$4.50 THE SCOTT SISTERS ART FROM THE ARCHIVES CAMELS IN AUSTRALIA- 'ROO HARVESTING PIG-NOSED TURTLE SOLOMON'S VOLCANOES WHAT'S 'NATURAL'l WINTER 1987 VOL. 22 N0.5 YouthSho Id Not be Wastedo the Youn eople of allages belong to swim at Springwood or bushwalk Youth Hostels. at Bundanoon: Youth Hostels are From an old church at located in the most scenic parts of PCarrington to a colonial pub at NSW. Many are near national parks Narrandera, a schoolhouse at like the Warrumbungles, Blue Scone to a modern lodge at Mountains, Snowy Mountains, Thredbo, Youth Hostels are cosier Kuringai and Barrington Tops. than a caravan and cheaper There are hostels throughout than a hotel. Australiaand the world that YHA Canoe at Coffs Harbour, birdwatch members can use. at Bega, cycle round Canberra, Join now. YOUTH HOSTELS ASSOCIATION OF NSW GPO Box 5276 Sydney NSW 2001 176 Day Street, Sydney Phone: (02) 267 3044 Other YHA Offices: Brisbane (07) 831 2022 Adelaide (08) 51 5583 Hobart (002) 34 9617 Darwin YHA•NSW (089) 84 3902 Melbourne (03) 67 7991 Perth (09) 325 5844 Australian Discoveries Diverse Natural History EDITORIAL Published by iscovery. The word usually ly to the early exploration of this coun­ The Australian Museum Trust refers to finding something new. try (p. 220). But discoveries are not 6-8 College Street, In this issue we adopt a different always 'large'. Small things are easily Sydney, N.S.W. 2000 slantD by looking back to discover some­ overlooked. The stunning close-up pho­ Phone: (02) 339 8111 Trust President: Robyn Williams thing old-some of the magnificent 19th tographs of bryophytes-miniatures of Museum Director: Desmond Griffin century illustrations by Harriet and the plant world (p. 238)-will ensure Helena Scott (p. 194). These two sisters that your eyes are kept well to the worked as scientific illustrators and their ground when next out in the bush. Dis­ EDITOR Fiona Doig paintings have been cloistered in the cover also in this issue what it is like to SCIENTIFIC EDITOR library archives of the Australian live at the base of an active volcano in Georgina1iickey, B.Sc. Museum for well over a century. Also the Solomon Islands. Find out how this CIRCULATION looking back at Australia's past, Gordon affects the people who live there (p. John McIntosh Grigg salutes the camel: the capabilities 210) and if Australia really is volcanically ART DIRECTION and endurance of this large, arid­ dead. You might be surprised! Watch This! Design adapted species contributed enormous- -Fiona Doig, Editor TYPESETTING Love Computer Typesetting Pty Ltd FILM WORK Contents South Sea International Press Ltd PRINTING Scott Sisters - 194 RodenPrint PtyLtd Art Treasures of the ADVERTISING 19th Century Revealed Jean Barnet Marion Ord (02) 939 6263 (02) 339 8234 Palm Cockatoos-Drumming to 199 a Different Beat SUBSCRIPTIONS Graham Wood Annual subscription (4 issues) Solomon's Volcanoes-Life 210 Within Australia $A 13.00 on the Verge Other Countries $A 15.00 Bill Gladstone Two-year subscription (8 issues) Within Australia $A25.00 Camels-Humpbacks of the 220 Other countries $A30.00 Desert Gordon Grigg For renewal or new subscription please Warradjan-The Pig-nosed 230 forward credit card authority or cheque Turtle made payable to: Arthur Georges The Australian Museum P.O. Box A285 Sydney South Bryophytes-Exquisite Miniatures 238 N.S.W. 2000, Australia of the Plant World Patricia Selkirk, Alison Downing Subscribers from other countries please note that money must be paid in and Helen Ramsay Australian currency. WILD FOODS All material appearing in Australian Natural History is copyright. Ground Orchids-Salute to Saloop 202 Reproduction in whole or in part is not Tim Low permitted without written authorisation from the Editor. FORUM Opinions expressed by the authors are Kangaroo Harvesting-A 204 their own and do not necessarily New Approach represent the policies or views of the Gordon Grigg Australian Museum. The Editor welcomes articles or RARE & ENDANGERED photographs in any field of Australian natural history. Classifying Australia's 208 Threatened Fishes John Harris Published 1987 PHOTOART ISSN-0004-9840 Outback Sentinels 235 Marianne Porteners Front Cover REGULAR FEATURES The Dingy Swallowtail, Papilio anactus. Books 206 This painting, by Helena Scott, Quips, Quotes & Curios 215 complete with foxing spots and Vincent Serventy 218 correction marks, is from the library archives of the Australian Museum. Letters 227 Robyn Williams 228 Poster Article 229 AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 193 / ·\ The Scott Sisters Art treasures of the 19th century revealed By Marion Ord h! you cannot think how "O thankful I am that my dear father allows me to place my name to the drawings! It makes me feel twice as much pleasure while I paint them!" Helena Scott was 30 when she