Mars veggie patch. Real CSI jobs. Orchids 'liked' to death. Missing Universe. Science Week in WA
National Science Week
Scientists, experts and event organisers are available for interview before and throughout the ‘week’.
Here are WA highlights from the national festival that reaches more than 3 million people through 2,500+ events. National Science Week will run 15 to 23 August 2026.
Direct contact details for each event listed below.
Contact national publicist Tanya Ha for contacts and tips: [email protected] or 0404 083 863.
Highlights for Western Australia:
- ‘Bee-friendly’… or not
Meet ‘The Bee Babbette’ and other scientists changing the world – Crawley
- Retro caravan clinics
the fleet of caravans that transformed chronic disease – Busselton
- Costa from Gardening Australia
returns to Nannup Flower and Garden Festival
- Growing food on Mars
what will it take? – Geraldton
- Spinifex cookie dough to repair mine sites
and other seedy stories from Kings Park scientists
- Perth’s six seasons
and the links between fire and flowers revealed by Noongar educator – Kings Park
- Orchids threatened by social media – Kings Park
- Real CSI careers – Bentley
- Most of the universe is missing – Nedlands
- Blast bacteria with beanbags at Kids STEM Festival Broome
- Strike gold and brew elephant toothpaste after dark – Kalgoorlie
- Flower power
what is Australia’s most amazing wildflower?
- Launch event: 5pm Tuesday 4 August, Kings Park and Botanic Garden.
More on these below including contact details for interview.
Or find more stories in your area at ScienceWeek.net.au/events.
Visit the Media Centre for all media releases and images.
Western Australian launch
5:00–7:30pm Tuesday 4 August
at Kings Park and Botanic Garden
National Science Week kicks off in WA with an event exploring the ‘Seeds of Science’.
Launch event with:
- Professor Sharath Sriram, Chief Scientist of WA
- Professor Josh Byrne, environmental scientist, Dean of Sustainable Futures at Curtin University, and Gardening Australia presenter, hosting a panel discussion with:
- Dr Janene Sproul, science education researcher at Murdoch University
- Professor Stephen van Leeuwen, botanical ecologist and BHP/Curtin Indigenous Professor in Biodiversity & Environmental Science
- Professor Jacqueline Batley, crop plant genetics and genomics researcher at the University of Western Australia.
Where: Fraser Avenue, Kings Park.
Media enquiries: Chloe Jensen, [email protected] or 0408 338 420.
More information: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/wa-launch-of-national-science-week-2026/kings-park/
Not ‘bee-friendly’; good radiation; shaping squids; and more – Crawley, WA
- Kit Prendergast (aka ‘The Bee Babbette’) studies native bees and pollination networks, showing why bee diversity matters and how misleading ‘bee-friendly’ claims can hide real conservation needs.
- Kaylee Molin explains how radiation can be both a powerful medical tool and a hazard, and how medical physicists make its use safer. She researches prostate cancer.
- Seth Cones explores the evolutionary arms race between cephalopods and fishes, showing how competition in the oceans helped shape squid, cuttlefish and their predators.
- Connor Bottrell studies why gravity appears to behave differently across galaxies and what this can tell us about dark matter and the structure of the Universe.
These are some of the scientists who have been brought to WA by the Forrest Research Foundation to undertake research with the potential to change the world.
They and other scientists will share their research at the Foundation's Science Week Showcase, bringing family fun and serious science to public audiences.
The event features virtual reality experiences journeying inside molecules, Science Stations with meteorites and shark skeletons, and short talks from young researchers, all day at Forrest Hall.
Partner Supersonic Science adds hands-on chemistry and physics demonstrations including CO2 rockets, vortex cannons and gravity-defying soda pop – great visuals for filming.
Saturday 8 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/national-sceince-week-2026
Media enquiries: Lainey Smith, [email protected] or 0435 367 662.
Scientists available for interviews.
The fleet of caravans that transformed chronic disease – Busselton
In 1966 a small fleet of caravans carrying health researchers arrived at the City of Busselton to survey some 3,400 adults about their lifestyles and health risk.
From these humble beginnings grew one of the world’s leading long-term community health studies: for the past 60 years more than 20,000 participants have helped generate over 600 scientific publications on heart disease, diabetes, lung health and more.
For decades this community partnership has helped shaped the modern understanding of chronic health conditions. Explore the global legacy of the Busselton Health Study Biobank (complete with vintage caravans) in a special anniversary exhibition in Mitchell Park this National Science Week.
Monday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/celebrating-60-years-of-the-busselton-health-study-a-journey-of-discovery/busselton
Media enquiries: Michael Hunter, [email protected] or 08 9754 0548.
Costa returns to Nannup Flower and Garden Festival along with Sophie Thomson, Faye Arcaro and more – Nannup
Costa, Sophie Thomson and all your favourite Gardening Australia presenters are tackling edible ecosystems with the theme “Grow, Gather, Feast” at the 29th Nannup Flower and Garden Festival.
