Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2019 i Australian Geographic

THOSE OF US old enough to remember the first Moon landing in 1969 undoubtedly maintain a special fascination for the historic event. It was arguably the first truly global moment and what made it so were the pictures of Neil Armstrong climbing off that last rung of the ladder and setting foot on the Moon before uttering those unforgettable words. It was seen at the same time everywhere in the world that had access to television at that time of day. It was a great step forward for all humanity, transcending even the Cold War space race that gave it such impetus – at least to those of us too young to understand such things and still young enough to be transfixed by breathtaking feats of human endeavour. Those first…

IT SEEMS THAT just about every country pub has a barfly who remembers the day it ‘rained fish’. The first time I heard of this phenomenon was in the 1990s at the Royal Mail Hotel in Hungerford in south-western Queensland, on the New South Wales border. There a local (yes, he was sober at the time) captivated the bar with a yarn about “the day it rained fish” in his home town. “During the storm, I went outside and there were fish flapping around on previously parched paddocks,” he revealed. “The unsuspecting fish must have been plucked out of a dam or creek by a mini-tornado a long way away.” Dr Peter Unmack, an ichthyologist at the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra, has also encountered similar…

Q: Are there any ‘lone stars’ between the galaxies, and, if so, how common are they? Why are they not part of a galaxy themselves, if this is the case? Would there be exoplanets orbiting those lone stars? Tim Burn, Adelaide, SA A: Yes, such stars do exist. They’re known as intergalactic stars, and the first ones were discovered back in 1997 using the Hubble Space Telescope. They are thought to be relatively numerous, perhaps accounting for half the stars in the Universe. They have probably been ejected from their parent star systems by galaxy collisions, or by encounters with the supermassive black holes at their centres. And they could, indeed, have their own orbiting planets.…

IT WAS A DECEPTIVELY simple question from a listener to my weekly talkback show on Triple J: “Do fish drink water?” It’s easiest to answer if we think of atoms and molecules. The chemical formula for water is H2O. It’s a molecule made from three atoms – two of hydrogen, one of oxygen – and it’s shaped like a tiny boomerang. In any water body, such as a lake or river or the ocean, there are usually some oxygen molecules in between the water molecules – especially if the surface of the water is exposed to the air. Compared with water molecules there are many fewer oxygen molecules, which are each made of two atoms of oxygen and shaped like a barbell. We humans drink water that goes into our…

TEMORA DEVELOPED during the gold-rush era following the 1869 discovery of the precious metal there. By 1881 the local goldfield was producing half the state’s gold, and the town’s population had passed 20,000, most of whom were miners. With the railway arriving in 1893, the town grew into an important rail centre, being in a prosperous wheat and sheep district. It has one of the state’s largest inland grain storage terminals and a major agricultural research station. It’s well known as a centre for harness racing with numerous trotting studs in the district. Today it’s also famous for its outstanding Temora Aviation Museum and popular air shows, which occur regularly and provide an opportunity to see the museum’s historic planes in flight. Things to see and do 1 Temora Aviation…

Naked eye Perched high in the evening sky is Scorpius and Sagittarius, marking the Milky Way’s central hub. A less obvious member of this group is Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. Look near Antares for a dark region marked out by six faint stars arranged in a box shape. Binoculars Where the ‘tail’ stars of Scorpius make a near 90° turn is an area rich in star fields. A great example is the open cluster NGC 6231, dominated by a dozen hot blue-white stars with three others nearby arranged in a distinctive equilateral triangle shape. Small telescope The constellation of Sagittarius is home to many bright globular clusters. These massive ‘cities’ of stars don’t all look the same – the stars in the core of Messier 75 are very dense; those…

A TEAM OF AGS-sponsored A explorers has set a new record for plumbing the depths of Australia’s deepest cave, Niggly Cave, following it 395m down. The 10-caver team from Hobart’s Southern Tasmanian Caverneers also found a connection between Niggly and the Growling Swallet cave system – which includes Australia’s fourth-deepest cave – under Mt Field National Park, north-west of Hobart. Expedition organiser Stephen Fordyce dived with scuba through more than 200m of unmapped, flooded cave passages to break the record. He said the greater achievement for all involved was connecting the two cave systems, something attempted by cavers for decades. “One of Australia’s most perplexing underground puzzles has been solved,” he said. The caves are part of the Junee-Florentine system, which is home to a labyrinth of at least 600…

