C O N S E R V A T I O N P E A C E E N V I R O N M E N T

Volume 20 Number 3 July 1992

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AUSTRALIA'S
ARID LANDS
LAKE EYRE
MACDONNELLS
FLINDERS
RANGES
MAMMALS
INTELLECTUAL
SUPPRESSION
ECUADOR
A
The magazine of the Australian
Conservation Foundation
WATCHI NG
B R I E F
A U S T R A L I A N P E A C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T I S S U E S
ACF FAREWELLS DIRECTOR
B Y T O N Y D O U G L A S
Bhe environment is now irrevers
ibly of mainstream importance',
according to Phillip Toyne. That
achievement could stand as his
political epitaph as he takes his leave from
the Australian Conservation Foundation's
Executive Director's chair after ve and a
half years of top level campaigning.
According to friends from his Central
Australian days, Toyne has always been a
man driven towards the achievement of
impossibly high goals. He can look back on
some great deeds as he takes up his two-
year Visiting Fellowship at the Australian
National University, where he will write a
record of the Aboriginal struggle in Central
Australia, and work on environmental policy.
It is unusual for the community sector to
fete winners, largely because victories are
always seen as a result of collective effort.
Yet, to my mind, Phillip Toyne can person
ally take much credit for key victories in the
way he negotiated with Graham Richardson
on the Wet Tropics World Heritage Listing,
and with Bob Hawke on stopping the mine
at Coronation Hill. Perhaps his most re
markable feat was the arrangement he
reached with National Farmers Federation
chief, Rick Farley, which established the
national Landcare program.
Toyne believes that Farley had the capacity
for lateral thinking and negotiation that was
generally absent in the the ultra-conservative
farming body's leadership. Farley was 'a
real political operator, an opportunist who
had an ability to see an opportunity when it
was presented to him - and he would say the
same about me'. No doubt, because the
Landcare agreement had all the hallmarks
of the Toyne style: the ability to carry a brief
and negotiate against the clock, the political
nous to see an opportunity and not let
prejudice or unwieldy process get in the
way, and a clear-cut understanding of an
opponent's bottom line position. Not to
mention the ability to bluff when in tight
corners.
But if that's all there was to Toyne's lead
ership he would be just another political
operator, albeit a good one, and he was
surely criticised for that. The fact that he put
those skills, and his guts and faith in himself,
at the service of the Aboriginal community
and the environment movement places him
in another league altogether.
Under Toyne the ACF consciously built
up relationships with many different groups.
This strategy has been largely responsible
for making the environment a mainstream
issue. According to Rod Cameron's latest
polling for the Government, the environ
ment still ranks as number 3 on the list of
public concerns, only surpassed in the cur
rent climate by unemployment and the
economy.
There have been the attempts to build
links with the trade union movement, the
Aboriginal community, the packaging in
dustry and, most importantly, other industry
groups, through the Ecologically Sustainable
Development process.
Overall, Toyne is pessimistic about the
trade-union link, claiming that most unions
cannot get out of lockstep with industry on
environment questions. The exceptions have
been the rail unions, in developing a national
rail strategy, and some sympathy among
white collar unions.
Links with the Aboriginal community have
strengthened as a result of important shared
victories in Kakadu, Uluru and, recently,
over the Todd River dam. 'Greens and
Blacks won't always see eye to eye, for
instance we will never support the Jabiluka
traditional owners who wish to see the ura
nium mine opened up', but the relationship
is developing. Black/Green issues are en
twined and becoming more important in a
general political sense.
Toyne believes that embedding the ESD
process in government and business phi
losophy is the great challenge of this decade.
'The central issue of global survival into the
next century', as he puts it.
Politicians and bureaucrats are the major
problem, in that industry and the Greens are
united in their desire to see the recommen
dations of the ESD working groups put in
place. Toyne was very critical of the One
Nation statement for being entirely economic
in its focus. When he publicly criticised the
statement, Keating's ofce claimed that 'it
wasn't meant to be an environment state
ment, that's coming in November'. That
shows how little they've learned about in
tegrating ESD into the overall policy
framework, according to Toyne.
Keating is on a fast learning curve from
Treasurer to Prime Minister, but hasn't yet
come to grips with environmental issues,
says Toyne, who despairs over the eco
nomics-dominated debate between two
leaders. He is particularly concerned by
Hewson's attitude to the environment, des
cribing him as 'a one trick pony', whose
policies 'represent the worst excesses of
economic rationalism'.
Fightback! is totally opposed to the rec
ommendations of the ESD working groups.
If the Coalition is elected, Toyne sees the
road ahead as 'very, very tough' on the
environment. Although the Coalition is very
supportive of Landcare, he says, the Liber
als' commitment to States rights is their
major problem in getting environmental is
sues addressed properly.
All in all a tough job ahead, but when has
it been anything else? Toyne is comforted
by the fact that the Cameron ESD poll
showed overwhelmingly that the environ
ment was considered rst among the major
issues of the next 10 years. The support for
the environment among young people and
women in particular gives cause for long-
term optimism - an appropriate note to n
ish on in summing up the contribution Phillip
Toyne has made to the Australian environ
ment. They say we cannot work for a future
we cannot imagine. By believing in the need
for great change and the possibility of
achieving it, he has played a decisive role in
bringing such change to fruition.
TONY DOUGLAS is Managing Editor of Public Radio
News, and Executive Director of the daily current affairs
program, Undercurrents. Check your local radio guide tor
details.
I T A T A U S T R A L I A
N N
H R B I T H T
! V H J i M g
Vol.20 No.3 July 1992
Printed on plantation grown, chlorine-free paper
WATCHING BRIEF
by Tony Douglas
A regular column on peace
and environment issues.
4
DISPATCHES
compiled by Deirdre Lawrence
illustrations by Ellen Wong
World environmental news.
6
SAVING THE FORESTS
Working at ground level
by John Seed
Ecuador's indigenous people
are ghting to save their forest
home.
11
COMMENTARY
INTELLECTUAL SUPPRESSION
Why environmental scientists
are afraid to speak out
by Brian Martin
NEW PROJECTS FOR ACF
GREEN BOND
by Rob Gel I
Three new nancially and
environmentally sound
investment opportunities
16
WADERBIRDS
Linking environment and the
arts
by Penny Underwood
An international environmental
theatre project raises awareness
about migratory birds.
18
LAKE EYRE BASIN
Land of paradox
by Jim Puckridge
ACF calls for World Heritage
listing of our largest inland
wetland system.
22
OASES IN THE DESERT
by Mark McLean
The fragile Macdonnell Range
must be managed as a whole
system - not just a few tourist
attractions.
26
FLINDERS RANGES MAMMALS
From the Dreamtime to the
present
by Dorothy Tunbridge
A unique Aboriginal lingustic
investigation reveals the story
of local mammal extinctions.
33
A VIEW FROM LIFFEY
by Bob Brown
A regular Habitat column by
Tasmania's Green
Independent.
36
HABITAT REVIEWS
38
GALLERY
BEYOND FORM AND FUNCTION
Towards a sustainable
aesthetic
by Peter Adams
Ecological furniture design
involves living 'as a friend of
trees'.
OUR COVER:
! Our fragile arid ranges hold the key
to an astonishing biodiversity: the
Amphitheatre atFinke Gorge National
Park, Central Australia.
" Photo by Ted Mead/Wildscape
HABITAT Australia
is published bi-monthly by the
Australian Conservation Foundation Inc.
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340 Gore Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065
Tel. (03) 4161166 Fax (03) 416 0767
The ACF is a national non-prot
organisation working for an ecologically
sustainable society.
New members are welcome.
President Peter Garrett
Director Phillip Toyne
Editor Merrilyn Julian
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1992 Audited Circulation -13,310
ISSN 0310-2939
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Reproduction in whole or in part may only occur
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The views expressed in this magazine are not
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Foundation.
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
DI SPATCHES
Dam-busters
DIn Bangladesh, a special
report on the Meghna-
Dhanagoda ood control
and irrigation project in the
Ganges DeJta has revealed an
all too familiar story of bureau
cratic blunders, corruption and
environmental catastrophe.
Situated 35 km outside Dhaka,
the dam - built between 1979
and 1984 - was funded largely
by the Asian Development Bank,
which provided half the US$66
million cost.
The project was meant to
increase agricultural product
ivity but has proved a liability to
local people. The rivers
surrounding the dam are
notorious for their power to
erode banks and shift their
course: already the embankment
has been breached twice.
What is special about the re
port, In Quest of a Golden
Dream, is that it was initiated
not by an international organi
sation but by a small team of
local journalists and activists,
whose reputations ensured that
it could not be easily dismissed.
First released in Bengali in
January 1989, the report fo
cused on the human cost of the
project.
The report made ve major
criticisms. First, poor manage
ment. The scheme had eight
chief engineers in 10 years. Sec
ond, hardship: 13,000 families
have lost their land through re
location. Those who received
compensation were compen
sated below the market value
after 'ofce expenses' were de
ducted. Nothing was done for
the landless families who were
displaced. Third, bad planning:
the embankment cut across
drainage canals, preventing the
use of boats which were the main
means of local transport. Few
new roads have been built as a
replacement. Fourth, pollution:
disrupted drainage has polluted
water supplies with human
waste, pesticides and fertilisers.
Disease is widespread. Fifth,
equity: even if the project suc
ceeds in increasing productivity,
it will enrich the big farmers at
the expense of the poor.
After learning of the report's
criticisms, Prime Minister
Moudud Ahmed admitted his
Government lacked any mecha
nism to sound out grassroots
views on major projects, and
promised greater emphasis on
small-scale irrigation. The Gov
ernment began debating how to
implement environmental im
pact assessments.
In effecting major shifts in
Bangladeshi government policy,
the Gold Dream report illus
trates the growing sophistication
of the developing world's envi
ronment lobby, and that real de
velopment is done by people, not
for them or to them.
Source: Panoscope
'Dolphin-
friendly' tuna
Bhe Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society
(WDCS) in Britain has de
manded that producers immedi
ately cease displaying labels
carrying 'dolphin-friendly' logos
on cans of tuna. So far no-one
has complied with the request.
WDCS believes the labelling
scheme has been ineffective in
that no tuna traders can be con
dent that tuna being bought, or
the canneries being dealt with,
are in fact 'dolphin-friendly'.
The controversial labelling
scheme was launched two years
ago, amidst much publicity, in
response to a WDCS-introduced
code of conduct for the industry.
Most of Britain' s tuna importers
signed up, agreeing to buy tuna
caught by methods other than
driftnetting or 'setting-on dol
phins' - where dolphins are
rounded up in order to catch
schools of tuna swimming be
neath them.
As signatories to the agree
ment, canners are expected to
keep records of shing meth
ods, dates and locations of
catches, to allow their premises
to be inspected, and to refuse to
buy from any suppliers who
break the agreement.
Wildlife Link, a coalition of
10 British conservation organi
sations, never accepted the
scheme, while Greenpeace at
tributes a 4.1 per cent increase
in sales of canned tuna in Brit
ain in 1991 to consumers made
complacent by the labels. 'The
sad fact is that dolphin-friendly
labels were a commercial deci
sion by companies looking to
protect their prots, not dol
phins', they say.
In Australia, labelling re
quirements for all tuna products,
domestic and international, will
be in place by January 1993.
Under the Trade Practices Act,
all tuna products will be labelled
as 'positive' or 'negative'.
To qualify for a 'positive' label,
the producer must provide
evidence that its tuna is not from
the eastern tropical Pacic, or
caught with driftnets. Tuna caught
in this way or from this region
will carry a negative label.
Tuna caught in Australian
waters will carry the positive
label as domestic tuna is not
caught through driftnetting or the
'setting-on-dolphins' technique.
Also, Australian tuna are not
found in close association with
dolphins. Strong support for the
scheme by Australian producers
is thus ensured.
However, while we can be sure
that Australian tuna is 'dolphin-
friendly', the same cannot be
said for imported tuna, due to
the complexities of policing the
scheme. Despite these limita
tions, Project Jonah applauds the
Government for taking steps to
inform the consumer.
Greenpeace, however, main
tains that only a ban on 'dol
phin-deadly' tuna, linked to an
international agreement, would
really ensure the long-term pro
tection of dolphins.
