Innholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2025 i Australian Geographic

OFF THE COASTLINE of Sydney’s Northern Beaches, a young humpback whale thrashes at the ocean’s surface, its powerful body tethered by thick ropes and buoys that have become caught around its body. Its movements become increasingly laboured as the lines cut deeper with its attempts to escape. From above, a drone operator from ORRCA – Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia – monitors the unfolding scene, guiding the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service’s Large Whale Disentanglement team as they edge closer to the 30-tonne mammal. Disentanglement is dangerous, painstaking work. The team members must read the whale’s body language, timing their approach between breaths and surges. A single wrong move could be fatal – for the whale or a rescuer. With practised precision, the team…

GOLD TRULY DESERVES to be called a precious metal. Indeed, all the gold that has been mined throughout human history would fit inside a cube that’s 22m long on each side. Now, scientists have found a way to extract gold from electronic waste (e-waste) using bacteria – but more on that shortly. In the periodic table, the symbol for gold is Au, from the Latin word ‘aurum’, which comes from older words meaning ‘dawn’ or ‘glow’. This might be the basis of the claim in scientific publications that ‘gold’ means ‘shining dawn’. Unlike most metals, which are grey or silvery white, gold has a distinctive reddish-yellow hue. This is because some of the electrons orbiting around the nucleus of the gold atom travel close to the speed of light. The…

1814 An Australian currency begins its circulation DURING THE EARLY years of the New South Wales colony, its economy was plagued by a lack of currency. With no local currency available, foreign coins were commonly used. British coins circulated along with Dutch guilders and ducats, Portuguese johannas, and Indian mohurs and rupees. Many of these had a fleeting circulation in the colony as a result of trade with visiting merchant ships. Governor Lachlan Macquarie set out to secure a reliable supply of coins for the colony by importing 40,000 Spanish dollars, also known as ‘pieces of eight’, which arrived from Madras (now Chennai), in southern India, aboard the Samarang on 26 November 1812. These Spanish coins were at the time used as a de facto international currency. Macquarie was likely…

STRINGS OF FESTOON lights guide the way through Alice Springs Desert Park at the foot of the Tjoritja/MacDonnell Ranges. It’s opening night of Parrtjima 2025 – a free, 10-night, all-ages festival that cleverly uses modern technologies to celebrate the oldest continuous living culture on earth. The energy in the air is palpable. It’s also the event’s milestone 10th iteration – a true testament to the trailblazers working behind the scenes who have delivered a logistically challenging event. Crowds are greeted with a grouping of tall wooden poles rising from a clear expanse. These are adorned with artwork drawn in ultraviolet paint, illuminated by beams of blacklight. Together, the poles form the Arrernte word ‘werte’, meaning ‘hello’ or ‘welcome’ – a message from Mparntwe/Alice Springs’ three estate groups: Antulye, Irlpme and…

ON THE CRYSTALLINE waters surrounding Badu Island in the Torres Strait, there is a boatful of monkeys. Dennis Fay, a Cairns-based firefighter and former Australian Army soldier who was born and raised here, has returned home to spearfish with his mates. As they manoeuvre along the blue highway, they don monkey masks for a laugh, pose for the camera and share their corner of the world. They upload their videos to YouTube, and soon they’ve built a tribe of followers, amassing a quarter of a million views on their channel in short order. Yet, frivolity aside, Dennis is dismayed to see that every beach in this archipelago of 200 islands is littered with debris – chiefly glass, plastics and discarded (ghost) fishing nets. “Because the Torres Strait sits between two…

NATURE IS CONSTANTLY in transition – perhaps more so now than ever before in human history. Thanks to its longevity, the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year (AGNPOTY) competition provides a unique chance to reflect meaningfully on recent change in our part of the world. Owned by the South Australian Museum and produced in partnership with AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC, the competition has been running for 22 years and sets the standard for photographers in this genre. It creates a powerful catalogue of the shifting environments across Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea. During this time there have been countless natural discoveries and losses. AGNPOTY has documented many of these changes. But what has remained consistent is the quality of the imagery, which was as high in this year’s competition…

STREAKY BAY IS an important service centre and holiday destination on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. A sleepy town with a population of a little over 2000, it has superb coastal scenery and a wonderful Mediterranean-like ambience. Its major attractions lie to the north and south of the town, and include the Westall Way Loop, a 32km driving route with beautiful views of the area’s rugged cliffs and pristine white beaches; Smooth Pool, a popular snorkelling spot known for its calm waters and diverse marine life; and Point Labatt, where you can spot sea lions swimming and lazing about in the sun. About 41km south of Streaky Bay, tourism operator Baird Bay Experience offers sightseeing tours where you can swim with wild sea lions and dolphins. Streaky Bay’s…

