Over 13 years, I have developed my home garden – a ¼ acre (c. 0.1 ha) town lot in Herberton in north-east Queensland – to attract butterflies by planting caterpillar food plants, flowers to attract adults, and by creating structural diversity. Over that time I have recorded 110 species of butterflies, of which 45 species have at least shown interest in their caterpillar food plants and many actually bred in the garden. I continue to add both new species and new breeding records so that a ceiling is

unlikely to have been reached. Using qualitative observations but conservative criteria, sixteen species appear to have increased in abundance over that time

period, and none appear to have declined, with eight of these breeding or attempting to breed in the garden and a further five possibly doing so. Though Herberton is surrounded by dry sclerophyll forest, half the butterfly assemblage comprises species whose breeding habitat is rainforest or vine-thicket, and some may have travelled many kilometres from their breeding place. Developing the garden and observing its butterflies has been an informative and rewarding experience.