Cate Storey Author

09/11/2025

I'm so lucky to work with the extraordinarily talented 🎨 Sarah Matsuda — illustrator of Snuggled Away, The Perfect Hollow and Sunny Finds His Song! 💚✨

We’re thrilled to share that Snuggled Away recently won the ‘Picture Perfect’ category at the SLVR Children’s Book Awards! 🏆📚

The SLVR Awards celebrate the best of Australian independently published children’s books and their creators — organised by the amazing team at Ivory Haus. 💫

We’re so lucky to work with the extraordinarily talented 🎨 Sarah Matsuda Artist — illustrator of Snuggled Away, The Perfect Hollow and Sunny Finds His Song! 💚✨

We’re thrilled to share that Snuggled Away recently won the ‘Picture Perfect’ category at the SLVR Children’s Book Awards! 🏆📚

The SLVR Awards celebrate the best of Australian independently published children’s books and their creators — organised by the amazing team at Little Ivory Haus. 💫

01/11/2025

The beautiful organisation I work for — Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C) — has been selected as one of only 49 recipients of Transurban’s 2025 Community Grants Program! 🌱

This recognition celebrates our ongoing efforts to restore habitats, strengthen community connections, and protect local waterways across Brisbane.

Now we have the chance to take it even further! 💚
Through Transurban’s People’s Choice Award, one organisation will receive an additional $10,000 — and your vote could make it B4C!
👉 Vote here: https://www.transurban.com/communities/community-grants/peoples-choice-award

Every vote helps us continue to weave a web of green across the catchment and beyond — supporting vital environmental and community initiatives that protect nature and inspire local action.

🗓️ Voting closes Monday, 3 November

🌿 Vote for Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee! 🌿

Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C) has been selected as one of only 49 recipients of Transurban’s 2025 Community Grants Program — recognising our ongoing work to restore habitats, strengthen community, and protect local waterways.
Now, we have the chance to take it even further! 💚

Through the People’s Choice Awards, one organisation will receive an extra $10,000!

👉 Vote for B4C here: https://www.transurban.com/communities/community-grants/peoples-choice-award

Every vote helps us continue to weave a web of green across the catchment and beyond, supporting vital environmental and community initiatives.

Votes close Monday 3rd November

Brisbane Catchments Network Save the Koalas and Wallabies of White's Hill Friends of Whites Hill Reserve Bayside Creeks Catchment Group Brisbane's Big Butterfly Count Brisbane Intrepid Landcare N4C Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee

29/10/2025

Congratulations to Cate Storey Author, Penny Watson, Sarah Matsuda Artist and publisher Wet Season Books.

We’re pleased to share that Sunny Finds His Song has received two Whitley Awards (Royal Zoological Society of NSW Book Awards): the Children’s Conservation Awareness Award and the Noel Tait Award, the highest honour across all children’s book categories.

Sunny Finds His Song highlights the plight of the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater and is based on important research by Dr Ross Crates.

The Whitley Awards, presented by the Royal Zoological Society of NSW, recognise outstanding zoological publications about Australasian wildlife. Named after ichthyologist Gilbert Whitley, the awards honour works that contribute new knowledge or present existing information in an exceptional way.

Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C) Book Links - The Centre for Children's Literature Brumby Sunstate Cate Storey Author Sarah Matsuda Artist

23/08/2025

🌟 Looking back at a rewarding but exhausting Book Week! 📚✨
🏫 Four school & kindy visits
🎨 Amazing students and budding storytellers & illustrators
👗 Some very cool costumes!! 🦋🐨

🌟 Looking back at a rewarding but exhausting Book Week! 📚✨
🏫 Four school & kindy visits
🎨 Amazing students and budding storytellers & illustrators
👗 Some very cool costumes!! 🦋🐨🐧

23/08/2025

My daughter dressed as a spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) from Snuggled Away for Book Week 2025.

The spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) is Australia’s largest native carnivorous marsupial. These elusive animals are mostly solitary and live at low population densities, needing very large home ranges to survive.
📏 Home Ranges
• Males: 750 – 3,000 ha
• Females: 175 – 500 ha
(Some studies report even larger ranges)
Male quolls may share parts of their range with females, but females defend their territories strongly from other females.
Because they need such large areas, spotted-tailed quolls are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation. They also face other threats, including:
• Competition and predation from feral cats and foxes
• 1080 baits intended for pest animals
• Ongoing habitat clearing

Wildlife Queensland - Brisbane Branch Australian Quoll Conservancy Quoll Society Wildlife Queensland Quoll Seekers Network

23/08/2025

Each year, my son creates something amazing. What began as a simple weekend cardboard box project has evolved into full-blown Book Week masterpiece. This year, Henry built a wearable Titanic, complete with an anchor that moves up and down using a pulley hidden inside the costume! 🚢⚓

During my recent Book Week school visits, I spoke about the importance of nurturing creativity and imagination — the key ingredients for great storytelling. ✨
What sparks your child’s creativity? What are they obsessed with right now? 🎨📚

