STUDIES IN EVOLUTION - Ed by M. ARCHER These books represent a major turning point in our understanding of marsupial evolution.For the firstPOSSUMS&OPOSSUMS time since Aide's review of 1964, the whole subject of the evolutionary relationships of marsupials is thoroughly overhauled.In the more than 50 contributions by 38 American and Australian authors, five new families and many new genera and species of American and Australian marsupials are described for the first time.Some of these descriptions represent the results of up to 15 years of collection, preparation and study.Many represent the "births" of extraordinarily distinctive types of marsupials that lived 55,000,000 years ago in Brazil, 15,000,000 years ago in the Miocene forests of what is now the Simpson Desert, approximately 15,000,000 years ago in the dense rainforests of what are now the steamy limestone plateaus of north Queensland and 4,500,000 years ago in the cool wet rainforests of western Victoria. While some give us important clues about how the modern faunas evolved, others represent bizarre experiments that faded from the world millions of years before Man evolved. "Possums and Opossums ..." is extensively illustrated with many hundreds of photographs including 11 full page colour reconstructions of prehistoric marsupials. There is an introductory chapter which summarizes, integrates and develops all of the contributions in the volumes as an overview. The volumes also contain a complete taxonomic index. 848 pp 2 Vols HARD COVERS $112.00 + $9 post

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ALL TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME ECOLOGY oF REPTILES by HAROLD HEATWOLE AND JANET TAYLOR Colour illustrated, Revised and enlarged 1988 Ecology is the science involved with the interactions of organisms and their physical and biot!c environments.In recent years, as human population has progressively increased, environmental problems have also become of vital interest and importance to the public as w_�II. It has now become imperative that ecological principles, and the ecology of spec1f1c regions be understood by a wide variety of people. This volume will serve as a source of_ informati_on for those university students, teachers and the interested public who require a basic factual knowledge for broadening their understanding of ecology, or. those conservationists, agriculturalists, foresters, politicians, engineers, wildlife officers, etc., who may need to apply ecological principles in solving environmental problems. HARD COVER 325 pp $36.90 + $4 post

SURREY BEATTY & SONS 43 Rickard Road, Chipping Norton, NSW 2170 Australia AVAILABLE BOOKSHOPS OR DIRECT FROM PUBLISHERS Australian EDITORIAL On Ownership Natural History an we still call our fossils our merous Australian spec, s are creating Published by own? Or our quality mineral havoc in South Africa-all being The Australian Museum Trust specimens? Australia's past is shipped around for the sake of their in­ 6-8 College Street, Cwritten in its rocks and fossils, and the Sydney, N.S.W. 2000 trinsic beauty. Tim Low looks at some Phone: (02) 339 8111 pieces that tell us the most about it are of the consequences. See page 362. Trust President: Robyn Williams of the greatest scientific value. Like it If this isn't enough, objects come Museum Director: Desmond Griffin or not, they also frequently attract a hurtling to Earth from outer space as high financial value. Sometimes, EDITOR well. Of course, they are valuable in Fiona Doig through ignorance by the discoverers that they can tell us a lot about the SCIENTIFIC EDITOR or a lack of interest by potential spon­ nature of the universe. Yet meteorites Georgina Hickey, B.Sc. sors, many of our best specimens end aren't always easy to locate after im­ CIRCULATION up being sold overseas. This dilemma pact, as Glen Moore explains on page John McIntosh is discussed in Forum on page 368. 348. ART DIRECTION Can we still call our plants our own? On a different note, I am delighted Stephen Costello Or can any country? While Australia to announce that Australian Natural TYPESETTING is being invaded by overseas History has been awarded 'Best Love Computer Typesetting Pty Ltd ornamentals like Asparagus Fern, Periodical' in the esteemed Whitley FILM WORK South Sea International Press Ltd Bitou Bush, lceplant and Lantana, our Awards for 1987. These are made an­ PRINTING wattles are doing a good job of infest­ nually by The Royal Zoological Society RodenPrint Pty Ltd ing southern Europe and California. of New South Wales for excellence in ADVERTISING Florida's Everglades are being choked Australian natural history publishing. Jean Barnet by our Paper-bark Tea-tree and nu- -Fiona Doig, Editor (02) 939 6263 (02) 339 8234 Contents SUBSCRIPTIONS Annual subscription (4 issues) Australia's Most Southerly Light 340 Within Australia $A 16.00 Gerry Whitmont Other Countries $A20.00 Two-year subscription (8 issues) To Catch a 'Falling Star' 348 Within Australia $A30.00 Glen Moore Other Countries $A36.00 For renewal or new subscription please Invading Ornamentals 362 forward credit card authority or cheque Tim Low made payable to: The Australian Museum P.O. Box A285 Sydney South Night Stalker! The Remarkable 376 N.S.W. 2000, Australia Barn Owl Subscribers from other countries please Penny Olsen note that money must be paid in Australian currency. Inside the (Secret) Societies of 381 All material appearing in Australian Native Bees Natural History is copyright. Evan Sugden Reproduction in whole or in part is not permitted without written authorisation WILD FOODS from the Editor. Opinions expressed by the authors are Making Mistakes 346 their own and do not necessarily Tim Low represent the policies or views of the Australian Museum. RARE & ENDANGERED The Editor welcomes articles or photographs in any field of Australian Matchstick Banksia 354 natural history. Stephen Connell, Byron Lamont & Stephen Berg! Published 1987 ISSN-0004-9840 FORUM 1 111111 11 Who Should Pay for Australia's Past? 368 ar:i[! Alex Ritchie Australian atural History is audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations REGULAR FEATURES Front Cover Letters 338 Maatsuyker Island is part of a rugged, windswept island group off the Quips, Quotes & Curios 356 southern coast of Tasmania. It is Books 358 home to Australia's most southerly Robyn Williams 360 lighthouse-see the article on page Poster Article 361 340. Photo by Gerry Whitmont. Photoart 371 Vincent Serventy 374 AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 337 A Diver's Dilemma snorkelers who venture below the surface-to In Robyn Williams' Snor­ what can be done with one kel Sense (ANH vol. 22, no. chestful of air. 6, p. 264), he refers to -Ronald Strahan underwater breathing de­ Australian Museum vices said to have been used in ancient times. The In his column (ANH vol. article is accompanied by a 22, no. 6, p. 264), Robyn copy of a 16th-century Williams noted that in the drawing of a close-fitting history of diving the snorkel diving suit with a flexible was apparently preceded tube leading from the by similar systems in which headpiece to a float at the a diver was supposed to V'l _,0 surface. have been able to breathe U,J u:: I doubt whether any under water by means of a z long tube extending to the I such apparatus was ever Q used. Even if water press­ atmosphere. Mangroves. ure had not constricted the I would like to point out tube, it would have pressed that for the depths appar­ businessman, Bruce fish. Mangroves were not the headpiece against the ently intended to be Jordan, who claimed that introduced by oyster diver's face. Without com­ reached, these designs Pelican Island, basically a farmers at the turn of the pensating air pressure from were ov.erly optimistic. In mangrove island, in the century; mangroves have a pump at the surface, the practice they would have lower Hastings River, is been recognised in 24- diver's chest would have proven disastrous for the detrimental to fish popu­ million-year-old fossil de­ been compressed, making unfortunate diver. Physio­ lations in the area because posits, and have been an it difficult to breathe. logical studies published in it reduces the amount of integral part of our estuar­ A snorkel works because 1911 showed that with water available to fish in the ine system long before hu­ the user breathes almost at such an open or atmos­ river. The same person mans evolved. the surface and therefore pheric system, humans in claimed that "mangroves In no way can the de­ has no problems of water the prone position could were introduced by oyster struction of mangroves, by pressure. Had Aristotle's or only breathe comfortably farmers shortly after the canal estate development, Pliny's systems worked, we to a depth of ten inches turn of the century as a be considered a beneficial might expect them to have (about 25 centimetres). source of catching sticks for activity; in fact the removal been continued (or re­ They were physically oysters" and that "con­ of mangrove and associ­ invented) by sponge col­ stopped from breathing at servationists wishing to ated seagrass beds will lectors in the Medi­ about three feet (just under conserve mangroves were damage the fishing in the terranean and many a metre) and nasty things attempting to preserve area. It is ironic that people other parts of the world. could happen at even something that was not who buy a waterfront block However, constrained by modestly greater depths. here when the white man of land in a canal estate de­ physics rather than pre­ The relevance of such arrived". He also believes velopment, in order to scientific imagination, such findings to arguments that "mangroves are the have easy access to the divers are limited-like about the once-supposed largest single threat to fishing in the area, are actu­ aquatic habits of such people and property in the ally destroying the very re­ sauropods as Diplodocus lower reaches of the Hast­ source that they intend to and Brontosaurus is dis­ ings River" and, for these enjoy. Finally, it is deplor­ cussed in A.J. Desmond's reasons, that "the pro­ able that a newspaper book The Hot-blooded posed canal estate devel­ would publish such infor­ Dinosaurs. opment in the area would mation without checking -Rodney C. Hayward be beneficial to the area". its validity-especially Bundanoon, Vic. This article is to be de­ since such incorrect state­ plored on several counts. ments only provide the de­ Mangrove Madness The information in the velopers with the I wish to draw your article is inaccurate; man­ ammunition they need to readers' attention to an grove areas function as im­ build more marinas and amazing article (Man­ portant nursery grounds for canal estate developments, groves a 'Menace' to Har­ juvenile fish and provide a to the detriment of our bour) that appeared in the source of nutrients for estuaries and coastal Port Macquarie News on polychaete worms, crus­ fisheries. A snorkeler is limited by the 16 June 1987. This article taceans and molluscs, -Pat Hutchings length of the tube. quoted at length a local which in turn are eaten by Australian Museum

338 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 australian

Pigface at all like 'doublegees'. So I conclude that some early In a recent article on Aus­ Western Australian saw the museum comes alive in 1988 with tra I ia n succulent plants Afrikaans name written (ANH vol. 22, no. 6, p. 262), down, and mispronounced five exciting new exhibitions. Tim Low suggested that it to his mates next time he pigfaces, Carpobrotus spp., trod on one-and hence are so named because of the name. I'm ready to Pieces of Paradise: their resemblance to pigs. I stand corrected on either of should like to put forward these (and also on my spell­ Pacificartefacts an alternative hypothesis. ing of the Afrikaans words!) Early seafarers visiting but I've yet to hear a more through many eyes Australia from the UK gen­ convincing derivation. erally came via southern -Ralf Buckley Marvellous masks, exotic head­ Africa, where pigface is O'Connor, ACT dresses, carvings, dance ornaments, equally abundant and is Good on You, Gordon known as big vys. Vys, pro­ musical instruments, weapons, nounced 'face', is the I would like to congratu­ clothing. The beautiful-to the mun­ Afrikaans word for mem­ late Gordon Grigg on his bers of the plant family article Kangaroo Harvest­ dane. Discover the mysterious Mesembryanthemaceae, ing (ANH vol. 22, no. 5, p. meanings and uses of some of the which includes Carpo­ 204). brotus. Big vys; pigface. Having travelled a great world's finest Pacific and Papuan deal in outback Australia, I artefacts from the Australian am only too aware of the impact that the cloven­ Museum's anthropological collec­ footed animal has had on tion. Opens April 1988. our fragile environment. I believe the Australian artist [ Jack Absolom tries to point Dreamtime to Dust: to this tragedy in all his paintings of central Aus­ Australia's tralia, by including an area of salt pan. fragileenvironment Gordon Grigg has pro­ duced a well-researched See, feel, touch and hear Australia document. He has fore­ stalled many arguments as it was 200,000 years ago! Life­ Pigface or big vys? that would be put against sized recreations of giant mam­ If that sounds far­ the proposal of farming fetched, let me provide an 'roos, but restoration of mals, birds and reptiles in their analogous example as sup­ habitat on a grand scale is natural environment with smells porting evidence. Many of by far the most important and sounds in a stimulating theatri­ us are all too painfully fam­ factor in his proposal. Im­ iliar with the caltrop-like posing a European type of cal atmosphere. Opens May 1988. spiny fruit of three­ agriculture and animal hus­ cornered jacks, known bandry on this continent Coming up later in the year: Tracks Through Time: colloquially-especially in has caused a disaster that The storyof human evolution + Rituals of the Western Australia-as the general public does not 'doublegees' or 'double understand. With our Human Lifecyc/e + First Impressions. Gs'. Now, why on earth bicentenary due next year, should a plant be called now would be the oppor­ Double Gs? Well, it was tune time to ponder our probably introduced from folly, instead of celebrating South Africa, where it is achievements of doubtful called dubbeltjes (little merit to the exclusion of devils) in Afrikaans (a very the basic problems that we appropriate name!). In this have generated in the en­ case, however, I believe vironment. The Australian Museum that the South African pro­ -C. W. Richardson 6-8 CollegeSt, Sydney 339 8111 nunciation does not sound Wingham, NSW

AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 339

zf­ 0 f-� :i: � "'>­ u.,"' I.J Aus� �'s MOST SourHERl,Y LIGHT By GERRY WHITMONT

aatsuyker Island, situated ten the first land sighting for many a tall by those individuals and groups who kilometres off Tasmania's ship sailing east through the Roaring saw the need for lighthouse keepers southern coast, is part of a Forties of the Great Southern Ocean, on Maatsuyker. Fishermen's and Mgroup of six islands known as the headed for Hobart. Abel Tasman, dur­ yachtsmen's organisations put forward Maatsuyker Group. The island is ing his voyage of discovery, first saw arguments about the need for relia­ roughly triangular in shape, about the island in November 1642. He bility, and the Tasmanian Conser­ three kilometres long and one-and-a­ probably named the island after Lieu­ vation Trust about conservation. In half kilometres at its widest point. tenant Maatsuyker, the Governor of 1983 the House of Representatives Although often quoted as the most the Dutch East Indies at the time. Standing Committee on Expenditure southern habitation site in Australia, A continuously-staffed lighthouse (also known as the 'Razor Gang') fi­ this is not strictly correct-Macquarie has been operating on Maatsuyker nally recognised the importance and Island (part of Tasmania) and the Aus­ since 1891. It provides Australia's most benefit of the presence of at least two tralian Antarctic Territory lie further southerly light-a welcome and warn­ lighthouse keepers on Maatsuyker south. ing for ships' safe passage-and is one Island. Because the lighthouse We first saw the island from the of the few remaining manned light­ keepers' homes are the only habi­ decks of the brigantine The Eye of the houses in Australia. It is run by the Aus­ tation along the rugged, inhospitable Wind, in much the same way as pas­ tralian Department of Transport Tasmanian coastline, stretching along sengers on earlier square riggers would whose policy is to automate most the south and as far north as Temma in have done. The chill silent beauty of lighthouses in an effort to reduce Tasmania's west, there was a special � Maatsuyker in the pre-dawn light is an maintenance costs. Automation case for continued manning of the � exhilarating experience never to be usually means the lighthouse is de­ station. � forgotten. Jagged cliffs rise steeply manned and therefore the light, if in an Maatsuyker Island remains an ex- � from the sea to a summit of 260 isolated area, becomes less reliable. A tremely important 24-hour communi- � metres. The island would have been considerable campaign was organised cations and weather base. In this most r5 AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 341 remote and isolated area of Tasmania, MAA TSUYKER ISLAND the proximity of large mountain ranges creates a 'dead radio area', that is, N radio communication with other areas is extremely difficult. Maatsuyker Island, however, has a radio telephone T link with Hobart. This is an invaluable Walker means of relaying urgent communica­ Island tions from south-western wilderness areas of Tasmania, and is of extreme importance to fishermen, yachtsmen, fire fighters, search and rescue opera­ tors, bush-walkers and grounded air­ craft. The island, being elevated and set off the coast, is also in a key position for coastal surveillance (shipping disasters and illegal activities), and its TASMANIA light warns ships travelling from the west to Australia's eastern seaboard or • the Americas . Hobart• Landing Lighthouse keepers also ensure the protection of the island's flora and fauna, which are of particular bio­ • logical interest because of the lack of "'!!.; J disturbance. There are no introduced Maatsuyker , ... - Island ,,,I' pests, such as feral cats and rats that, ,,, on other islands, feed on the eggs and I' chicks of native ground-nesting birds. \ Settlement is restricted to two homes ,.,I around the lighthouse, and fires have I 260m b. been few and confined to small areas . ) Small, undisturbed islands such as ... , Maatsuyker offer the opportunity to ·-' discover the minimum area of habitat .J able to support certain species. For ex­ Lighthome4,. ample, Maatsuyker supports only one species of land animal, the en­ Needle Rocks dangered Swamp Antechinus (Ante­ chinus minimus). This small marsupial has a body length of less than 15 centi­ metres and a tail about eight centi­ metres long. It feeds on insects and their larvae, worms and small lizards. Nearby De Witt Island, which is much larger by comparison, has two land mammals-the Tasmanian Pade­ melon (Thylogale bil/ardieril) and the Eastern Swamp Rat (Rattus lutreolus). In contrast to the few land animals on Maatsuyker, the island's rocky shores support a large colony of Aus­ tralian Fur Seals (Arctocephalus pusil­ lus). Indeed Maatsuyker and the adjacent Needle Rocks Islands sup­ port the largest breeding colony of Australian Fur Seals in southern Tas­ mania. The size of the colony was estimated at 900 in 1975, and in 1977 a r­ z further 150 seals were counted on 0 nearby islands. � :i: During the days of sealing, three 3 species of seal including the Southern "'>­ Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina) were LU"' (.J exterminated in Tasmania and the The Australian Fur Seal is a superb swimmer and can dive to at least 130 metres in Australian Fur Seal population greatly search of food. Here a young seal shows off its antics and plays around the ship as we reduced. This century numbers have sail towards Maatsuyker Island. begun to recover, and the growing col- 342 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 z1- 0 � I- i $ °">­ UJ°" \,) Like marooned sailors in days of old, a crew member shelters in the inlet waiting for the storm to abate. ony on Maatsuyker and the Needle Rocks is encouraging. Introduction of legislation that provides for prosecu­ tion of persons illegally shooting seals, and the presence of the lighthouse keepers who ensure the law is kept, are probably the two main reasons for the significant population growth. Until 1975, access to Maatsuyker was exclusively by boat. A landing jetty is located in the only suitable inlet, on the eastern side of the island. Goods used to be carried on a haulage way, which climbs 140 metres above the sea, but they are now delivered by helicopter and the old jetty has be­ come a convenient sleeping platform for seals. These trusting 'guardians' of Maatsuyker gazed curiously as we ap­ proached their new-found jetty. The The Grey-breasted Silver-eye is a common land bird on the island. younger seals swam up to investigate our rubber dinghy; their older count­ covered some different varieties that slopes. These grow up to a height of erparts merely yawned 'or slept on. may prove to be new species. four metres in the deeper gullies. From a distance Maatsuyker ap­ Smithton Peppermint (Eucalyptus In some places there is virtually no peared to be a barren place with a nitida) is the only eucalypt species on undergrowth; frequent comings and cover of low heath and grass. In fact the island. It grows in a small area near goings of mutton-birds (the Short­ there is a rich variety of plant species, the summit. tailed Shearwater, Puffinus tenuiros­ more diverse than that found in similar The gound often has a thick cover­ tris) have exposed the grey sandy soil, habitats on the mainland. ing of ferns and spleenworts. Tur­ which is pockmarked with their bur­ The main island cover is Manuka or quoise Berry (Drymophila cyano­ rows. During the breeding season, White Tea-tree, interspersed with carpa) and Climbing Blueberry from September to April, as many as many other trees and tall shrubs inclu­ (Billardiera longiflora) are two of the one million mutton-birds return to ding paperbarks, banksias and more attractive flowering plants that their burrows. Many of the burrows Cheesewood or Banyalla (Pittosporum occur with the ferns. Other flowering have been tunnelled or dug beneath bicolor). They form a closed canopy plants include trigger plants and tea-trees and the adult birds have to that covers most of the high slopes of Christmas bells. Seven species of or­ crash through the closed canopy to get the island. Westringia is also abundant chid have been recorded on the island to them. Birds that have made clumsy and amateur botanists have dis- and tree ferns are found on the steep landings have been found strangled in AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 343 the vegetation. Their bodies become food for the Forest Raven ( Corvus tas­ manicus), which also eats the eggs from the more accessible burrows. Steep slopes close to the sea are covered with pigface, iceplants or native tussock grasses. These areas are often used as rookeries by seabirds. Large rookeries of Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor), Fairy Prions (Pachyptila turtur) and Common Diving Petrels (Pe/ecanoides urinatrix) are well established on the island. Other seabirds that nest on the island include the Silver Gull (Larus novae­ hollandiae), Sooty Oystercatcher (Haematopus fuliginosus) and Black­ faced Shag (Leucocarbo fuscescens); those that are found on the island but do not breed there include the Pacific Gull (Larus pacificus), White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaetus leucogaster) and the White-faced Storm Petrel (Pe/ago­ droma marina). Lighthouse keepers have also observed species far from their 'known range'. These include the Grey-backed Storm Petrel (Oceanites nereis), the Great ·Egret (Egretta alba) and the Great-winged Petrel (Ptero­ droma macroptera). The Shy Albatross (Oiomedea cauta), which breeds on Mewstone Island, south-east of Maat­ suyker, and the Australasian Gannet (Marus serrator) are also frequently seen soaring above the waves. A total of 13 species of seabirds and 28 land birds have been recorded on Maatsuyker. That's quite a variety for

an island some 200 hectares in area. suyker was first isolated from mainland Land birds most common on the Tasmania. Some expected species island are the Olive Whistler (Pachy­ such as the thrushes, robins and fire­ cepha/a olivacea), White-browed tails are missing. This suggests that they Scrub Wren (Sericornis fronta/is), were simply not present in the Tas­ Crescent Honeyeater (Phylidonyris manian south-west when the Maat­ pyrrhoptera) and the Grey-breasted suyker Group was isolated. Silver-eye (Zosterops lateralis). It is Because water depths are un­ surprising to find that Lewin's Water­ known, it is unknown how long the rail (Rallus pectora/is) is quite common Maatsuyker Group has been separ­ on Maatsuyker, because their habitat ated from mainland Tasmania. Once of ferns and cutting-grass under a can­ separated, however, Maatsuyker ap­ opy of scrub is very different to their pears to have had a long history of typical lagoon and river habitat on the Aboriginal occupation. Aborigines mainland. The rare migratory Orange­ probably travelled to the island in bellied Parrot (Neophema chryso­ summer from Louisa Bay-a journey gaster) has also been sighted on of about 20 kilometres-in frail bark Maatsuyker. canoes. These canoes, which carried Christmas bells (Blandfordia punicea) The land avifauna is probably simi­ about seven or eight people, were not are foundon Maatsuyker Island. lar to that which occurred when Maat- very seaworthy, and it seems that, 344 VOL. 22 0. 8, AUTUM 1988 Cheesewood or Banyalla is common on Maatsuylcer.

the rugged cliffs of the island. We sat and watched in awe as the ship was forced to weigh anchor. Although the wind abated to 35 knots, it was more than two hours be­ fore it was safe enough for the jolly­ 'z boat to fetch us. Those two h0urs o seemed another lifetime as we shel­ � tered on the rocks of timeless Maat­ � suyker. The seals yawned and � stretched just as they must have done ffi when Aborigines braved these waters 0 in their frail canoes. once on Maatsuyker, the Aborigines Clouds surround the brigantine The Eye We had been caught in an unex­ were committed to an indefinite stay. of the Wind, anchored in the calm before pected front that was not picked up in Analysis of middens on the northern the storm. the weather forecast. It had come from side of the island suggests that the the north-west and when it hit Tas­ Aborigines speared seals and ate willy-willies were seen tearing across mania it broke in two. One part inten­ mutton-birds and abalone. These mid­ the water. We hurried back toward the sified and struck Maatsuyker with a dens have been identified by Dr ship but it was too late to leave the vengeance. The other, it was pre­ R. Vanderwal as some of the more im­ island. sumed, was headed for Hobart. The portant archaeological sites in Tas­ Within what seemed like seconds, lighthouse keeper radio-telephoned mania, mainly because they show that the wind had increased to 60 knots Hobart to give a vital warning for the the Tasmanian Aborigines made sea with gusts up to 80. The Roaring safety of coastal vessels, but he journeys. If the island was unmanned Forties proved their reputation. The learned that Hobart's weather was fine these important archaeological sites wind howled as we sheltered as much and clear. It seemed that Maatsuyker would be open to interference. as possible from the white squall. Island stood a world apart; in the el­ The whole of the Maatsuyker White caps on the water were ements, the ecology and the peoples Island Group is renowned for its great whipped into a frenzy. There was who frequented this isolated land.• storms, where winds can reach gale­ sheer power and force in the el­ ements. Horizontal spray surged The author greatly acknowledges the Tasmanian force intensity within minutes. We ex­ Conservation Trust, publisher of Maatsuyker perienced one such storm on across the waters to become vertical in Island-Most Southerly Light by P. Blackwell, Maatsuyker. From the lighthouse two an uplift that sent it over 300 metres up E. Banks and D. Brown (1979). AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 345 AUSTRALIAN WILD FOODS ByTIMLOW

Making Mistakes split to reveal rows of yellow seeds that Aborigines once cooked and ate. The seeds taste rich and nutty when roasted over a high heat. ever believe everything you In the first draft of my book I had read in books. I should know; surmised that Kurrajong seeds were my second book Wild Food "probably not very nutritious". This PlantsN of Australia (Angus & judgment was based upon nutritional Robertson, 1987) has just been pub­ analyses of two closely-allied trees lished, and I am sure it is dotted with from northern Australia, Northern errors that others will delight in show­ Kurrajong (B. diversifolius) and Red ing me. Kurrajong (B. paradoxus). According Mistakes are inevitable. It's just to one study, the seeds of these trees too easy to misquote a source, to yield a meagre 1.2-5.9 per cent pro­ misidentify a plant, or to mix up a tein and 0.8-1.8 per cent fat. But just measurement. I only feel relieved­ before I sent in my manuscript, a Syd­ enormously relieved-for all the er­ ney University team headed by Dr rors that did not get through. A Jennie Brand published a paper re­ misjudgment about kurrajong seeds vealing that seeds of the eastern was one of these. Kurrajong actually contain a whopping Graziers in eastern Australia know 18 per cent protein and 24. 7 per cent the Kurrajong tree (Brachychiton fat. I quickly amended my text to read populneus); its lopped leaves and "Kurrajong seeds are a remarkably nu­ stems provide valuable fodder during tritious bush food .. . " and this is the droughts, and it is often left standing version that was published. when paddocks are cleared. A majes­ tic tree of coastal ranges and inland The yellow seeds of the Kurrajong are housed in woody pods amid tufts of yel­ slopes and plains, it has drooping, low hairs. These hairs are irritating and Common Sowthistle was eaten by Abor­ attenuated, often three-lobed leaves, igines, and also by peasant communities should not be touched; the seeds can be in Europe, Asia and Africa. The raw a stout trunk, and clusters of bell­ extracted safely with a knife. The roots of leaves are bitter but when cooked taste shaped flowers. Boat-shaped seed young trees were eaten by Aborigines, as bland and palatable. pods, five to seven centimetres long, well as the seeds.

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346 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 A mix-up over sowthistles almost where they now thrive in gardens and led to another blunder. In 19th cen­ farms. I reworked my text, substituting tury books there are many references Common Sowthistle for the unpalat­ to Aborigines in southern Australia able Dune Thistle. It was a lesson in eating wild sowthistles or 'thistle' how difficult it can be to interpret old leaves. According to most modern books when their descriptions of plant plant texts the only native thistle in foods are vague. The old literature is these parts is the Dune Thistle baited with references to 'yams', 'ber­ Exclusive Offer (Son chus mega locarpus), and I ries', 'wild spinach' and the like, and it to Australian Natural dutifully prepared a photo and de­ takes a degree of foolhardiness to at­ History Readers scription of this sand-dune herb. tempt to identify these plants. However, every time I tried nibbling Sometimes mistakes work for the Over 1,000 languages are Dune Thistle leaves, either raw or best. Early in my research I travelled spoken in the Pacific Islands cooked, I was repelled by their in­ hundreds of kilometres to western and there are nearly as many tense bitterness. They seemed an Victoria in search of plants to photo­ improbable source of food. graph. At Port Campbell I was de­ different ways of expressing lighted to find the Sea Club-rush ideas visually. (Bolboschoenus ca/dwe llii, better This supplementary issue of known by its old name Scirpus Australian Natural History maritimus) on the National Park plant introduces you to the world of list. The tubers of this sedge were poss­ ibly staple Aboriginal foods (although Pacificcultures, featuring again the books are vague) and I had photos of some of their finest longed to see what this plant looked artefacts, accompanied by a like. I waded into a stream on the edge fascinating account of their of town and was thrilled to find that the origin and history. dense sedges in the mud at my feet bore small edible tubers. Only a very ANH readers may purchase few kinds of sedges produce tubers, so Pieces of Paradise for the there could be no doubt that these reduced price of $5.00 a copy, were Sea Club-rushes. They were including mailing (normal price growing in such density that they $6.50) by using the special could easily have served as staple foods. The new white tubers tasted order form below. like coconut, but the older black ------tubers were like wood. Although the Please send me __ copies of weather was overcast, I shot off a large Pieces of Paradise at $5.00 each roll of film-I desperately wanted Nam.,______photos of these plants. The photos turned out dismally Addres.,______but, as it turned out, it didn't matter. I returned home to find that Sea Club­ The young white tubersof Sea Club-rush rushes grow abundantly in my home Suburb(I'ow .______taste like coconut. The older black city; they even sprout on a footpath ______Postcod..____ tubers, although still edible, taste like two blocks from my house! In fact, Sea Please debit myO Bankcard wood. Club-rushes are common weeds of D American ExpressD Visa Luckily, a botanist put me right by drains and ditches throughout south­ explaining that the textbooks are all eastern Australia. Now that I know I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I wrong (never believe everything you what they look like they're as easy as Card holder's read in books). Common Sowthistle (5. mud to find. Name oleraceus), listed in all the books as an That may seem ironical, but there introduced weed, actually occurs nat­ is more. Sea Club-rush grows at Port Signature urally in Australia as a herb of creek Campbell but it is not actually men­ Cheque/card authority for$ banks. It was this much more palatable tioned on the National Park plant list. 'thistle' that the Aborigines used as What I had read instead was a listing of Offerexpires June 30, 1988. Send food. the similar-sounding (but inedible) Sea this coupon and payment, postage The confusion exists because Rush Uuncus maritimus, now known free, to: FREEPOST10, Australian Museum, P.O. Box A285, Sydney Common Sowthistle is also native to as }. kraussil). That was my mistake. South NSW2000, Australia. Make Europe and Asia where it grows as a Fortunately, mistakes sometimes turn cheques payable to 'Australian garden weed, and plants from these out for the best. Museum.' places found their way to Australia, Good eating!• AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 347