Plutonium row
D
I nternational controversy is
raging over Japan's
I attempts to return to its
shores 30 tonnes of plutonium
which have been accumulating
since the 1960s at reprocessing
plants in Britain and France.
Japan has always intended to
bringing the plutonium back from
Sellaeld, UK, and Cap de la
Hague, France, to fuel a new gen
eration of nuclear power stations.
However, environmentalists
and peace activists worldwide
claim the shipments are hazard
ous. They have the tacit support
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A
ENVI RONMENTAL NEWS STORI ES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Compiled by Deirdre Lawrence
Illustrations by Ellen Wong
of the US government, which
worries that the plutonium could
fall into the hands of govern
ments or terrorist groups seek
ing to build nuclear weapons.
Four years ago, Washington
refused to approve a Japanese
proposal to transport the
plutonium by air, insisting
instead that the cargo travel by
sea, with an armed escort. Japan
complied by building an escort
ship, the Shikishima, which cost
90 million sterling. Japan was
also required to make some
adjustments to the 7000-tonne
Pacic Crane, the ship carrying
the plutonium, to make hijacking
more difcult.
Despite these precautions, in
ternational concern has not
abated. According to one esti
mate, the rst cargo, due to leave
France this northern autumn,
would be carrying enough cargo
to build 120 crude nuclear bombs
- making the cargo a likely tar
get for terrorist groups.
A Greenpeace-commissioned
report published in April by
American environmental con
sultants, ECO Engineering,
states that the asks containing
the plutonium might not with
stand a marine accident, terror
ist attack or ship collision
resulting in re or sinking.
Having to make a non-stop
voyage of up to 27,000 km, the
ship would also be carrying a
disproportionate amount of fuel
oil for a vessel of its size, giving
rise to further concern about the
risk of a re on board.
The report has resulted in a
dispute between two UN agen
cies - the International Maritime
Organisation and the Interna
tional Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA is responsible for the
promotion and regulation of civil
nuclear energy and believes
Japan complies with its safe
guards. The IMO, however, is
trying to tighten controls on
shipments of all dangerous car
goes and is concerned about the
design of asks containing ra
dioactive materials.
However, the report appears
not to have made much impact
in Tokyo, which has not yet re
vealed the intended plutonium
route. Two of the three proposed
routes traverse Pacic islands,
raising objections from local
leaders that they should have
been consulted in case of emer
gency. An amendment to the
Palauan constitution would be
needed to even allow the pluto
nium ship to enter Palau's 200-
mile off-shore boundary.
Source: New Scientist
Note: A full report on the
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
will appear in a later edition of
Habitat.
Aust r al i an Ant ar ct i c Foundat i on
Depar t ment of For ei gn Af f ai r s and Tr ade
The Australian Antarctic Foundation was established in 1991 under the Foreign Affairs and
Trade portfolio to promote wider understanding of international Antarctic issues of
importance to Australia. The Chairman of the Foundation Board is Sir Ninian Stephen, the
Ambassador for the Environment.
In pursuit of its objective the Foundation may initiate, assist, sponsor or fund a range of
activities which will make international Antarctic issues accessible to a wide audience in
Australia or internationally. Proposals related to better understanding of Antarctic
environmental issues or which contribute in some way to the effective implementation of the
Madrid Protocol will be of particular interest. The Foundation is also looking for innovative
proposals and ones which involve groups not normally active in Antarctic affairs.
Grants available
The Foundation invites applications from groups and individuals for grants toward projects
relevant to its objective. The Board meets approximately four times per year and will
consider applications at the next scheduled meeting. Projects supported to date have
included a museum exhibition, a theatre-in-education project on Antarctica, an international
conference and a program of foreign participation in Australian National Antarctic Research
Expeditions. For further information and application forms, please contact:
The Director-
Australian Antarctic FouridaXif
PO Box 997,
HOBART TAS 7001,
Phone (002) 350992. fax (002) 313697.
I T A T A U S T R A L I A
ECUADOR
SAVING THE FO
WORKING AT GROUND LEVEL
Qhe tropical forests of Ecuador are among the
most diverse on Earth. Running down the coastal
side of the Andes, from Panama through Co
lumbia to Northern Ecuador, the Choco region
ranks (after the Amazon and the Congo) as the world's
third most biologically signicant tropical rainforest. It
is the wettest area in the world, and all
this water ows off the coast through
the world's largest extension of man
groves.
Across the mountains, the Ecuadorian
Amazon is a large part of the world's
largest neotropical refugia: while all
around was frozen or arid during the
Pleistocene Ice Ages, the humid climate
here permitted evolution to proceed un
interruptedly, producing the extraordi
nary biodiversity that exists today.
In the last 30 years over half of Ecua
dor's tropical forests have been de
stroyed. A national policy of massive
petroleum and resource extraction has
nanced the construction of a road net
work, encouraging poor, displaced, land-
hungry settlers to colonise primary
rainforest. At current deforestation rates,
there will be none left in 20 years. The
situation is worse in the Choco, where
only 8 per cent of the primary forest
remains. Recently, the destruction has
moved into the Amazon basin.
This colonisation has been cata
strophic for Ecuador's indigenous peo
ples, whose way of life has been
overwhelmed by the devastation of their
tribal lands and the introduction of a
cash economy and western disease.
The fate of Ecuador's forests and her
forest people are integrally linked. Any
process to stop the destruction cannot be
maintained by a group of outsiders acting independ
ently. It must be woven into the national political,
social and cultural framework if there is to be any
chance for long-term success. This is where the Rain
forest Information Centre (RIC) got involved, and
provides the rationale for our work there.
Sustainable alternatives
RIC is an independent, non-prot organisation dedi
cated to the protection of Earth's rainforests, with
projects in Australia, India, Malaysia, Papua New
Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Funded by donation
and staffed by international volunteers, RIC works
worldwide with indigenous people to help create sus
tainable economic alternatives to rainforest destruction.
RIC has been active in Ecuador since 1985, when we
A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2 7
The fate of Ecuador's
forests and her forest
people are integrally
linked.
! Above: The Huaorani,
from the Ecuadorian
Amazon, have been
defending their
traditional territory for
nearly a century.
" Photo by Monica Napper
! Lett: If current rates of
deforestation continue,
there will be no primary
rainforest left in Ecuador
in 20 years.
" Photo by Morley Read
E C U A D O R
were invited to assist the Awa people in the
demarcation of their 100,000 ha ancestral
territory. Incorporated in Ecuador as CIBT
(Centra de Investigacion de los Bosques
Tropicales), we are now working with many
levels of Ecuadorian society, including
government bureaucrats, Ecuadorian and
Columbian biologists, topographers and
forestry engineers, and a broad array of
indigenous peoples' organisations, in a series
of projects aimed at protecting Ecuador's
rainforests We have received support from
agencies in many countries including a grant
from the Australian Government aid agency
AIDAB.
Living boundaries
The cornerstone of this work is the 'living
boundaries' process. In the impenetrable
Ecuadorian jungle, the physical demarca
tion of indigenous territories and reserved
forest areas - the creation of 'no-go areas' -
is an essential rst step in holding back the
tide of colonisation.
We do this by cutting - literally - a swathe
four or ve metres wide through the jungle.
By planting easily identiable, long-living,
productive native plants along the avenue,
we both demarcate territory so that no-one
can encroach on it 'by mistake' and demon
strate the elements of a permanent, tree-
based agriculture.
Our rst demarcation project, with the
Awa people, commenced in 1986 when we
marked out the 100,000 ha of their ancestral
territory on the north coast. Our most recent
living boundary project involves the
Huaorani people in the Ecuadorian Ama
zon.
The Huaorani have recently been granted
legal title to 670,000 ha, about one-third of
their ancestral territory. However, this title
does not exclude petroleum development,
and with the oil industry providing 90-95
per cent of Ecuador's foreign exchange, there
is little chance of stopping exploration and
roading. Already the Cononaco petrol road
extends deep into their homeland.
Armed with chainsaws and machetes, 30-
40 Huaorani, assisted by CIBT staff and a
government topographic team (for legiti
macy), will work over the next two years
cutting the 100 km around their land. Already
30 km has been completed with funds from
Friends of the Earth, Sweden, and the Swed
ish Government Aid Agency. The few colo-
COL OMBI A
.*rQUitO. JT , . <0
f t ' Co c a
^
PERU
t !..
A Awa Ethnic Forest Reserve
B Los Cedros Biological Reserve
C Huaorani territory
D Sustainable forest projects
(two locations)
E Permaculture Cayambe
F Napo Galeras
G Medicinal Plant Garden
Qlthough I have been involved in CIBT's projects since their
inception and have co-ordinated fundraising for them, I had
not actually visited Ecuador till last October when Doug
Ferguson - who has been directing the projects there for six years
- prevailed upon me to take time out to attend a gathering of the
Huaorani people in the remote headwaters
of the Amazon basin.
Twelve bumpy hours from Quito we
reached the dusty frontier town of Coca.
Less than 20 years ago the Huaorani
(known throughout Ecuador as the Auca or
'savages') were still making pre-emptive
raids on this town to hold back the wave of
intrusion on their lands. From Coca an
other four hours (bumpier still!) brought us
to the end of the road on the Shiri Puna
River. There waiting for us was a canoe,
hollowed from a treetrunk, but with an out
board motor. After eight hours' motoring up
the river we reached a settlement.
Huaorani had come from all over their
territory for this meeting, some walking for
ve days to get there. Anthropologists tell
us that a couple of decades ago a Huaorani
person would have perhaps met only 80
other people during their entire lifetime.
Traditionally the clan groups, the nanacobi,
were in competition, sometimes killing each other over hunting
grounds. So part of CIBT's job is to encourage the Huao people to
! Traditional Huaorani leaf and pole dwelling
" Photo by Motley Read
get together as a nation, to enable decision-making regarding
their future and the integrity of their vast domain.
As well as meetings, we had a festival - music, dancing, sports.
As always, song and dance continue to hold their culture together.
We foreigners did badly in the spear and blowgun competitions
but excelled at frisbee!
Traditionally living on isolated hilltops,
moving between encampments of leaf and
pole dwellings, most Huaorani now live in
established riverbank villages. The last 20
years has seen their nomadic way of life
replaced with a riverine culture. Although
traditional hunting and shing skills are no
longer central to their lives, they remain
unnervingly accurate in the use of blowgun
and spear. As a vegetarian of 20 years'
standing, eating monkey and exotic birds
added paradox upon paradox to 'saving'
the rainforests.
After almost a century of war against the
rubber tappers, the Peruvian military, the
Ecuadorian military, the petroleros and
colonos, the Huaorani are now ghting for
a place in the global psyche. The truth is,
the power of Huaorani song is fading, but
their intimate knowledge of the forest and
sacred plant awareness remains intact.
With international help, they may just be able to preserve their
land, and keep the song going.
A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
nists who have settled within the borders have
accepted compensation and moved outside.
If our project succeeds in preventing the
spread of colonisation from the petroleros'
new roads, it will be a rst in the Amazon.
It's thus essential that we also strengthen
the Huaorani's own social and economic
organisation, and their communication skills
and resources. To this end, CIBT has also
been involved in building a communal house
to be used as a cultural centre and visitors'
base, establishing a radio network between
the various Huaorani groups, and creating a
bilingual education program. The rst
Spanish/Huao book - on the extensive
traditional Huaorani botanical and medicinal
knowledge - is currently being written.
Sacred mountain
Situated atop the headwaters of the Pusano
River in the upper Amazon, Galeras Moun
tain is the only isolated limestone mountain
in Ecuador. Predating the Andes by 95 mil
lion years, Napo Galeras is home to an in
credible endemism, which includes the
endangered Andean Spectacled Bear and
several species of large cat.
Napo Galeras is the most sacred jaguar
site in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Legend has
it that the World Puma is trapped inside and
will emerge on judgement day to devour
humanity. For generations an unbroken line
of shamans have protected this sacred
mountain from outside interference. The
present ancestral keeper is Casimiro
Mallalacta Mallalacta (literally 'Casimiro
Mother Earth Mother Earth').