EVERY SUBSCRIBER to this journal automatically becomes a member of the not-for-profit AG Society. Your subscription helps us fund Australia’s scientists, conservationists, adventurers and explorers. To subscribe, call 1300 555 176 Who are the Australian Geographic Society? Patron: Dick Smith AC Chair: David Haslingden Secretary: Adrian Goss/Page Henty Directors: Kerry Morrow, Jo Runciman Advisory Council: Chrissie Goldrick, John Leece AM, Tim Jarvis AM, Anna Rose, Todd Tai Society administrator: Nicola Conti THE SOCIETY runs sponsorship rounds in April and November, during which it considers applications and disperses grants that are funded by the Australian Geographic business. The Australian Geographic Society also awards the Nancy Bird Walton sponsorship for female adventurers and hosts annual awards for conservation and adventure. It runs fundraisers through AG retail stores. Each year it gives in…

VERY LITTLE surface light penetrates ocean depths. Even at just 100m down in clear tropical water, only 1 per cent of the visible light spectrum penetrates and most of it is blue. Because of this, it used to be thought that deep-sea fish species, living below about 1500m, are colourblind. But the Sun is not the only source of light in ocean waters. Recent research suggests many sources of bioluminescence – including jelly-fish, anglerfish and microorganisms – could explain why some deep-sea fish species seem to have surprisingly excellent colour vision. The eyes of vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, mammals, birds and reptiles) have two kinds of cells – called cones and rods – containing light-sensitive pigments (photopigments) known as opsins. Cone cells have up to four types of opsins that detect…

exclosure (say eks’klohzhuh) noun an area fenced to prevent animals getting into it, as to prevent feral animals from attacking farm animals, or domestic animals from stripping vegetation. I WATCH AS THE rusty strands break apart in my fingers, knowing full well that this fence in the South Australian desert means life or death for the bilbies, bettongs and other rare animals inside it. My companion, biologist Dr Kath Tuft, is frowning at other decaying strands. We have paused on the boundary of Arid Recovery, the 12,300ha wildlife reserve Kath manages, to inspect its predator-proof fence. The rust we find is confined to some strands buried in shallow sand, which means that no fox or cat can get through, but this section will need replacing sooner rather than later. Should…

THIS IS A HUGELY significant year in the history of Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor), one of Australia’s closest neighbours and one of the world’s newest nations. It marks the 20th anniversary of the Popular Consultation, the independence referendum that took place on 30 August 1999. On that day the Timor-Leste people exercised their right to self-determination and voted overwhelmingly for independence. This year also marks 20 years since Australian troops were deployed to Timor-Leste as part of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET), the peackeeping task force that from 1999 into 2000 addressed the humanitarian and security crisis facing the country. INTERFET was led by Australia with (then) Major General Peter Cosgrove at its helm, involved 21 countries and made an important contribution at a critical time in…

IT’S BOOM TIME at the tiny outback settlement of William Creek along the dusty Oodnadatta Track in South Australia as news of a once-in-a-decade flooding event at nearby Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre radiates outwards like the effects of a pebble tossed into its turbid, briny waters. It’s a sunny but chilly Friday afternoon in early May and William Creek’s quirky hotel has been inundated with enquiries following an ABC TV news item the night before. Footage of water surging down through Queensland’s braided inland river channels, turning the red desert green in its wake before emptying into the vast dry lake bed, has pitched William Creek into the global spotlight. Trevor Wright, proprietor of the William Creek Hotel, woke this morning to more than 200 emails in his inbox, which sent…

Infra-red images, such as this taken across Echo Point Lookout in the Blue Mountains, NSW, are critical for assessing vegetation health. Chlorophyll, the pigment in plant leaves, absorbs visible light but reflects light at near infra-red wavelengths, giving the forest here its snow-like appearance. Healthy plants with high chlorophyll levels remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, which helps curb the warming of our planet. As Australia becomes warmer and drier due to climate change, our vegetation will be increasingly important in helping maintain stable global temperatures.…

IF YOU’RE LUCKY enough to zip up through the Red Centre of Australia in the air-conditioned comfort of the sleek, silver modern Ghan, spare a thought for those who rattled along in its original namesake. The Old Ghan railway lies some 150km east of the modern line with its termite-proof concrete sleepers and state-of the art rolling stock, and while the modern Ghan keeps strictly to a published timetable, the Old Ghan was notoriously unreliable. Construction of the first track, The Great Northern Line, began in 1878 when a narrow-gauge line was laid between Port Augusta and Oodnadatta. The first service was known as the “Oodnadatta Night Train” and it took another 50 years for the line to reach Alice Springs (then called Stuart). It became known as The ’Ghan,…