A carbonaceous chondrite that fell on 28 Venus. We have even managed to September 1969 at Murchison, Victoria. sample the remnants of a few dying stars. If the astronomers of this decade had a wish, it would probably be to ob­ A slice of the stoney-iron pallasite that serve a nearby supernova, the violent was discovered at lmilac, Chile. This death of a star. They had their oppor­ meteorite exhibits olivine crystals in an iron-nickel matrix. tunity last year when supernova 1987 A blazed forth, being the first supernova event visible with the A cut, polished and etched slice of an iron meteorite found in Gibeon, naked eye since the invention of the Namibia, south-west Africa showing the telescope. It may not have lived up to well-defined Widmanstaetten pattern. public expectations (after all it was so distant that the light we received had already left on its long journey before The polished interior of a stoney-iron our ancestors had left their caves!), but meteorite, in which the rocks and metal the astronomers, eagerly awaiting have been mixed by collisions in the as­ such an event, were more than teroid belt. This meteorite was found in Emery, South Dakota. pleased. Almost simultaneous with its visual discovery, 19 ghostly, massless particles, called neutrinos, were de­ tected at various laboratories around the world. So keen are scientists to study any material from beyond the Earth that these few particles resulted in the submission of over 100 scientific articles to one journal alone! There is, however, one source of material from beyond the Earth that re­ quires no telescope for its discovery or spacecraft for its recovery: the meteor­ ites. Theoretically one has only to wait and this primitive material, left over from the formation of the solar system, some four-and-a-half billion years ago, will literally fall into our backyards. Unfortunately, falls of meteorites and their subsequent recovery are rare. Only when a meteorite is exception­ ally large and falls near a centre of population, is it recovered. Most of the meteorites in museums have been found accidentally, many years, per­ haps centuries, after their fall, and thus are called finds rather than falls. The most famous meteorite fall in Australia occurred at Murchison, Victoria, in September 1969. This meteorite broke into many small pieces that were subsequently found to contain organic materials, in particular amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. z This one meteorite revolutionised 0 ;:::: scientific thinking on the possible u u.J ...J existence of extraterrestrial life. ...J 0 The world's most famous meteor­ u l) ite crater, Canyon Diablo, lies in the � Arizona desert not far from Flagstaff. I f- Almost two kilometres across, it is an 0< u.J a:, awesome spectacle. It has been esti­ 0 O< mated to have been caused by a 35- r' m etre-wid e meteorite, between f- 25,000 and 50,000 years ago, the en­ V,� u.. ergy released on impact being equiv­ 0 alent to over ten million tonnes of LJ. TNT. An almost equally impressive An iron meteorite of the Sikhote-Alin fall-the largest in recent history, dropping a crater (about 900 metres wide) is total of 23 tonnes of material in 1947. somewhat closer, but in a remote lo- 350 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 "- w0 lJ A stoner meteorite collected fromCamel Donga in Western Australia, showing a shiny fusion crust. cation, at Wolf Creek in north-western Australia. Its difficult access has shielded it from public view. Another important but rather less impressive group of 13 craters lies at Henbury, not far from Alice Springs. The largest measures 200 metres across and together they occupy one square kilo­ metre of ground. Meteorites can take many forms. Some are rocks (the stoney meteorites or chondrites), others metallic (the irons), and still others are a strange car­ bonaceous material similar to that which fell on Murchison. The most beautiful are loosely referred to as the stoney-irons. Some of the rarest of these belong to a class called the pallasites, in which gem-quality olivine crystals reside in an iron-nickel matrix. Tiny diamonds can be found in others, a legacy of the immense forces pro­ duced on impact. Although the stoney meteorites are the most common to fall, they are not easily recognised, their only clue being a blackened crust formed during their fiery passage through the Earth's atmosphere. The iron meteorites are most easily recognised because of their striking metallic surface. When w cut, polished and etched with a mild c.. < acid, they take on an entirely new ap­ V,u pearance, often showing a pattern <:) unique to meteorites-the Widman­ z· z staetten structure. These patterns are < ::;: the result of two iron-nickel alloys that I show different resistance to acid etch­ ..,� 0

ing and can only be formed by cooling u..,"' I at a rate as slow as a few degrees every ..... z million years. This slow cooling rate :) leaves no doubt as to the celestial lJ nature of these materials. Wolf Creek crater, north-western Australia, is about 900 metres wide by 50 metres The meteorites are to astronomers deep. A total of 700 kilograms of meteorites have been recovered fromthe site, the what fossils are to palaeontologists. largest weighing 150 kilograms. AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 351 The nearly two-kilometre-wide Canyon Diablo crater in Arizona, USA. About 50,000 years ago a 300,000-tonne meteorite fell to create the world's best­ preserved crater.

soon as possible in order to establish directions of their sightings and the ap­ pearance and sounds of the meteorite's fall. Reports were also col­ lected over the telephone by both my­ self and Rob McNaught of the Earth Satellite Tracking Station at Siding Spring Observatory, but this was a slow process and it was soon obvious that no-one had witnessed an actual impact with the ground. To speed up u..,"' the investigation, an article by reporter 0 0 Geoff Adams was published in the � main regional newspaper, the z u.., ...J Shepparton News, rightly presenting <.J the story as one of great importance Meteorites contain the original grains and urging witnesses to come forward. of the solar system and thus represent � Reports flooded in. species that no longer exist. They are 6 The area of the fall was narrowed believed to originate in the asteroid j down to the Mansfield district, much belt between Mars and Jupiter, where 8 further to the east than anyone, includ­ the immense gravity of Jupiter sup- ;i! ing the Mansfield residents, ever sus­ pressed the formation of a planet, � pected. The meteorite's line of flight leaving instead a ring of iron-nickel t;; was determined as roughly west to and stoney debris. Although the � east, passing over the town of Euroa. pieces, some of which are up to 1,000 �­ Observers to the north of this line saw kilometres across, have been gradually � it move from right to left and observers grinding themselves down by mutual � to the south from left to right. Several collisions, many large pieces less than tt: witnesses in Euroa saw it apparently 20 kilometres across still exist and are 8 fall straight down in the east and a <.J occasionally flung into orbits that ap- group on Mt Bulla saw it fall as it ap­ proach Earth. These large fragments An unusual graphite nodule found near proached them from the west. A large may represent our potential destruc­ the Canyon Diablo crater in Arizona. The proportion of the Mansfield residents tion, for, according to one popular specimen has been etched to show a fine were interviewed in an intensive sur­ theory, the extinction of the dinosaurs network of metal within the graphite. vey lasting over a week. It became ap­ Many small diamondshave been foundin at the end of the Cretaceous (65 mil­ parent that the meteorite broke into this meteorite, a result of the tremendous three pieces over Mt Samaria, shortly lion years ago) occurred as a result of a pressure exerted on such nodules during collision of such a body with the Earth. impact. after flying over the rugged Strathbogie Evidence has also been presented just Ranges. There are, unfortunately, no a few months ago for a massive impact shaking buildings,loud explosions and inhabitants under the probable that occurred in the Pacific Ocean 2.3 several flaming remnants falling to breakup point, and the fall would million years ago, perhaps triggering Earth. Only a few months earlier I was almost certainly have occurred in the ice age of that time. Collisions as in Arizona, standing on the rim of that rugged country. violent as 1,000 Hiroshimas are expec­ great, awe-inspiring Canyon Diablo By this stage we were sure that it ted as often as once every 10,000 crater, and shortly afterwards discuss­ was a very large meteorite. The sound years. ing with Robert Haag-one of the effects surprised everyone in a When one handles a meteorite it is world's greatest meteorite hunters and predominantly-farming community always with a great deal of awe, for collectors-what action should be familiar with the sound of explosives, these objects are older than any exist­ taken the next time a major meteorite and were heard over 100 kilometres ing Earth rock (which formed after the fall occurred in Australia. Here was an away. The fall was seen by an air-traffic formation of the Earth) and they con­ opportunity to put these ideas into controller in Tullarmarine, Melbourne, tain the very materials from which our practice. and as far north as the New South Earth was formed. It is clearly most im­ Investigators from both amateur Wales border. In addition, both ani­ portant to investigate every meteorite and professional organisations con­ mals and humans reacted to that fall and, if possible, recover material. verged on Victoria's Strathbogie strange, poorly-understood phenom­ It was with great excitement that a Ranges, coincidentally not far from enon called electrophonics, whereby copy of the Sunday Telegraph, on 21 Murchison, and conducted face-to­ sounds appear to be transmitted as fast December 1986, was received with face interviews with the eye witnesses as light and strange 'hisses' and the headline "Mystery UFO Crash mentioned in newspaper reports, and 'whistles' are heard. Rocks Town!". All the signs of a great then from house to house. It was vital Electrophonic sounds are pre­ meteorite were contained in the story: that eye witnesses were contacted as sumed to be transmitted by electro- 352 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 magnetic means rather than by Channel 10 in Melbourne offered us a we were only 20 metres away from it? I conventional sound waves. It was in­ helicopter for a day. doubt we shall ever know. And was teresting to note that the only A small group assembled at the the effort worth it? I believe so. To electrophonic phenomena noticed foot of Mt Samaria a week later, in­ bring a rock from the moon costs were close to the flight path and that, cluding postgraduate astronomy billions of dollars, whereas a meteor­ in the most striking case, the observer student Mark Suters and myself. Geoff ite, if found quickly, will be less dam­ was building a large metal garage. His Adams was there, as were the local aged and contaminated than any attention was first drawn by a 'hiss', park rangers and, of course, a news moon rock, and of course would be and then to the sight of the meteorite. team from Channel 10. Our main considerably cheaper! The possible role of the metal garage in chance was to find substantial tree What are the lessons to be learnt? creating the electrophonics may be of damage. As with the Sikhote-Alin If any meteorite is to be found from a interest to researchers in this field. In meteorite, which fell in a forest in the fall there either has to be an eyewit­ other potential cases unusual animal Soviet Union in 1947, aerial searchers ness account of an actual impact (an behaviour was recorded in dogs and a took three days to find the site. The unlikely event), or a crater in a well­ horse, each showing a high level of trees near the Sikhote-Alin craters had frequented area. Alternatively, agitation before the meteorite was no­ been extensively damaged by greater public awareness of the ticed. airshocks and, therefore, our mission phenomenon of meteorite falls, and Meteorites usually enter the Earth's was to find similar effects. Such dam­ public co-operation in providing atmosphere at speeds of between age was found almost immediately useful sightings, could help increase 40,000 and 250,000 kilometres per and a ground inspection quickly estab­ the number of recoveries. This is hour, much faster than the speed of lished that several trees in a well­ where the press can play a part, as sound. This supersonic motion causes defined area had fallen in roughly the with the Mansfield fall, where a rumblings and then sharp detonations. direction of the meteorite entry and at newspaper took up the cause in a re­ The skin of the meteorite melts due to approximately the correct date (Friday sponsible way . This time we did not frictional heating and this material is 19 December 1986). However, no 'catch a falling star' but we are better blown off and forms a visible dust trail craters were found. One of the most prepared for the next.• behind the meteorite. Only at a height intriguing effects was the suggestion of Anyone who has information on prob­ of about 15 kilometres does the enor­ a glancing impact high on a tree trunk. able meteorites, or phenomena likely mous air pressure slow the meteorite Our time at the site was limited and to be associated with meteorite falls, to below the speed of sound, at which there was always the lingering doubt should contact the Australian Mu­ point it usually breaks into several that the damage could have been seum. The AustralianMuseum has one pieces. These pieces, which are often caused by a windstorm. Yet I believe of the largest collections of meteorites irregular in shape, then fall to the we were close to the fall. Perhaps we in Australia. Why not visit the ground, whistling as they rotate. Ob­ had walked right past it? Or perhaps Museum's meteorite display? servers close to the impact site will then hear a thump as the pieces finally reach the ground. Most people who saw the Mansfield meteorite described it as a bright object-as bright as the moon or sun-that broke up into three pieces, continuing in the same direc­ tion. Everyone within 100 kilometres of the fall heard the detonations first, followed by the thunder-like rum­ blings. The sequence of sounds was reversed because the sound, created high in the atmosphere, was ap­ proaching Earth slower than the meteorite itself. This is why many of the observers heard the sound, looked up and only saw the dust trail. Only those near to the presumed impact site heard noises that could have been due to falling pieces, and in only one case was a whistle, followed by a thump, re­ ported. At the end of our week we had run out of witnesses. We knew the general VI area in which to look for the meteorite w pieces but had no efficient means of z looking. Information was given to the < �"' press and local authorities on what to z 0 look for, but success was limited on 0 foot and eventually the searchers were ...J forced to go home. Just when we had � given up hope, television station Meteorite craters at Henbury, Northern Territory. AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 353 anksias are a group of plants wild, with individual populations tops of the branches during spring familiar to most Australians. ranging in size from one to 100 and early summer. These shrubs and trees, with plants. The population in the nature Each inflorescence may contain theirB conspicuous flowering cones, reserve is the most perplexing. In up to 100 individual flowers. These are found from the coast to the 1982 its size was estimated at more are long and narrow, initially pink mountains, in forests, wetlands and than 300 plants; but a survey in April with a green apex, later becoming heaths, along rivers, near the snow 1987 located fewer than 50 plants. creamy yellow. Unfertilised flowers and in many people's gardens. All of The reasons for this startling decline fall from the inflorescence axis, the 74 species currently known to are not clear; there is no evidence of which then resembles a bright or­ science are found in Australia, with recent disturbance such as fire, and ange button. The two-centimetre­ one species extending to New no dead plants were found! long fruits (follicles) are woody with Guinea and adjacent islands. By far The Matchstick Banksia is a large soft downy hairs. They are bivalved the richest area for banksias is south­ shrub with smooth, grey bark and with each valve containing a single western Australia where 58 species serrated, wedge-shaped leaves. winged seed. Follicles remain closed occur. It is here that one of the rarest, Together with the Holly Leaf Banksia on the branches for a number of the Matchstick Banksia (Banksia (B. ilicifolia), it is placed in a separate years until either the branch dies or a cuneata) is found. subgenus (lsosty/is) from all the other bush fire kills the entire plant. They Identified as recently as 1981, species. The two species produce are held closed by a resin that breaks the Matchstick Banksia is confined to inflorescences, or flowering heads, down with time or can be melted remnant vegetation in the wheatbelt which, unlike most banksias, are not during a fire. area of Western Australia, within a elongated but are rather short and This fire-related seed release is SO-kilometre radius of the town of tufted. In the Matchstick Banksia found in a number of Banksia Quairading. It is a gazetted rare these inflorescences are borne at the species, many of them common, and species and has been accorded a in plants from other genera. It has conservation status of '2EC' ('2' possibly contributed to the decline meaning a species with a natural geo­ of the Matchstick Banksia because of graphic range of less than 100 kilo­ changes in fire regimes occurring in metres; 'E', an endangered species the wheatbelt since settlement. Fires that may disappear from the wild that occur too frequently will prevent within one or two decades if present re-establishment of the populations, land use and other causal factors as the young plants will not have de­ continue; and 'C',a species known to veloped a large seed store (plants occur within a national park or pro­ take four to five years to flower). claimed reserve). Four very restricted populations of the Matchstick Banksia are known: three on roadside verges and one in a small nature reserve. A recent survey 'tJ found fewer than 300 plants in the

Thisplant is growing on a roadside verge near Quairading, WesternAustralia.