When the Government decided to build a
road at the foot of the mountain in 1987,
heavy international pressure led to 'forest
protectorate' status being given to the
mountain. However, this has never been
enough to stop the settlers moving in, and so
our next living boundary project will be
established here with the help of the
Mamallacta family and the Ecuadorian
Government.
Forest reserve
The demarcation process also extends to the
Los Cedros Biological Reserve, which we
are establishing on the eastern side of the
Cotacatchi-Cayapas Biosphere Reserve on
the coastal side of the Andes. Along with
the adjoining Awa Ethnic Forest Reserve,
Cotacachi-Cayapas - 'possibly the most di-
! Mingatui, a great old jaguar shaman. When the
sacred tiger enters Mingatui, he can travel rapidly,
in spirit form, the length and breadth of Huaorani
territory, making telepathic communication with
other nomadic households. He has sent warriors to
kill people invading Huaorani territory.
" Photo by Morley Read
verse place on Earth', according to the Mis
souri Botanic Gardens - represents most of
the remaining 8 per cent of primary rainfor
est in the Choco region.
Strategically situated at the entrance to
this area, Los Cedros will present a physical
barrier to looming colonisation and provide
a base for future demarcation. Part of the
reserve has already been purchased and al
ready it is providing a research site for na
tional and international scientists.
Sustainable forestry
Another seminal project in the Choco began
when CIBT intervened to protect the El Pan
community from a shady deal. They had
sold their 1600 ha forest to a logging com
pany for about $3 per tree. With the English
Ecological Trading Company, we were able
to make the community a counter offer of
$700-$ 1000 per tree, conditional upon an
ecological management plan which excluded
heavy machinery but provided for trees be
ing milled on site with a portable sawmill.
The initial harvest in 1990 raised as much
money with 12 trees as the original contract
offered for the entire forest. Naturally, we
hope to repeat this success story!
Medicinal wisdom
Medicines derived from indigenous
botanical knowledge are estimated to be
worth US$43 billion per year worldwide.
This is a reason for preserving tropical forests
that even multi-nationals can understand!
To this end we have created the Medicinal
Plant Garden in the Jatun Sacha Biological
Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a model
project for indigenous medicinal plant
cultivation which may provide a future
economic base for Ecuador's indigenous
people. Already over 80 species have been
collected and successfully established.
Permaculture
Since Ecuador's colonisation crisis is rooted
in inappropriate agriculture, yet another of
our projects involves the development of
model permaculture farms in both the
Andes and the Amazon.
Ecuador's largest park, the Cayamba-Coca
Ecological Reserve in the Andes, is classied
as top priority by the World Wide Fund for
Nature, largely because of the threat to its
integrity from communities at its fringes.
Originally evicted from the fertile lowlands
by the Spanish, the desperately poor
indigenous people of Cayambe have not
beneted from recent land reform. Their
agricultural methods are unsuited to the steep
mountainsides they are forced to cultivate.
However, they show great enthusiasm for
the three permaculture projects underway,
which include reforestation, nursery,
orchard,- garden and aquaculture com
ponents. Shortly they are to be visited by
Bill Mollison, the originator of perma
culture, himself.
CIBT's projects are part of a strong
national and international effort to save
Ecuador's forests. Some of the strategies we
have adopted are clearly as successful as
can possibly be expected, given the timespan
involved. Although a proper assessment of
the sustainability of any of these projects
would take generations, I believe that the
ecological imperative of buying time for the
world's remaining tropical rainforests and
forest peoples is such that our work in
Ecuador deserves full international
recognition and support.
JOHN SEEO is Founder and Director of the Rainforest
Information Centre (Australia). Since 1979 he has been
instrumental, both in Australia and internationally, in
establishing rainforest action groups in many countries. His
latest campaign is directed at saving the forests o! Siberia, the
largest remaining forest wilderness in the world.
HABIT A T thanks Doug Ferguson, Param Berg, and Monica
Napper for help in compiling this article.
For further information, contact: Rainforest Information
Centre, P.O. Box368, Lismore, NSW2480;tel:066218505.
A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2 9
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c o hi oi i n t a n
INTELLECTUAL SUPPRESSION
Why environmental scientists are afraid to speak out
B Y B R I A N M A R T I N
Suppose that an environmental scien
tist uncovers a risk to the public or
the environment, for example a haz
ardous chemical, unanticipated eco
logical destruction from a planned
development, or a aw in data presented in
an environmental impact statement. What
then? Surely this information, after verica
tion, should be quickly communicated to
responsible authorities so that appropriate
action can be taken.
But what if the 'responsible authorities'
have different priorities - or even are re
sponsible for the problem? In these cases
outsiders, such as politicians, the media or
environmental organisations, must be
alerted.
Unfortunately, this scenario is the excep
tion rather than the rule. Most environmen
tal scientists are afraid to take a public stand
if it means appearing to challenge powerful
corporations, governments or professions.
They are afraid of what top ofcials in their
organisation may think and do. They are
aware of legislation which prohibits them
from speaking to the media about their work
without permission. They are afraid that
they might be blocked from promotion,
shunted to less interesting work, or even
dismissed.
When a person is attacked because their
research, teaching or public statements are
threatening to a powerful interest group,
this can be called suppression of intellectual
dissent. Typically, the powerful interest
group is a corporation, government or pro
fession.
Suppression of dissent is a worldwide
phenomenon, and is most commonly exer
cised against political dissidents. Overt sup
pression is the exception: suppression of
dissent works most effectively when it is
self-imposed.
Environmental scientists are not exempt.
Methods of attack against environmental
scientists include blocking of publications,
refusal of permission to attend scientic
meetings, withdrawal of research funding,
denial of appointments, removal of support
staff, transfers to different positions, dis
missals, blacklisting and character assassi
nation.
The reason for these attacks is straightfor
ward. There are powerful interests involved
in environmentally destructive practices and
policies. Scientic experts can either pro
vide legitimacy to these practices and poli
cies, or undermine them. In many elds,
such as nuclear research, most experts are
beholden to corporate or government patrons
Most environmental
scientists are afraid to take a
public stand if it means
appearing to challenge
powerful corporations,
governments or professions.
through jobs or consultancies. If even a few
scientists speak out against the standard
view, this punctures the illusion of unani
mous scientic agreement. The dissident
scientists are a threat to the vested interests.
So, in at least a few cases, they are subject to
attack. These attacks discourage others from
speaking out.
Conspiracy of silence
No-one knows how many cases of suppres
sion actually occur. Undoubtedly it is much
more common than most people realise.
Some types of cases are almost impossible
to document, such as when a person known
as a critic is ruled out of contention for a job
or when a scientic paper is rejected by a
journal. Therefore, most of the documented
cases involve more dramatic and clear-cut
methods of attack, especially dismissals.
There is another reason why only a small
fraction of suppression cases are publicised.
The person who is attacked often prefers no
publicity. They may be intimidated or em
barrassed by the experience, and want to
keep a low prole so that they can get on
with their job. Since those who launched the
attack seldom want publicity either, the re
sult is silence.
Yet another complication is the difculty
of demonstrating that suppression has
occurred. Suppression is never admitted:
usually, the scientist being attacked is said
to be performing inadequately. There are
inevitably ambiguities and differences of
opinion as to motivations and consequences.
For all these reasons, those cases that are
public, documented and relatively clear-cut
are just the tip of an iceberg of suppression
of dissent.
Certainly, in many years of investigating
cases, I have found suppression to be a
commonplace occurrence. By talking to one
or two key people within an organisation, it
is often possible to nd out about a whole
series of cases. There are also regular pat
terns in certain areas. For example, I have
collected information about dozens of cases
of attacks on scientist critics of nuclear power
in at least 10 different countries.
Open communication is the lifeblood of
science and free speech is the currency of
democracy. But neither is welcome to pow
erful vested interests. Since the salaries of
most scientists in Australia are paid by the
taxpayer, the results of their investigations
should be available to all without fear or
favour. But this is not the case. As the say
ing goes, knowledge is power. Suppression
of the few serves to intimidate the many.
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
The result is a timid scientic community
which serves the interests of power more
than the interests of truth or the public.
Examples
The public sector
Dr John Coulter was for 20 years a scientist
at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary
Science (IMVS) in Adelaide. He was also a
prominent and articulate environmentalist
and this led to attacks from industry on a
number of occasions. For example, after he
gave a talk mentioning hazards of the pesti
cides heptachlor and dichlorvos and actions
of the US manufacturer Velsicol, pressure
was applied to the Director of the IMVS by
Velsicol Australia.
Couiter aiso took a strong stand within
the IMVS on chemical hazards. In 1980, he
released his report on the mutagenic prop
erties of ethylene oxide - a sterilising agent
used in the IMVS - to both the appropriate
IMVS safety committee and the workers at
risk. Immediately afterwards, Coulter was
dismissed from his position. After a lengthy
court case, Coulter and the IMVS agreed to
say he was retrenched. The court transcripts
show that the reasons given for dismissal -
including poor performance - did not stand
up to scrutiny.
Paul Smith, a scientist with the Tasmania
Forestry Commission, joined a direct action
against a forestry operation while he was on
leave and was shown on television as part of
the demonstration. He was called in by the
Commissioners and questioned at length
about his motives. He was told that he was
disloyal to the Commission and that this
was unacceptable. No further action was
taken against him.
The case of the Victorian Department of
Conservation and Environment (DCE),
where a number of scientists have experi
enced difculties over the last few years,
illustrates how the entire culture of an or
ganisation may be shaped by conicts over
controversial research. In 1990, DCE bota
nist David Cameron wrote a paper present
ing a new denition of rainforest. It was
witheld from public circulation by the De
partment for over a year. The denition of
rainforest is a sensitive political issue, since
it affects ongoing negotiations between en
vironmentalists and forest industry interests.
As Cameron's denition increased the area
designated as rainforest, it was thus unwel
come to some powerful gures in the DCE.
It was only in the light of the embarrass
ment caused by an earlier ABC Earthworm
program, which exposed the Departmental
suppression of rainforest denition docu
ments, that the DCE allowed two Depart
mental scientists, including David Cameron,
to speak to a public symposium on the
denition of rainforest in November 1991.
Overt suppression is the
exception: suppression of
dissent works most
effectively when it is self-
imposed.
Even then, Cameron was given clear guide
lines as to what he could say.
In other instances, DCE scientists have
requested that their names be removed from
reports after changes have been made at
higher levels in the Department. In 1990 the
former Director-General of the Department
circulated a memo cautioning scientists who
had spoken (on scientic issues) to the
media, threatening them with disciplinary
action.
Industry
Scientists working for industry are well
aware that if they speak out critically about
their employers, they face severe penalties,
quite likely dismissal. So predictable are the
reprisals that few industry scientists take the
risk. The three US General Electric nuclear
engineers who in 1976 came out publicly
critical of nuclear power knew this, and
resigned rather than attempt to keep their
jobs. The nuclear industry instigated bitter
attacks on their motives and character.
Academia
These cases illustrate that government and
industry scientists can be throttled. But what
about university researchers. Surely they
have their academic freedom?
Universities sometimes do provide a ha
ven for dissent. In 1977 Dr Philip Keane of
the Botany Department and the late Peter
Rawlinson of the Zoology Department of
La Trobe University spoke out about the
spread of Cinnamon Fungus (Phytophthora
cinnamomi) in Victorian forests. The Chair
man of the Forests Commission of Victoria
wrote nine letters to the Vice-Chancellor of
the University suggesting that action be taken
to stop their activity. All top university
ofcials rejected this attempt to limit aca
demic freedom.
The biggest danger to university scholars
comes from within their own institutions.
Within many university departments, there
are strong peer pressures to be 'scientic'
and 'scholarly'. Usually this is seen as in
compatible with media attention on contro
versial issues, popularisation, or involvement
in direct political action. Dissent is chan
nelled into narrow professional forums
where its impact is greatly reduced.
Those who stick to 'scholarly' methods
and deal with 'safe' (not too controversial)
topics usually increase their prospects for
advanced degrees, tenure and promotion.
This helps explain why, for example, many
of the academics who have been prominent
critics of forestry practices - such as Philip
Keane and Peter Rawlinson, mentioned
above, and philosophers Val Plumwood and
Richard Sylvan - are from university
departments other than forestry.