The area is the traditional home of the Wiradjuri people. The ‘Temora pastoral run’ was established in 1847 by John Donald McCansh. Gold was first found in the Temora area in 1869. The main Temora gold rush commenced in 1879. In 1880 a town site was chosen, laid out and proclaimed. By 1881 the Temora goldfield was producing half of NSW’s gold. The town’s population reached 20,000 in the early 1880s. Mostly miners, they extracted a total of 4000kg from the district. The railway arrived in 1893 making Temora a vital wheat terminal. By the early 1900s, German farmers who had trekked from South Australia were settling in the surrounding area. Cattle saleyards and a butter factory opened in 1912. Temora Aerodrome was established in 1941 as an RAAF training…

Adelaide and Hobart will get the chance to hear from some of Australia’s most impressive adventurers when the Australian Geographic Society Awards roadshow wheels into town in the coming months. Adelaide 1 August Mercury Cinema Di Westaway Heather Swan Brigitte Muir OAM Kate Leeming Hobart 4 September Stanley Burbury Theatre UTAS Eric Phillips OAM Michael Smith Justin & Lauren Jones For more information and to book, head to australiangeographic.com.au/australian-geographic-presents…

This view into the mini world of an amphipod living in an ascidian on a reef in Raja Ampat in Indonesia has been short-listed in this year’s Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition. “I was searching for miniature pygmy seahorses on the reefs of West Papua when I happened across this tiny amphipod crustacean,” says photographer Richard Smith. “Just 0.5–1cm long, this male is sitting at the mouth of the sea squirt to guard the females and young within. According to an amphipod expert, this is likely a new species.” SA SNORKEL WITH GIANT CUTTLEFISH, WHYALLA From June to August the giant Australian cuttlefish forms huge breeding aggregations in Spencer Gulf, South Australia. Working in tandem with environmental authorities, the City of Whyalla is offering opportunities for guided…

HIGH PRAISE I thought I should write to you about the 150th Australian Geographic magazine. Wow! What a magnificent publication, I think it’s one of the best issues ever. I read it from cover to cover. I particularly liked the poster, and I found the platypus article fascinating. I also really liked the high-quality map of the forest of Victoria’s Central Highlands. Please pass on my compliments to everyone involved. Nothing replaces hard work, and it’s clear that lots of hard work went in to this issue. DICK SMITH AC TRADITIONAL WISDOM As a member since 1994 I was very pleased to receive my copy of AG 150. I read with interest the article Creating a super-park. I also relate to Dr Karl’s article in AG 146. We appear to…

Aussie for food There are a number of distinctively Aussie expressions for food. Most people will have heard of a “brown sandwich” – that’s a bottle of beer. But what about a “seven-course meal” – that’s a six-pack of beer and a meat pie. Also on that subject, there are all those delightful expressions for meat pie in Aussie English – such as a “rat coffin” or “maggot bag”. With the same display of exquisite good taste Aussie English has nicknamed the vanilla slice either a “snot block” or else a “phlegm sandwich”. By the way, in both Perth and Brisbane sandwich shops you should order a “round” of sandwiches (a round being one sandwich). But in Tasmania that same sandwich would be called a “four pointer”. And Aussie English…

THE FEDERATION DROUGHT affected almost all of Australia and is widely considered the most destructive in our recorded history, based on the huge stock losses it caused. So named because it coincided with Australia’s Federation, the drought ended squatter-dominated pastoralism in New South Wales and Queensland. By the end of the 1840s, about 280,000sq.km – almost all of eastern Australia – was occupied by at least 2000 squatters on Crown land. To control them and encourage closer settlement, the eastern states introduced land reforms in the 1860s, hoping to break up large runs into smaller blocks for farming and grazing. This was not always achieved because squatters found ways to hold on to productive country. Nevertheless, many selectors took up ‘homestead’ blocks, in north-west Victoria’s Mallee district in the 1870s,…

Come and meet the world’s deepest diver Victor Vescovo EXPLORER, RETIRED naval officer and guest speaker at our 2019 AGS Gala Awards Night – Victor Vescovo – has broken the record for the world’s deepest submersible dive. On 28 April, Victor made his solo dive to reach the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (10,928m) in the Pacific Ocean. This was the deepest dive by any human in history and is 16m deeper than any previous crewed dive. It took 3.5 hours to reach the record-breaking depth in the 4.6m-long, 3.7m-high submersible DSV Limiting Factor, built to withstand the huge pressure of the deep (about the weight of 50 jumbo jets). Victor spent four hours there – the longest time spent on the…