wrote those words to her childhood friend Edward Pierson Ramsay, who later became Curator of the Australian Museum. It was 1862 and she and her Bombay, "a naturalist'sparadise" not un­ elder sister, Harriet, were already well like Ash Island. His father, Dr Helenus launched on their careers as profession­ Scott, was botanist and physician to the al artists and natural science collectors East India Company for almost 30 years and illustrators. They were acquainted and Walker inherited his father's in­ through their father with scientists terests. As well as his botanical studies, around the world, and with many in the however, Walker took his MA at Cam­ colony of New South Wales. These in­ bridge, studied law briefly, pioneered cluded the Macleays; Dr George Ben­ several industries and institutions in vi 0 nett, who was the first Secretary, and Newcastle, and was a Liberal member u:: Gerard Krefft, an early Curator, of the of the first Legislative Assembly for � Australian Museum. Northumberland and Hunter in 1856. ::c Harriet and Helena were the He was also a trustee of the Australian � daughters of Alexander Walker Scott of Museum in 1864-66 and 1867-79. � Ash Island at Hexham, on the Hunter "I've entered into a very stimulat- 02 River. Walker Scott, "entomologist and ing association with a Mr. Robert Scott 11:: entrepreneur", was one of a large and and his brother, Walker Scott", wrote z influential family who had migrated to Ludwig Leichhardt in June 1842, soon Q New South Wales from England in the after his arrival in Australia. "Their sis- � 1820s. He was born in India, on the ter is married to a doctor named Mitch- � reclaimed island of Salsette north of ell [Dr James Mitchell of the Rum ::::l AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 195 Australian Lepidoptera . ..,;::i;;;- Hospital]. These people have been in­ terested in natural history since their childhood and have been keen collec­ representation from life. Scott was a where he had emigrated, was prema­ tors of everything that seemed worthy talented artist and his closest friend in ture. The Lepidoptera book, lacking of remark. I have certainly found their England was the painter Edwin Land­ funds, was not published in Australia collection of minerals and shells instruc­ seer, whose portrait of Alexander Walk­ but in England 12 years later, in 1864. tive in the extreme." er Scott resides in the Art Callery of Five hundred copies were then printed. Leichhardt visited Ash Island later New South Wales. Swainson noted: in the same year: From early childhood the sisters "Of the execution of these drawings I "Mr. Scott has very kindly come with had visited the family of Dr David Ram­ am almost afraid to write lest the pub­ me on some of my tramps. He . ..is in­ say of "Dobroyd" at Ashfield, another lic may think that the desire of com­ clined to proceed briskly, like a nimble Scottish emigrant obsessed with natur­ plimenting the fair artists . ..may have huntsman, and his sharp eyes notice the al science and new plant species. His biased my judgment. I am willing, less conspicuous of the new varieties of wife, Sarah, was the daughter of eman­ however, to hazard that scrupulous plants more easily than mine do . ..It's cipist Simeon Lord.The mix of scientists regard for veracity which the scientific a romantic place which I like well and emancipists formed a more liberal­ public has long given me credit for, enough to think that-perhaps-I'd be minded community than that of the ex­ when I state that these drawings are content to live and die there." clusives in the colony, who wanted to equal to any I have ever seen by In 1846 Walker Scott married Har­ live like the English gentry and hated modern artists... Whether we look to riet Calcott, daughter of a convict "freed convicts, emancipists, the Catholics and the exquisite and elaborate finishing, by servitude", with whom he had been the Irish. The friendship of the Scott sis­ the correct drawing, or the astonishing living. She was the mother of his daugh­ ters with E.P.Ramsay began at this time, exactitude of the colours, often most ters Harriet and Helena, then 16 and 14. continuing throughout their lives. Let­ brilliant, and generally indescribably After the marriage he took them all to ters to him remain their only surviving blended, there is no poetic exaggera­ live on Ash Island, a grant of 2,560 acres correspondence. "You are one of the tion in saying: The force of painting can which he had been developing since very few to whom I scribble just as I no further go'." 1829. Ash Island oranges were famous think so you may be sure I have confi­ Swainson then discussed the in the colony and Scott experimented dence in you ", wrote Helena ("Nellie") Lepidoptera species under their differ­ with flax and tobacco crops and grew in 1862.