Professional associations
Some scientists look to professional asso
ciations to provide support against attacks.
Occasionally associations are helpful. But,
perhaps surprisingly, professionals and pro
fessional bodies are themselves often re
sponsible for attacks on dissidents.
Dr Juliet Lavers, a medical practitioner
working in Burnie, Tasmania, in the late
1980s, spoke out about organochlorines dis
charged from a pulpmill. She was the main
technically qualied person taking a stand,
and her views were presented at public
meetings, in newspapers and on television.
Following an anonymous complaint, she was
summonsed by the Tasmanian Medical
Council in Hobart to answer a complaint
that she had received undue advertising as a
result of her media prole. Although the
Council rejected the complaint, such a pro-
12
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
C 0 HE n T-HI V
cedure can be intimidating and discourage
participation in public debates.
Dr Sharon Beder, a trained engineer, was
a key gure in generating concern in Syd
ney about the discharge of sewage and ind
ustrial waste into the ocean. Many engineers
in the Water Board were extremely hostile
to anyone who questioned the Board's poli
cies. One top member of the Institution of
Engineers, the key professional body,
threatened Beder with the possibility of a
disciplinary tribunal. John Tozer, a Coffs
Harbour engineer who spoke out against a
proposed ocean outfall for sewage, was the
subject of a formal complaint from six
government engineers. In both cases, ironi
cally, codes of professional ethics were in
voked as a way of silencing criticism.
Perhaps the most amazing example of
professional attack was the dossier on crit
ics of uoridation compiled by the Ameri
can Dental Association. Containing extracts
from newspaper articles and correspondence,
the dossier lists reputable scientists such as
the late Dr George Waldbott along with
fringe medical practitioners and organisa
tions such as the American Nazi Party. The
dossier thus implies guilt by association for
all opponents of uoridation. This dossier
was circulated throughout the world, espe
cially when Waldbott or other leading op
ponents were testifying against uoridation,
and in the 1960s was twice published in the
prestigious Journal of the American Dental
Association.
The public arena
Because of their credentials and authority as
experts, scientists who take a stand that
threatens vested interests are more at risk of
being suppressed than are members of the
public.
In the early 1970s, several individuals
wrote to the Adelaide Advertiser critical of
fruit y spraying by the South Australian
Government. No special response was made
to these correspondents. But when Clyde
Manwell and Ann Baker, zoologists at the
University of Adelaide, wrote such a letter,
there were vehement denunciations in State
Parliament and then a sustained attempt to
dismiss Manwell from his position as Pro
fessor.
Yet even for those who are employed
outside mainstream science, there is no
haven from attack.
Defamation law is a well-known means
for silencing criticism and debate. In Aus
tralia, defamation cases are most commonly
brought by the rich and powerful, such as
corporations and politicians, against media
organisations. This subverts free speech. For
example, former NSW Premier Robert Askin
was widely known to be corrupt, but be
cause of the possibility of defamation, the
story could only be told after he died.
Open communication is the
lifeblood of science and free
speech is the currency of
democracy.
Threats of defamation suits are commonly
used to discourage criticism. This has hap
pened to me several times. The draft of my
booklet, Nuclear Knights, a critique of the
views of nuclear proponents Sir Philip Baxter
and Sir Ernest Titterton, was sent to both of
them before publication. Baxter did not
comment but threatened to sue. (In the event,
he didn't.) On another occasion, nuclear
engineer Leslie Kemeny threatened to sue
me and the Ecologist over my article 'The
naked experts', which they published. In
these as in most cases, threats of defamation
actions are simply bluffs, attempts to dis
courage further comment or publication.
Most would not stand up in court, but the
threats nevertheless have a chilling effect
on free speech.
Even more chilling are the few cases in
which large monetary damages are awarded.
Nuclear critic Alan Roberts felt the chill
after he wrote a review of a book by Lennard
Bickel, The Deadly Element. The review,
published in the National Times in 1980, led
to a legal action by Bickel against the pub
lisher, John Fairfax and Sons. The jury
awarded Bickel $180,000 for defamation.
In 1990, Dr Mark Diesendorf, co-ordinator
of the Australian Conservation Foundation's
Global Change Program, criticised state
ments by Dr Brian O'Brien, formerly head
of the WA Environmental Protection Au
thority, which minimised the likely impacts
of the greenhouse effect. Diesendorf also
pointed out that O'Brien's employment as a
consultant to the coal industry should be
taken into account when evaluating his
views. O'Brien has now issued proceedings
against both Diesendorf and the ACF.
In the United States, the tactic of using
legal actions to harass citizens who speak
out in a way that threatens vested interests
has been well documented by Penelope
Canan and George Pring, who call these
cases 'Strategic Lawsuits Against Public
Participation' or SLAPPs. The most popu
lar legal claim for this purpose is defama
tion, but also used are business torts, judicial
process abuse, and conspiracy. For exam
ple, in a small town in Colorado, a few
citizens circulated a petition against the town
government annexing land for a housing
development. They were sued by the devel
opers on a number of grounds.
SLAPPs are intimidating. They inhibit
open debate and free speech, and divert the
energies of individuals from the original
issue to the task of defending against a legal
action.
Another method used in the public arena
is character assassination, usually by the
circulation of rumours and damaging infor
mation. Rachel Carson, author of the im
mensely inuential Silent Spring in 1962,
was subject to vicious attacks by pesticide
interests. Since she worked as an independ
ent scientist and writer, there was little that
could be done to her directly, so her cred
ibility was attacked by claims that she was
biased, emotional, unscientic and so forth.
Remedies
John Coulter survived his dismissal from
the IMVS and went on to become a Federal
senator from South Australia and Leader of
the Australian Democrats. Few scientists
who are attacked do so well. Many are in
timidated and thereafter toe the line. Many,
understandably, prefer to stick to their
research, avoiding controversial topics in
order to avoid the stress of confrontation.
But some dissident scientists are destroyed,
both in career terms and psychologically,
by the attacks made upon them.
Suppression can be, and should be,
opposed. The rst and perhaps most impor
tant step is to refuse to be intimidated. Sci
entists need to be aware that these types of
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
C D I IE nIBY
attacks are due to the exercise of power to
serve vested interests. Although suppression
is never admitted, scientists should realise
that the same sort of thing happens to others
and that they are not personally to blame.
Often, just exercising one's right to free
speech and rejecting attempts to limit it is
enough to stop censorship.
There are a host of things that can be
done to challenge an obvious case of sup
pression, including producing a leaet
summarising the key issues, getting sup
porters to write letters to appropriate of
cials or to newspapers, forming a support
group, holding public meetings and circu
lating a petition. The most effective tech
niques are the ones that mobilise support by
alerting more and more people to what's
going on. The more scientists who speak
up, the easier it is for others. (Note that this
is just the opposite of playing by the rules
and keeping quiet.)
The mass media often run stories on
suppression. (They would run more except
for contempt law.) They are a much better
avenue for support than professional
journals, which as a rule are exceedingly
cautious and often side with the
establishment. Between us, Clyde Manwell
and I sent numerous letters and articles
about John Coulter's dismissal to a variety
of newspapers, magazines and scientic
journals. Newspapers were most responsive;
scientic journals were the most reluctant
to publish anything. Scientists need to
overcome their reticence about using the
mass media. Most bureaucrats fear a media
story far more than a whole series of internal
protests, as the Victorian DCE's response
to the Earthworm rainforest program seems
to indicate.
Those who have done research or spoken
out on sensitive issues are often quite fa
miliar with the dynamics of suppression,
and can provide useful support for others.
Until recently, only informal networks ex
isted to link together individuals concerned
about suppression, but now there are at
least two groups dealing with the issue.
Whistleblowers Anonymous, established
in 1991, aims to protect public servants
who speak out in the public interest. The
organisation supports the introduction of
so-called whistleblower legislation, at both
Federal and State levels. Former independ
ent Federal Senator Jo Vallentine introduced
a Bill to establish a whistleblowers' pro
tection agency, while independent MP John
Hatton plans to introduce a Bill for
whistleblower legislation in NSW.
Queensland already has a law protecting
whistleblowers but, according to
Whistleblowers Anonymous, it is awed
by its restrictions: for example,
whistleblowing to the media is not covered.
Although even the best of whistleblower
legislation does not do much to stop several
When there is a debate, it is
foolish to believe any claim
that 'experts agree'.
types of suppression (for example, censor
ship of publications and blocking of ap
pointments), such laws are useful in
providing symbolic support to critics and,
in a few cases, legal protection.
The Tasmanian branch of the national
group United Scientists for Environmental
Responsibility and Protection (USERP),
recently set up a working group on intel
lectual suppression. They have taken a spe
cial interest in legislation that forbids
government employees from speaking to
the public without permission. For exam
ple, the Tasmanian State Services Act says
that a permanent employee who 'without
the permission of the Minister administer
ing the Agency in which he [sic] is em
ployed or otherwise in the ordinary course
of his duties, divulges any information
gained by him in his employment in the
State Service, is guilty of an offence'. In
other words, employees may be penalised
for leaking information or speaking out,
even if - or perhaps especially if- they are
attempting to expose corruption, prevent a
danger to the public or simply alert people
to issues needing debate.
According to USERP, legislation in other
States and the Commonwealth has quite
similar provisions. USERP has received a
legal opinion that such laws contravene the
International Covenant on Civil and Politi
cal Rights, to which Australia is a signatory.
USERP has drafted an alternative to the
repressive section in the Tasmanian State
Services Act, and is lobbying government
scientists in other States, as well as politi
cians and unions, in order to develop this
campaign nationally. Whether or not the
campaign is successful, pushing for such
changes is helpful because it encourages
debate over the right of free speech.
Individual courage
Even if anti-free speech legislation were re
pealed and whistleblower legislation were
passed, this would not abolish suppression of
dissent. After all, there are many subtle
mechanisms involved, including the award
ing of grants, appointments, promotions and
preferential treatment. In every case, few
scientists will openly criticise the positions
of the rich and powerful for fear of affecting
their own careers. This is inevitable so long
as power and wealth is monopolised by a
minority, and scientists and citizens have
few alternative avenues for employment.
It will continue to be crucial that some
individuals hold to their convictions and
speak out in the public interest, even if they
are victimised as a result.
A large study of whistleblowers in the
United States found that most had suffered
nancially as a result of their actions, but
nearly every one believed that they had
done the right thing and would do the same
again. These courageous individuals deserve
personal support and public defence.
Suppression of scientic dissent provides
a lesson for us all. When there is a debate, it
is foolish to believe any claim that 'experts
agree'. It is quite likely that some experts
disagree - but are too afraid to say so.
BRIAN MARTIN is senior lecturer in Science and
Technology Studies at the University of Wollongong.
References and additional information on suppression of
dissent are available from the author.
Contacts:
Whistleblowers Anonymous, c/- John McNicol, PO Box
1466. Tuggeranong ACT2900, tel: 06 2313097.
USERP, c/- Isla MacGregor, 6Akora Street, Mornington Tas
7018, tel: 002 446 892).
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
New projects for ACF Green Bond

I H r a i
! -!!!!
B Y R O B G E L L
H K g
-,<*
The ACF Green Bond will help safeguard the future of the Little Penguin colony on Phillip Island. " Photo: Ian Roberts/Scancolor
Dwelve months ago the announce
ment on World Environment Day
of the Australian Conservation
Foundation's Green Bond marked
a turning point in the opportunities avail
able to Green investors - the opportunity to
align savings with personal beliefs.
The ACF Green Bond is the result of an
historic joint venture between the Founda
tion and the Over 50's Friendly Society. Its
aim is to operate a fund which will make
investments that are both nancially sound
and environmentally responsible.
By the rst Annual General Meeting of
Green Bond investors exactly 12 months
later, on World Environment Day 1992, the
Green Bond's rst investment projects were
well underway.
The rst, announced by Victorian Pre
mier Joan Kirner as part of her Govern
ment's March Economic Statement, is
Project Penguin. This is a $1 million loan
to the Penguin Trust on Phillip Island to
acquire more land to safeguard the future of
the Little Penguin colony, and to guarantee
that a premier tourist attraction, with all its
ow-on economic benets, remains just
that.
