Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2021 i Australian Geographic

THIS STUNNING IMAGE was taken by Gary Meredith in a remote part of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. There, rainbow bee-eaters roost together at night and each morning sit in the warmth of the rising sun. In winter they huddle to stay warm. The photo won the People’s Choice Award in the 2020 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibition at the South Australian Museum. “I have spent the last four years photographing this behaviour each winter once these birds have migrated north after breeding in the south of Australia over summer,” says Gary, who was deeply honoured by his win. “What I am most pleased about is that this award is based solely on the general public visiting the museum and voting on images they can physically see…

BIRDING IS WONDERFULLY addictive! This year I will be sharing birding tips and tricks and my favourite sites from my 40-plus years of birding. Good field guides are essential: I keep a comprehensive one in the car and carry a compact one in my bag. There is a growing number of great apps too, most of which include bird calls. Whatever guide(s) you get, spend time studying the species you might see in your local area and their distinguishing features. Learning the guide’s layout in this way will also help you quickly find the right sections when you need to. Joining a local birding group is a great way to learn more about birds and make new friends. Groups meet regularly for walks and have meetings where guest speakers give…

VERSING AUSTRALIAN SPORTING journalism appears to have birthed the word “versing”. It turns up on programs where blokes named Jacko and Cruncher preview weekend sport. They seem to have trouble referring to the Sharks versus the Bears because “versus” comes from Latin…and has two syllables. So they say, “the Sharks verse the Bears” - when they’re not saying “the Sharks vee the Bears”. This shortened form of versus - verse - has been adopted like school slang and turned into a verb - “Who are we versing this week?” In other words, versing is not writing poetry, but playing another team. One schoolteacher discovered how far this had gone when she marked an assignment about the battle of Marathon, which, the student said, was a case of “the Persians versing…

THE PRIMARY purpose of snake venom is to immobilise prey, but from the human experience it’s more significant when a snake bites to defend itself. Venom is modified saliva. It is stored in venom glands behind the eye and connected by ducts to the fangs. It is not a single toxin, but a complex cocktail. The balance of components varies between snake species and has differing effects on the body of the victim. Myotoxins attack muscle tissue. When injected into prey, these may act to aid its digestion. In humans they can cause severe muscle destruction and may lead to acute kidney failure. Haemotoxins act on the blood by interfering with normal clotting, including platelet production, or by destroying blood cells, particularly red blood cells. Haemotoxins are a component of…

THAT FEBRUARY 2011 earthquake, which struck during the city’s lunch hour, was the most destructive in a series. It was the one that broke so many of the Central Business District’s verticals and horizontals – its buildings and the roads, sewers, water and gas pipes. It was shallow and ferocious. Its peak vertical ground acceleration of 2.2G (more than twice the acceleration of gravity) momentarily lifted parts of Christchurch to the sort of face-distorting speeds astronauts experience when they ascend into space. It wasn’t the biggest quake in its series. Five months earlier, there’d been a 7.1-magnitude tremor centred 45km west of Christchurch that damaged the city. But 22 February was different. It was magnitude 6.3, smaller than the previous quake, but the epicentre was just 6km south of the…

I’M SITTING IN stunned silence in a minibus with pastoralist David Pollock. We’re 650km north-east of Perth, in Western Australia’s Southern Rangelands. Before us stretch vast unvegetated swathes of red dirt, but, as I’m discovering, it didn’t always look like this, and the realisation of how hugely degraded these leasehold lands are is shocking to me. The Southern Rangelands comprise about 500,000sq.km between WA’s south-western agricultural region and arid interior. They include the Gascoyne, Murchison and Goldfields–Nullarbor regions, all of which were originally covered by huge expanses of low shrublands. The state’s Northern Rangelands, which comprise more than 350,000sq.km in the Kimberley and Pilbara, are characterised by grasslands. “This is supposed to be our high productivity country,” says David, whose family has owned the lease to Wooleen Station, in the…

FACT Tumbarumba to Rosewood Rail Trail is the first rail trail to open on Crown land in NSW. Length 21km One way takes 1–4 hours, depending on speed. 1 Tumbarumba Visitor Information Centre and Museum 2 Electric bike hire 3 Mountain biking trails 4 Pump track, picnic facilities and toilets 5 Wolter Cottages trailhead 6 Figures Street trailhead (parking and interpretive signage) 7 Hyne Timber Mill 8 Sawpit Creek Bridge (alternative starting point with car parking) 9 Glenroy Station (interpretive signage and rest area) 10 Pioneer Womens Hut (museum) 11 Mannus Creek Bridge 12 Wolseley Park Station (interpretive signage and rest area) 13 Bells Creek Bridge 14 Rosewood Station trailhead (Memorial Park, toilets and gnome tree) 15 Gone Barny post office and cafe More information Tumbarumba Visitor Information Centre and…