OUR DIGITAL FEATURES editor, Candice Marshall, was ecstatic about her latest field assignment. One day she was huddling in a woolly jumper in her home on New Zealand’s South Island. Next, she was revelling in the T-shirt-friendly winter and extraordinary culture of Alice Springs, in outback Oz, where she attended the 10th anniversary of the Parrtjima arts festival (see A decade of light, page 46). “The desert changes you,” Candice says. “Despite being a born and bred east-coast water lover, I’m continually drawn to the outback. There’s something about the deeply red earth, clear starry night sky and vast expanses that’s always rejuvenating. “And this time, when I stepped inside those festival gates, I experienced a whole new energy. Parrtjima is unique, using modern technologies and contemporary art styles to…

One giant leap for frogkind More than 540 critically endangered northern corroboree frogs (Pseudophryne pengilleyi) have been released into Brindabella National Park in southern New South Wales. Bred at Taronga Zoo, these tiny frogs were released in collaboration with the NSW Government’s Saving our Species program and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Endemic to montane and subalpine areas at elevations of 750–1800m, this frog has been impacted by chytrid fungus (see It’s not easy being green, AG 186), extreme weather events and habitat degradation by introduced animals such as horses, pigs and deer. Experts estimate there are fewer than 1200 mature individuals left in the wild. Ice Age tools unearthed Australian archaeologists have excavated 693 Ice Age artefacts at Dargan Shelter in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, including…

TURTLES ARE BUILT to last. As a group, they’ve survived 250 million years – outlasting dinosaurs – but they still face many struggles. One lucky modern-day survivor arrived unceremoniously into our lives 17 years ago via the pants pocket of one of our tour guides. This is how that happened. Our guide, Paul, was leading a wildlife tour west of Melbourne. He was showing his guests a large mud nest belonging to white-winged choughs, when some of these communal birds returned with food for their nestlings. One bird, carrying a small blob in its beak, squawked in alarm upon seeing the tour group and dropped its payload – like a small bomb – onto Paul’s felt hat before it bounced to the ground. Its shell was soft, and Paul quickly…

WHEN RESIDENTS OF the NSW Northern Rivers town of Murwillumbah awoke on 23 November 1978, they discovered their main street was crawling with police cars and camera-toting media. Overnight, their sleepy town had earned a most unwanted claim to fame: the location of Australia’s biggest-ever bank robbery. Earlier that morning, a security guard noticed a rear door ajar at the Bank of NSW (now Westpac). When he ventured inside, it was clear there had been a robbery because the dials of the vault had been removed and spiked, but its door was firmly locked. He immediately raised the alarm, but as much as he tried, he couldn’t access the vault. Local locksmiths and security experts from Brisbane raced to the scene and attempted to open the door to find out…

IN REGIONAL QUEENSLAND, a group of blokes sit around a campfire. There’s laughter and banter – the easy camaraderie of men who’ve walked similar paths. But between their boisterous stories, there are quieter moments: tears, fears, and the kind of honesty rarely voiced in everyday life. These men have come together through a men’s circle led by Aaron Schultz of The Outback Mind Foundation. They’re here to connect, and they’re also here to save lives. Aaron is known to many in this part of Australia due to a giant billboard on the Bruce Highway between Miriam Vale, where he’s now based, and Gladstone. His face is splashed across it, arms folded, alongside the message: ‘DV stops with me.’ On average, almost 7000 vehicles pass it each day. But billboard fame…

IT HAS BEEN a catastrophe unlike anything seen before in the Southern Hemisphere: since early autumn this year, the largest and most deadly bloom of marine algae ever recorded in Australian waters has been wreaking havoc across more than 4500sq.km of coastal South Australia. First detected in March along Encounter Bay, almost 90km south of Adelaide, the bloom spread rapidly – first to the Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, then the Port River system, Adelaide’s beaches and the Fleurieu Peninsula. That’s an area twice the size of the ACT, and, at the time of writing, the bloom was continuing to grow and spread. The devastation left by this unprecedented algal bloom has been vast, killing everything in its wake – from habitat-forming invertebrate species such as mussels and sponges through…

IT’S A SUNNY autumn morning and journalists, TV camera crews and influencers have gathered at Urbnsurf in Sydney Olympic Park – New South Wales’ only indoor surf park – to see the world’s first surfboards made from decommissioned wind-turbine blades. At a glance, these are indistinguishable from your typical, run-of-the-mill surfboards, and there are pro surfers here taking them for a spin as they would any other board. But flip them over and you’ll find a small paragraph of text printed above the fins, detailing the amount of renewable energy the wind turbine once generated (14,773 megawatts per hour), the CO₂ emissions it offset (19,056 tonnes), and the coordinates of its former location (Victoria’s Waubra Wind Farm.) The surfboards were designed by pro surfer Josh Kerr, founder of Draft Surf,…

