Autumn/Winter April to July 2014 VOLUME 36 NUMBER 1 culture MESSAGE STICKS IN THE DIGITAL AGE nature ASTEROIDS AND MASS EXTINCTIONS discover WHO WAS WILLIAM HOLMES? nature COLLECTING SHELL STORIES culture PAINTINGS FROM WEST PAPUA discover WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR CONTENTS NATURE On the record What’s new in science 9 The K–T Boundary and the mass extinction of species 10 The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs by Andrew Glikson Gone troppo! New snail discoveries from the Top End 14 by Anders Hallan Lost, found and lost again? Australia’s newest mammal 16 discovery may already be extinct by Mark Eldridge Tadpoles and frogs of Australia reviewed by Martyn Robinson 18 Stealth invaders An alien mussel slips in by Don Colgan 24 CULTURE Carrying the message stick Taking message sticks online 3 by Mariko Smith On the road to Yuendumu Revisiting the roots of Aboriginal art 26 by Scott Mitchell Musings What’s new in culture 30 DISCOVER Meet Kim McKay The Australian Museum’s new director 2 by Brendan Atkins William Holmes, enigma Who was the Museum’s first custodian? 6 by Col Johnston Tadpoles in the snow Visiting tadpole scientist Ronn Altig 13 by Brendan Atkins Xplorer young scientist liftout Indigenous science centre Xplanations Search > Discover 19 In your backyard with Martyn Robinson 20 Photofeast Two stunning, award-winning photographs 31 Members events Travel, talks and walks 34 OPINION From the Director Frank Howarth looks back 1 Collections matter! Museum collections in a changing world 22 by Brian Lassig Members message Serena Todd’s guide to upcoming events 34 FRANK HOWARTH • from the director over MY SHOULDER This is my lastExplore editorial. What do I say after 10 years working with an amazing team at this wonderful museum? The ten years have had many highlights, large and small. At the monumental end is the construction of the Collections and Research Building, opened in 2008, with much credit to former Trust President Brian Sherman and former Arts Minister Bob Debus for securing and retaining the funds to make the building happen. And while we are on research facilities, the 30th Anniversary Development of the Museum’s Lizard Island Research Station has resulted in one of the world’s foremost tropical marine research facilities. Special credit here must go to Ken Coles and Charlie Shuetrim of the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation for raising the funds for this expansion and for their continuing support. Establishing both the Australian Museum Research Institute and Australian Centre for Wildlife Genomics last year will further focus Museum research and boost our research profile. The increasing application of genomics to the biological work of the Museum has greatly increased our ability to understand Australia’s biodiversity. FOUNDATION Other personal highlights result from the generosity of donors to the Australian Museum Foundation, enabling many of the Museum’s recent acquisitions such as the Menagerie contemporary Indigenous art collection, the wonderful Dauma and Garom ‘ghost net’ sculptures and the Timor-Leste expeditions, among many others. A particular highlight for me continues to be the Pacific Youth Cultural Reconnection Program (also supported by the Foundation, with community and government partners), where we have used the Pacific cultural collections to help at-risk youth from Pacific communities build identity and pride and avoid the cycle of crime. The use of the Museum’s cultural collections by creator communities is extremely important and marks a move towards a greater dialogue with diverse communities. ENGAGEMENT There have been many wonderful exhibitions during my time here. Close to home, we’ve had the Scott Sisters exhibition drawn from the Museum’s Archives – still touring regional New South Wales and now available as an app. At the other end of the spectrum was last year’s magnificent Alexander the Great exhibition from the State Hermitage of St Petersburg, which set a new benchmark for the Museum in major exhibitions. But overall it’s the people who make up the Australian Museum family that I am most proud to have worked with, be they staff, volunteers, Members or supporters. I am happy to be leaving the Museum in their capable hands and in those of our new Director, Kim McKay, whom I like and admire very much. Please give Kim the same wonderful level of support that you have given me. FRANK HOWARTH PSM Director of the Australian Museum Page 1 Explore 36(1) Autumn/Winter 2014 PEOPLE meet IF YOU’VE HEARD OF CLEAN UP KIM McKAY AUSTRALIA AND THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT, THEN YOU ALREADY KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT Kim, you were made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2008 for distinguished KIM McKAY AO, THE AUSTRALIAN service to the environment and the community. When did you first become interested