LOOKING TO TRY something that’s both adventurous and educational? Join this small ship expedition to the remote outer Great Barrier Reef and help marine scientists observe, record and report on natural phenomena. With full access to the most respected coral experts in the world and the opportunity to mine their knowledge, energy and passion, this expedition off ers a rare chance to learn and make a difference in coral conservation. Also, $500 from your fare benefits Great Barrier Reef Legacy (see p117 for more info). Departures & fares 10 nights Departing Cairns aboard Coral Discoverer Dates: 30 June 2021 | From $12,400pp Expedition highlights • Hosted by two of Australia’s foremost reef experts, Dr Dean Miller from the Australian Geographic Society, and Dr Charlie Veron, widely known as the ‘Godfather…

THE YOLNU often say the land is their mother. It nurtures, heals and guides their lives. This is why the female visitor experience and connection to the yolηu people is often so profound. Our Gay’wu women’s tour provides female visitors with the opportunity to come together with their yolηu sisterhood and learn about their culture, history and country. Equally, it’s an opportunity to reconnect with every aspect of their own lives – environment, spirituality and philosophy. You will experience many extraordinary things on this tour, and time spent with the yolηu women is often described as “life changing”. Departures & fares 4 nights Dates: 27–31 May 2021 $2365pp twin share 6–14 people Expedition highlights • This tour is for women and girls only. In the modern western world this could…

The Australian Geographic Society offers you a chance to hunt for rare opalised fossils. Guided by experts, you’ll discover new specimens for the Australian Opal Centre’s world-leading museum collection. Enrich your knowledge of opals and gems, opalised fossils and living opal field heritage. Help make new dinosaur discoveries! Dates and prices 7 nights August 2021 (two trips). Week 2 is available for return participants only $2200pp; return digger $1980. Includes all activities and most meals. Contact us today dig@australianopalcentre.com Phone 0427 904 587…

GEORGETOWN IS A pleasant, sleepy little place on the Etheridge River, in far north Queensland. It’s famed for gemstones and surrounded by rich beef-cattle country, the district being known for Brahman and Droughtmaster cattle. One of Australia’s most comprehensive private collection of gems, minerals and crystals – the Ted Elliott Mineral Collection – can be viewed at the TerrEstrial Visitor Information Centre. Nearby are the O’Briens Creek and Agate Creek fossicking areas. And about 85km south of the town is the stunning Cobbold Gorge, which can be traversed by boat from Cobbold Gorge Village. In some places the walls of this narrow sandstone feature are no more than 2m apart. Georgetown is located 1850km north-west of Brisbane, via Emerald and Mount Surprise. It is 377km south-west of Cairns and 302km…

For our catch-up with the city of Christchurch 10 years on from the devastating 2011 earthquake (p78), we sent writer Geoff Chapple (above, at right, with Mike Langford) who penned our Whakaari/White Island volcano feature in AG 158. “The assignment was my first time back in Christchurch since 2013, when I’d stayed in a Port Hills cabin and cycled to Canterbury University each day on a writing fellowship,” Geoff says. “At night back then I’d look down at the CBD and see a black hole in a sea of suburban light. The aftershocks were still ongoing – jolts sharp enough to wake you. This time, however, the only wake-up call I had was a screeching fire alarm misbehaving in a motel room, but I did check out that night-time view…

HE TRAPPED RABBITS AND HUNTED WILD PIGEONS. ONE RAIN-LASHED January night in 1929, a lonely and defeated Italian immigrant by the name of Valerio Ricetti arrived on the outskirts of Griffith, New South Wales, and sought shelter in a rock overhang. Another depression-era drifter seeking work, he’d walked 120km from Hillston on the Lachlan River to get there. Flat broke after a string of temporary jobs and in moral despair having been heartbroken, beaten up, robbed, swindled and jailed, he was at the end of his tether. He was disillusioned with society and wanted no further part of it. When he emerged the next morning and surveyed the deep recess in the rock and the rich soil, abundant wildlife and water sources nearby, then fruit farms stretching to the horizon,…