354 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 Alternatively, long periods between successive fires result in plant death before seeds are released. Since settlement, 90 per cent of what is now the wheatbelt area has been cleared. Native vegetation is now confined to rocky outcrops, roadside verges, small pockets on -FLIGHT-­ farms, and the occasional small nature reserve. Degradation of this THROUGH THE remnant vegetation through land salinisation, rabbit infestation, weed SPECTACULAR invasion and altered fire regimes may have contributed to the current vul­ nerability of the Matchstick Banksia. LAND•OF•THE Because the Matchstick Banksia has only recently been identified, little is DREAMTIME known of its past distribution. One wonders how many other species are 14 DAYS in a similar predicament and how Each bivalved, woody fruit (follicle) en­ closes a single winged seed. many have disappeared or will soon FROM SYDNEY TO: Flinders go, perhaps before we are even establishing new populations by ma­ Ranges (S.A.) - Coober Pedy - aware of them. nipulation of the environment. Re­ Uluru {Ayers Rock) and Olgas - We are currently studying the ef­ alistically, however, the species may Alice Springs - West and East fects that fire, weed control, rabbit have no future in the wild; its only Kimberley Regions (W.A.) and insect exclusion, direct hand­ chance for survival being through its Broome - Ord River Scheme - sowing and seedling transplantation release as a horticultural plant. Such a Bathurst Island (Timor Sea) - have on the Matchstick Banksia. The decision may soon have to be Darwin - Katherine Gorge - aim of the study is to explore ways of made.• Kakadu National Park - Arnhem maintaining present populations and -Stephen Connell, Byron Lamont Land Region - Gulf of Carpentaria and Stephen Bergl - Carnarvon National Park (Qld) - The short, tufted flowering heads of the Curtin University of Sydney. Matchstick Banksia. Technology, WA

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AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 355 QUIPS, QUOTES & CURIOS -�-����-��-��------,

Alice, the Dodo and about 800 kilometres east of was found to be an easy task, "mechanically resists the . the Tambalacoque Tree Madagascar for the birds, naive to any expansion of the embryo The Dodo's story most form of danger, offered little within" (Science 197: 885- probably began about two resistance and practically 86, 1977). For the seeds to million years ago, when its walked into their cooking germinate, then, it seemed If you were asked to name ancestors flew from Africa or pots. The birds' lack of fear, that the thick pit would have the most famous bird on Madagascar to Mauritius-a together with their ungainly to be abraded and thinned Earth, if not Archaeopteryx land teeming with fallen waddle, gave these early down, a task that could well your answer would most fruits and seeds, and devoid settlers the impression that have been accomplished by likely be the Dodo (Raphus of predators and compe­ they were stupid (hence passage through a Dodo's cucullatus). Afterall,many of tition. It was under these 'dumb as a Dodo'). gizzard. Matching the age of us were introduced to it at an idyllic conditions that the However, it was not so the surviving trees with that early age in Alice in Won­ Dodo became plump and much the sailors' deliberate of the Dodo's demise, derland. Despite the fact lost its power of flight; its destruction that led to the Temple concluded that the that the Dodo is perhaps wings were mere shadows birds' demise, but the in­ present near-extinction of better known for its extinc­ of their former selves, the direct effect in the form of the Tambalacoque tree is tion than as a living species body feathers soft and domestic animals they due to want of a Dodo. A (it was one of the first ani­ downy, and the once­ brought with them: pigs ha­ thick pit that evolved to re­ mals in our recent history to aerodynamic tail reduced to bitually root up the forest sist damage in a Dodo's giz­ become extinct), most of us an absurd tuft of curly floor, disturbing ground­ zard is a pit too thick to can conjure up an image of feathers. nesting birds, and macaque germinate without the the Dodo. Basically just an All was well until Portu­ monkeys are notoriously Dodo's intervention. over-sized, flightless pigeon, guese sailors arrived in 1507, fond of eggs and young. Temple 'empirically' with a large head and followed soon after by the These animals, which also backed up his theory by heavy, hooked bill, it was a Dutch, the French and the found conditions on the extrapolating a curve that most extraordinary bird­ English. island idyllic, quickly multi­ plotted size of modern birds one that had evolved its With a lack of readily plied. And since the Dodos against the force generated many peculiar features dur­ available meat, the early were supposed to have laid by their gizzards. For a bird ing its isolation on the re­ Mauritian settlers took to only one large, white egg the size of a Dodo he esti­ mote island of Mauritius, slaughtering the birds. This that both parents incubated, mates that the Tam­ it is not surprising that, balacoque pits were strong within 200 years of the bird's enough to resist destruction. discovery, the expression He also force-fed Turkeys 'dead as a Dodo' had be­ (the closest modern ana­ come a tragic reality. logue to the Dodo) with 17 In preparation of the birds pits and, from the ten that for eating, the early settlers weren't crushed, managed reported single, large stones to germinate three. These, the size of hens' eggs in the he claims, may well have gizzard, which no doubt been the first Tambal­ would have helped grind up acoque seeds to germinate hard seeds. It is with this in 300 years. piece of information that I Temple's 'just-so' story introduce an intriguing but received immediate pub­ hotly-debated issue con­ licity. And the fact that it is an cerning plant-animal mutu­ example of a plant that de­ alism. clined after the extinction of . Stanley A. Temple re­ its associated animal (es­ ported that the Tamba­ pecially the infamous lacoque tree (Sideroxylon Dodo), rather than the grandiflorum), once com­ other, more usual way mon in the upland forests of round, made the story even Mauritius, was today only more attractive and has led >­ represented by a handful of to its treatment as textbook UJ ...I trees, all older than 300 dogma. 0

comes from A. Wahab large, edible seed. Owadally of the Mauritian In summary, Temple's hy­ Forestry Service (Science pothesis is an astute ex­ 203: 1363-64, 1979) and ample of scientific logic, but Anthony S. Cheke et al. (Ani­ one that can't be proved, mal Kingdom Feb./Mar. '84: just as much as it can't be 4-6; 51). They claim that the disproved. His case, as does seeds do not require animal his anti-case, rests on a lot of intervention to germinate, circumstantial evidence, or any other form of mech­ much of which is not in­ anical abrasion. In fact the cluded here. Owadally and first seeds ever to germinate others in no way dispute the in the Forestry Service fact that the Dodo may have received no treatment. They eaten and abraded the Tam­ were sown in December balacoque pits, and passed 1971 and germinated in them out intact to April 1972, which inciden­ subsequently germinate; tally was beforeTemple ger­ what they do debate is minated his 'Turkey' seeds, simply the idea that these thus falsifying his claim to seeds had become depen­ have germinated the first dent on the Dodo (or any Tambalacoque seeds in 300 other animal)for their germi­ years! The Forestry Service nation. used to treat seeds to induce One final point. In Alice's germination, but later aban­ Temple bounced back by Many of us were introduced to fantasy world, she and her doned the technique when announcing that the trees the Dodo through Alice in curious bunch of acquaint­ the difference in germi­ are difficult to age (they have Wonderland. ances were sopping wet and nation rates for untreated no rings; age estimates are the forest soil, and the were seeking a method to and treated Tambalacoque based on relative girths and monkeys that are fond of un­ dry out. The Mouse told a seeds was found to be insig­ heights) and that Wiehe was ripe fruit including that of 'dry' story without success; nificant. also involved in the age esti­ the Tambalacoque tree, the so the Dodo suggested a There is also a well­ mates for his trees. As both sailors also introduced 'Caucus-Race'. He mapped defined, asymmetrical frac­ Vaughan and Wiehe are browsers (deer and goats), out a racecourse on which ture zone in the now dead, we might have to grazers (cattle) and seed and he placed the contestants; Tambalacoque's hard pit wait 84 years before we seedling-eaters (rats). If a and at their own time, when­ (similar to that in a walnut). know just what 100-year­ seedling manages to escape ever each was ready, they Its very reason for existence old Tambalacoque trees the attentions of these ani­ started running. After about is that when the pit can no look like (a 16-year-old tree mals, it then has to battle half an hour, when all were longer accommodate the is growing in the campus of with the fast-growing, greg­ dry, the Dodo announced swollen embryo, it splits the University of Mauritius, arious, exotic trees and the race was over. When along this line of weakness. planted from one of the shrubs. Given these nega­ asked who won, the Dodo, The smaller portion, which seedlings germinated in the tive influences, and the fact after much deliberation, said breaks away much like a Forestry Service) and how that the seeds have proved "Everybody". skullcap, is only five milli­ they compare to so-called to germinate spontaneously, Just as nobody loses in the metres thick-not the uni­ 300-year-old trees. Tambalacoque trees would Caucus-Race, there are no form 15 millimetres all the How then do these still be in a sorry state today, losers in the Dodo's real-life way round as implied by debunkers explain the tree's with or without the Dodo. story. Temple versus Temple. rarity and apparent standstill So why does the Tamba­ Owadally is not a case of Another major doubt re­ in germination? Firstly, the lacoque have such a tough who wins and who loses; nor volves around the age of the trees have never been as pit if it did not arise out of should the Dodo be thought surviving Tambalacoque common as Temple implied mutualism with the Dodo? of as having 'lost' through its trees. A survey conducted in and, by the same token, are Temple's suggestion that it extinction. Every creature, 1941 by R. E. Vaughan and not as rare today as he evolved to resist damage whether living or extinct, P.O. Wiehe indicated a sig­ claims. Secondly, just as the from animals is probably and every healthily-debated nificant stand of trees that Dodo was disturbed by the correct. But not just that scientific issue, contributes were less than 100 years old. introduction of exotic ani­ which was brought about by to a much greater, complex And, if this is the case, the mals and plants, so too was the Dodo's gizzard. There whole. In this respect, Dodo, which became ex­ the Tambalacoque tree and were also strong-beaked Temple, Owadally, the tinct about 300 years ago, the whole of the ecology of giant tortoises and a large­ Dodo and the Tambala­ cannot have been instru­ the forest. In addition to the billed parrot (all now extinct) coque tree are allwinners. mental in their germination. pigs that root up and disturb that could have damaged a -C.H.

AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 357 BOOK REVIEWS Pests and Poisons