This small wallaby is named for its long, flexible tail, which ends in a brush of coarse hair. Once found across south-eastern Australia, the brush-tailed rock-wallaby was once widespread and abundant. Populations have declined dramatically, however, because of predation by foxes and wild dogs, competition with feral goats and pigs, and the loss, degradation and fragmentation of habitat. It is now classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. MAKE A DIFFERENCE. PLEASE DONATE TODAY Funds raised will help support the Friends of the Brush-Tailed Rock-Wallaby to protect rock-wallabies into the future. Visit australiangeographic.com.au/fundraising or call 02 9316 7214.…

ON THE BRINK One of our most stunning honeyeater species is in desperate need of help if it is to survive in the wild. AUSTRALIAN HONEYEATERS come in all sizes, from the hulking yellow wattlebird, Tasmanian endemic in which adult males are up to 46cm long, to the diminutive scarlet honeyeater of eastern Australia that grows to only about 9cm. Along with the chats, our honeyeaters belong to the Meliphagidae, a widely distributed songbird family of about 180 species, 72 of which are found in Australia. Most feed primarily on nectar, which they sip from flowers using a specialised brush-tipped tongue. This energy-rich food source is supplemented by other sugary secretions from plants and insects, and a few species even feed mainly on insects. Many honeyeater species are strongly linked…

COMMON NAME There is no generally agreed upon common name. Among those widely used are frillneck lizard, frilled lizard, frilled dragon and frill-necked lizard – all of which are often shortened to frillie. The species is known as the bemmung to the Gagadju people of the Kakadu region. SCIENTIFIC NAME Chlamydosaurus kingii (King’s cloaked lizard) WEIGHT Typically 500–750g, but the heaviest individual Christian has caught weighed 840g. LENGTH 70–95cm, including tail BREEDING Mating takes place in September. Females lay clutches of 8–20 eggs in November and hatchlings emerge about February; the temperature at which eggs are incubated determines the hatchlings’ gender. DIET Mostly insects and other invertebrates; occasionally small vertebrates ABORIGINAL RECORD Gurndamen, the frillneck lizard, is a Dreaming figure of the Gunwinku people of Gunbalanja (Oenpelli) in north-western Arnhem…

Alice Springs, the nearest town, is 468 km away to the north-east, more than a five-hour journey by car. Uluru doesn’t always look like the postcards: its appearance depends on where you’re standing and the quality of the light. Walking around in the heat, flies and dust, it’s hard to imagine it rains out here – but it does: about 300mm a year, often in heavy downpours between November and March. What you see is just like the tip of an iceberg. This arkose sandstone inselberg extends several kilometres below the ground. Kata-Tjuta is only about 25km away and you can see its stunning rock domes from almost anywhere at Uluru when you look to the west.…

• 43,000 years ago: First evidence of human occupation • 1600s: Timor invaded by the Portuguese who set the island up as a trading post and a source of sandalwood. • 1849: Timor splits following battle between Portuguese and Dutch. Portuguese take the eastern part in the Treaty of Lisbon. • 1974: Revolution in Portugal leads to promise to free colonies, encouraging parties to prepare for a new future. • 1975 August: Portuguese administration withdraws to the offshore island of Atauro. • 1975 October: Five Australian journalists killed in the village of Balibo along the border with West Timor, allegedly by Indonesian troops. There to report on Indonesia’s illegal invasion, they became known as the ‘Balibo Five’. • 1975 28 November: East Timor declares itself independent. • 1975 7 December:…

Try to opt for opendoor aircraft if you can. Shooting through windows not only restricts your view but often results in images that lack sharpness, clarity and detail. It’s not always possible, however. Ideally carry two cameras and two lenses to save changing them. This allows you to capture a variety of shots at wide, medium and long focal lengths. A wide-angle zoom on a full frame DSLR, such as the Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS, and a second camera with a longer lens, such as the Canon EF 70–200mm f/2.8L IS USM III, is a good combination. At lower altitudes, up to 500 feet, the ground moves faster, whereas at higher altitudes of more than 1500 feet ground speed is reduced. The lower you are, the faster your shutter speed…

CABLE BEACH, just north of pearling and tourist town Broome on the Kimberley coast, Western Australia, has become world-renowned for sunset camel rides, since the ‘ships of the desert’ were first brought here in the 1980s. Late afternoon images of the activity have spread across the globe, but don’t often show this perspective. Shooting from above captures perfect camel-shaped shadows, cast eastwards across the golden sands of the 22km-long beach by the Sun AG setting over the Indian Ocean. DJI Phantom 4 Lens: 20.7mm Settings: f/2.8 1/220s ISO 100 Drones. Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no doubt they are changing the way we do and see many things. You may baulk at the sight of a drone flying around in the great outdoors, but this technology is providing us…