Author Andrea Wild and Keith Bayless with The Very Stinky Fly Hunt in the Australian National Insect Collection, Diversity Building. Photo: CSIRO.
When you’re out camping in the bush with Dr Keith Bayless and he says he’s going to the toilet, chances are, he isn’t really.
He’ll be outside the toilet block, searching for exotic fly species.
Dr Bayless is a fly scientist with CSIRO’s Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra – home to more than 12 million specimens of bugs, mites, spiders and other creepy-crawlies.
Now his unusual day job has been turned into a children’s book, The Very Stinky Fly Hunt, co-written with science author Andrea Wild and published by CSIRO Publishing.
The Very Stinky Fly Hunt book is available to buy online for $26.99. Photo: CSIRO Publishing.
The story follows Dr Bayless’s years-long quest to rediscover a rare species, Clisa australis – first found in 1966 in bat caves near Kempsey on the NSW Mid North Coast, but missing for decades.
Over the years, the elusive fly had popped up in some dark and damp places – including mine shafts and pit toilets – before mysteriously disappearing.
“As chemical sanitation replaced open pits, this species disappeared from toilets,” he wrote in 2023.
So, he began searching remote national parks where old pit loos might still exist. He started in the Carrai caves in northern NSW where the species was first discovered, but found nothing.
For seven years, every hunt ended the same way – no Clisa australis.
Then, in 2022, while searching for a completely different fly species near Jamberoo on the NSW South Coast, Dr Bayless spotted something special.
“From a stream in a dark, humid gully of ferns, a Clisa australis emerged,” he wrote.
“There are no known caves nearby. The location is hundreds of kilometres from the previous southernmost record of the fly, which was a pit toilet in the Blue Mountains.”
A week later, a second specimen turned up 150 kilometres away near Lake George – another unlikely habitat.
“I don’t know whether Clisa australis was always widespread but rare, or whether its range and life history are changing due to human pressures like megafires, habitat destruction and sanitation,” Dr Bayless said.
The Clisa australis fly. Photo: CSIRO.
He detailed the discovery in a blog post, which caught the attention of the ABC’s 7.30 program for a segment on surprising jobs”.
That’s when Andrea had an idea.
“I pitched it to CSIRO Publishing, and they loved it,” she said.
The result – a 32-page picture book for ages 6-9 – shares “real science in a humorous and accessible way that will appeal to kids who enjoy all things gross and weird”.
“We want kids to know there are jobs out there that are really obscure, that involve nature and curiosity – and it’s possible to build a life around your passion,” Andrea said.
“And that nature is far more intricate and extraordinary than many of us realise.”
Science writer at CSIRO Andrea Wild understands it’s a strange old world. Photo: CSIRO.
The book introduces “Keith” as a fly hunter – someone who searches for flies “because he loves them and knows how important they are as pollinators” – complete with colourful caricatures of Dr Bayless and his insect subjects.
“It’s great to have a persona like that; it’s really fun,” he said.
It then zooms in on the Clisa australis, exploring its tiny physical details and “beautifully intricate life” – even for a species that lives in pit toilets.
One page recounts Dr Bayless’s holiday habit of visiting public toilets in search of specimens.
“Now we might imagine Keith paddling around in the poo,” Andrea clarified.
“But in reality, he was looking for the adult flies on the walls of the toilet – it’s not as if he’s climbing down in there in a biohazard suit.”
The book also sneaks in some fascinating fly facts, including one kids are sure to remember:
“If you’re looking at an insect and it’s got two wings, it’s almost certainly a fly,” Andrea said.
“Even if you think it’s a bee – if it’s got two wings, it’s a hoverfly, which mimics a bee.”
The book’s final pages share details about Dr Bayless’s real-life research and the traps and tools used in his quest to rediscover Clisa australis.
So, is the story true, or an overdramatisation of a fly hunter’s work (with added poop, because when it comes to kids, poop definitely sells)?
“It’s accurate,” Dr Bayless said.
“If anything, it glosses over how long and stressful it was. I looked at a lot of pit toilets before I found the ones with the flies. Every time I was in the bush with friends, I’d say, ‘Let me just do some business in the dunny,’ but it wasn’t the usual type.”
He said this story was just one small part of his broader research into hundreds of fly species across Australia.
“Australia is a vast, interesting place. Even for kids – as long as you’re careful and safety focused and don’t do anything too disgusting. If you think you’ll find something new around pit toilets, as one example, do it.”
The Very Stinky Fly Hunt is available to buy online from CSIRO Publishing for $26.99.