delight primary school chil­ your door, you may find of Associate Professor dren: in a survey at a that you will never have to Michael Archer, who took Queensland University endure such visitations time out of his busy sched­ Open Day, doctors and again. ule to contribute almost medical students together On a more serious note, half the papers in this correctly identified 25 per however, I can rec­ book. cent of a sample of venom­ ommend this book as one -Tim Flannery ous snakes; school children of the most outstanding achieved 24 per cent, and contributions to our sci­ biology graduates only 16 ence andsociety that I have PREHISTORIC per cent. read. On the one hand it AUSTRALIA Toxic Plants and I found only one error. exposes 'Creation science' Mike Gray gives the correct for the debauched and Animals: A Guide for distribution of the Sydney dangerous perversion that Australia Funnelweb, but in the next it is, and also the cynical Ed. by}. Covacevich, chapter, written by an edi­ way it is sugar-coated for P. Davie and}. Pearn. tor, it is said to be confined the consumption of edu­ Queensland Museum, to a small area around Syd­ cators and students. On the South Brisbane, 1987, ney Harbour. My apologies other it presents, in an 504 pp. $28.00. to the producers of an excel­ easily-understandable and Prehistoric Australia lent survey for this little sting masterfully-written way, Brian Mackness. Golden We have long frightened in the tail. the scientific basis for Press, Sydney, 1987, our English cousins with -Arthur Woods evolution. 191 pp. $39.95. tales of our venomous ani­ Perhaps the best thing mals, and boasted to our about the book is its ac­ With Prehistoric Australia Texan friends that their CONFRONTING cessibility. Facts are easily Brian Mackness realises his rattlesnakes are gnats com­ CRF.ATIONISM: found, and unnecessary dream, kindled at an early pared with our Taipans, but DEFENDING scientific terminology is age, to find an easy-to-read, it has not always been easy avoided. It is ideal reading popular account of the fossil to quote chapter and verse. DARWIN for upper high school or history of Australia. Tired of This is now possible with the undergraduate university waiting, he decided he publication by the Queens­ students. Indeed, I feel that should write it himself. But land Museum of a guide to this book should be essen­ instead of launching into it Australian toxic plants and tial reading for all high on his own he took the time animals. The book is over­ t school students, for not to thoroughly research the whelmingly about animals; only does it set out thebasis subject (no mean feat on its only about 13 per cent is de­ Confronting for the theory of evolution, own) and consult with the voted to toxic plants and Creationism: it also explains the basis of scientific specialists in the these have a distinctly Defending Darwin the scientific methodology. various branches of palae­ Queensland flavour. The An understanding of scien­ ontology. As can be seen Ed. by D.R. Selkirk and F.}. animal section is, however, tific methodology is sadly from the acknowledge­ Burrows. New South comprehensive. It contains, lacking, in my experience, ments, this entailed 'pick­ Wales University Press, of course, excellent chap­ in many first-year univer­ ing the brains' of many Kensington, 1987, 158 pp. ters on the expected:snakes sity science students. This well-known palaeontol­ $14.95. (nine chapters including an leaves them floundering in ogists who themselves re­ excellent pictorial key to use Have you ever opened many science classes, and alised the need for such a while you wait for the doc­ the door to be confronted vulnerable to the nonsensi­ book. They would have tor), spiders, seawasps, by Paul Keating look-alikes cal but seductive doctrines been only too pleased to blue-ringed octopuses and professing the secret of life of fringe religious groups. give assistance and advice to so on, but there are also eternal and all in the name Finally, the authors must someone with the persist­ some unexpected and of the Church of Jesus be congratulated for ence to gather together the usually unsuspected 'vil­ Christ or the Latter Day spending the time and ef­ widely-disseminated lains': rove beetles, poison­ Saints or some even more fort in putting together knowledge and information, ous sea turtles, frogs and outlandish organisation? If such a fine and useful vol­ and bring them together in crabs, and 'nettle-rash' so, this book is a must for ume. With the growing this commendable work. moths. There are three you. For not only will it en­ pressure to be productive Mackness sets out to timely chapters on ciguatera able you to turn such mo­ in their own narrow fields, document the history of life (food poisoning from reef ments of horror into hours scientists all too rarely get on our continent from 4,000 fish). of joy as you point out the the credit that they deserve million years ago to the ar­ Among the wealth of idiocy of their beliefs but, for more popular works. rival of humans. This he tables there is one that will as they flee abjectly from Special note must bemade does chronologically, as 358 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 museumaustralian would be expected. He deals with groups of animals PEST CO�TROL and plants, and emphasises NATURAL For Specialist some for each geological period. Natural History The title may not be all that original-quite a few Books books lately have appeared with similar ones-but at least it gives you a good idea of the contents. The illus­ Natural Pest Control: trations are numerous and An Australian Guide generally of a high standard. However, too many differ­ for Commercial ent artists have been used, Growers, Orchardists which gives the work a lack and Farmers of uniformity of artistic style. B. Chapman, D. Penman A couple of the black and and P. Hicks. Nelson, white drawings are of poor Melbourne, 7 986, 7 7 5 pp. quality and I feel it would $79.95. have been best to stick to the better artists. The quality This is an excellent little of production is generally book with an unfortunate good. It's a pity it could not title. It suggested to me an have been full colour but I offering from what was expect that would have once, rather impolitely, greatly increased the price. called the 'muck and magic Occasional typographical school' (organic farming), errors and spelling inconsist- whereas it is, in fact, a com­ encies ('Palaeozoic' also petent introduction to inte­ Order form for books including those spelt 'Paleozoic') were no- grated pest control and reviewed in this issue ticed; and a few production management. hiccups stood out. But as for The concept behind inte­ Quantity Title Price the scientific content, the grated pest control is that way in which the book was pests (or, rather, their dam­ researched and checked be- age) are best controlled by What Mammal is That $34.95 fore publication means that applying several methods What Bird Call is That 39.95 its accuracy cannot often be together in a way that causes (Book & cassette kit) faulted. It is as up-to-date as as little environmental dis­ 28.00 possible within the·con- ruption as possible.Any sev­ Toxic Plants and Animals: straints of publishing. ere, one-pronged attack will A Guide for Australia The inclusion of a bibli- lead to problems and, in par­ Confronting Creationism: 14.95 ography is a pleasing ticular, to the development Defending Darwin attribute-one that should of a resistance in the pest Prehistoric Australia 39.95 be well used by those population.The book out­ wishing to delve deeper into lines the various modes of Natural Pest Control 19.95 Australia's past. Another• attack,and then closes with Postage and Handling will be an additional charge plus is its comprehensive a guide to their integration. Please charge to: index, a must for all books of Unfortunately the book this type. originated in New Zealand D Bankcard D Mastercard D Visa D American Express In brief, Prehistoric Aus- and has not been thoroughly Card Number Expiry Date / / tralia is easy to read and 'ockerised'. The principles Name would be suitable for an are the same there, but the audience from early high pests are often different. Address school onwards. It fills a Finally, the emphasis is niche that has too long been on pest control for small Signature vacant in Australian publish- holders, not farmers. The ing. The book also won the publishers should keep Post to: The Australian Museum Shop, 1987 Whitley Award for the the text but change its P.O. Box A285, Sydney South, NSW 2000, category 'Best Prehistory'. title. 6-8 College St, Sydney. Phone: (02) 339 8350 -Robert Jones -Arthur Woods AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 359 Soviet Academy of Sciences in Mos­ given me his number. I called. He was A Soviet Encounter cow, unstoppable enthusiast about typically effusive: "I'll come, all will Bert, and president of his local Robert be organised." Burns Society. I persuaded him to I doubted it. This was more than a ne afternoon in the Soviet far leave me to my ablutions and come dotty fan of Rabbie Burns could fix. 0 east, nearly ten years ago, I back in the afternoon to be inter­ However in half an hour or so I stood received a very odd 'phone viewed. When he returned I had a outside the Rossia and saw him ap­ call. "Is that Dr Williams from the hy­ little 'duty-free' prepared (for the proach, still with white beret and drology section?" asked the voice. benefit of us both). The recording did string bag. Once in my room Gabriel "No," I replied, "not doctor, nor from not go well. Feldmann was fine in the Feldmann picked up the 'phone and the hydrology section [of the Pacific build-up about the extraordinary began to use it as David Oistrakh once Science Congress]. But my name is Bert, but he'd somehow forgotten used the violin. Never have I wit­ Williams." The man grunted and how it came to be that Bert had in­ nessed such creative dialling. Clues hung up. Ten minutes later, the same vented deep-sea diving and space were chased, bureaucrats circum­ happened. I vouchsafed that I was a flight so long ago. "Never mind," I vented, contacts exploited. He journalist, not a hydrologist, and said, "have another drink"; after waved his hands, threatened the ceil­ would he care to call another hotel­ which Feldmann put on his beret and ing, caressed the handpiece. "We mine was but one of several being went off, swinging his string bag, make progress," he smiled after an used to house delegates from over 70 waving cheerfully as he spotted hour. "This next fellow I went to pion­ countries. friends in the street. eer camp with in 1937." More dial­ Ten minutes later, there he was A week later I was in Moscow. I ling. Another hour. again. Perhaps he expected me to say had ten days in front of me to see lead­ Finally, Feldmann got up, pre­ "The pink owl flies over the Volga at ing scientists. The trip had been or­ sented me with the telephone and midnight!", at which point he would ganised from Sydney where we had said "This is Ivanov, talk to him. He reply "Ah, but the green goose layed received no replies from the Soviet will organise anything you want." And 18 eggs last Tuesday," whereupon we end of things, despite countless so it turned out. Within 30 minutes a would exchange microfiche and US telexes, letters and calls. I was at the car was outside to take me to my first dollars. gigantic Rossia Hotel, just off Red academician. The rest of my stay in But no more calls that day. How­ Square. There were three prime con­ Moscow turned into a triumph of pro­ ever, at 6.30 the next morning, there tacts on whom I depended totally for ductivity. he was again."Dr Williams? I would help during my stay: the Soviet Acad­ I last saw Gabriel Feldmann disap­ like to show you my book about the emy, the Australian scientific attache pearing into the crowds of Red man who invented space travel, and our correspondent, David Willis, Square, his trusty string bag still full of deep-sea diving and the modern a reporter for the Christian Science books about Bert. He'd given me one, theories of respiration more than 100 Monitor who was 'stringing' for the written in Russian of course. So I still years ago!" This must be the pass­ ABC. don't know how the old chap had word, I thought, the coded message I called David. He said "Look I'm ushered in space travel so long ago. giving me the cue to respond. "I sorry, but I can't see you for a week. There is no doubt that my stay in Mos­ would like to come now," he added. By the way, the Soviet Academy cow would have been a disaster with­ Ten minutes later someone won't talk to you, and the scientific out the remarkable Gabriel tapped on my door. It opened and in attache has gone to Mongolia for a Feldmann. He sent me a few letters to came a smiling fellow in his mid-fifties two-week emergency visit. Good Australia in later years. They bore no waving a string bag. "Feldmann," he luck!" Click. stamps or postmarks, having been announced. "Gabriel Feldmann, and All my arrangements had col­ hand-delivered by some Australian here is my volume. You must look. lapsed. I couldn't leave the hotel in traveller unknown to me. He wrote of This is Paul Bert who made space case someone 'phoned, and I Burns and Haldane and curious flight possible." couldn't call anyone myself because things. I still have that aborted in­ "D'you mind if I get dressed?" It there were no telephone books in terview we recorded in the Soviet was no more than quarter to seven in Moscow. Our embassy was sympath­ far east. Perhaps one day I'll play it the morning. Gabriel Feldmann sat etic but powerless. The British scien­ on air.• next to me, smiling, indeed beaming tific attache was pleasant, bought me like Mo, the Australian comedian. He a meal and said it often took months PAUL BERT (1833-1886) was a French physiol­ wore a white beret and flourished his for anyone to see journalists in Mos­ ogist, statesman and lawyer, also trained in en­ books. One was about Paul Bert, cow. It seemed that ten days was not gineering. He studied the effects of compressed air on the body. His research statesman, scientist, visionary, whom enough. I sat in my room. Waiting. helped the many workers building tunnels I'd never heard of. The other was on Looking at the walls. Reading my under rivers and laying the foundations for J.B.S. Haldane, geneticist, mathema­ tenth book borrowed from the Aus­ bridges, whose use of compressed air gave tician, Scottish bomb-thrower and ec­ tralian Embassy. them the bends. He was a member of the centric, who I knew very well. Three days passed. Then I remem­ French Chamber of Deputies from 1874-1886 and latterly a Cabinet minister in charge of pub­ Feldmann turned out not to be a bered the extraordinary Feldmann. lic instruction. His research laid the basis for the spy. He was a lowly researcher at the Was he simply a dear eccentric? He'd study of aviation medicine from the 1940s. 360 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 POSTER Northern Spiny-tailed Gecko

he orthern Spiny-tailed tially or completely, leaving the geckos are arboreal and nocturnal, Gecko ( Diplodactylus ciliaris) is squirming tail to distract the predator most active in the first few hours fol­ Tthe largest member of a group while the gecko makes its escape. lowing sunset while the substrate is of at least 11 closely-related gecko The gecko can also suddenly swing still warm, and feed on spiders and species that share a defence mech­ its head and open its mouth wide, re­ insects, especially beetles, crickets anism unique amongst terrestrial ver­ vealing a mouth and tongue colour and insect larvae. When active, or tebrates: an ability to squirt from the that contrasts strongly with the other­ when exposed to high temperatures tail a thick liquid that dries into a wise well-camouflaged body. In by day, the spiny-tailed geckos pale sticky web of threads on contact with most populations, the mouth is a to a uniform silvery grey colour, re­ air. Although the secretion is appar­ bright orange-yellow, although in ducing the rate of heat gain by day l ently non-toxic, the combination of some north-eastern populations, and and colour-matching moonlit ob­ shock and discomfort probably in other species of spiny-tailed jects by night. The pupil of the eye is wards off many potential predators. geckos, the mouth is blue. vertically elliptical, closing to a nar­ The glands that produce the The species name ( ci/iaris) refers row slit joining a series of pinprick­ sticky secretion are located deep to the long, soft spines that overhang like holes by day, and opening wide within the tail. These are 'fired' when the eye (supraocular spines). when active at night to receive the muscles surrounding the glands con­ Together with a paired row of russet, maximum available light. tract and force the secretion through orange or black spines on the tail, and Like all Australian geckos, spiny­ specialised 'rupture zones' in the a daylight colour pattern of russet or tailed geckos lack moveable eyelids, muscle and overlying skin of the tail. brown patches on a grey or brown and the large eye is protected from In some cases, the secretion has background, the supraocular spines drying out by a thin clear spectacle. been reported to squirt up to 50 provide camouflage, breaking up the The outer layer of this spectacle is centimetres. body outline, obscuring the eye, and shed with the rest of the skin. Should Should this defence mechanism matching the colour of the branches the spectacle become dusty, the prove unsuccessful, the Northern on which the geckos perch by day. gecko can clean it by licking it with Spiny-tailed Gecko has two other The Northern Spiny-tailed Gecko the broad fleshy tongue. alternatives. Like almost all other grows to over 12 centimetres in total geckos, it can voluntarily shed length, and occurs over much of arid -Glenn Shea (autotomise) its own tail, either par- and tropical Australia. Spiny-tailed University of Sydney AUSTRALIA ATURAL HISTORY 361 362 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 Ornamental plants are invading the Australian bush; meanwhile, Australian natives are becoming pests overseas. Invading Ornamentals

By TIM LOW

he lceplant (Mesembryan­ themum crystallinum) has looks Tthat kill. Crowded along its leaves and stems are glistening cells of intensely salty water. When an lceplant dies this salt leaches onto the soil surface, forming a miniature salt desert in which nothing can grow. It may take years before rains remove enough salt for new plants to survive. But the first seedlings to sprout in the subsaline soil are inevitably more lceplants, and the cycle continues. A native of South Africa, lceplant has become a serious weed of pas­ tures in southern Australia. Its habit of accumulating and concentrating salt from the soil is having devastating effects. How tragic that lceplant was introduced to Australia deliber­ ately-because its invidious salt cells look ornamental. The whole plant sparkles alluringly as though coated in crystals of sugar. The lceplant is but one of thou­ sands of plants spread around the world for the sake of its ornamental appeal. Like Lantana (Lantana camara), Gorse ( Ulex europaeus) and hundreds of other shrubs and trees, it readily runs wild to the detriment of native plants and natural ecosystems. Indeed, ornamental plants are be-

The South African Bitou Bush, intro­ duced to Australia as a garden plant, has become one of Australia's worst bush­ land weeds, especially around Adelaide, Melbourne and along the coast of New South Walesand Victoria. AUSTRALIAN ATURAL HISTORY 363 V> u.J z z � f-- z 0 0 ...J � 6 0 ""0 >-z 2

lceplant is an eerie ornamental plant turned weed. Its leaves and stems are covered in sparkling cells of salty water. Up to 12 per cent of its dry weight is salt (sodiumchloride). coming so widespread and ubiqui­ tous in the wild that their dispersal by people has become a significant fac­ tor in world plant distribution. In Australia, many garden plants displayed a dispensity for weediness soon after they were introduced. Soursob ( Oxalis pes-caprae), Gorse and lceplant had become weeds by the turn of the century. Of more cur­ rent concern are those garden plants, cultivated in Australia for decades, that are only now going feral. Bushwalkers in Sydney heath­ lands may have noticed the rise of dense thickets of the garden plant called Asparagus Fern (Protasparagus saplings are now common along Syd­ Lantana was introduced to Australia as densiflorus), an import from South Af­ ney streams, and within 15 years are an ornamental plant and now infests an rica. In southern Queensland this likely to choke out native trees. estimated four million hectares of bush­ plant does not yet form thickets, but On Moreton and Bribie Islands land and pasture. BJisbane biologists are concerned, for near Brisbane, dense thickets of Um­ it is becoming common in the wild. brella Trees (Scheff/era actinophylla) unique. Thanks to the efforts of native Single plants are appearing in coastal have sprouted within eucalypt forests plant-growers, growing numbers of heaths and along rainforest margins, near the small townships. An Um­ ornamental Australian plants are the seeds carried by birds. In another brella Tree thicket has also appeared spreading into forests outside their 20 years or so the•e may be spiky As­ in a forest in western Brisbane. But the natural range. paragus Fern thickets throughout Umbrella Tree is a curious case, for In Belair Recreation Park near southern Queensland, just as in Syd­ unlike most of our ornamental plants Adelaide the dainty Bluebell Creeper ney. it is a native tree. It grows naturally in (Sollya heterophylla) from Western The Camphor Laurel (Cinna­ damp forests in northern Queens­ Australia has become one of the most momum camphora) of China and land, and is rapidly becoming a feral common forest vines. First recorded Japan is another tree on the move. In species 1,300 kilometres south of its there in 1952, it is now considered by hills east of Lismore it has formed normal range, its seeds spread by Peter Kloot of the South Australian dense forests in place of rainforests birds. Department of Agriculture to be a po­ cleared for grazing. Camphor Laurel The Umbrella Tree is far from tentially serious weed. It flourishes

