AUSTRAUAN WILDLIFE IN AUSTRALIA a magazine on wildlife and the environment published quarterly by the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland ARTICLES ON AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE ALONG THE NATURE TRAIL WITH THE EDITOR VINCENT SERVENTY PAGES FOR TEACHERS PICTORIAL PAGES IN COLOUR BOOK REVIEWS CONSERVATION NEWS FROM ALL THE STATES Subscriptions-Australia $2.40 Overseas $3.20 Payment to the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Box 2030 GPO BRISBANE. QUEENSLAND 4001 Available from Newsagencies every Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter for 60 cents. MARCH 1975 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 5 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, 6-SCOLLEGE STREET, SYDNEY. PRESIDENTAUSTRAllAN, MICHAEL PITMAN DIRECTOR, FRANK TALBOT NATURAl HISTORY A GRAND NATURAL EXPERIMENT. 154 THE NADGEE WILDFIRE BY HARRY F. RECHER, DANIEL LUNNEY AND HAYMO POSAMENTIER EMERGENCE OF THE PYGMY ANTECHINUS 164 BY ROBERT G. B. MORRISON AM,n,Watkoos POTS AND POTTERS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA 168 BY MARGARET TUCKSON AND PATRICI A MAY COVER: Traditional potters of Papua New Guinea use SEARCHING THE SOUTHERN SKY 174 neither potter's wheel nor BY A. W. RODGERS kiln. There are variations in firing techniques, but in each method, the pot is in direct contact with the flame. (Photo: Margaret THE RIDDLE OF PERIPATUS 180 Tuckson) BY ROBERT HARDIE ABOVE: The kundu, a fired clay drum, is unique to the Markham Valley of Papua IN REVIEW New Guinea. It is coiled, in the same way as a pot, in THE FIGHT FOR THE FORESTS 186 two sections which are later REVIEWED BY STEPHEN S. CLARK joined together. EDITOR/DESIGNER NANCY SMITH Annual Subscription: $4.50--Australia; $5-New Zealand and New ASSIST ANT EDITOR Guinea; $&--other countries. Single copies: $1 ($1.33 posted ROBERT STEWART Australia); $1.45-New Zealand and New Guinea; $1.70--other countries. Cheque or money order payable to The Australian Museum should be sent to The Secretary, The Australian EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Museum, PO Box A285, Sydney South 2001. Overseas subscribers HAROLD COGGER please note that rates are to be paid in Australian currency. KINGSLEY GREGG MICHAEL GRAY Opinions expressed by the authors are their own and do not necessarily represent the policies or views of The Australian PATRICIA McDONALD Museum. 153 "RECOMMENDED RETAIL PRICE INTERNATIONAL STANDAflO SERIAL NUMOEA 00049840 A G RAND NATURAL EXPE� THE NADGEE WILDFIRE HAYMO POSAMENTIER BY HARRY F. RECHER, DANIEL LUNNEY AND of very different from those produ ire and its use in the management . ced by the natural areas must be one of the most modern practice of controlled burning-the F firing of the bush contentious environmental issues in Australia. deli berate to reduce th of litter or 'fuel' in The Australian bush is highly inflammable and amount the forest. Co� of its trolled burning minimizes the risk of w d i n although fire is unquestionably part . il f re, removed by these natural ecology, naturally-occuring fires are b utI 1tter controlled burns MENT not only includes the flowering plants whose Australia; antechinus and rats are good ex- . N ad gee blossoms contribute so much to the beauty of amples. This 1s not because these animals are River Plot our forests, it is also an important part of the unimportant or uninteresting, but simply before the fire showing habitat of ground-dwelling animals. because· there have not been enough thick layer of leaf Little is known of the smaller, and biologists to make the necessary studies. Yet litter and middle- sometimes less attractive, animals of if we are to ensure the survival of Australia's storey vegetation. Oaniellunnev unpolluted and have no J are introduc IS h Our study was conceive. d to help make re­· commendations on the reservation of h . natu � 1 areas and on t e1r management. Particular was felt about the use concern of co ntrolled National Parks, Nature fires in r Reserves and rich wildlife, we must be as concerned and knowledgeable about native rats as we are about koalas and kangaroos. Above: In 1969, staff of The Australian Museum's Auth0r a (Lunney ) Department of Environmental Studies. began weighing study of the small mammals in the Nadgee Rattus fuscipes. Nature Reserve which lies south of Eden on Weighing is a '. · N rout. me pro- the border of Victoria an d ew Sou th Wa I es. cedure with The Reserve is bounded on the west by ex- each capture. tensive State Forests and on the east by the i ht A n t ecRh �muss: Tt uoe artof,· ocean. As with all Nature Reserves in New being cut for South wales, public access is restricted and future identifi- scientific research is encouraged. Nadgee has cation of the · individual. Below: a very nch w 1· Idl"f1 e