Project Botanic is also a loan of $1 mil
lion to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Mel
bourne, to develop a comprehensive
watering system to assist in the beautica-
tion and future develop of the Gardens.
The third project is the rst of its kind in
Australia, and reects ACF's commitment
to setting the highest environmental stand
ards while providing a practical opportu
nity for all Australians to design themselves
an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.
Tenders for the rst ACF Green Home
under Project Green Home have been called
and the rst home is expected to be com
pleted by September.
The home will be built to ACF's newly
developed Green Home Guidelines, which
emphasise environmentally sound living
through the use of materials with low envi
ronmental impact, minimum energy use,
and utilisation of low greenhouse impact
sources. A Green Home would entail mini
mal loads on infrastructure such as
stormwater, water supply, sewerage and
energy supply, whilst offering a high
standard of comfort, security and aesthet
ics, and a healthy environment.
The ACF's Guidelines represent the most
comprehensive handbook available for en
vironmentally proactive housing design. In
conjunction with the Guidelines the Foun
dation is also assisting in the development
of a Green Product Directory, so that house
builders and consumers alike will be able to
select products that will complement their
homes with environmentally aware prod
ucts.
The Victorian Government has borrowed
from the ACF Green Bond to build two of
the environmentally friendly homes. The
rst will be on the Urban Land Authority's
new subdivision, Roxburgh Park, at
Somerton.
The aim is to create a house and land
package for around $100,000, demonstrat
ing that energy-efcient, environmentally
effective housing need not be expensive.
Loans to build an ACF Green Home will
also be available to home buyers through
the Over 50's Friendly Society at competi
tive interest rates.
The Green Home Guidelines are cur
rently being adapted for use in all States so
that all Australians will have the opportunity
to live in an ACF Green Home.
For all the projects the Victorian Govern
ment has provided a guarantee of principal
and interest to the Over 50's Friendly So
ciety, in accordance with the Victorian
Friendly Societies Act 1986.
All three projects have been selected by
the Over 50's Friendly Society and the
ACF's Green Bond Panel on the basis of
their environmental suitability and positive
environmental impact, and also as satisfac
tory investments providing an acceptable
rate of return to investors.
The ACF Green Bond is a single premium
Friendly Society life insurance bond with
personal income tax advantages for both
long- and short-term investors. Its invest
ment benets include:
Environmentally beneficial investment
policy
Professional fund management
Accessibility to funds invested
Loan backs
Additional investments
Low upfront fees on entry
No redemption fees payable
Nomination of beneficiary
Assignment of bond
Individual investments from $1000 are
pooled to form a single fund which is in
vested on behalf of all investors to help
work towards a better world.
For Green Bond enquiries please use the
coupon on the next page or simply phone
the Over 50's Friendly Society toll free on
008 033 262 and ask for an information
brochure.
ROB GELL is an ACF Councillor and Convenor of the
Over 50's Friendly Society and the ACF's Green Bond Panel.
The Victorian ACF Green Home Guidelines are available for
$20 from the A CF Melbourne ofce, tel: 03 4161166 or toll
free 008 332 510. Guidelines for other States will be available
later this year.
I T A T A U S T R A L J U L Y 1 9 9 2 15
A healthy investment
in a healthier world
The ACF Green Bond
A coming together of the Australian
Conservation Foundation and the Over 50's
Friendly Society to provide an opportunity for
savings to be aligned with personal beliefs.
The ACF Green Bond offers you an excellent
investment opportunity with tax advantages of a
single premium life insurance policy7. It offers
personal income tax advantages for both short and
long-term investors.
Loans will be provided for environmentally
suitable projects. Projects which the Australian
Conseration Foundation believes will have a
positive impact on the environment and which the
Over 50's Friendly Society is satised will be a
secure investment and provide an acceptable rate of
return to investors.
All you need to know.
Complete information about the Over 50's Friendly
Society's ACF Green Bond is included with the
Application Form for Membership of the fund.
You can obtain a copy by lling in the coupon
or phoning one of die numbers below.
I want my money to work for a better world.
To: ACF Green Bond
C/- The Over 50's Friendly-Society
Reply Paid 1438
Level 5
150 Queen Street
Melbourne 3000
For complete information on the ACF Green
Bond, mail this coupon or phone:
Melbourne: 602 2800
Country Victoria: 008 033 262
Sydney: 223 8233
Country NSW: 008 451 403
My name .
Address
Postcode
[ ] I am a professional investment adviser
All benets are provided by the
Over 50's Friendly Society.
W A D E
Linking environment and the arts
B Y P E N N Y U N D E R W O O D
! Eastern Curlew.
" Photo by Clive Minton
Bach year over 2 million wading birds
attempt ajoumey of over 13,000 km
from south-east Australasia to Sibe
ria and Alaska to breed, before re
turning to their southern feeding grounds.
Standing a metre high, the Eastern Curlew
is the largest wading bird to make this
inspirational trip. Its theatrical presence -
long legs, big body and down-curved beak
- makes it a natural to star in an international
play called 'Waderbirds - Odyssey of the
Wetlands'.
Waderbirds, an arts, science, environ
mental and education project, had its gen
esis in the highly successful Seagrass Story,
held three years running in the Victorian
community of Hastings on Westernport Bay
(see Habitat, December 1991).
The Eastern Curlew made its debut as a
giant puppet in the nal year. It was then
that artistic director, Meme McDonald, re
alised the story of the bird had potential to
raise awareness about the plight of wading
birds and their wetland habitat.
Along with visual artist Kate Clere and
project manager Nell White, Meme
McDonald, is now working to turn the
Waderbirds vision into reality.
The project will trace the ight of the
Eastern Curlew, starting in New Zealand's
north island in January 1993, returning to
Melbourne's western wetlands before head
ing onto Broome, then onto Hong Kong's
Mia Po marshes, and nally onto Kushiro,
Japan, to coincide with the International
RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands in June.
Australia was the rst signatory to the
RAMSAR Convention, and the western
shores of Port Phillip Bay were one of the
rst sites listed under the Convention.
At each location, Meme McDonald and a
group of artists, including re sculptors,
puppeteers and dancers, will join with the
local community in creating a giant outdoor
play. Beginning with a torch-lit procession,
the story of the vast ight will be staged at
dusk.
The project was launched in Melbourne
in April by Australia's Ambassador for the
Environment, Sir Ninian Stephen. It is being
supported by the Australian National Parks
and Wildlife Service (ANPWS), the Myer
Foundation, the Australia Council and the
Victorian Government's Department of
Conservation and Environment.
Says Meme McDonald:
The number of Eastern Curlews arriving in
Australia has dropped by 20 per cent in the past
16 I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
! Local children launch the Waderbirds project under Melbourne's Westgate Bridge.
" Photo by Peter Weaving, Emerald Hill, Sandridge and St Kilda Times.
15 years, a warning of habitat destruction along
the vast East Asian yway.
Birds are a great bio-indicator of our environ
ment: if pollutants are dropped into waterways
or habitat is destroyed, birds vanish. People
are aware of birds; they also notice when they
are missing. The challenge is to make people
start asking questions about why the birds are
missing.
The theatre will be supported by educa
tion work and scientic research - includ
ing bird watching, catching and banding.
Very little is known about the Eastern Cur
lew, rated as being 'of special concern' by
the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Un
ion (RAOU). It is the loner of the wading
bird world, roosting by itself or in loose
packs. It is shy, probably as a result of being
hunted in Asia.
Of equal concern is the status of the East
Asian yway, the most threatened of all the
world's migratory systems. It covers some
of the highest human population densities
outside the developed world, which are
growing at 55 million a year.
The yway is one of the largest and most
complex bird systems, but one of the least
studied. A 1989 review of Asia's wetlands
showed there were around 120 million ha in
the region. According to the Asian Wet
lands Bureau, around 73 million ha had
already been reclaimed for agriculture,
aquaculture, salt production or urban de
velopment. South Korea, Malaysia and Vi
etnam have all recently unveiled plans to
reclaim more wetlands, thus potentially re
moving further vital stopovers for the mi
gratory birds on their long sea crossings.
The effect of habitat destruction on wad
ing birds is already obvious. As a result,
Australia has negotiated migratory bird
treaties with Japan and China to ensure that
migratory birds are protected in these coun
tries.
The agreements include measures to es
tablish sanctuaries, exchange information,
and prevent plants and animals being im
ported to either country. The JAMBA and
CAMBA agreements have identied the
Eastern Curlew for special consideration
over the next two years.
Preliminary drafts for agreements with
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have also
been prepared and, hopefully, will be signed
during 1992.
ANPWS, too is developing a multilateral
migratory birds agreement, under the aegis
of the Convention on the Conservation of
Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Bonn
Convention), which Australia joined in
September 1991. This agreement will bring
together all of the counties on the East Asian
yway on lines similar to the bilateral trea
ties already in place with Japan and China.
For many of us, the wetlands that the
Eastern Curlew and other wading birds feed
and roost on are utterly unmemorable.
What 'Waderbirds - Odyssey of the Wet
lands' sets out to do is to make people start
caring as much about stretches of mud and
marsh, and the birds that inhabit them, as
they do about rainforests. Meme McDonald
has convinced the bureaucrats, scientists and
bird-lovers that she can do it through art -
it's now up to the community to take up the
challenge.
PENNY UNDERWOOD is a freelance journalist and
publicist working with Waderbirds.
For further information contact:
'Waderbirds', c/o Nell White, 801 Brunswick Street, North
Fitzroy, Vic. 3068. tel: 03 4811850
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L J U L Y 1 9 9 2 17
%'mftiife
Dhe Lake Eyre Basin is an extraordi
nary region. Within it are dune and
gibber deserts which can be hot to
incandescence. Within it also are
some of Australia's richest wetlands, cool
oases of redgums and coolibahs, teeming
with birds and sh. Out on the gibber you
feel as remote from human contact as if you
were on Mars, yet the river oodplains are
littered with the bones, stones and shells of
a banished people. At midday in summer,
besieged by ies and caked with dust, you
wish yourself a thousand kilometres south.
At sunset on the same day, camped by a lake
with Fairy Martins weaving overhead, you
wouldn't be anywhere else. It is a land of
paradox - never easy, often unpredictable,
but always deeply rewarding.
Conservation values
The Lake Eyre Basin is one of the world's
largest internally draining wetland systems,
covering an area of approximately 1.2
million sq. km. It is also a system of
remarkable complexity: no-one yet
understands the ecological functioning of
this bewildering maze of rivers, channels,
salt and freshwater lakes, ooded wood
lands, billabongs, internal deltas, swamps,
braided channels and anabranches.
Compounding this variability in space is
an extraordinary variability over time.
Australian rivers are variable on a world
scale, but the Lake Eyre Basin rivers are
exceptional even by Australian standards.
Peak ow in the great '74 ood of the Cooper
exceeded even the unprecedented '56 ow
on the Murray. But such oods may be
followed by droughts which reduce the
Cooper to a string of waterholes. On every
visit you nd the country transformed: lakes
become meadows, billabongs become
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
channels, pools become claypans, dunes
become islands. It is frustrating and magical.
A great biological diversity has evolved
in response to this variety of environments.
Arid regions are generally assumed to be
barren of species, especially in comparison
with tropical regions. But this is not true of
Australian deserts: our so-called 'Dead
Heart' is vibrantly alive. A recent compari
son of the faunas of tropical Cape York and
the Cooper-Diamantina Channel country
shows that the Channel Country has twice
as many reptile species, signicantly more
birds, and a comparable number of mam-
LAKE EYRE
BASIN
Land of paradox
B Y J I M P U C K R I D G E
mals and amphibians.
To sit beside Coongie Lakes, on the north
west branch of the Cooper, is to take a seat
at one of the continent's great wildlife
spectacles. Pelicans, herons, egrets, cor
morants, ducks, grebes, swans, spoonbills,
coots, moorhens, kites, harriers, terns, wa
ter rats, tortoises, sh - feed, mate, quarrel,
play and rest almost at your feet, while the
teeming insect life of the lakeside wood
lands colonises your tent and feeds on your
body.