364 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 alongside two other misplaced natives, Sweet Pittosporum (Pitto­ sporum undulatum) and Silky Hakea (Hakea sericea), both from eastern Australia. Other travelling 'natives' include the Common Kangaroo Apple (Solanum aviculare) of eastern Aus­ tralia, which now grows wild near Perth in Western Australia and Port Lincoln in South Australia. Coast Tea­ tree (Leptospermum laevigatum) was transported from Victoria to South Australia, and Cadaga (Eucalyptus torelliana) from Cairns to Brisbane. Western Australia's Golden Wreath Wattle (Acacia saligna) can now be seen growing wild along the coasts of New South Wales, South Australia and southern Queensland. These plants challenge the very concept of a 'native' plant. Australia is a continent in one country. Had Aus­ tralia been carved into a number of European-sized republics, we would not have the absurd notion of a plant from Perth being considered a 'native' in Sydney. (Perth is further from Syd­ ney than Istanbul from Amsterdam, and a Turkish plant grown in Holland would hardly be considered a native.) This broad definition of 'native' plants has exacerbated the spread of orna­ m enta I plants, as more and more 'natives' go walkabout, altering the balance of native ecosystems, and even changing canopy structures and ground-cover densities. The success of Australian natives elsewhere in Australia has its parallel overseas. Ornamental plants from Australia now run wild in many re­ gions of the world. In southern. Eur­ The South African Asparagus Fern (not a true fern) is rapidly becoming a weed of ope, seven Australian wattles grow heaths, coastal dunes and rainforest margins in coastal New South Wales and wild along the coasts and plains be­ southern Queensfand. tween Portugal and Romania. California's wild roadside vegetation includes five Australian wattles and three eucalypts. Hawaiian rainforests are being invaded by Queensland Silky Oaks ( Grevil/ea robusta), and the Silky Hakea of eastern Australia has become a weed in Europe and New Zealand. None of these infestations can be regarded as serious, but there are two regions of the world, Florida and South Africa, where Australian shrubs and trees are bringing devastating ef­ fects. In Florida, the Paperbark Tea-tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) and the Coast She-oak (Casuarina equiset­ Gorse was introduced to Australia from Europe as a hedge plant and ornamental. It ifolia, known locally as Australian had become a weed in Victoria by the 1880s and was declared noxious in 1908. An Pine) are displacing native vegetation acre of Gorse plants can produce 15 millionseeds, some of which stay dormant forup in swamps and along shores in the to 25 years.

AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 365 perts A.V. Hall and C. Boucher con­ tend that Australian wattles "have polluted our vegetation and our land­ scapes. We may draw a parallel to air pollution ...". One of South Africa's rarest plants, Homoglossum aureum, is actually threatened with extinction by choking thickets of the Golden Wreath Wattle, known there as Port Jackson Willow. A curious phenomenon prevails along South Africa's coasts, where Australian wattles are replacing the native Bitou Bush (Chrysanthemoides moniliferum). This process is pro­ ceeding in reverse in Australia, where thickets of Bitou Bush, a declared noxious weed in Victoria, are choking out stands of Golden Wattle (Acacia /ongifo/ia) along beaches in Victoria and New South Wales. It appears that the success of each plant in a foreign land is due to the absence of its pred­ ators and parasites. Hall and Boucher, in discussing a list of South Africa's worst weeds­ including hakeas, wattles, Coast Tea­ tree and the Australian Native Poplar Native Poplar, a small tree of rainforestedges in eastern Australia, has become a sig­ ( Omalanthus populifolius)-con­ nificant forest weed in South Africa. clude grimly: "They replace the Flora Everglades. Frank Craighead, writing with monotonous growths that de­ in The Trees of South Florida (Univer­ press the scientific interest, diversity sity of Miami Press, 1971) derided the and beauty of the landscape. Their she-oak as "a most serious problem in wall-like thickets shut out our finest the preservation of native vegetation views from visitors, and with spine in South Florida". She-oak also runs and branch they bar the way to the wild in Mexico, the West Indies and pleasures of walking through the South America. veld." In South Africa, three Australian Clearly, the world's flora is be­ hakeas (especially Silky Hakea), eight coming increasingly mixed, and ac­ wattles and the Coast Tea-tree are tion is needed now. We should heed choking out the native fynbos, one of the advice of Frank Craighead, who the world's richest plant associations. witnessed the devastation to Florida's The destruction posed by Aus­ wetlands caused by Australian trees, tralian hakeas was first recognised 60 and concluded: "The indiscriminate years ago, when prickly hakea introduction of exotic plants needs thickets sprang up along the federal regulation. None should be stream beds of the South African Cape propagated and distributed until their Mountains. The problem became so propensity to reproduce naturally and acute that a Hakea Conference was invade our native environment is de­ held in 1961, and programs of burn­ termined." ing, culling and biological control Recently I telephoned the Aus­ were begun.An aerial survey in 1977 tralian Quarantine Inspection Service found that 40 per cent of an area of in Canberra to ask if Australia has 960,000 hectares was infested. The regulations like these. I was dismayed hakeas, which are proclaimed by the response. noxious weeds, continue to spread. Rodney Turner, the Nursery Stock Eight species of Australian wattle Inspector, informed me that Aus­ are also causing heartache. Intro­ tralian Government policy was to duced to South Africa as ornamentals, allow in anything not known to be a dune-stabilisers or as sources of tim­ weed, or closely related to a weed. No Western Australia's Bluebell Creeper is ber, tannins or firewood, they have field of nursery tests was required. becoming a common bushland weed in the southern Lofty Ranges near Adelaide, become invidious invaders of fynbos Unknown plants were merely where this plant was photographed. Its areas disturbed by grazing and burn­ checked against Commonwealth and sausage-shaped berries are edible to ing. By fixing soil nitrogen they enrich State weed lists. Plants were con­ people and birds, and the latter are no the soil, creating habitat unsuited to sidered innocent until proven guilty. doubt spreading the seeds. native plants. South African weed ex- When I protested that this policy 366 VOL. 22 NO.8, AUTUMN 1988 only guarded against weeds that were already here, Turner replied by saying that some overseas weed books were also consulted. To see how useful this might be, I checked 20 overseas weed texts held by a State herbarium li­ Perspectives brary. The books covered regions as disparate as Egypt, Java, The Solomons, Canada and the world. I could find no mention in their pages of many of Australia's worst ornamen­ ofthe tal bushland weeds. There was no listing for Asparagus Fern, and no mention whatever of Bitou Bush, one of Australia's worst forest invaders. Nor were Tiger Lily (Lilium Earth formosanum) and the garden aspara­ gus Protasparagus p/umosus cited, Perspectives of the Earth is a geology although both are serious rainforest book that has mostly sold to high school weeds on Lord Howe Island. and university students. But we think Conversely, there was no mention that the book is more than a text. The outside South Africa of the pest po­ illustrations and attractive writing in the tential of hakeas, wattles and other book make it a good way to introduce Australian natives. Of course these geology to anyone who is interested in the plants are not mentioned in Australian state of the Earth. The publication, weed books: they do not behave here edited by two of Australia's leading as weeds. Clearly, the Australian quarantine geology educators also offersgeologists a system is not adequate. It cannot referencefor unpractised or long­ guard us against future ecological dis­ forgotten areas of science and a chance to asters of the kind caused in the past by revise learning that may have become Bitou Bush, Lantana and Gorse. We out-of-date. need a new system that places the Perspectives of the Earth is a onus upon the importer to show that comprehensive account of the formation the plant will not spread. Enough or­ of the universe, and the solar system, the namental plants are available in Aus­ rise and weathering of mountains, the tralia already without placing the environment at further risk. drift of the continents, the accumulation The Society for Growing Aus­ of mineral deposits, the eruption of tralian Plants should play a part, by volcanoes, the origins of earthquakes and educating the public about the eco­ the laying down of fossils. Aspects of logical risks posed by native plants out exploration, mining and the use of Earth of place. They should actively dis­ materials is also described. courage the growing of certain risk is available species such as Sweet Pittosporum, Perspectives of the earth Silky Hakea, kangaroo apples and cer­ from good bookshops or direct from the tain wattles. The emphasis should be Academy. upon growing native plants within their natural range. Home gardeners should also take more care. Garden clippings should never be dumped near the bush. Many infestations of Asparagus Fern, and of succulents such as cacti, agaves and live-leaf (Bryophyllum species) have begun in this way. Gar­ Australian Academy of Science deners living close to natural bush GPO Box 783, Canberra 2601. should remove any plants, whether �lephone(062)47 5335 introduced or native, that show a (062) 47 5385 tendency to spread. It is too late to undo the damage already done. It is not too late to ac­ cept responsibility for the future. We urgently need strategies for contain­ ing the spread of ornamental plants, or more ecological disasters await us.• AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 367 FORUM By ALEX RITCHIE Divisional Head of Earth Sciences, Australian Museum

and thus are virtually inaccessible to Australian researchers. There is no excuse for such items leaving Australia by default. This coun­ try has many young scientists willing and able to explore its geological past, as well as the wealth to fund them and keep its treasures where they Who belong-in Australia. Export controls exist that attempt to regulate and pre­ vent the loss of rare and unique fossils and minerals, but if the nation is not Should Pay for prepared to fund such acquisitions for State and national museums, these regulations seem somewhat pointless. Australia's Let me give a couple of examples. The Chapman Collection Australia is famous for the variety Past? and quality of its mineral treasures. Although some State museums have good collections, many of Australia's rarest and finest mineral specimens are in private hands. The best private min­ eral collection in Australia is probably that owned by Albert Chapman of Sydney. n our society certain activities and philanthropy have greatly enriched Albert Chapman, now in his 70s, institutions are widely perceived as their collections and public displays, has collected minerals since he was a having major cultural value. Indi- and these contain not only the finest boy. Many of his rarest items come vidualsI and organisations that support items from North America but also from world-famous Australian mineral them attract considerable kudos. Ac­ from around the world, including Aus­ sites that have been worked out or are tivities such as music, drama, painting tralia. With little tradition of private or no longer accessible. Such material is and sculpture attract wealthy or influ­ corporate sponsorship, Australian literally irreplaceable. For quality, ential sponsors. Their support enables State museums still rely heavily on lim­ beauty and rarity, many mineral speci­ art galleries to purchase rare and ex­ ited State funding. Although things mens in the Chapman collection far pensive items, and the performing arts have improved in recent years, they surpass those held in State museums, to mount exciting programs. still fall far short of what is required. some being the finest examples of For some strange reason natural The main function of Australia's their kind in the world. history museums, which provide major natural history museums is to in­ Three years ago Chapman ap­ equally valuable services to the com­ vestigate, record, preserve and display proached the Australian Museum with munity, are widely, albeit incorrectly, our natural heritage. Most of us are a remarkably generous offer. He had perceived as being more 'educational' aware of threats to our living heritage, decided to sell his collection but than 'cultural'. They find it difficult to which has been grossly modified by wanted it to stay in Australia and, if obtain private sponsorship for their 200 years of European settlement. But possible, intact. He offered it to the exhibition programs, specimen acqui­ few realise that other parts of Austra­ Museum for one million dollars. At that sition and research activities. lia's heritage are also under threat, for time the Chapman collection was The arts attract sponsorship in mil­ different reasons. valued at over two million dollars, and lions of dollars, our natural heritage­ The story of Australia's distant past since then international prices for pla nts, animals, minerals and is written in its rocks. During explo­ world-class mineral specimens have fossils-receives only a fraction of ration and mapping of Australia by risen further as major sources are that. This is not due to lack of public in­ prospectors and geologists, while worked out. Despite this, the original terest because natural history mu­ clearing for agriculture, and quarrying offer to the Museum still stands-but seums attract millions of local and and mining for economic resources, time is running out. overseas visitors every year and their many remarkable mineral and fossil Since 1985 the Australian Museum travelling displays reach many more. finds have come to light. Many are in has tried to find a sponsor for this In Australia, sponsorship of natural national collections, where they be­ world-class Australian mineral collec­ history museums lags far behind the long. But many more are in private col­ tion. Yet, despite the attraction of United States, where most major mu­ lections where they are often handsome tax deductions and excel­ seums are wholly or largely dependent effectively lost to science. Others are lent publicity, all efforts have proved on private funding. Sponsorship and permanently in overseas collections fruitless. If no sponsor is found by early 368 VOL. 22 0. 8, AUTUMN 1988 >­ ;, � f­/ < A fewpieces fromthe Chapman mineral collection.