The 2026 Festival puts the spotlight on gardens as living laboratories in the search for a sustainable food future.
Between 7-16 August a series of kitchen and garden workshops will explore topics like seasonal growing, bush foraging and eco-friendly gardening in your backyard, balcony or bush block.
Keen gardeners (and interested amateurs) can attend practical demonstrations, swap seeds for future planting and learn new skills from a diverse range of food cultures.
Current and former Gardening Australia presenters will be attending over the two weekends of the Festival:
- 8-9 August: Sophie Thomson, Faye Arcarco, Guy Jeffrey and Steve Wood
- 15-16 August: Costa, Millie Ross.
Friday 7 August-Sunday 16 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/nannup-flower-and-garden-festival-grow-gather-feast/nannup/
Media enquiries: Emmi Taylor, [email protected] or 0400 770 175.
How to grow food for a Martian salad – Geraldton
What do astronauts eat on a two-year journey to Mars? Over the next 30 years, human missions to the moon and Mars are planned: but can these extreme environments provide habitat for humans?
Ask UWA’s Plants for Space team when they bring space science to the Geraldton Regional Museum, tackling the puzzles of growing food with almost no resources and no gravity.
Hear from ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space researchers about selecting and adapting plant and microbial species to survive and thrive in new and extreme environments, how to support sustainable new ecosystems off-world, and how to find novel approaches back on Earth.
Visitors can plate a real duckweed petri dish, try the pipette challenge, play the Space Garden Farmer digital game, and design their own space plant for the giant Astro Garden display.
Tuesday 11 August and Wednesday 12 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/plants-for-space-seeding-science-from-outback-to-outer-space-2
Media enquiries: April Harris, Plants for Space, UWA Node, [email protected]
Spinifex cookie dough to repair mine sites, and other seedy stories – Kings Park
- Cookie dough could be the key to rehabilitating mine sites. These sites are like moonscapes – arid and inhospitable – but can be brought back to life if soft spinifex (Triodia pungens) seeds can germinate, take hold and survive. Scientist are developing a ‘cookie dough’ like mixture they can add spinifex seeds to that will feed them, protect them, attract water and keep away pests as they germinate and grow.
- Local water lily species (Nymphaea lukei) that live in coastal freshwater wetlands are under threat from salt water intrusion. The lilies are very short lived and their seeds don’t like being dried. Scientists are trying to find ways to successfully bank the seeds.
- The seeds of critically endangered Bussell’s spider orchid (Caladnia busselliana) won’t germinate without a particular fungi partner. Conservation efforts are bringing it back from the brink.
Meet the hidden heroes behind these and other seeds who are dedicating their careers to improve restoration and conservation of Western Australia's native flora.
Visitors to the Western Australia Botanic Garden can take a self-guided tour, find story panels hidden in the garden, learn about the resident plants and researchers, and complete a journey passport. People who return a completed passport receive one of the five collectible flora and seed pins, custom-designed by scientists.
Saturday 15 – Friday 21 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-hidden-life-of-seeds-national-science-week-with-kings-park-science/perth
Media enquiries: Emily Denham, [email protected] or 08 9480 3688.
Kings Park Science communicator Eugenie Au and scientists are available for media interviews.
Perth’s six seasons and the links between fire and flowers revealed by Noongar educator – Kings Park
Perth has six seasons; ‘quenda’ is the Noongar word for the Southern short-nosed bandicoot who live at Kings Park; fire helps the flowering process of ‘balga’ grass tree, which produces stems that are used as fire sticks, resins used for tools, and flowers eaten and chewed like chewing gum.
These are some of the things Rickeeta Walley can talk about. She’s an artist and Noongar educator at Kaarta Koomba (Kings Park and Botanic Garden).
In 2023, she joined her father performing a Welcome to Country at a Harry Styles concert that went viral. This National Science Week she is taking people on one-hour walks on Country, sharing the traditional scientific practices and knowledges of the Noongar people, from detailing the way the six seasons provide for guidelines for environmental and ecological sustainability to revealing local plant species and how they are managed through physical chemistry, fire-processing, and eco-engineering, for food and tool resources.
Thursday 20 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/noongar-two-way-learning-walk-at-kings-park/perth
Media enquiries: Emily Denham, [email protected] or 08 9480 3688.
Rickeeta Walley is available for media interviews.
Orchids threatened by social media - liked to death – Kings Park
Social media popularity is threatening some of Australia's most delicate orchid species, attracting well-meaning nature lovers to sensitive sites in destructive numbers, a recent study revealed.
Study co-author Dr Belinda Davis wants people to help protect these orchids. Based at Kings Park Science, she manages the only collection in WA of orchid seeds, friendly fungi and a living collection of orchids.
She will be joining Dr Magali Wright from Landscape Recovery Foundation, Tasmania for an evening talk about enjoying orchids in the wild while minimising harm, drawing on their personal experiences working with orchids.