Such abundance is due to the Basin's ex
treme environmental uctuations. During
No-one yet understands the ecological complexity of
the Lake Eyre Basin.
! Opposite: Flooded clay pan, Coober Pedy area, SA.
" Photo by Peter Canty
! Above: Royal Spoonbills, Goyder's Lagoon,
Oiamantina River.
" Photo by David Neilson
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2 19
L A K E E Y R E
I At peak flow, the flood front of the Cooper may be 30km wide. " Photo by Peter Canty
drought the basis for the next bloom of life
is laid in the nutrients which accumulate in
the litter of the dry oodplains. Flooding
releases these nutrients to fuel massive
feeding, breeding and immigration cycles.
Waterbird densities at these times equal those
in Kakadu.
Wild rivers
It is of course rare to nd major rivers in
arid zones. Where they do occur (for exam
ple, in South Africa or the Sahara) they have
been almost invariably transformed by hu
man use. However, although the fertile
oodplain rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin
have supported Aboriginal populations for
many thousands of years, they have not
been subject to the major interventions of
modern technological society - impound
ments, irrigation schemes, pollution - which
have transformed rivers throughout the
world.
In this sense, the great rivers of the Basin,
the Cooper and the Diamantina-Georgina,
are still wild. You will not get a white-water
ride down them, but they are wild in the free
swing of their vast natural cycles. In con
trast, the Murray-Darling, Australia's great
est river, caged by dams and weirs, is in
fested with pests, its ecology crippled, its
communities of native plants and animals
shrunken. Even now, the ourishing sh
and invertebrate communities of the Cooper
are providing scientists with information
about the measures that might be appropri
ate to restore the Murray's damaged ecosys
tem.
Underground aquifers
Underlying the Lake Eyre Basin is the larg
est discrete system of underground aquifers
in the world, the Great Artesian Basin. Along
the western margin, the ancient waters of
this Basin break the surface to form an arc
of permanent fresh water springs - the
Mound Springs. These springs, oases of
permanence in a changeable land, are com
parable in evolutionary terms to an ocean
island chain - an inland Galapagos - rich in
endemic species and unique biological ad
aptations.
Lake Eyre itself, the terminus of drainage
in the system, is an enormous playa, and
undergoes fresh and salt phases accompa
nied by spectacular cycles of breeding and
destruction in its sh and waterbird
populations. It is the remnant of a once far
greater lake, Dieri, which in the Pliocene,
would have fullled Sturt's dream of an
inland sea at the heart of a fertile, forested
basin.
The terrestrial environments of the Lake
Eyre Basin are also varied, and include many
types of dune systems, gibber plains, sand
plains and dissected tablelands. All of these
environments, despite the formidable
stresses they impose on living things within
them, have a diverse and distinctive ora
and fauna, remarkably adapted to aridity,
extremes of temperature and capricious en
vironmental change.
The Basin also holds a rich record of its
past life. There are many fossil sites in the
playa lakes to the south and west of Lake
Eyre and in the Tirari Desert. You can (with
a permit) still track the footprints of a
diprotodon across the dry bed of Lake
Callabonna.
Archeologica! record
The archeological signicance of much of
the Lake Eyre basin has yet to be thoroughly
assessed. But there is no doubt it holds the
record of a great and various Aboriginal
culture. Sturt, on meeting the Aborigines of
the Cooper, remarked on the exceptional
health and physique of those people. In the
Cooper oodplain alone there are innumer
able middens, burial grounds, artifacts, en
gravings, stone arrangements, quarry sites,
trade routes and sacred places. Almost every
step you take on the Cooper oodplain falls
on shell or stone fragments. If you look
between your feet, you nd marsupial teeth,
emu egg fragments, sh ear-bones and ochre
traded from the Flinders Ranges. This herit
age is of inestimable value for the present
Aboriginal population and white Australians
alike.
Impacts
European exploration of the Basin brought
with it devastation of the Aboriginal popu
lation and an unrestrained exploitation of its
natural resources. This exploitation contin
ues today. While many of these destructive
agents do not act in the immediately catas
trophic manner of logging, their transfor
mation of the arid zone has been no less
drastic. Of the 20 Australian mammals now
extinct, most were from the arid zone.
Wild horses, donkeys, camels, pigs, cats,
foxes, and especially rabbits have inicted
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2
LAKE EYRE BASIN
NORTHERN TERRITORY
Alice Springs
LAKE EYRE-'
CooberPedy'
SOUTH
AUSTRALIA
~J Proposed world heritage area
~2 Mound springs
extensive damage on arid zone plants, ani
mals and soils. And the introduction of feral
animals continues. In 1989 the Queensland
Department of Primary Industries introduced
Murray Cod, a sh exotic to the Lake Eyre
Basin, into the Cooper system.
Despite recent improvements in grazing
practices, the pastoral industry in the arid
zone continues to degrade soils, accelerate
erosion, and transform vegetation commu
nities. Blame for grazing impacts is often
passed to rabbits, but it is rarely acknowl
edged that rabbit damage differs in location
and kind from that of cattle. Cattle congretate
on the river oodplains and fragile wetland
margins, compounding grazing damage with
trampling.
Much of the Lake Eyre Basin is under
mining lease, principally for hydrocarbon
exploration and extraction. While explora
tion practices in this industry have been
improved in recent years, the impact of
massive infrastructure works such as roads
and townships continues.
With the advent of 4WD vehicles, the arid
zone has also become a favoured destina
tion for tourists. The effects of off-road
driving, camping and the proliferation of
facilities to cater for this trafc are escala
ting rapidly.
Protection
Over 100 items in the Lake Eyre Basin are
listed under the National Estate, and 16
areas region are reserved under the National
Parks Acts of the relevant States. The lower
Cooper oodplain is listed under the Ramsar
Convention for the Protection of Wetlands
of International Importance. However, such
listing does not confer any precise legally
enforceable constraints on use of such
areas. Mining, tourist activity and grazing
continue in most of the reserves, even in the
'Control Zones' enclosing sites of prime
conservation signicance, such as the
Coongie Lakes.
A new initiative is required to establish
the primacy of conservation in representa
tive ecotypes of the Basin. Furthermore,
this initiative must be co-ordinated on a
catchment basis if the biological integrity of
all the Basin wetlands is to be protected.
Vegetation clearing and overgrazing are
widespread in the Queensland catchments
of the major Lake Eyre Basin rivers. River
regulation, irrigation schemes, water with
drawals, oodplain alienation and further
water pollution will inevitably follow if an
interstate system of catchment management
is not set up as a matter of urgency. The
crippling of the Murray-Darling should be
sufcient warning that ecological realities
transcend State boundaries.
What we are doing
The Adelaide Ofce of the Australian Con
servation Foundation, in collaboration with
the Conservation Council of SA, is cam
paigning for:
establishment of an interstate-Federal
catchment management body for the Lake
Eyre Basin; and
nomination of the Lake Eyre Basin as a
World Heritage Region. The Region
would consist of a core of highly con
served sites, surrounded by a basin-wide
buffer zone.
It is critical that Aboriginal people with
traditional ties to the region be involved in
these campaigns, and in the resultant man
agement bodies.
International support for these initiatives
was given at the December 1990 Congress
of the International Union for the Conserva
tion of Nature (IUCN) in Perth, which passed
a resolution urging the State and Federal
Governments to evaluate the Basin's World
Heritage eligibility, and to pursue its con
servation on a catchment basis.
If these things can be achieved, we might
have an 'outback' which will enhance -
rather than diminish - our sense of Austra
lian identity. Because the Lake Eyre Basin
is distinctly, ercely Australian. Its owers
and trees, its extraordinary animals, its riv
ers and deserts, are like nothing else on
Earth. And for all the mistakes of the past,
the coolibahs and billabongs, the dusty tracks
and scarlet sunsets, the orange dunes and
vast oods of the inland have woven them
selves into our stories, songs, poems - our
cultural mythology. Of course it is a roman
tic and increasingly unreal mythology. But
the fact that we felt compelled to create it
demonstrates our need for some relation
ship with our country's heartland, the Out
back of Australia.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Write to the South Australian, Queens
land, Northern Territory and Federal
Ministers for the Environment, urging
them to co-operate i n carryi ng out
Resolution 77 of the 18th General As
sembly of the IUCN, 1990, to establish
an interstate-Federal catchment man
agement body for the Lake Eyre Basin
and nominate it as a World Heritage
Region:
The Hon. Susan Lenehan, SA Minis
ter for Environment and Planning, GPO
Box 1047, Adelaide 5001. The Hon. Pat
Comben MLA, Qld. Minister for Environ
ment and Heritage, 19th Floor, 160 Anne
St, Brisbane 4001.
The Hon. Mike Reed MLA, NT Minis
ter for Conservation, Northern Territory
House, Mitchell St, Darwin, NT 0800
The Hon. Ros Kelly, Federal Minister
for the Environment, Parliament House,
Canberra ACT 2600.
JIM PUCKRIOGE is an aguatic ecologist in the
Department of Zoology, University ol Adelaide, and the
Conservation Council ofSA's representative for the SA
section ol the Lake Eyre Basin.
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2
Qor many Australians the inland is pictured as a vast, un
changing wasteland interrupted only by the odd spectacular
geological landmark. Within this so-called desert, however,
a series of dramatically beautiful mountain ranges and their
surrounding fertile ood plains hold the key to a biodiversity as
astonishing and varied as any in the continent.
Vital oases
Certainly, considered on their height alone, the mountains of Aus
tralia's inland would not break any world records. Millions of years
of erosion have reduced these once towering ranges to a mere 600 m
or so above the surrounding plains. Mount Zeil, in the MacDonnells,
the highest peak in Australia west of the Great Dividing Range,
stands just 1,500 m high. However, it is precisely this overall
atness which make the relatively slight rises of the ranges so
signicant within the arid lands.
In a vast, level continent, 600 m can have an enormous impact
upon the local climate, and relatively small topographical changes
are enough to cause a slight - but critical - increase in the total
amount of rainfall. Some of this rain stays within the ranges,
collecting in the myriad permanent and semi-permanent rockholes
and gorges. But much runs off the slopes to soak in at the base,
creating fertile, well-watered 'run-on' areas that are rich in seeds,
soils and nutrients.
These run-on areas, though visually less spectacular than the
ranges, are at least as important as the hills themselves. The combi-
I T A T A U S T R A L I A
nation of climate and diverse topography results in a level of habitat ! Ormiston Gorge and Pound National Park viewed tram Ormiston Range (West
diversity far richer than might be expected. Sun and shade, crags MacDonnells). Mt Giles dominates the horizon. The fertile run-on area between
and gentle slopes, rich soils and water-bearing crevices combine in these ranaes is 3" integral part of this arid range ecosystem.
theliills tod run*-on areas to make the mountain ranges vital oases in '-'Pnoto by M'ke G'"am
the arid lands.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the MacDonnell Range
complex in Central Australia, a series of metamorphosed sedimen
tary formations whose harder northern parts were formed in pre-
Cambriah times a billion years ago. As well as beneting from the
increased rainfall caused by their height, the MacDonnells, like
their western neighbour the Hamersleys, fall on the overlap be
tween the two climatic zones of tropical northern summer rainfall
* and .temperate southern winter frosts and rains.
K?!'~
i
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2 23
M A C D O N N E L L S
Evolutionary anomalies
Of the 1,400 plant species known to occur
in Central Australia at least one third can be
found within 10 ha of the Palm Valley/
George Gill Range region of the MacDonnell
Range complex. These rich areas have al
lowed curious anomalies to slip through the
evolutionary net: the nearest neighbours of
the palm Livistona mariae occur over 1,000
km away in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and
those of the cycad Macrozamia macdonnellii
are found in the south-west of Western Aus
tralia. A fauna survey undertaken by the
Conservation Commission of the Northern
Territory (CCNT) during 1990-91 revealed
121 species of birds, 85 reptiles, 24 native
mammals and, a surprise for many visitors,
11 sh and 5 frogs.
Many of the rare plants which thrive within
these rich environments are 'relict' species
that have existed in the ranges since Aus
tralia was linked to Antarctica, India and
part of Africa and South America in the
ancient super-continent, Gondwanaland.
