Girl Guides Bake Sale to Support Critically Endangered Regent Honeyeater

The Lane Cove Girl Guides will be back in the Plaza this Sunday, 9 August, with a bake sale in support of the Taronga Foundation’s efforts to save the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater, a bird with an estimated 250 to 300 individuals left in the wild.

From 8am until 2pm, or until they sell out, the Girl Guides will have baked treats, face painting and a lolly jar guessing competition on offer for locals dropping by the Plaza.

Why the Regent Honeyeater needs help

The Regent Honeyeater was once one of the most commonly encountered birds in south-eastern Australia, ranging from Adelaide to Rockhampton in flocks of thousands. Since the 1970s, however, the species has lost more than 90 per cent of its preferred woodland habitat to farmland, and the woodland that remains is largely confined to poorer soils that don’t produce the nectar-rich blossoms the birds rely on for breeding.

With their numbers reduced and their flocks fragmented, surviving Regent Honeyeaters have also lost the safety in numbers that once let them compete with larger, more aggressive bird species for food and nesting sites. Researchers have warned that without a significant increase in conservation effort, the species could disappear from the wild within 20 years.

Taronga Conservation Society has run a captive breeding and release program for the Regent Honeyeater since 1995, and its work extends beyond breeding alone. Scientists at Taronga have even helped young captive-bred birds relearn the species’ traditional wild song, which had started to disappear as fewer older birds remained to teach it, in a bid to improve their chances of finding mates and breeding successfully after release.

Not just a bake sale

The Lane Cove Girl Guides’ bake sale ties into a much larger event on the Guiding calendar: the Great Guide Sleepover, a state-wide fundraiser now in its 32nd year. Guides from across NSW, ACT and NT will spend a night sleeping under the stars at Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, with this year’s sleepovers scheduled for 15-16 August in Dubbo and 22-23 August in Sydney. Each year the event raises funds for a different animal, and for 2026 that animal is the Regent Honeyeater.

While Guides are encouraged to fundraise individually ahead of the Sleepover, the Lane Cove unit’s leaders and girls decided this year to also come together and fundraise as a group, hence Sunday’s bake sale.

To find out more about their fundraising efforts and progress, go here.

What’s next for the Lane Cove Girl Guides

Fundraising for good causes is nothing new for the local unit. In the past two years the Girl Guides have raised more than $2,200 for the RSPCA through a Plaza bake sale, and over $1,000 for Make-A-Wish Australia through a rummage sale, with leftover games from that sale finding a second home at the Lane Cove Toy Library rather than going to landfill. The group has also taken part in Clean Up Australia Day, Anzac Day services and the Lane Cove Rotary Fair.

There are some fun activities for the guides and wider community in the works for the remainder of 2026, and we’ll keep you updated as plans are confirmed.

What Guiding offers

Beyond fundraising, the Lane Cove Girl Guides’ calendar gives a sense of the variety on offer for members, from campfire nights closer to home, to activities further afield.

Never a dull moment with Lane Cove Girl Guides

The Lane Cove Girl Guides welcome girls aged 7 to 17, with women of all ages invited to volunteer as leaders.