popuI a t·10n an d there are Daniel Lunney Auth or (Posamen- extensive heaths, coastal scrubs and wet and tier _) sha_king Rattus _ dry sclerophyll forests. Nadgee's most impor- State Forests, but the information was lacking fusc,pes into weigh- · ing bag as routine tant asset, however, may be its_ sma11 f res h - which was needed to advise on how control­ trap-clearing procedure. water streams, the only ones in NSW that led fire might be used to prevent wildfire and Daniel Lunney still ensure the survival of the small plants and animals of the forest floor. When we began our work at Nadgee we planned three or four years of observation during which we could get a reasonable idea of the ecology and behaviour of native small mammals, their habitat requirments, and normal fluctuations in population size. These data could then have been used to interpret the results of experi­ ments in which we deliberately burned or otherwise changed the habitat. Each habitat has its own distinctive fauna and although Australian Museum sc ientists have collected extensively, studies have con­ centrated on small mammals and birds. We began at Nadgee by establishing a st udy plot in forest on the Nadgee River adjacent to a clearing formerly occupied by an old home­ stead. The trees here are mainl y second growth dry sclerophyll-predominantly Silver· top Ash, Bloodwood and Monkey Gum. The forest runs along a ridge that slopes steeply on one side to the Nadgee River and gently on the other to a Paperbark swamp along Wombat Creek. The river side of the fore5t HARRY RECHER t T e _ , Senior Research Scientist a � Australian Museum, is head of the Museum 5 Department of Environmental Studies. TORY AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HIS is regularly scoured by floods. The Reserve was established in 1957 and the fire history of the area prior to this is not well-known. It is likely that parts of the heaths burnt each year and may have been burnt re­ gularly over thousands of years by the Aboriginal population. A wildfire in 1933 burnt approximately half the area of the Nadgee Reserve including the fornst where the Nadgee River plot is located and, in 1965, the heath on which ten of our study plots are located was also burnt. A strict policy of fire H.F.AochCf supression was then followed. One conse­ quence of this was the invasion of the heaths burnt, and sixty percent of the logs were Above: Ring-tailed destroyed. The loss of logs may have a long- Poss_um caught by by shrubs and trees and the decline of some the fire Left t erm eff ec t on w1'ldl'f 1 e an d ·1s perh aps the most · · heath birds, notably the Ground Parrot. · The h eath s were By 1972 much of the forest had a well de­ s1gn1'f' 1cant change. Rather than disrupt our re- stripped by the T veloped understorey and ground vegetation search, the fire has provided a unique op- fire. Below: he f ire was intense although litter was noticeably patchy. 1971 portunity to study the effects of wildfire on be hind Jane and 1972 were unusually dry years for small mammals. Spiers beac h. southeastern New South Wales. In December Many animals were killed and the beaches were littered with dead birds. The personnel of the National Parks and Wildlife Service counted more than eight hundred. Parrots, honeyeaters and wrens�enerally small birds rather than the larger kookaburras and cur- Allan Fo,o: A11anfo:,,,: 1972, a chance bolt of lightning gave us a superb opportunity to study the effects of wildfire. The fire ignited under dry conditions in an area of fairly high fuel load. This was the first major fire at Nadgee since 1933. Between sixty and seventy thousand hectares, includ­ ing almost the entire fifteen thousand hectares of the Reserve, were burnt. Included were the heath and forest habitats in our study areas. All the heaths were reduced to ashes and sixty percent of the canopy was burnt or scorched in forest areas. Ground and understorey vegetation burnt throughout the Reserve and soil litter layers were removed. On the Nadgee River plot, ninety percent of the canopy was scorched, litter and vegetation layers were DANIEL LUNNEY is Research Assistant to Dr. Recher. HAYMO POSAMENTIER is Technical Officer (Scientific) in the Department. VOLUME 18 NUMBER 5 creases, the ground vegetation in th rawongs-were killed. Presumably, large birds e forest will become less dense and the pre were able to fly above the fire and avoid_ the -fire situa. tion will be restored. strong winds it generated. On the heaths and New growth on the heaths consist along the roads we found many dead . s almos t entirely of plant species present b kangaroos and possums. We heard stori s of . efore th e � fire. However, species are more wid kangaroos leaping off cliffs into the sea 1n n ely spread � years after the fire, each effort to avoid the fire.