These Gondwanan species have survived
15 million years of severe climate oscilla
tions, often simply through their ability to
thrive on the inhospitable, exposed northern
slopes of the ranges. Euphorbia
sarcostemmoides, one of Australia's very
few attempts at a cactus, is one such survi
vor.
Environmental threats
The richness of the ranges has, of course,
long been recognised, rstly by the indig
enous ora and fauna, then by the Aborigi
nal people who came to live amongst them
and, most recently, by the white explorers
who 'discovered' the area just over a cen
tury ago. The explorer John McDouall
Stuart's enthusiastic description of the
Ranges in 1860, '...as ne a pastoral hill
country as man could wish to possess; grass
to the top of the hill and abundance of water
through the whole ranges...', led to a wave
of occupation, whose impact is still being
felt. Pastoralists brought livestock, pack-
animals and a host of domesticated animals
as they followed the nutrient-rich river val
leys of the inland, displacing the Aboriginal
people by claiming these prize areas for
grazing.
Not only were the ranges themselves af
fected but so too were their vital surround
ing run-on areas: the ood-out plains at the
ranges' base which have received and col
lected the mineral-bearing deposits of mil
lions of years of rainfall. Overstocking in
the early decades of European incursion into
the arid lands was followed by herd reduc
tion and increased dependence on the rich
run-on areas for fattening livestock. Now,
the areas critical to the survival of our native
ora and fauna are equally vital to the vi
ability of stations near the ranges: gures
from one paddock in the MacDonnells show
that 80 per cent of cattle production comes
from less than 40 per cent of the paddock
area.
Cattle were not the only exotic species the
new settlers bought with them. Cats, foxes,
camels, horses and, in other parts of the
country, pigs and goats, escaped or were
released from captivity, and adapted quickly
RETURN OF THE BRUSHTAIL
0iven its abundance in eastern Australia
and its pest status in New Zealand, few
people can comprehend the fact that
the Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
is endangered in Central Australia. Centralian
Brushtails are smaller than their south-east
ern relatives; their tails are less bushy and
they have a strong rufous colouring on their
shoulders and backs. Research is underway
to determine whether they are a distinct spe
cies.
Like most other medium-sized mammals in
arid Australia, Brushtail Possums underwent
a massive decline in numbers and distribution
from about the 1920s. Currently, there are
only eight known populations in Central Aus
tralia, seven of which are in the MacDonnells
and one in the Petermann Range.
Radio-tracking has shown that the
MacDonnells possums den only occasionally
in tree hollows, and mostly in small caves,
crevices and solution cavities in the rocky hills.
Q Photo by Jeff Foulkes
They spend a considerable amount of time on the ground and
move surprisingly quickly over very rough terrain.
With the help of the Anangu people (see Habitat, June 1991),
biologists Jeff Foulkes and Anne Kerle recently carried out a
feasibility study for reintroducing the possum into Uluru Na
tional Park. Their research suggests that re
source competition during prolonged drought
periods, particularly from rabbits, and to a
lesser extent, cattle, horses and camels, have
played a signicant role in the decline and
disappearance of possums in Central Aus
tralia. Extreme competition pressure and
habitat alteration concentrated on the nutri
ent-rich drought refuges, where low popula
ti on l evel s have been subsequentl y
maintained by predators.
The preferred diet of the possum includes
the leaves and owers of acacias, Ironwood,
mistletoes, Plumbush, Bush Banana, and
River Red Gums - all plants with a higher
nutrient content than average for the area.
The success of any reintroduction program
is dependent upon the careful selection of
critical habitats, and their subsequent man
agement against predators, introduced com
petitors and wildre. The apparent recent
colonisation of a small park west of Alice
Springs is encouraging, as it appears that rabbit control has
permitted the slow regeneration of habitat rich enough for
Brushtails.
The return of the possum to Central Australia will depend upon
similar programs in other drought-refuge areas.
A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
to their new environment. The
herbivores were attracted to
the righ run-on areas, and the
carnivores revelled in the
supply of vulnerable native
mammals.
And now the ranges are
learning to cope with the lat
est invasion - this time from
tourists. From backpackers to
4-wheel-drivers, people like
ourselves who are no longer
satised with the cosseted
'wilderness experience' of the
Ayers Rock tour are visiting
the ranges in ever-increasing
numbers. Humans have a
knack of disturbing their en
vironment, and whilst distur
bances such as ooding are
often a part of the natural eco
system, the sustained distur
bance of humans and their
activities - be it livestock grazing or tour
ist visitation - focused upon a few critical
areas, creates the ideal conditions for the
introduction of exotic plants and animals.
Once again, the MacDonnells offer a prime
example of the effects of tourist pressure on
the nutrient and water-rich areas. The
waterholes, gaps and gorges which we visit
are the same core refuges that sustain native
ora and fauna. Tourists, with the encour
agement of the Central Australian tourist
industry and the Northern Territory Gov
ernment, are visiting these areas in increas
ing numbers.
This combination of stress-factors has
proved too much for some native species
struggling to eke out an existence on the
periphery of their habitat. In spite of the
diversity discovered during the CCNT sur
vey, the MacDonnells are known to have
lost 35 per cent of their native mammal
species in the last hundred years. The Alice
Springs Mouse, the Red-tailed Phascogale
and the Spectacled Hare-wallaby have dis
appeared for ever from the Ranges, and the
conservation status of many others such as
the Striped Legless Lizard, Aprasia striolata,
which has not been seen since 1921, is un
known.
To their credit, both the Central Austral
ian tourist industry and the CCNT are aware
of the need to control visitor numbers and
movement within the Ranges. Removal or
control of competitive exotic herbivores such
Mountain ranges
Climate overlap zone of summer/winter moisture and frost
! Australian mountain ranges. The 250 mm and 500 mm mean annual rainfall isohyets
show the extent of the arid and semi-arid lands and the inuence of the central ranges
on increasing local rainfall.
0 Map based on workbyG.S. Griff en, S.R. Morton, K.S. Shurcliff & S.G. Taylor
as rabbits and cattle reduce the stresses on
native ora and fauna (see Box). However,
preserving the permanent waterholes, whilst
obviously important, is only part of the so
lution.
National park
The Territory Government has promised for
many years to create a 'world-class'
MacDonnell Range National Park. But if
the Park is to be truly world class, then more
steps need to be taken than just adding small
patches containing gaps and gorges to the
conservation estate. The surrounding run-
on areas, which are an integral part of the
Ranges ecosystem, must also be included.
At the moment the ood-out areas are
seriously under-represented in the National
Park network. The vast majority of the
conservation estate is concentrated in the
recognised areas of scenic beauty and high
tourist visitation.
After missing various opportunities, the
NT Government has recently compulsorily
acquired parts of three separate cattle sta
tions: Glen Helen; the southern strip of
Narwietooma Station, which includes
Mounts Razorback and Zeil; and the whole
of Milton Park, including much of the less
spectacular ood plains described above.
This is good news, but there is some con
cern in conservation circles over the amount
of land from the latter acquisition that will
actually become part of the MacDonnell
Davenport
Range National Park. In an
attempt to recoup some of the
cost of the initial purchase,
the NT Government is con
sidering reselling parts of this
land to surrounding pastoral
stations. It would be a bitter
irony indeed if land so im
portant and so hard fought for
were thrown away for such
short-term gain.
Conservationists are also
concerned at the NT Govern
ment's rather utilitarian con
cept of the Park. The
announcement to acquire the
land was made by Chief Min
ister Marshall Perron at a
meeting of members of the
tourist industry, and major
tourist developments - with
all their attendant problems -
at;e planned within the Park
area. Allied to this are the 'savings' which
have been made by reducing the CCNT's
funding, making the job of managing the
expanding Park estate ever more difcult.
We mightn't have a Mont Blanc or a K2,
but Australia's arid mountain ranges are as
important as any in the world. In the race to
provide visitors with the elusive Magni
cent Spectacle, it is vital that the less spec
tacular run-on areas not be overlooked. The
protection of our fragile arid ora and fauna
will depend upon our ability to manage the
ranges as whole systems - not just isolated
tourist attractions.
MARK McLEAN is a volunteer at the Arid Lands
Environment Centre. HABITA T thanks the ALEC staff and
members for help in compiling this article.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you wish to see a truly world-class
National Park in the MacDonnell Range,
please write a letter to the NT Minister
for Conservation, the Hon. Mike Reed
MLA, Northern Territory House, Mitchell
St, Darwin, NT 0800, asking that he
retain all of Milton Park as a conservation
reserve.
For further information, please contact
the Arid Lands Environment Centre, PO
Box 2796, Alice Springs, NT 0871, tel.
(089) 526 782.
A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 25
FLI NDERS RAI N
From the Dreamtime to the present
26
B Y D O R O T H Y T U N B R I D G E
When Europeans arrived in the
Flinders Ranges, SA, in the 1850s,
the region was rich in native
mammals. Within only 50 years,
two-thirds of the region's
terrestial mammals were gone
forever, along with one mammal-
eating bat. The local Aboriginal
people had lost the meat which
had sustained them for thousands
of years.
Here, linguist Dorothy Tunbridge
recounts how she began, with her
Adnyamathanha advisers, the
unique investigation which
revealed this disturbing history.
Q his story begins with a list of around
a dozen words in Yura Ngawarla,
the language of the Adnyamathanha
people of the Flinders Ranges. These
words were said to refer to mammals: the
trouble was, no-one could attach them to
any animals in existence.
In 19841 was at the Nepabunna Aborigi
nal School at the request of the
Adnyamathanha community to develop the
U Right: Antiu. the Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby, still
relatively secure in the Flinders Ranges, although
possibly under threat in places because of trafc,
visitors and feral goats.
" Photo by Allan Fox/The Quality Image
! Inset: Dorothy Tunbridge with some of her
Adnyamathanha advisers, (from left) Artie Wilton,
Louie Wilton, Mavis Patterson, Rita Coulthard and
Dolly Coulthard.
" Photo by Allan Fox/The Quality Image
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2
W.f
- +!4" ' ' >' ' ' ' ; . y^' ' ' ' -
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ittr m <"
Y #fiw
* * :
*
GES MAMMALS
"'.. i-
Victims of European
settlement.
! Urli, the Greater Stick-
nest Rat, now extinct on
mainland Australia,
disappeared from the
Flinders Ranges
between 1860-90 but
survived in Central
Australia until the 1930s
or 1940s. The remains of
one of its extraordinary
nests (below left) was
photographed in Palm
Valley in 1985.
BFarright:Yar\pu, the
Greater Bilby, became
extinct in the Flinders
Ranges about 1920. It is
now found only rarely in
parts of Central
Australia, including
southwestern Qld.
" Photos (clockwise from
top): Heather Aslin;
T. Lochman/NPIAW: Anne
Kerle.
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F L I N D E R S R A N G E S M A M M A L S
Yura Ngawarla orthography (writing sys
tem) so language could be introduced into
the school curriculum. One day, Annie
Coulthard, the most knowledgeable person
in the community and my senior adviser,
sang me a lullaby about a little girl who
became lost at Martin's Well while wearing
a long urnda skin cloak. The problem was,
Mrs Coulthard had no idea what an urnda
was. Indeed, few people in Nepabunna had
ever even heard the word.
Other words were soon added to the list
of vanished species - warda, yarlpu, idnya,
urli, virlda, maiarru, ulka, pudkurra and
yaliwarrunha andu. I also suspected there
were others whose names had long since
been lost from the language.
Although I was somewhat ignorant about
our native mammals, I had - and have - an
insatiable curiosity about language. I set
about trying to nd out the identity of these
mammals, as well as when and why they
became extinct, and what they had meant
to the Adnyamathanha people.
Starting the investigation with words
rather than with hard evidence - live speci
mens, or skeletal remains, or skins - as a
mammalogist would, had certain advan
tages. Words survive after a species be
comes extinct. If they are culturally
signicant (for instance, if they occur in
songs or Dreaming stories or place names)
they could survive a hundred years or more.
This means that even if people do not know
the specic meaning of a mammal word,
they may know something about the ani
mal the word represents from the oral tra
dition.
A le was opened on each Yura Ngawarla
name and/or known Flinders Ranges spe
cies. The Adnyamathanha consultants
quickly matched known species to words.
