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Journal of the Scientific Expedition Group Inc. Volume 33 No. 4 March 2018 Scientific Expedition Group Inc. Patron The Scientific Expedition Group is a -not for profit His Excellency the Honourable Hieu van Le AO organisation which began in 1984. SEG undertakes several Governor of South Australia. expeditions each year to record scientific information on wildlife and the environment in many parts of South SEG Executive Australia. President Dr. Richard L Willing A major expedition to conduct a biodiversity survey Chairman Dr. Robert Sharrad, AM occurs each year over two weeks. Scientific experts lead Vice Chairman Stuart Pillman volunteers in surveying mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, Secretary Sarah Telfer vegetation, birds and physical geography. The data collected Treasurer Graeme Oats on each survey are archived with the relevant State scientific institutions to ensure they are available to anyone interested SEG Committee in our State’s environment. Duncan MacKenzie, OAM In addition to the major expedition, a number of trips Dr. Greg Johnston for the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges Scientific Project are Trent Porter organised annually. A long term study of rainfall on the Helen Johnson ranges and of water flow in arid-zone creeks is undertaken. John Love All data are supplied to the Department of Environment Jill Tugwell Water and Natural Resources and to the Bureau of Meteorology and are available for analysis. Vulkathunha Gammon Ranges Scientific SEG conducts four-day biodiversity surveys at eight Project different sites each autumn and spring in the Heritage Area Chris Wright of scrub on “Minnawarra” farm near Myponga. Data Minnawarra Biodiversity Project collected are entered into the Biological Data Base of SA. SEG Janet Furler also conducts annual mallee-fowl monitoring over a Mallee Fowl Project weekend in the Murraylands. Stuart Pillman _____________________________________________ SEGments Editors Helen Johnson ISSN 2208-7443 Alun Thomas SEGments is the authorised journal publication of the SEG Website Scientific Expedition Group Inc., PO. Box 501, Unley SA 5061. Michelle Trethewey It is published four times a year to promote articles about Garry Trethewey biodiversity, scientific exploration and ecological research. SEG Administrative Officer Copyright 2018, Scientific Expedition Group Inc. Permission Alun Thomas Email: [email protected] will be considered for non-profit photocopying of material for personal use and teaching purposes. Written permission SEG Treasurer: Graeme Oats must be obtained from the Secretary of SEG. Email: [email protected] ______________________________ Contacts: SEG Secretary: Sarah Telfer Cover Photo: PO. Box 501, Unley SA 5061 Southern Lake Eyre mound springs. Extinct Email: [email protected] mound springs on the horizon and current flowing spring, Jersey Springs, in foreground. SEG email: [email protected] Photo Rachael King. SEG website Http://www.communitywebs.org/ ScientificExpeditionGroup SEGments Volume 33 Number 4 March 2018 CONTENTS In thinking about the history of weather stations, and the siting of them, I was reminded of a visionary South Australian, Sir Hubert Oases in the Desert – A Peek into the Little- Known Aquatic Invertebrate Communities Wilkins (awarded the Military Cross and Bar during WW1), who of The South Australian Mound Springs made it his life’s work to plan and work towards a global weather Dr Rachael King Page 2 monitoring system that would include the polar regions to improve meteorological forecasting. Aboriginal Plant Foods of the Adelaide George Hubert Wilkins was born on 31 October 1888 at “Netfield” Plains, South Australia Mt Bryan East, the thirteenth child to his 52 year old father Harry Dr Philip A Clarke Page 5 and 50 year old mother Louisa. Mt Bryan is just beyond Goyder’s Line of reliable rainfall used to define the limits of agricultural Minnawarra Survey Dates Page 9 land, which had probably not been published when the Wilkins family settled at Mt Bryan. The Federation Drought of 1901 was a The Goby Desert catastrophe, and George saw starving, dying sheep and paddocks Dr Bob Wong Page 10 turned to dust. After the drought, his elder brothers left home and George spent solitary days with his horse and dog mustering SEG Facebook Page Page 11 sheep and observing nature around him. The experience of the drought and the consequences of peoples’ ignorance of the weather, gave him a determination to learn about meteorology Life on South Australian Salt Lakes and the young science of forecasting weather. Dr Peter Hudson Page 12 So began his life’s work, although numerous other major ventures Witchelina Vegetation Transects 2016 - were undertaken throughout his life. At one point in his life he Methods for Assessing Trends from Historical Impacts was perhaps the most famous man in the world and it is only with Justin Jay Page 14 the publication in 2005 of “The Last Explorer” by Simon Nasht that many Australians have become aware of this famous Australian; myself included. Friends of Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park In 1921 George Wilkins