Friday 4 September. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/liked-to-death-how-social-media-is-threatening-australias-orchids/kings-park/
Media enquiries: Emily Denham, [email protected] or 08 9480 3688
Kings Park science communicator Eugenie Au and WA orchid expert Belinda Davis are available for media interviews. Dr Davis can be filmed in the lab and working in the glasshouse with rare orchids in full bloom.
Real CSI careers – Bentley
The Australia and New Zealand Forensic Science Society's Student Representative Group hosts a careers night with practitioners from digital forensics, forensic archaeology, wildlife forensics, DNA and entomology at Curtin University.
The hybrid-style event runs as speed-conversations and/or a panel discussion depending on numbers; registration required for catering.
Tuesday 18 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-evolution-of-forensic-science-careers-speak-with-professionals-in-the-field
Media enquiries: Michael Adamos, ANZFSS Student Representative Group, [email protected] or 0427 667 799.
Most of the universe is missing – Nedlands
For the universe to look the way it does – for it to exist at all – there has to be something out there besides the ordinary matter that makes up you, me and everything we touch. Dark matter is invisible, it should be spread everywhere, and nobody has found it yet.
Dr Jeremy Bourhill of the University of Western Australia designs quantum sensors to hunt for it, as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics. He explains how the Australia-wide search is progressing and what a discovery would actually mean.
One of his detectors has already taken an unexpected detour into the everyday world: a device he invented to search for ultralight dark matter is now patented technology being developed to make safer pharmaceuticals. Presented by the National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip.
Thursday 20 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/australias-search-for-the-missing-part-of-the-universe
Media enquiries: Jade McKenzie, The National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip, [email protected]
Blast bacteria with beanbags at Kids STEM Festival Broome
Kids can ‘kill’ bacteria with white blood cell beanbags, explore how sunscreen blocks UV rays and more at Kids STEM Festival Broome.
This free, two-day event brings together local scientists and fun activities from Kids Research Institute Australia. It showcases accessible pathways to science and technology careers in the region and invites local schools to join a curriculum-based experiment and showcase results to the community.
Wednesday 12 August and Thursday 13 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-kids-stem-festival-broome-liv
Media enquiries: Caitlin Sweeney, [email protected] or 0425 437 605.
Touring medical research scientists available for media interviews. Images and video from past events are also available.
Strike gold and brew elephant toothpaste after dark – Kalgoorlie
Organisations from across the Goldfields region will come together for an evening of hands-on science at Science After Dark, featuring robotics, microscopes and messy experiments for all ages.
Visitors can try robotics with the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, become a “sun detective” to learn how sunscreen blocks UV, examine a thousand-year-old local fossil, use VR goggles to explore the mining world underfoot, and try their hand at gold panning – plus a dedicated zone for the littlest scientists.
Thursday 20 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-after-dark-4/kalgoorlie
Media enquiries: Barbara Howard, [email protected] or 08 9021 8533.
A laser tour of the Collie night sky – Collie
Astronomers give a laser-guided tour of the night sky over Collie, picking out planets, stars, constellations and other cosmic wonders, then hand over high-quality telescopes for a closer look and stay to answer questions.
The evening opens indoors with an Astronomy 101 session – space videos, animations and activities pitched at children and adults alike – so everyone knows what to look for before heading outside.
If the weather closes in, the whole program runs indoors instead, with telescope demonstrations, solar system games, Mars Curiosity landing footage and space challenges including Toilets in Space.
Wednesday 19 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/stargazing-astro-adventure-mapping-the-night-sky
Media enquiries: Sara Cole, Collie Public Library, [email protected] or 08 9734 9042.
What do you think is Australia’s most amazing wildflower? – online
ABC Science wants Australians to discover our hidden “flower power”, the kind you find in botanical gardens rather than hippie communes.
With the help of experts, ABC Science has selected ten flowering plants from across the country.
Not just another banksia or waratah, but blooms from the unsung understory that also do something unbelievable. These ten wildflowers are more than just a pretty face; each one hides a surprising superpower. The public will decide which is the most amazing.
Voting to decide Australia’s most amazing wildflower will start just before National Science Week in August, with the winning bloom announced on Friday August 21 in a live broadcast on Radio National.
Wednesday 5 August – Friday 21 August. To find out more and vote, go to www.abc.net.au/wildflowers.
For interviews with Dr Ann Jones, contact Rob Caulley, ABC Publicity, [email protected].
About National Science Week
National Science Week is Australia’s annual opportunity to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its contribution to our lives. Science drives economic and social change – from safe and nutritious food to reducing cancer deaths; from smart phones to AI; from under Antarctica’s ice floes to distant planets.
First held in 1997, National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year about 3 million people participated in more than 2,500 registered events and activities.
National Science Week 2026 runs from Saturday 15 to Sunday 23 August. Event details can be found at www.scienceweek.net.au.
National Science Week is proudly supported by the Australian Government, alongside key partners Questacon, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and ABC Science.