THE SKY WAS clear, but the ground beneath Anna Nicholas was sodden, chewed into a slurry by the boots of hikers trekking through days of rain. It was her third day on the South Coast Track – a remote 85km wilderness traverse through Tasmania’s Southwest National Park. Anna and her two walking companions, Claire Cook and Claire Hynes, had been trudging for more than six hours through thick, ankle-deep mud, packs heavy on their backs. An overnight camp location – at Osmiridium Beach – was finally within reach. Surrounded by buttongrass and a tangle of gnarly coastal scrub, Anna suddenly pitched forward. “I don’t even think I really tripped over anything in particular,” she recalls. “But I fell forward onto a branch that went straight across my eyes.” The impact…

LITTLE MORE Than 50 years ago, Australian and British astronomers dazzled the world with their newly commissioned Anglo-Australian Telescope on Gamilaraay Country in north-western NSW. Funded jointly by the two governments, the telescope’s 3.9m-diameter mirror placed it among the world’s largest optical (visible light) telescopes. It was the perfect complement to Australia’s growing radio astronomy capabilities. The telescope’s illustrious career has been recounted already in these pages (see A telescope for a golden age, AG 182). But while it’s still producing world-class data, it no longer ranks among the world’s biggest. And in astronomy, size is everything – closely followed by location. Today, that ideal location is the mountain tops of northern Chile, where exquisite atmospheric conditions have spawned a new generation of large optical telescopes. Thanks to Australian Government…

FOUR THOUSAND METRES beneath the ocean’s surface lies a world of darkness, near-freezing temperatures and pressure 400 times higher than at sea level. In this placid, remote environment, scattered across vast sediment plains, are billions of polymetallic nodules containing cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earth elements. These potato-sized nodules grow at a rate of 1.5cm per million years and support unique and fragile deep-sea life. And yet, this is where deep-sea miners intend to send giant machines to extract ancient nodules to supply metals used in mobile phones, EV batteries and other technologies. Their activities are the focus of urgent debate as the industry presses for licences, heedless of serious concern. Mining is inherently destructive, but at these depths it would be catastrophic. Heavy equipment strips away the sea floor…

JOHN WALKER WAS a young man by the time he saw his first whale. It sounds incongruous as he sits speaking on the front verandah of his home in Eden, the southernmost town of coastal NSW, looking across Twofold Bay, which is now widely recognised as one of the surest places on Australia’s east coast for whale spotting. John was born and grew up around here. And most Sundays, he’d fish with his dad from a rock somewhere along this sapphire-blue waterway’s shoreline. “In all that time, I never even saw a whale spouting,” he says. “By then they had pretty much disappeared.” John recalls one momentous occasion, in the mid-1950s, when reports of a rare whale sighting almost brought the area to a standstill. “I was in 5th class,…

BELOW THE SUBTROPICAL rainforest canopy of the Illawarra escarpment lives a group of secretive and surprisingly stunning creatures that few people are aware of. But if you know what to look for, there are telltale signs of their presence in creeks and streams throughout the forest here – burrows along banks and under rocks, each with a small pile of excavated dirt and gravel on its doorstep. I first came across these creatures about a decade ago while exploring the area with a friend. “If you’re getting into underwater photography,” he told me, “you need to see these beasts.” We were making our way along a creek when he suddenly became excited and pointed out something moving in a shallow pool. At first glance it resembled a yabby, but closer…

ON THE MORNING of 7 November 1982, Brisbane residents awoke to find Cloudland Ballroom, a much-loved venue in the inner north-eastern suburb of Bowen Hills, reduced to rubble. The National Trust-listed ballroom had been a cornerstone of Brisbane’s entertainment and social scene for 35 years, hosting concerts, dances, state receptions, debutante balls and even university exams. It was torn down in less than an hour. Built between 1939 and 1940, Cloudland Ballroom actually began life as a Luna Park attraction. The eccentric amusement park architect T. H. Eslick (see Traces, AG 187) had arrived in Queensland’s capital in 1938, determined to build Brisbane’s own Luna Park – but his timing couldn’t have been worse; six months after the first sod was turned in March 1939, World War II broke out…

1 Who was prime minister of Australia from 1996–2007? 2 What are Australia’s national colours? 3 Which Aussie marsupial is known to sleep for hours a day? 4 In what year did the Northern Territory achieve self-government? 5 Are waratahs an annual or perennial plant? 6 True or false: Flying foxes use echolocation for navigation and to locate food. 7 Major Mitchell’s cockatoo is now better known by what name? 8 What is Queensland’s highest mountain? 9 What is Australia’s population, rounded to the nearest million? 10 Is the prickly pear (genus Opuntia) native or non-native? 11 The Ashmore and Cartier islands lie off the coast of which Australian state? 12 Do male king-parrots have a red or green head? 13 Which Australian snake is thought to be the world’s…