THE OCEAN REMAINS a place of mystery, even to me as a marine biologist who spends more time in the water than out. Seahorses are marine animals that particularly capture the imagination of people, including myself. They’re very un-fish-like fish that seem cobbled together from a variety of land-based animals and humorously plonked in the sea, kind of like sea-going platypuses. They’re covered in armour-plated skeletons instead of scales, have horse-like heads and monkey-like tails that curl around seaweed to anchor them because they’re poor swimmers. They’re also very shy and well camouflaged in their seaweed surroundings, making them tricky to find, let alone photograph. These stallions (and mares) of the sea are among the many reasons I don’t enter the water without a camera. That’s also because the underwater…

THE YEAR 2020 was like no other in living memory. The Black Summer bushfires were followed by the global pandemic. Tragic events in the USA ignited the Black Lives Matter movement, which rapidly gained traction in Australia where injustices suffered by First Nations people sparked protests, even in the midst of lockdowns. Among those shortlisted for the 2021 Aussie of the Year are individuals who became household names during times of national crisis, such as former NSW fire commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, whose calm and reassuring ways and exemplary leadership inspired much-needed confidence as the country burned. Professor Brendan Murphy also become a regular face on TV screens, providing expert advice as the pandemic unfolded. He advised the federal government to close international borders before the spread of COVID-19 – a…

When the first kangaroo genome was sequenced a decade ago by an Aussie-based worldwide team of more than 50 researchers, it was lauded as a stunning piece of science. There were expectations it would reveal much about the evolution of this continent’s largely unique mammal fauna, and it has. But to most scientists working in Australian wildlife conservation, it didn’t seem to have a lot of practical relevance. “Since then, however, technologies have improved and we’ve come to understand what we can use genomes for and the huge power they have,” explains Dr Carolyn Hogg, senior research manager of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group at the University of Sydney. “We’ve come to realise during the past 10 years that genomes are such powerful tools for not only answering complex biological…

KEY PROCESSES STRATIFICATION Thermal stratification occurs when the surface water heats up significantly more than deeper water. It usually occurs, or becomes most pronounced, during low or no flow periods in summer, whereby the potential for mixing in the water column is reduced. In such instances, dissolved oxygen in the colder deep layer can be depleted. This keeps fish and other life that needs to breathe that oxygen at the surface, where they can be exposed to heat stress and predators. These conditions also promote blooms of blue-green algae. DE-STRATIFICATION Small increases in flow or sudden weather events, such as a sudden cool change (e.g. a storm front), can quickly mix the warmer surface water and cooler deep water, essentially breaking down the temperature stratification. This means that, even at…

PETER SALVESEN was driving his tram on 15 March 2019 when sirens began to wail and police cars darted through the streets. Something was wrong. Radio messages came through calling him to return to base. An Australian white supremacist gunman had opened fire with semi-automatic weapons at two Christchurch mosques, killing 51 and wounding 40. In the days after, Peter watched Christchurch react: “You could see in people’s faces a real sense of shock, of fright. Pinched faces, no laughter. It affected the body language. People were unsure. It was like a mist came over the city. It was very strange.” If the Christchurch trams don’t run – even if only briefly – it signals a city in trouble. They shut down for three hours during that March rampage. They…

WHILE RAYMOND ISLAND wasn’t burnt during the destructive Black Summer bushfires, the surrounding region was decimated, and so the former has now become a significant refuge for koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas and many bird species. On this trip you’ll join a local Landcare group and residents to set up a wild koala research project. Data collected – such as tree species preference, behaviour, identification of individuals and evidence of koalas drinking stemflow (water moving down the stem) – will be used for conservation purposes. Departures & fares 4 nights Dates: 8–12 April 2021 4–8 November 2021 $1848pp twin share. $378 single supplement Expedition highlights • Conservation travel with Echidna Walkabout is all about making a difference by getting out into the bush and effecting real change. It’s about working with…

LORD HOWE ISLAND is a gem of the natural world. Its dramatic scenery, lush subtropical forests, rare flora and fauna, pristine beaches and colourful marine life are breathtaking and unique. So much so that Sir David Attenborough once wrote that Lord Howe is “so extraordinary it is almost unbelievable”. In 2019 a rodent eradication program on the island was completed and now Australian Geographic is delighted to announce a 2021 expedition for curious and energetic citizen scientists to work with experts to study populations of local and migratory birds. Departures & fares 6 nights Dates: 12–18 September 2021. From $4936pp twin share, excluding airfare. The rate includes a $450 contribution to the Australian Geographic Society. Expedition Highlights • Six days of field research with a focus on local and migratory…

