Wikipedia:Meetup/Adelaide/Edit-a-thon 9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Adelaide Meetup Next: 9 October 2026 Last: 4 September 2026 |
Improving Wikipedia: the Harmful Algal Bloom
- Date: Friday 4 September 2026
- Time: 5–8 pm (arrive from 5 pm for setup; Zoom starts 6 pm)
- Place: The Boardroom, The Exchange, 53–57 Exchange Place, Adelaide — the old Stock Exchange building between Grenfell and Pirie Streets, now home to the Conservation Council of SA. WiFi in the Boardroom is good.
- Guest speaker: TBC
- Zoom: email staff
wikimedia.org.au and we'll send the link the day before.
A workshop for new editors covering basic Wikipedia editing and how to upload images to Commons, focused on South Australia's environment and heritage — particularly our coastal and marine environment. Experienced editors will be on hand to help, and once you've picked up the basics you're welcome to work on your own topics.
Bring a laptop if you can. Phone editing works but is fiddly for beginners. If your laptop hasn't been used in a while, update its software beforehand on home WiFi.
Topics you might work on: protected areas, flora and fauna, geology and palaeontology, Indigenous history and DEW park co-management, scientific biographies (Mawson, Sprigg, Cleland, Tyler), institutions (Royal Society of SA, SA Museum), volunteer groups, and issues such as the 2025 harmful algal bloom and feral species. See a list of article suggestions to work on.
Registering as a new editor
- Create an account using the "Create account" link at the top right of this page — see Wikipedia:Username policy before choosing a name. Your username will then appear at the top of the page as a red link.
- Click that red link to create your userpage, and add a short paragraph about your interests.
- Add yourself to the event statistics using the button below. This lets us count the articles improved on the night, so we can share the results with everyone afterwards. You can choose whether your participation is public or private.
- The page may look like nothing happened after you save — it did save. Just return here to carry on.
- Now make your first real edit: come back to this page, click "Edit", and add your username to the "New editors" list below, noting if you're joining via Zoom.
Questions or comments? Use the talk page.
Background
This is one of a monthly series; see Edit-a-thon 4 for the rationale behind them. The event is auspiced by Friends of Parks and Nature Inc. and promoted to its ~150 member groups, the Friends of Parks newsletter, and WikiProject Adelaide.
Adelaide is home to two Wikimedia Australia staff members, Alison Smith (AlphaLemur) and Belinda Spry (BindiS). In 2025 they ran a WMAU Partner Project with the South Australian Museum — a workshop for local editors, staff training in Wikipedia and Wikidata, and a grant for a 100-hour paid Wikipedian in Residence (Laterthanyouthink). They're also building relationships with the State Library and the Art Gallery of SA.
Attendees
Guests
- Citizen scientist Johanna Williams, advising on improving the 2025 algal bloom in South Australia article (earlier, helpful comments were also provided by marine ecologist Janine Baker and marine biologist, filmmaker and educator Stefan Andrews)
- 3 other guests also attended
Facilitators / experienced editors
- Alex Sims
- AlphaLemur (via Zoom)
- Bahudhara
- BindiS
- Laterthanyouthink (via Zoom)
- Pangalau (via Zoom)
New editors
- Austerestar (via Zoom)
- Daisydotwo
- Robertino2
Apologies
Added your name above? One more click. Signing the list doesn't register you for the statistics — that's a separate step, and it's how we count what the group achieves on the night. Takes about five seconds, and you can choose whether your participation shows publicly.
If the page looks like nothing happened after you save — it did save.
What to work on
Suggestions for articles needing an update
A running list. To claim an article, click edit beside the section below, find your article, and type your username on the line marked being fixed by.
Parks and protected areas
| Done | WP article | Being fixed by | Checked by | Refs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | ||||
| Cleland National Park | 1 2 3 4 | ||||
| Ikara–Flinders Ranges National Park | 1 2 3 | ||||
| Morialta Conservation Park | 1 2 3 4 | ||||
| Para Wirra Conservation Park | 1 2 | ||||
| Wilpena Pound | |||||
| Protected areas of South Australia |
Species and biodiversity
| Done | WP article | Being fixed by | Checked by | Refs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invasive species in Australia | |||||
| List of birds of Australia | |||||
| List of threatened flora of Australia | |||||
| Mammals of Australia | |||||
| Weeds of National Significance | |||||
| Local extinction | Robertino2 | Now much improved.