21/08/2025

The construction phase 🏗️
Book Week prep is in full swing! With an author mum, a construction wiz son, and an animal-loving daughter, there’s no shortage of creativity in this house. 🚧📚🐨

The construction phase 🏗️
Book Week prep in full swing! With a construction wiz son, and an animal-loving daughter, there’s no shortage of creativity in this house. 🚧📚🐨 🚢

17/06/2025

🌼 Wildflower Wednesday! 🌼
I’ve fallen behind on sharing wildflower photos, but thankfully my day job and my wildflower hobby often overlap!
I work with the wonderful local non-profit and social enterprise, Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C). This Thursday, our Catchment Meeting features a special keynote from Harald Geppert, President of the Australian Native Orchid Society (ANOS)—which gave me the perfect excuse to revisit some of my favourite orchid photos.
Native ground orchids are important bioindicators. They rely on healthy soils and symbiotic fungi, making them hard to transplant. They also need light and space, which makes them vulnerable to w**d invasion. Some of my best orchid photos come from road verges, which sadly also puts them at risk.
Here are a few local beauties:
📸 Slender Hyacinth Orchid (Dipodium variegatum)
📸 Fairy Lantern Orchid (Corybas barbarae)
📸 White Fingers (Caladenia catenata)
📸 Australian Christmas Orchid (Calanthe australasica)
📸 A Greenhood species – possibly the Blunt Greenhood (Pterostylis curta)

🌼 Wildflower Wednesday! 🌼
I’ve fallen behind on sharing wildflower photos, but thankfully my day job and my wildflower hobby often overlap!
I work with the wonderful local non-profit and social enterprise, Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C). This Thursday, our Catchment Meeting features a special keynote from Harald Geppert, President of the Australian Native Orchid Society (ANOS)—which gave me the perfect excuse to revisit some of my favourite orchid photos.

Native ground orchids are important bioindicators. They rely on healthy soils and symbiotic fungi, making them hard to transplant. They also need light and space, which makes them vulnerable to w**d invasion. Some of my best orchid photos come from road verges, which sadly also puts them at risk.
Here are a few local beauties:
📸 Slender Hyacinth Orchid (Dipodium variegatum)
📸 Fairy Lantern Orchid (Corybas barbarae)
📸 White Fingers (Caladenia catenata)
📸 Australian Christmas Orchid (Calanthe australasica)
📸 A Greenhood species – possibly the Blunt Greenhood (Pterostylis nutans)

28/03/2025

For flashback Friday we are getting a glimpse of the roughs and final illustrations for Snuggled Away by the beautiful and talented Matsuda Artist.
The Spotted-tailed quoll, also known as the tiger quoll, is the largest of Australia's quoll species. They inhabit diverse landscapes from rainforests and woodlands to coastal heaths, making homes in rocky outcrops and tree hollows.
• Spotted-tailed quolls are solitary with large home ranges, up to 4,500ha for males!
• Females are particularly territorial and breed once annually, typically giving birth to five young.
Their low population densities and extensive ranges heighten their vulnerability to habitat loss and fragmentation. Other threats include poisoning from 1080 baits or secondary poisoning from second-generation rodenticide.

14/03/2025

For Flashback Friday, we're getting a glimpse of the rough and final illustrations for Snuggled Away by the beautiful and talented Sarah Matsuda Artist. Sarah and I have been friends since childhood, and she knew I absolutely love frogs—their funny faces and interesting life cycles lead to lifelong wildlife obsessions. Needless to say, Sarah spent a considerable amount of time making these illustrations perfect.

In these illustrations, we have: an Eastern Sedge Frog (Litoria fallax), Desert/Red Tree Frog (Litoria rubella), Striped Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes peronii), Spotted Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis), and Peron’s Tree Frog (Litoria peronii).

13/03/2025

For this week's Wildflower Wednesday, we're back at the stunning Girraween National Park. These photos, taken in September 2024, feature some of the park's vibrant wildflowers.

Girraween is a special place with impressive granite rocks and colorful wildflowers. I first fell in love with it as a teenager when my mum did her research master's here, studying how wildflowers react to fire. She would spend weeks either camping or staying in the ranger’s hut.

As a kid, I was all about frogs—something that hasn’t changed! I used to spend hours chasing Eastern Stony Creek frogs and Broad Palmed Rocketfrogs around the campgrounds and paths leading to the Junction track.

Now, as an adult, I understand why my mum was so drawn to these wildflowers. In the photo on the left, we have Coronidium boormanii; top right, Diuris Sp. possibly Diuris chrysantha (Granite Donkey Orchid); middle right, Stypandra glauca (Nodding Blue Lily); and bottom right, Kunzea obvata (Pink Kunzea). Each visit here shows me more of this beautiful place.

You can also see of Girraween’s wildflowers in "The Perfect Hollow: A Greater Glider Story," beautifully illustrated by the talented Matsuda Artist.