Join Tim Faulkner for a unique hands-on experience with this breeding program for the Tasmanian devil and eastern quoll in the beautiful Barrington Tops of NSW. You’ll see devils up close as you help with feeding and monitoring individuals. There’ll also be opportunities to explore the region’s natural treasures and spot local wildlife at night. Don’t miss your chance to get involved. Dates and prices 2 nights (3 days) September/October 2021 From $1400pp Contact us today admin@devilark.org.au Phone 02 4340 8610…

THE TREE, A BOAB, is back slightly from the beach, overlooking a scene that hasn’t changed in hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. Below the high-tide mark where bristly grass gives way to coarse sand, the beach slopes down to open water and on the northern edge of the bay a line of black rocks delineates blue sea from the verdant green of a tropical, scrub-covered headland. Hidden behind the beach, in the scrub, is a narrow, sharp-edged creek near a permanent source of fresh water For millennia, Aboriginal people on hunting and fishing trips landed on the sand here at the place they called Wunbung-gu and erected bark shelters. Later, Macassan fishers from the faraway Indonesian island of Sulawesi pulled their boats ashore and processed trepang – sea cucumbers –…

Featured Letter LATIN LESSON Isolating in Canberra from my usual home in Melbourne, I have had the benefit of reading my father’s copies of AUSTRALIANGEOGRAPHIC. AG 159 was again full of fascinating articles, intriguing facts and beautiful pictures. The echidna story noted that “monotreme” was Latin for “single hole”. Surely it’s Greek? (The Latin would be something like “unicava”.) On the same page, it’s explained that the short-beaked echidna’s “Latin name”, Tachyglossus, means “fast tongue”. Again, both parts of this word are Greek, although “Latinised” to form a species name. I wonder if it would be fairer to the Greeks if we used the term “scientific name” rather than “Latin name” in such cases. While I can understand the mention of Latin in a reference to a scientific name, in explaining…

ON A SWELTERING January day in 1839, 250 tons of ice in huge blocks cut from frozen lakes near Boston, USA, arrived in Sydney on the ship Tartar. Overseas, harvested ice was stored in icehouses, underground buildings with thick brick walls. In Sydney an insulated timber icehouse, sent with the frozen water as a prefabricated flatpack, was erected on the wharf from where the ice was sold by the pound, bought by confectionary makers and domestic customers who could afford it. The Sydney Herald advised its readers that they should “taste a strawberry ice, and they will consider as we do, that the Captain of the Tartar ought to have a statue erected in his honour”. Ice from North America arrived intermittently until the 1860s when the innovations of Australian…

THREATS SUCH AS land clearing and climate change are leading to declines in Australia’s native flora and fauna, yet legal protection for threatened species is weak. In 2020 the federal government put $200 million towards helping species badly hit by last summer’s bushfire crisis. But it was simultaneously considering weakening threatened species protection under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The government argues the law stymies developers through a complex mess of state and federal approvals. The act allows species to be nationally listed as threatened and was intended to protect them from perils such as deforestation and development. It was significant when it was passed, because it was the first national approach to protecting the environment, and today lists more than 1800 species. But scientists…

BEFORE TELESCOPES, sky watchers thought dark markings on the Moon were seas and named them maris – Latin for ‘of the sea’. The telescope revealed them to be vast plains, which are actually ancient lava flows that filled giant impact basins caused by asteroids during the Solar System’s youth. The Moon became known as a dry, dusty world, airless and devoid of water. But in 2009, instruments on two spacecraft made a tantalising detection. They showed the Moon’s poles contain oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded as hydroxyl (OH) or water (H2O). The spacecraft observations had detected a particular signature in infrared light reflected from the lunar surface. It didn’t distinguish between the two molecules, but many scientists assumed water was likely to be the dominant component. Deep polar craters that…

IT’S JUST AFTER lunchtime, the morning rains have finally cleared and the sun begins breaking through the clouds. Max Breckenridge, a captive release project officer with BirdLife Australia (BLA) is slowly walking along a dirt road that cuts through a patch of untouched spotted gum–ironbark forest in the Lower Hunter Valley in New South Wales. One hand holds an antenna above his head, the other rests on a radio receiver sitting around his waist. Suddenly he stops, mid-step, and slowly pivots to the left. “I’ve got a signal for bird blue-blue,” he says, adjusting the gain on his radio receiver. Dean Ingwersen, BLA’s Woodland Bird Program (WBP) leader and regent honeyeater recovery coordinator, raises his binoculars, looks into the canopy and responds. “Yes, that’s definitely blue-blue,” he confirms. “I can…