Work ongoing — still considering how to sensibly address some outstanding concerns. |
Marine
The algal bloom and its impacts.
Butterflies and their host plants
Each butterfly depends on a particular plant. The articles are listed in pairs because improving one usually means improving the other.
| Done | WP articles | Being fixed by | Checked by | Refs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitterbush blue butterfly caterpillars feed on → Coast bitter-bush |
0 1 2 3 4 5 |
User:AlphaLemur has added more images in this Commons photo category if anyone would like to add them to the article. | |||
| Chequered copper butterfly caterpillars feed on → Creeping yellow oxalis tended by → Iridomyrmex rufoniger found at → Victoria Park, Adelaide |
Robertino2 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | User:Robertino2 has added sections with citations describing Lucia limbara (Chequered Copper) and its life stages. Section also added on impact of the proposed MotoGP. These sections not broken out into separate pages, since this is the only species in the genus. Incorporated information about the butterfly in other states. Edited page on Victoria Park with a short summary concerning MotoGP proposal, with a wikilink to page on the butterfly. Added talk page to capture information that is removed or omitted since it is either wrong or cannot be substantiated.
User:AlphaLemur has created the Creeping yellow oxalis page ready for expert review. | ||
| Yellow sedge-skipper butterfly caterpillars feed on → Chaffy saw-sedge |
1 2 | User:AlphaLemur has added more photos in this Commons category — they need adding to the article. |
Orchids
| Done | WP article | Being fixed by | Checked by | Refs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandhill greenhood orchid found at → Torrens Island CP |
1 | New Commons category created. | |||
| Queen of Sheba orchid | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | WA, not SA, but interesting recent ref | |||
| Rosella spider orchid | 1 | VIC, not SA, but interesting recent ref |
Birds
Biographies
| Done | WP articles | Being fixed by | Checked by | Refs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoresby Shepherd | 1, 2 3 4; | see Ch 4 of Shepherd's autobiography for his collaboration with Sprigg | |||
| Reg Sprigg | 1; Vol 2 of Sprigg's autobiography | marine geology missing | |||
| Charles Hill (painter) | Marsden, Susan (2026). Mr Hill's history painting: unpacking the histories in Charles Hill's The Proclamation of South Australia 1836. Wakefield Press. ISBN 978 1 92338 872 7 | ||||
Help and resources
Instruction sheets for the VisualEditor will be provided on the night, and the Boardroom has a small library that the Conservation Council is making available to participants. Have a look before the session if you like, or come along and we'll walk you through it. Nothing here is homework.
Video tutorials
Made by Wikimedia Australia, and a good place to start if you'd rather watch than read.
- Wikipedia editing tutorial — ten short episodes
- Wikipedia for beginners: FAQs
- Wikimedia Australia on YouTube — everything else we've made
Written guides
- Exploring Wikipedia: Content Creation Training Manual — a PDF guide for people who prefer the source editor and wiki markup. Made in 2013 by Wikimedia Australia with the State Library of Queensland.
- About the VisualEditor — the point-and-click way to edit, which is what most beginners use.
Where to ask questions
- The Teahouse — the friendliest place on Wikipedia to ask anything at all, no matter how basic. Real people answer, usually within the hour.
- Australian Wikipedians' noticeboard — for questions about Australian topics.
Groups you can join
Editors who work on the same subjects, and a good way to find people who share your interests.
- WikiProject Adelaide
- WikiProject South Australia
- WikiProject Australian biota — plants and animals
Adding photos
- Upload Wizard — for putting your own photos onto Wikimedia Commons, where Wikipedia articles can use them.
From Wikimedia Australia News
Questions?
Ask on the talk page for this event — click the link, then "Add topic". Or email staff
wikimedia.org.au if you'd rather not post publicly.