a major tourist attraction. Instead this treasure from Australia's distant past remains in a walk-in tourist mine at White Cliffs, seen only by a few thou­ Alex Ritchie digging for opalised dino­ Australian Museum. If they could not sand visitors each year. Because of our saurs in the 'Sheepyard' near Lightning buy it I would try to raise the money, role in its safe recovery, the Australian Ridge. but I stressed that it should not leave Museum has been given first option on the country. After several attempts to this specimen if Ken Harris decides to contact the miner I heard nothing until sell it. But whether we could ever find three years later when an American sufficient funds to pay a fair market businessman informed me that he had price is another question! bought the specimen and donated it to the Science Museum in his home The Appeal of Dinosaurs V) 0 -' town, St Paul, Minnesota, as a tax­ While plesiosaurs swam in ancient w u: deductible donation. The price-a Australian seas, dinosaurs roamed the z J: mere $US2,500! land; but until very recently fossils of Q. Several years later, in 1976, Ken Australian dinosaurs have been as Steropodon, opalised mammal jaw. Harris, an opal miner at White Cliffs, in scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth! far western New South Wales, un­ Dinosaurs, everyone's favourite 1988 Chapman will reluctantly send covered another opalised plesiosaur monsters, undoubtedly form one of his collection to the United States for skeleton. My assistant and I drove to the best drawcards for any natural his­ sale at the world's largest mineral fair in White Cliffs to excavate the skeleton, tory museum. When I arrived in Syd­ Tucson, Arizona. Perhaps only when which was more complete than the ney 20 years ago, not one museum in the Chapman collection has been sold Andamooka specimen. The fragile, Australia had a complete dinosaur and split up, and its treasures dispersed fractured skeleton was brought to Syd­ skeleton (real or replica) on display! abroad, will Australians belatedly re­ ney for cleaning. When the Museum Aware of the public fascination with alise what they have lost. was unable to make Ken Harris what dinosaurs I decided to remedy this. I he considered a reasonable offer, he knew where I could get a fine replica of Sea Monsters in Opal took the unfinished specimen back to a flesh-eating dinosaur from California The same may apply to Australian White Cliffs where it went on display for $US3,000 and naively thought it fossils. In 1971 an opal miner found a as a tourist attraction (see ANH vol. 19, would be easy to find someone to fine opalised skeleton of a plesiosaur, no. 12, p. 408). sponsur it for the people of ew South an extinct marine reptile, at This specimen, the finest example Wales. I tried three large Sydney de­ Andamooka, South Australia, and ever found in New South Wales, partment stores, a glass company sought my advice on how to excavate would undoubtedly be a highlight of (fibreglass is used in casts), a promi­ it. I suggested it should be in the South the displays in any public museum and nent mining millionaire, and a local AUSTRALIA NATURAL HISTORY 369 Leagues club. All were sympathetic tralian Museum purchased a large bones, several of them complete. but declined to help and I gave up, collection of fossils from Lightning Most belonged to small, two-legged frustrated. Ridge. It included one of the most im­ plant-eating dinosaurs like Several years later I devised a portant fossils ever found in Australia, Hypsilophodon, which reached three scheme to ask the young people of the opalised jaw of a mammal. It to five metres in length. There are ew South Wales to buy their own pushed the known fossil record of almost certainly many more bones dinosaurs. TNT and the Bank of NSW mammals in Australia back from 25 awaiting discovery on Foster's claim, (now Westpac) liked the scheme and million to around 120 million years in and encouraging reports are coming in supported it. Our 1975 Dinosaur Ap­ of similar finds from other claims on peal was a great success, raised the Sheepyard field. However, many $12,500 in $1 donations and paid for fine opalised fossilshave been, and are replicas of Stegosaurus and Dilopho­ still being, destroyed in the opal fields, saurus. Twelve years later our 'share­ through ignorance of their unique holders' are now bringing their Australians scientific importance. children to see the skeletons they Having now confirmed the poten­ helped to buy. The pulling power of should not have tial of the Sheepyard, we want to dinosaurs was dramatically illustrated mount a long-term program to search again in 1983 when our spectacular to travel abroad for dinosaurs using volunteers (Army, 'Dinosaurs from China' exhibition to see the Earthwatch, university students etc.). drew 246,000 visitors in 12 weeks, an Such a project would probably lead to attendance rivalling any of the visiting treasures of major scientific discoveries. It would block-buster art exhibitions to Aus­ also have considerable educational, tralia. their own tourist and publicity value. So, we know that we have a huge But we cannot do it alone. We number of dinosaur enthusiasts; all we country. need sponsors for an excavation pro­ need now are Australian dinosaurs to gram, funds to buy rare or important put on public display. Well, we have fossils, and volunteers to dig dinosaurs. just found them, right here in New We know where the dinosaurs are South Wales, but we need money and and we know how to get them out. But support to enable us to recover them. one hit (see ANH vol. 21, no. 9, p. to find, prepare and reconstruct them Lightning Ridge, in New South 396). Steropodon (meaning 'flash-of­ we need money, equipment, logistic Wales, is Australia's best-known opal lightning-tooth') is a relative (and poss­ support, skilled preparators and lots of field, world-famous for its black opal. It ible ancestor) of the Platypus. It lived time. also produces many opalised fossils, with, and almost certainly scurried We need your help to do it! Do­ most of which are cut up, polished and around under the feet of, dinosaurs. nations to the Australian Museum for destroyed. Some end up in private col­ The same collection included scientific research and purchase of lections or are sold to tourists as inter­ some dinosaur bones so we decided specimens are tax-deductible. esting curios. A few find their way into to search for dinosaurs, hoping also to And why should you help us? No­ State museums. find more mammals near them. In July one has expressed it better than one of Discoveries of this kind form a 1986 we carried out a joint Museum­ America's greatest palaeontologists, unique part of our cultural heritage. Army dig for dinosaurs on the Professor G.G. Simpson, in his book Only in Australia are such fossils pre­ 'Boneyard', near Lightning Ridge, but Attending Marvels-A Patagonian served in opal-gem or patch. This with limited success. Then reports /oumey(l 934): makes them collectors' items. began to come in that sounded more "Fossil hunting is far the most fasci­ Unfortunately it also places them be­ promising. Opalised bones were turn­ nating of all sports . .. It has some yond the reach of State museums with ing up in some quantity on a claim danger. .. uncertainty and excitement limited funds-and we are all poorer owned by Bob Foster, a miner on the and all the thrills of gambling with for it. 'Sheepyard', a small opal field 80 kilo­ none of its vicious features. The hunter Visitors to Australia expect to see metres west of Lightning Ridge. I never knows what his bag may be, per­ its treasures on display in its museums. visited the site to check, and the re­ haps nothing, perhaps a creature Instead, our finest opalised fossils are ports were true. There had once been never seen before by human eyes. It tucked away in private collections, un­ dinosaurs in the Sheepyard. requires knowledge, skill and some seen except by fortunate owners and In September 1987 we returned to degree of hardihood. And its results their friends. When such specimens the area with another team of Army are so much more important, more disappear overseas the loss is doubly volunteers. What we found there con­ worthwhile, and more enduring than tragic, especially when the only reason firms beyond doubt that the those of any other sport! is lack of funds. Australians should not Sheepyard field is the richest source of ''The fossil hunter does not kill; he have to travel abroad to see the dinosaurs in New South Wales and resurrects. And the results of his treasures of their own country. one of the best in Australia. In the short sport. . . add to the sum of human In 1984, assisted by a generous do­ time we were there, we recovered pleasure and to the treasures of human nation from Esso Australia, the Aus- more than 20 opalised dinosaur knowledge." • 370 VOL. 22 0. 8, AUTUMN 1988

With TAMS at I reassured all members of the party by quoting anthropologist Kakadu Baldwin Spencer. He wrote of how the Australian Aborigines, who had a ire!' is said to be the most com­ deep respect for this reptile, always pelling exclamation in the Eng­ "put an old woman in the rear" when lish language and will bring crossing a dangerous river "because, instantF help from anyone nearby. In so they believed, the crocodile Australia a survey has shown that always seized the last person, and the 'shark!' is the most frightening word. loss of an old woman does not matter But 'crocodile!' is a cry that must be much". outstripping both 'fire' and 'shark', at With humility, I told the group least in northern Australia. that I would accept the rear position; Everywhere we went in the Dar­ but I also assured them that we win region, and also in Kakadu would not be crossing any dangerous National Park, we found warnings on streams. A four-metre-long Saltwater Crocodile. the dangers of crocodiles. There is I knew from my reading that there reason for this concern: while in the was no completely satisfactory evi­ girth of 2.3 metres and weighed 780 last 100 years there have only been dence of a crocodile coming out of kilograms! 55 recorded attacks by these huge the water onto the land to select a 'Saltwater Crocodile' is not the reptiles, 30 of them fatal, the last 20 victim. Attacks usually take place in most perfect of common names as attacks took place during the pre­ the water or on the water's edge. the reptiles can also be found in vious six years and eight of these However, despite this lack of evi­ estuaries and freshwater lagoons. were fatal. dence, when camping on a creek Similarly, 'Estuarine Crocodile', While leading a TAMS (The Aus­ bank I would always sleep nearest to another common name, is not wholly tralian Museum Society) group on a the water. appropriate as they may also be tour that was to include Kakadu In the Darwin Museum we saw a found far out to sea and in fresh National Park, Coburg Peninsula, the chilling exhibit, 'Sweetheart', a water. However, Saltwater Crocodile Gulf country, Lawn Hill National Park famous Saltwater Crocodile and Katherine Gorge, questions (Crocodylus porosus) caught in the A Lotusbird strides across the water about this formidable creature came Finniss River south of Darwin in using the floating plants as 'stepping thick and fast. 1979. It was 5.1 metres long with a stones'.

374 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 is probably the best name as it helps Cross Spider (Argiope aetherea). The the Blue-winged Kookaburras to distinguish it from the smaller archers are a group of fish that have a (Dace/o leachi,) that woke us each Freshwater Crocodile ( C. johnstoni). deep groove running lengthways in morning. Instead of the jovial I find the hysteria about the the palate. When the tongue is raised chuckle of the Laughing Kookaburra Saltwater Crocodile unpleasant. We the groove is converted into a tube (D. novaeguineae) from southern can satisfy most people by encourag­ and, if the gill covers are snapped and eastern Australia, the Blue­ ing them to treat the creatures with shut, water is forced out along this winged Kookaburra has a more the same 'dreaded respect' that we firing 'barrel'. By using the tongue to fiendish call. give to snakes and other potential interrupt the flow, the fish can con­ While on a boat trip along one of dangers; that is, keep a respectful dis­ trol this stream, converting it into the bi Ilabongs we saw the occasional tance from them and they should do bullet-like droplets, which are di­ Jabiru (Xenorhynchus asiaticus), you no harm. In a national park, rected towards an unsuspecting vic­ Australia's only stork, as well as that under no circumstances should we tim (an insect or other small creature) delightful creature variously known interfere with any wildlife: all are part on a branch overhanging the water. It as the Lotusbird, Jacana, Lily Trotter of the web of life that visitors come to is knocked off its perch and quickly or Christ Bird (lrediparra gallinacea). see and enjoy, and we must simply devoured by the fish. This last name is due to the fact accept any risks involved. However, An aquarium at San Francisco that it literally seems to walk on at popular swimming or fishing spots makes this a feature of their display water. This miraculous feat is accom­ outside such reserves, it is sensible to by feeding the fish at one particular plished partly from the lightness of capture troublesome animals and time and fastening a grasshopper or the bird but mainly because the toes transfer them to safer places, or to other food item to an archery-type crocodile farms. target. Drops can be shot to a dis­ In terms of natural history inter­ tance of 1.5 metres and, in one case, est, there's more to Kakadu and the a fish that was misled by the glowing orthern Territory than its croco­ tip of a cigarette shot out enough diles. When the Australian Govern­ water to douse the burning tip! ment nominated Kakadu National In Kakadu such small species Park for the World Heritage List, the would play only a small part in food­ official statement, in addition to the gathering of the Aborigines. What more than two pages identifying its this charming picture does show is natural features, contained another that the Aborigines took as keen an two pages on its cultural heritage. interest as any European naturalist in Although unusual for places on the world of nature that surrounded this prestigious international list, this them. dual aspect of the park ensures that a The two major sites available for visitor gets the best of both worlds: of tourist inspection are Obiri Rock, nature, and of the world of people, now known as Ubirr, and Nourlangie for here are some of the finest ex­ Rock, known to the original owners amples of human artistic efforts. as Burrunguy. Guides are available at There are paintings of Tasmanian certain times each day but visitors Thy/acinus cynocephalus}, Tigers ( who arrive too early or too late must An archer fish shooting drops of water at long extinct in the region. There are wander through these magnificent a Saint Andrew's Cross Spider. also many X-ray paintings that, galleries in some mystification. Few, although found in other parts of the for example, would appreciate that and claws are longer than the legs world, reach their finest develop­ here is an artistic tradition covering and, in proportion to size, the longest ment here. In these paintings some of more than 20,000 years. A s_imple of any Australian species. With these the internal organs, as well as the nature trail, with leaflets referring to it is able to take advantage of any outer shape, are drawn, indicating an unobtrusive numbers in appropriate floating scrap of vegetation such as a intellectual as well as artistic interest places, might solve this problem. It is lily leaf to bear its weight as it skitters in the work. The 'Mimi' human fig­ a common practice in many of the over the water surface. ures show a truly artistic quality; they national parks of the world. The memory of this attractive bird have a dynamism, a fluid quality, The natural history of Kakadu was lingers most in my own mind, but dis­ strongly reminiscent of the work of a constant delight. One of our camps cussions around the campfire at night famous modern European artists. was at Sandy Billabong, where we showed how diverse were all our One small painting, usually over­ slept among giant paperbarks on a memories-as diverse as the natural looked, is of an archer fish shooting soft grassy ground. We wandered and cultural wonders of Kakadu drops of water at a Saint Andrew's along the edges of the water meeting ational Park.•

AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 375

pils right down. After nightfall, they take over from the diurnal birds of prey, and their specialised nightime vision comes into use. • • Like many nocturnal birds, they have eyes with high visual sensitivity, that is, a high ability to detect low light levels. This differs from visual acuity, which is the ability to dis­ tinguish fine detail. The Barn Owl's eyeball is shaped to let in as much light as possible to brighten the image reaching the retina, and they have a predominance of rods (light­ sensitive elements) in their retina. Their front-facing eyes, which give them their appealing, human-like ap­ pearance, may also help brighten the Area covered by Barn Owl's talons at the moment of striking the prey. image, by binocular summation-the additive effect of viewing much of are one of the most widely­ their whiteness is caught momen­ their world through both eyes simul­ distributed land birds in the world. tarily in the beam of car headlights taneously. With over 30 recognisable geo­ they seemingly float, ghost-like, be­ Seventy per cent of their field of graphic forms, they are found in the fore melting into the night. By night vision can be seen by both eyes at drier, warmer parts of all continents, they appear remote, even sinister, once, but their total field of vision is usually within 45 ° latitude from the their otherwordly scream chilling the only a relatively narrow 110 ° . This is equator. The subspecies found in darkness; by day, they become the good for judging distance but not so Australia, Tyto alba deliculata, occurs endearing, wise bird of many useful for spotting predators, such as throughout the mainland and on children's storybooks. Roosting in Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus), some offshore islands, but is rare in the foliage of trees, in tree hollows, if these approach and attack from the Tasmania. Preferring the open coun­ buildings or holes in cliffs, they seem rear. Most other birds have a much try of grasslands, farms and scattered to watch the world knowingly, with wider field of vision. The pigeon, for woodland, it is probably most com­ small, dark eyes set in a buff­ example, has a field of 340 ° because mon in semi-arid Australia. outlined, white, heart-shaped facial of its more laterally-placed eyes, but The Barn Owl's plumage is ex­ mask. only 20 ° is covered by both eyes at quisite: soft grey tinged orange-buff In Australia they seldom venture the same time. A person's total visual and delicately mottled with black out during the day; if disturbed and field covers 180 ° , with 140 ° overlap. and white above, and white below. If flushed, they are often mobbed by Owls partly compensate for their loss frenzied magpies or other birds. Con­ of vision to the rear by their remark­ A sequence of photographs showing a trary to one popular belief, they can able ability to turn their heads Barn Owl entering a drum to feed on see by day, possibly even better than through 180 ° or more in either direc­ mice, and then leaving. they can at night, by closing their pu- tion.

