organisations will pay attention to them. It doesn’t have an algorithm based ID, and some uploads are never identified.

FrogID is great for frogs, using sound recordings and photos. It often suggests many possible matches, but is verified by experts at the Museum of Melbourne.

There are dozens more apps specialising in different species. If you find one that is particularly accurate and useful in our Shire, let us know!

You can also go old-school, and press plants before submitting them for identification:  collecting-and-preparing-plant-specimens-for-identification