put his proposal to the Royal Graeme Oats Page 16 Meteorological Society. His plan called for ‘32 manned stations in EXPEDITION IKARA First Notice Back Cover the Arctic and twelve spread around the Antarctic’. The meteorological observations would be transmitted by wireless (new then) to a central point. With Ben Eielson as pilot and Wilkins as navigator, they set off in EDITORIAL March 1928 after several years of failed attempts and successfully crossed the Arctic Ocean from Barrow Island in Alaska, to I recently visited the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Spitsbergen in Norway, looking for land that could be a site for a to attend a V-GRaSP planning meeting for the meteorological station. No land was found; putting to rest the forthcoming April working trip to the western part belief since Plato’s mythical land, Ultima Thule, that there was of the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges. We were land between Point Barrow and the North Pole. They crossed the given a tour of the BOM forecasting area and were Arctic Ocean in 20 hours, passing through 300 degrees of compass shown, on three computer screens, results of the variation. Wilkins struggled to take sun sights by sextant, various simulation models that analysts use when estimating the refraction of the sun’s rays which is greatest at forecasting the weather for Adelaide and Regional high latitudes with the sun low on the horizon. Later after looking South Australia. Such models rely on data from at Wilkins’ flight logs, the Chief Surveyor of the American weather stations dotted around the country and Geographical Society stated “he accomplished a feat in navigation from satellite data. The interpretation of the which can be confidently declared unparalleled in the history of sometimes conflicting model predictions relies on flying”. King George V bestowed a Knighthood on George Wilkins the knowledge, skill and experience of the person ‘for 15 years of consecutive work in the interest of science and sitting in front of the screens. Continued on Page 16 1 A small seep spring on the side of a mound, Elizabeth Springs. OASES IN THE DESERT – A PEEK INTO THE LITTLE-KNOWN AQUATIC INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MOUND SPRINGS Dr Rachael King Roughly an 8-hour drive north of Adelaide is the Oodnadatta It can be difficult to comprehend how this arid desert region Track, arguably one of the most well-known yet enigmatic has existed as such a hub of human activity across 1000’s of unsealed roads in the South Australian outback. It stretches years, that is, until you recognize that this area is also home to over 600km across arid desert gibber plains between the ancient freshwater springs, the South Australian mound outback towns of Marree and Marla. It exists within an area springs. These springs are the only permanent source of known to be important to regional aboriginal culture, surface freshwater accessible across the region and the comprising known ceremonial sites and ancient trade routes. availability of this water has been vitally important to regional From the late 1800’s this area had also become, in part, the aboriginal people, as well as to later explorers, pastoralists and route of explorer John McDouall Stuart’s push north from land developers. Adelaide to the Northern Territory, and subsequently the The mound springs are fed by water from the Great Artesian route of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and the Basin (GAB) which stretches underground across roughly a Central Australian Railway (the original route of The Ghan). quarter of the Australian continent, from Lake Eyre in South Australia, across northern New South Wales and as far as northern Queensland, and is the largest confined groundwater aquifer in the world. Rainwater across the Great Dividing Range provides freshwater input to the GAB, which has flowed underground over millions of years in a southwest direction. In South Australia, along the south-western edges of the GAB are fractures and fault lines in the rock strata that have allowed water to reach the surface and have led to the formation of springs in several “supergroups” around Lake Eyre, Lake Frome and Witjira National Park (Dalhousie Springs). The Lake Eyre supergroup has the largest concentration of freshwater Start of the Oodnadatta Track 2 The isopod Phreatomerus latipes from Coward Springs. The isopod Phreatomerus latipes showing size. home to several types of small (most less than 0.5 cm) crustaceans (amphipods, isopods, copepods) and molluscs. These animals exist in what could be called desert oases; isolated freshwater habitats with enough nutrients to each support thriving populations of small invertebrates. The Amphipod crustacean Wangiannachiltonia guzikae from animals act together as an ecological community to break Davenport Springs. down organic matter through feeding, water filtering, sediment turnover etc. to keep the system clean and inhabitable. Until around ten years ago it was assumed that the same species were found across all the Lake Eyre springs (one species of amphipod, one species of isopod etc.).

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