IT’S DUSK AND the late afternoon sun has lit up the Barwon River’s banks in an orange glow, illuminating the pink beaks of pelicans patiently perched on the Ngunnhu (Brewarrina Fish Traps). Below the modern Brewarrina Weir in north-western New South Wales, a 2km bend holds the remains of this ancient structure, a complex of dry-stone walls and a site of engineering brilliance. Displaying advanced knowledge of river hydrology and fish ecology, the traps were designed to catch Murray cod, golden and silver perch and other fish, but allow breeding stock to pass through. Ngunnhu (pronounced noon-oo), which is believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, human-made constructions on Earth has national heritage listing. The Ngemba traditional owners say their creative spirit, Baiame, instructed neighbouring tribes…

RESEARCHING VENOM can be a hazardous pursuit. Ask Associate Professor Bryan Fry. This Brisbane-based molecular biologist has been bitten 27 times by venomous creatures, mostly snakes on land and box jellyfish and stingrays at sea. He’s also had 23 broken bones and 400 stitches, has been concussed three times and once fractured his spine in three places, after which he spent months in hospital relearning how to walk. Bryan is no masochist. But if you study venom, you need to go into some wild places and confront a lot of deadly creatures to collect the material that’s fundamental to your research. It may be dangerous, but it’s necessary, because Bryan’s work with the venoms he collects is crucial to making the antidotes – the antivenoms – needed to treat the…

CHARLES MARTIN AT THE University of Sydney began the first systematic study of Australian snake venom chemistry in 1891, using the red-bellied black snake and the tiger snake. He discovered two active proteins: one triggered clotting in blood vessels, and one caused damage to the brain and peripheral nervous system. When Albert Calmette created the first antivenom against cobra venom in Paris in 1894 by extracting the blood serum of horses, it was thought it would protect against any snakebite. But in 1900 Martin proved antivenom was not universal. He studied how venoms acted on the body and its systems and concluded that the volume of antivenom needed depended on the dose of venom in a bite. He went on to design and build high-pressure ultrafilters to break down venom…

“As we weep for what we have lost and as we grieve for family and friends, and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who we are. We are Queenslanders. We’re the people they breed tough north of the border. We’re the ones that they knock down and we get up again.”Queensland premier, Anna Bligh, 2011 IT WAS 10 JANUARY 2011 and once again it was pouring with rain. Queensland had already endured its wettest spring and December on record, and yet still the rain kept coming. I was working at the time as a freelance photographer for Queensland’s main newspaper, The Courier Mail. And weary of capturing “wet weather photos”, I’d decided to stay dry inside my Toowoomba office. Any further rain falling…

The narrow bitumen path weaves between emerald hills, gently rises and falls over well-watered paddocks and slices through narrow cuttings, straight as an arrow. It passes oblivious livestock, scattered old farm buildings and relics of forgotten railway stations. It fords creeks, ducks beneath bridges and occasionally stops altogether to yield to road traffic in a revealing twist of the old pecking order. In many ways this fresh new Tumbarumba to Rosewood Rail Trail in southern New South Wales personifies the gritty determination and down-to-earth pragmatism of its cheer squad. They’re a smart, lycra-clad band of local movers and shakers who championed its development, forged its construction and now gather regularly to ride all 21km of its neatly paved length and back again. In doing so they are not only keeping…

FROM SPECTACULAR coastal landscapes to the wildly beautiful outback, and the wildlife that call them home, South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula has it all. Unsurpassed in its beauty, the region also teems with colourful characters. You’ll meet a host of locals during your visit to Port Lincoln, the seafood capital of Australia, and the stunning, ancient and geologically fuelled Gawler Ranges. Each day you’ll enjoy unique wildlife, geological, culinary, photographic and educational experiences, including swimming with Australian sea lions and dolphins (the only place in Australia where you can do this). Departures & fares 8 nights Dates: 10–18 Feb 2021; 26 Feb–7 Mar ’21; 24 Apr–2 May ’21 2021 $7189pp twin share $826 single supplement Expedition highlights • Sample the bounty of the ocean; take part in a seafood masterclass with…

Far north Queensland is a wildlife enthusiast’s paradise! This small group tour explores rainforest habitat, concentrating on the endemic wildlife found within. We have a firm belief that tourism is the key to the protection and conservation of this World Heritage area. Our passionate and knowledgeable guides are eager to share the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area with you. Departures & fares 6 days 16–21 May 2021 11–16 July 2021 $2295pp twin share $449 single supplement 4–6 people Contact us today travel@australiangeographic.com Phone 0413 560 210…