"'V'>:.: i.c i i 378 VOL. 22 0. 8, AUTUM 1988 Barn Owls eat nocturnally-active animals, mostly small mammals such as mice and rats. Even though Barn Owls can detect prey at low light levels, they cannot see in absolute darkness. They can, however, catch prey by sound alone. The owls can hear faint sounds below the range of human hearing; when hunting they will dive into long grass alerted and guided only by the rustle of leaves, the high-frequency calls made by their prey, or the sounds of the chewing of grass. The owls have a number of extra­ monocular vision monocular vision ordinary physical adaptations to maximise their powers of hearing. The inner ear is very large. A ruff of special feathers frames the face and acts like a sound reflector to channel sound to their ears. They also have asymmetrical ear openings so that sound reaches one ear at a slightly different time to the other. By putting microphones into the ears of a dead owl, it was found that, when the owl's head was turned so that the Head of Barn Owl illustrating fieldof vision and extent of binocular vision. sound reaching each ear was equal­ ised, the head was facing the sound and visual powers to catch small The talons form two four-cornered source. mammals. The owl first detects prey vices that together cover an area of However, Barn Owls' prey also by sound, turning its head towards roughly 60 square centimetres and have good ears, and are agile and can the animal, then launches itself from rapidly close around the body of their hide when startled. To help over­ its perch, visually aligning itself for an victim. come this, the owl's light wing­ attack. It attacks head-first and, on Barn Owls prefer to eat with their loading and soft-edged, velvet­ close approach, flings its feet forward eyes closed, the bristles around their surfaced flight feathers allow and head back (with eyes closed) so bill and their feet sensing the prey, silent, buoyant flight, so not only can that its feet travel in the former path which is often swallowed whole. Un­ the owl avoid being heard by poten­ of the head, directly towards the like many other birds of prey, such as tial prey but it can itself hear any prey. A good grasp is achieved with hawks, they have no crop to hold sound made by the prey. Slow­ the help of the owl's reversible fourth food so they mustregularly eat small motion film has shown how Barn toe and the strong and curved talons amounts. About once a day, they re­ Owls may combine both auditory with their serrated undersurfaces. gurgitate a black, glossy pellet made

AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 379 up of the indigestible portion of their food and to survey small, nocturnal Like other birds the owls have a prey. Pellets, usually made up of mammals in the area. third, usually transparent eyelid (nic­ bone, fur, feathers and the casings of titating membrane) that protects and insects, often accumulate under day­ Barn Owls regurgitate the indigestible cleans the eyes. In the Barn Owls, time roosts. Inspecting them is a con­ portion of their meals. This pellet con­ however, the nictitating membrane venient way to learn about the owl's tains a rodent's skull and hair. is opaque and robust. The Barn Owls also have an upper eyelid that closes downwards in a slow blink to add to the human-like quality of the owl's face. In most other birds, the upper and lower lids close by meeting in the middle. Barn Owls have a boom-or-bust breeding strategy, tied to the vagaries of their prey. When rodents are abundant the owls thrive and raise several large broods of young a year. When food becomes scarce, breed­ ing declines and many owls gather where prey is more easily caught, swooping from roadside fenceposts to catch mice or insects picked up in headlight beams. At such times they are often hit by cars, their sad bodies lining some inland roads. Many farmers recognise the Barn Owls' value in pest control and often build little doors into their barns to encourage the owls to roost and nest there. Like photographer Nicholas Birks and the Barn Owls themselves, these farmers are also being oppor­ tunistic, making good use of a transi­ ent resource.•

380 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 eep in the ground or packed neatly into hollow twigs, or in D tiny earthen or resin domi- ciles of their own making, lie millions of Australia's most interesting and beneficial insects-native bees. Seven families of bees (out of a world total of nine) occur in Australia, and most Australian species are endemic. Recent tallies put the number of de­ scribed Australian species at over 2,000 although many more remain to be discovered and described. Australian beekeepers and naturalists, including Aborigines, have long admired the industrious members of the genus Trigona, the tiny, colony-forming, social bees of our warmer regions. These are the honey-making cousins of the im­ ported European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). Various species of Trigona are usually the recipients of the term 'native bee', but their teeming and relatively conspicuous 'cities' are at the end of the evolutionary spectrum of Australian bees. Most native bees are 'solitary' (that is, 'unsocial') and cryptic. Each female constructs one Food exchange between members of Exoneura bicolor. or more isolated nests in which her offspring develop in individual cells, never to know their siblings or parents. Between the species of Trigona and the masses of solitary species occurs a fascinating group of 'primitively' social species. Referred to as 'allodapines', these bees figure prominently in the quest for man's By EVAN SUGDEN understanding of the evolution of VISITING SCIENTIST, social biology. However, their quiet AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM and simple societies have remained a (UNIVERSITY OF secret to most people. Chief among CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS) them in Australia is the genus Exoneura. Exoneura adults occur in a size range similar to that of Trigona: the smaller species may reach only four millimetres in length, while the larger

N ones are about eight millimetres. A � few species are completely black ex­ � cept for white facial marks, but the � majority have a dark red abdomen. � Although Exoneura females possess i5 a sting, it is not used defensively. � Males are more hairy and look some- AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 381 LUz 0 Q ::::, V') z � A female Exoneura guard bee blocks the nest entrance from marauding ants with her red abdominal shield. z U,J The guard bee can block the in­ 0 Q trusion of most predators by so ::::, V') stoppering the nest with her own z body. � As the female continues to exca­ Exoneura sp. foraging fornectar on Hakea teretifolia. vate her burrow, she may be visited by other young females that often what like miniature drone European Once a stem is chosen, the fe­ burst into the new nest. Usually they Honey Bees. The genus is typified by male begins to chew methodically are ungraciously pushed out again the subject of most of my studies, E. into the soft pith and does not quit but, in at least some species, these asimillima. her task until the burrow is deep visitors are allowed to remain as An Exoneura colony begins as a enough to allow her to block it from 'cofoundresses'. In most cases, they solitary venture. A single, impreg­ inside with her abdomen. This are full-sisters of the original female, nated female leaves the nest of her guarding behaviour protects the a condition that was predicted by birth to search for a suitable site in bees from marauding ants. Black sociobiology theory before its verifi­ which to rear her own family. The house ants, for example, are tiny but cation through detailed genetic nest site is typically a pithy plant voracious predators that can rout an analysis by Dr Michael Schwarz, for­ stem, such as a dried flower stalk of a unguarded bee nest in a few hours, merly from Monash University. Rec­ grasstree or the fallen frond of a tree dismembering the adults and ognition of full-sisters is probably fern. The selection of a nest site is in­ carrying away the larvae to provision achieved through chemical means. fluenced by the thickness, length, their own young. However, the ants Two or three sisters then share res­ and angle of the stem relative to the find an impregnable barrier in the ponsi bi I ities of burrowing and ground, cover from direct sunlight bristly abdominal 'shield' that female guarding. and wind, and proximity to other Exoneura bear. This plate-like flat­ Eventually, a fertilised female be­ Exoneura nests and to the flowering tening of the abdomen fits snugly gins to lay eggs. This sets her apart plants that will sustain the colony into an entrance-narrowing collar from the others and forms the basis members. made of excavated pith fragments. for caste differentiation. The differ- 382 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUMN 1988 pseudo' appendages-tiny hy­ draulic arms that protrude from the midportion of the body. Most bee NATURETREK larvae are, in contrast, soft grubs, in­ WALKING WILDLIFE distinguishable except by minute HOLIDAYS I characteristics familiar only to the specialist in insect larvae. The func­ BIRD TOURS tion of the delicate ornamentation of In the World's Exoneura larvae is unclear. The most beautiful pseudoarms may help hold onto the regions tiny pollen masses that each larva is fed, or theymay serve to maintain the larva's position in the nest burrow, which may be steeply inclined. Exoneura larvae have the longest feeding period of any bees and are

2 capable of withstanding long fasts of 2 many weeks. They are fed progres­ :3 sively by foraging adults as long as Devised by David Mills, expert inHimalayan and African ornithology, and led by David and other � pollen and nectar are available. If a expert and professional naturalists. � dearth period ensues, the larvae NEPAL � patiently await their next meal. This KENYA adaptation may reflect the bees' un­ TANZANIA An eggseries of an Exoneura sp. KASHMIR predictable Australian habitats in LADAKH ETHIOPIA ences are primarily behavioural but which drought or fire may remove BHUTAN INDONESIA morphological differences between food resources or cold, windy 'queen' and 'worker', as are found in weather may prevent adult flight. GALAPAGOS MOROCCO the European Honey Bee and Through this slow development For our 1987/1988 brochure please contact: Trigona species, have been found in strategy, some young are assured sur­ LANDPAC TOURS, G.P.O. BOX G397, PERTH 6001, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. E. tridentata by Dr Terry Houston of vival. By comparison, solitary bees Tel: (09) 322 5372 the Western Australian Museum. begin their life on a mound of food Interstate callers use (008) 998 558 There are normally only one or two that sustains them throughout their egg-layers in each colony, regardless continuous feeding and growth. The of the number of females or whether reproductive strategy here is for the they are mated. The egg-layers are adult bee to build and provide as apparently capable of inhibiting many larval cells as possible and for ovarian development in their the larvae to develop rapidly. If adult nestmates. foraging is interrupted for a long Egg placement is often character­ period, food accumulation and egg is tic within some species of laying are delayed and fewer off­ Exoneura. Some deposit them in a spring may result. CHINA graceful spiral around the lower wall The foragers of the Exoneuracol­ of the burrow, while other species, onies tend to be older females and ADVENTURE HOLIDAYS such as f. bicolor, merely accumu­ there may be only a few or even just late them in a relatively haphazard one of these. They must work hard to jumble. Arrangement of the devel­ satisfy the appetites of the larvae and oping larvae within the communal the other adults. A forager may spend chamber, on the other hand, is several hours a day shuttling bet­ characteristic behaviour for all adult ween a favoured resource plant and females of the genus Exoneura. The the nest. She crawls among the small older larvae are positioned toward clustered flowers of native peas, the nest entrance while younger heaths or hakeas, or the cup-like ones are kept below them in de­ flowers of native gums or bottle scending order by age, with eggs at brushes. The flower-host range of the bottom. Despite considerable Exoneuramust be wide to sustain the Cycling. cruising. walking. Jvwrn1ght trains. commotion and tumbling about, this long-lived colony throughout most sightseeing and discovering a world full of order is maintained most of the time. of the year. people history, colour and ADVENTURE The reason for it is obscure; it seems Nectar is the forager's principal impractical that returning foragers goal. Exoneura asimillima can imbibe must stumble over non-feeding seven microlitres (a small drop) at pupae to reach the hungry younger one gulp. By comparison, the nectar stages. Perhaps the arrangement en­ crop of the relatively giant European ACCESS TRAVEL sures maximum contact of 'nurse' Honey Bee can hold up to 50 bees with all the brood. microlitres. While foraging, pollen is The larvae of Exoneura are packed into the special hairs that unique among bees. In advanced frock the hind legs. Back in the nest, stages they possess branched nectar is offered by regurgitation to 383 AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY u.Jz 0 (.) :::, V, z < u.J> Mature larvae ofExoneura asimillima. Although not obvious in this picture the developing larvae are arranged in ascending age order with the oldest nearest the nest en trance. other adults, which eagerly extend may pass through several of these effective pollen-collecting hairs and their mouthparts for a drink. When states as it matures or it may die out at probably do not forage for pollen. the nectar has been shared, the fe­ an early stage of social development. The parasites lay their eggs among male proceeds down the line of The social condition of a colony at the Exoneura brood and may eat the brood, squeezing past the older indi­ any moment is difficult to predict as host eggs. The new generation may viduals and rearranging the smaller so many possibilities exist. o par­ then be composed largely or entirely ones to make room. Arriving at a ticular arrangement is obligatory and of lnquilina bees, which leave the hungry one, she stops, turns around even the simplest arrangements may colony in search of new host nests. and then combs the pollen out of her lead to successful production of a Exoneura species are marvel­ leg hairs by rubbing them together. new generation. For this reason, bees lously adapted to a changing en­ Again turning, she regurgitates a of the genus Exoneura are con­ vironment. Such flexibility makes droplet of liquid onto the pollen pile sidered 'primitively' social. Despite them excellent study subjects. Their and kneads it with her mouthparts this, E. asimi/lima may have up to 66 nests can be moved to new localities into a sticky 'pudding'. When fin­ individuals in a single nest. The nest and, like European Honey Bees, the ished, the mass is broken up into cavity may be occupied for several free-flying occupants will take bear­ small crumbs, which are placed on consecutive years, being lengthened ings on the new surroundings and the bellies of the waiting larvae. each season to a cumulative total of carry on their work. Their successful All Exoneura colonies that suc­ up to 740 millimetres. Males may adaptation to artificial nests allows cessfully produce new bees are comprise a large proportion of the detailed observation and manipu­ 'sub-social', as opposed to solitary, bees in such situations. They often lation for scientific purposes. Most because brood survival requires leave their home nests to find mates importantly, however, their 'primi­ adult care throughout larval devel­ and take shelter in neighbouring col­ tive' yet varying sociality may lend in­ opment. A single reproductive may onies, where they are readily ac­ sight into mechanisms of social evol­ live to be 'helped' by her own off­ cepted. Mating may take place in a ution. spring at the expense of their chance nest, although males of some species Exoneura can be found in to reproduce. If the 'workers' assume wait outside to encounter females. scrubby habitat near undisturbed most of the non-reproductive duties They either hover in front of nests or bushland rich in spring wildflowers. (nest cleaning, foraging, guarding, 'patrol' a series of nest stems. The nests make interesting additions larval provisioning etc.) then the col­ The life of an Exoneura colony is to the naturalist's garden. They may ony is 'eusocial', or fully social. More not without intrigue. Whole nests already be present in yours, inhabit­ often, the original reproductive dies may succumb to ant predation and ing tree ferns, grasstree stems or dry before many of her offspring become individual larvae may suffer mite at­ twigs of common shrubs such as adults. One or more daughters may tacks. However, the most stealthy Abelia (Abelia grandiflora) or mock then begin to lay eggs and the colony enemy is another allodapine, be­ orange (Philadelphus spp.). Look for becomes 'quasisocial' as the last of longing to the genus lnquilina. These round holes (two to three millimetres the original reproductive's brood Exoneura look-alikes behave like in diameter) at the broken ends of mature. If certain sisters of the same cuckoo birds and, in fact, are often pithy stems or twigs, with reddish ab­ generation become egg-layers and referred to as 'cuckoo bees' or social dominal shields, or even tiny bee others function as workers, the col­ parasites. For obscure reasons, faces, blocking them. The bees can ony is 'semisocial'. If sisters or less Exoneura host bees accept these in­ be seen hovering around these nest closely related individuals cofound a truders into the nest and either ig­ entrances or among sweet-smelling nest, the resultant colony becomes nore them or accept them as their flowers such as tea-tree blossoms on difficult to describe. A single colony own sisters. lnquifina adults have in- warm days.a 384 VOL. 22 NO. 8, AUTUM 1988 Takea Wing Safari over Australiaand experience theLindblad Difference

Come with Lindblad Travel aboard our exclusive air charter and explore those remote regions such as Broome, Kakadu National Park, Kangaroo Island, Coober Pedy, Bathurst Island and Kununurra. Discover the beauty of outback Australia during the Bi-Centenary year and experience first hand why so many tourists are now visiting Australia. If you have been promising yourself that long awaited trip around Australia, why not take it during the Bi-Centenary. Just think how much more memorable it will be with so many special events taking place. Our Australian Wing Safari was developed to provide the best and most unusual trip our vast land has to offer. You will "Wing" fromone memorable attraction to another whilst enjoying the greatest degree of comfort. The aircraft we have selected is small enough to provide a personal and intimate service, yet large enough to enable you to move about in comfort. Lindblad Travel is the acknowledged leader in world safari travel with over 30 years of expertise in this field. So why not come with Lindblad Travel and Lindblad Travel, MLC Centre experience the Lindblad difference? 1.------749th Level, Sydney 2000 I I Please send me your Australian I Wing Safari Brochure I LINDBLAD1RAVEL I I In..:. in New Sourh Wal,� A 01v1Mon of Lindhlad-Mari.o Polo Travel Ptv. Limit� I Name ...... I I Address ...... I M.L.C.(02) CENTRE 49TH221 LEVEL, SYDNEY8378 2000 AUSTRALIA So see your travel agent today or contact us I ; I fora brochureand experience the Lindblad · ························· ···················· ········································· ······· ··� difference. . //f:· I I I ...... Postcode ...... j I Cordially, , / 1 l Telephone···························································································· I I � L______L12187