MUSEUM’S NEW DIRECTOR. in the marine environment? I grew up going to the beach with my family, and my earliest memories are of going to swim in the surf with my parents at Dee Why Beach. We moved to England when I was six for my dad’s job, and in those days you went by ship. And I remember as a little girl sitting at our cabin window and staring at the ocean for hours on end on the lookout for whales … so I fell in love with the ocean very early on. It’s those early things you experience as a child that get seeded into your memory. We moved back to Australia at the end of primary school and for me, back living on the northern beaches, surfing … it was just in my veins! Can you tell us a little more about your family and background? Well I went to a State high school, Mackellar Girls High in Manly Vale. My dad was a toolmaker before he moved into management in the manufacturing firm he worked for. My mum eventually worked as a teacher’s aide. So we were a typical middle-class family really. I’m single, but that’s only because George Clooney hasn’t met me yet! I don’t have children of my own, but I do have two nephews and a niece in my extended family. They’re all grown up now. How did you come to establish Clean Up Australia with Ian Kiernan? After studying Communications at UTS, I worked on many projects and major events Kim McKay AO has been appointed Director of the and eventually ended up working on the BOC Challenge [a solo around the-world yacht Australian Museum from race] doing public relations and event management. It was a very interesting event with a April 2014. Photo © Ross Coffey. strong environmental and educational component. And that’s when Ian, after doing that 1986/87 race, walked into my office and said he was worried about the rubbish in and around Sydney Harbour and could we do something about cleaning it up. And I said yes, let’s do that! And that was the start of Clean Up Sydney Harbour in 1989. It evolved into Clean Up Australia the following year and then later Clean Up the World. Do you have any plans for the Museum to do large-scale citizen science projects like the Genographic Project? Dr Spencer Wells and I came up with the concept for the Genographic Project when I was working with National Geographic in the USA in 2004 and it continues to grow and engage the public as it traces the migratory history of humans across the globe. Close to a million people have been engaged directly by participating in the research or purchasing a cheek swab kit. The money raised from kit sales helps fund the science as well as the continued page 29 Explore 36(1) Autumn/Winter 2014 Page 2 CULTURE CONNECT carrying THE MESSAGE STICK THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION IS HELPING For many thousands of years, Aboriginal people have used message sticks – small THE MUSEUM SHARE KNOWLEDGE AND pieces of wood, carved or painted with symbols – to convey important information INFORMATION FROM THE COLLECTION between neighbouring groups. WITH INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, SAYS THE MUSEUM’S MARIKO SMITH. Messengers were generally granted safe passage as they passed through often-fiercely defended territories. Upon arrival at their destination, the messenger would be received by the Elders who would read and interpret the message and respond in accordance with protocols. The messages they conveyed covered wide-ranging topics from invitations or notices about upcoming ceremonies and celebrations, details about the messenger’s credentials and privilege of safe passage (like a visa) to a call for warriors to come together for battle. Page 3 Explore 36(1) Autumn/Winter 2014 MUSEUM AS MESSENGER Officer at the Museum often involves the Previous page Message sticks needed to The message stick is still used today but return of ancestral remains and secret/ be small and portable. They sacred objects from museum collections could be cylindrical or flat, is more often digital, with the online carved or painted, plain realm providing a platform for Aboriginal to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or elaborate. These two communities. message sticks appear to and Torres Strait Islander communities be simple wooden cylinders to present and share knowledge, stories, with carved patterns. (top) But we also have a number of ‘digital Ironwood message stick, histories and cultures with each other and repatriation’ projects that aim to return Top End Emu clan. E083100 with the wider world. (below) Softwood message knowledge and information associated stick, Yir Yoront Grass clan. I sometimes think of the Australian with objects in the collections to the E083101 Museum as a messenger that carries an communities that created the objects Opposite from left important message about Indigenous in the first place – often long ago and Broad softwood shield with red and white ochred cultural identity, goodwill and ‘both ways’ perhaps forgotten.