For instance, it wasn't hard to identify urdlu
as the Red Kangaroo, or andu as that most
beautiful of Flinders Ranges mammals, the
Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby. People be
gan to dig into their memories for anything
they could remember. The late Rufus
Wilton recalled that his mother (born
probably before 1880) used to sing the
lullaby about the lost child, but because the
urnda died out before he was born (1909),
she substituted the name andu in the song.
His father had described the urnda as a
small, light-coloured wallaby. Jack
Coulthard, born around the 1870s, told his
grandson Les Wilton how it was skinned to
make a waterbag. I now began to estimate
NORTHERN TERRITORY
QUEENSLAND
I
Adnyamathanha
territory, SA
i
i
^ N e p a b u n n a .
l ake Tor r ens \ \ S/
when the urnda was last sighted.
A prole was built up on each mammal
under its Yura Ngawarla and/or English
name. The elders were particularly knowl
edgeable about mammal behaviour and
eating habits. Soon I had long lists of foods
eaten by present-day mammals. (How many
days or months would it take a researcher
in the eld to nd that out?) I even had
notes on the diet of extinct species.
Skin displays
In 1985, with help from the Australian Na
tional Parks and Wildlife Service, I invited
three well-known South Australian zoolo
gists, Cath Kemper, Peter Copley and Tony
Robertson, to bring a set of mammal skins
from the South Australian Museum and
come with me on a tour of the various
Adnyamathanha communities.
Being able to see and handle some of the
specimens was for the older Adnya
mathanha people a very emotional experi
ence; the skins triggered long-buried
memories. We heard Rufus Wilton iden
tify the Ghost Bat by its Yura Ngawarla
name, several people offer names for the
'black stuff associated with stick-nest rat
nests, and so on.
The late Claude Demell picked out a
Bilby skin and said his father had shown
him a dead one of those some time before
1920 and named it yarlpu. Later, in a
deeply moving moment in Nepabunna
Aboriginal School, the whole community
listened as the late Lynch Ryan, holding a
Bilby skin in his arms and stroking it gen
tly, explained, 'This is my brother'. He
went on to tell stories about this, his totem
animal. No-one would have guessed that
this species had virtually disappeared be
fore Mr Ryan was born.
Dreaming record
In 1986, while working on Flinders
Ranges Dreaming, I came upon a story
about a woman who went mad hunting the
urnda, a 'scrub wallaby', with her dog. The
wallaby kept running into a hollow log at a
place near Nepabunna, and just as the
woman thought she had it trapped, it es
caped out the other end! This story pro
vided good information about the urnda's
habitat and behaviour. I also learnt that the
now long extinct stick-nest rats and bandi
coots had walked across the stage of
Dreaming history. There were stories about
how idnya the native cat, or Western Quoll,
got its spots and about marrukurli, a large
striped 'dog'. Records of sub-fossil remains
of the Tasmanian Tiger near where the
marrukurli ranged in the Dreaming set me
thinking.
Comparative linguistics
The linguist in me, however, did not lost
sight of my list of words. They had more to
tell us yet. I knew that Yura Ngawarla and
the now largely unspoken Aboriginal lan
guages of the region around the two South
Australian Gulfs were genetically related -
that is, they descended from a common
ancestor language. Finding words in another
language related to Yura Ngawarla would
help identify species and map their former
distribution.
Words by now could have changed their
shape as each language underwent the
process of change. For instance, Yura
Ngawarla had lost initial 'k' sounds. It was
not surprising, then, to nd a word for the
Red Kangaroo - urdlu in Yura Ngawarla -
appearing as kurdlu in old language records
of the Gulfs region, and a word for one stick-
nest rat - urli in Yura Ngawarla - appear
ing as kurli on Eyre Peninsula. I found
related words in regional languages for
more than one species each of wallaby,
stick-nest rat, bettong, native cat, bandi
coot, possum, and so on. Sometimes Yura
Ngawarla helped us identify mammals
28 A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
I Urnda, the Crescent Nailtail Wallaby, now extinct. From The Mammals of Australia by John Gould. " Museum of Victoria
listed in other language records. Sometimes
the English translations for other languages
helped us build up a picture of an unidenti
ed species.
And what of urnda? It turned up as kurnda
throughout the entire region! Its prole
grew as the English meanings were noted.
It was by now a light-coloured 'brush' or
'scrub' wallaby; it was 'small' beside the
Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby; it lived both
in the Ranges and on the plains in scrubby
country; it ran into hollow logs when
chased; it was good for food and its fur
made a good waterbag or blanket. And
nally, it was described on Yorke Peninsula
as 'the white-shouldered wallaby' - a de
scri pti on l ater conrmed by an
Adnyamathanha man, Eric McKenzie, who
had had it from his elders.
Historical records
The problem now was that the most dis
tinctively 'white-shouldered' wallaby
known to have existed, the Crescent Nailtail
Wallaby, was recorded historically only
for Central and Western Australia. Could it
have once lived in the Flinders Ranges? I
had "aeeu warned about the dangers of
speculation: zoologists wanted hard evi
dence, and there was none to locate this
wallaby in either the Flinders Ranges or
the Gulfs region.
This led me to comb through historical
records, with the help of mammalogists
John Calaby, Cath Kemper and others. The
19th-century naturalist, Krefft, had obtained
mammal specimens from western New
South Wales and even recorded their Abo
riginal names. In 1966 zoologist N. A.
Wakeeld reported that one of Krefft's
specimens lodged in the Victorian Museum
had been incorrectly labelled, and was in
fact a specimen of Crescent Nailtail Wal
laby. This, along with a West Australian
Museum record of sub-fossil remains from
Maralinga in South Australia, put the former
range of this wallaby both east and west of
the Flinders Ranges.
Not being tied by scientic conventions
which demanded hard evidence, I an
nounced that the linguistic, cultural and
scientic evidence together suggested that
not only did the Flinders Ranges word urnda
refer to the Crescent Nailtail Wallaby, but
that this animal had lived throughout the
entire Gulfs region.
Sub-fossil remains
I wished, however, that I had the sort of
hard evidence which pleases zoologists.
Proof of the Crescent Nailtail Wallaby's
former existence in the Flinders Ranges
region nally came - from Adelaide sci
ence teacher, Graham Medlin. Helped by
his students over several years, he had
amassed an amazing Flinders Ranges sub-
fossil collection - thousands of pieces of
mammal remains, mostly (but not only)
found in owl pellets. Careful examination
of a mammal fragment in his collection,
now lpdged;at the; South Australian Mu-"
seum, showed indisputably that it came
from an individual of this species!
Medlin's sub-fossil remains, estimated
to be no more than 400 years old, repre
sented an extensive inventory of recent
Flinders Ranges mammal species. By now
I had already independently identied the
species my list of words referred to, and
knew roughly when the extinct species were
last seen. Most of these were represented
in the remains, as well as many smaller
species not distinguished in Yura Ngawarla
taxonomy.
All in all, the linguistic, cultural, histori
cal and scientic evidence of our research
indicated that, at the time of European set
tlement, there were around "55 native
mammal species in the Flinders Ranges
region - more than twice the number previ
ously believed to have been present.
Catastrophe
Aboriginal people had lived in the Flinders
Ranges environment for millenia: they
knew that their survival depended on the
environment's survival and their laws and
practices protected it. Into this delicately
balanced ecosystem Europeans introduced
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y ' 1 ' 9 9 2
Landcare
Learning to Care for our Land.
The impact of excessive land clearing over the last
two hundred years has been devastating.
Native wildlife has suffered, water and air polluted,
the soil degraded. 75% of Australia's rainforests have
already been destroyed.
Landcare, a co-operative program between the
Government and the community, aims to encourage good
land management to prevent further land degradation.
To mark the Decade of Landcare, Australia Post is
proud to release "Gaining Ground - Landcare in Australia'.'
Landcare begins in your
own backyard.
This beautifully produced hard cover book tells the
story of Australia's agricultural history and of the Landcare
groups presently working to redress past mistakes and
develop new agricultural systems.
It offers suggestions on how we can all become
actively involved in the Landcare movement.
A must for your reference library.
At just $15.95, which includes a Landcare stamp
pack, this informative book will put you in touch with this
environmental issue which affects us all.
Available at your Post Ofce from 11 June, 1992.
lirlit/l. 5.r,'A,
L,
< * > ,
I. A S' I) C A K F. I
s A U S 1 K A L I A
GROUND
A x !/
/
M Y
F L I N D E R S R A N G E S M A M M A L S
a totally alien form of land use, stocking
their properties with thousands of head of
sheep and cattle, according to government-
set minimums. The rst post-settlement
drought arrived in 1864. Contemporary
records tell us that by early 1865 the squat
ters' herds had 'utterly consumed or trod
den out every vestige of grass or feed within
miles of water'. The country was stinking
with the smell of dead cattle and sheep.
Wallabies, euros and kangaroos were lying
dead in all directions, and those that re
mained were so reduced in number that
they were described as having become 'a
rarity in districts that generally teemed with
them'. Those mammal species which sur
vived that drought were probably nished
off in the 1888 drought, or in the drought of
1896-1902 by which time rabbits had be
come an added menace. (Foxes did not
arrive until 1910.)
Within 50 years, two-thirds of the re
gion's 45 terestial mammal species had
vanished - virtually overnight - along with
the carnivorous Ghost Bat. Europeans and
their land management practices had
changed the environment irrevocably.
The tragedy of it all is that, had this
devastation been observed with concern, it
may have been possible to save many of
these same mammal species in Central
Australia, where many survived a further
50 to 100 years before disappearing.
This is more than a story of mammals,
however: it is a human tragedy. The effect
of European settlement on Aboriginal peo
ple's ability to survive in their own terri
tory was devastating and irreversible.
Within only 15 years, the Aboriginal peo
ple of the Flinders Ranges were described
as being destitute, reduced to begging at
the doors of the settlers.
The loss of whole species, however,
meant innitely more than the loss of food
sources. For the Adnyamathanha people, it
meant the loss of part of their spiritual
connection with that environment, and with
it, part of their personal identity and the
meaning of existence. Who am I if I am no
longer a Bilby, linked to this place where
my 'brothers' lived? When one of the
Bilby's clan went near his camp, Mr Ryan
explained, he was pleased and came out of
his hole. What did people feel when the
Bilby no longer came out because he was
no longer there?
Many of my older Aboriginal friends
blamed themselves for the extinctions, be
lieving them to be due to their failure to
look after the land properly. Perhaps the
mammals disappeared because there was
no elder left who knew the right songs to
sing them out. Now, at least, their grand
children can know the truth about the sad
story of the Flinders Ranges mammals.
DOROTHY TUNBRIDGE is a linguist who has worked with
and for the Adnyamathanha people since 1981.
The Story of the Flinders Ranges Mammals by Dorothy
Tunbridge, in association with the Nepabunna Aboriginal
School (Kangaroo Press, 1991), is available from ACF Books
for $19.95, plus $3.50 p& p.
Ken Done, Michael Leunig,
Shane Pickett, Tjyllyungoo,
Julie Vivas, Neville Weston,
Brett Whiteley.
have donated artworks to support
Senator John Coulter's
Commonwealth Threatened Species Campaign.
You can help win this landmark legislation
by purchasing this magnicent poster and
by ordering a petition.
Phone 06 273 1059
H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2 3 1
ADVERTISEMENT
Bushwalking in the Arid Lands
nustralia' s arid lands contain
some of the most dramatic
and inspiring landscapes in
the world. Every year
hundreds of thousands of people come
to see places like Ayers Rock and the
Olgas. Tens of thousands spend a few
days touring those parts of the mountain
ranges which are easily accessible by
vehicle. They spend an hour here and
an hour there, never knowing the
wonders they have missed. Not one in
a thousand takes the time to really
experience this magnicent wilderness
in the only way it can be fully appreciated
- on foot.
An ever changing land
The Red Centre is not the Dead Centre.
It is the living heart of the world's oldest
continent. Rain is infrequent but when
it does arrive the land springs to life. A
few days after a good rain, new growth
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multiply in their thousands. The sight
of thousands of budgerigars swooping
and turning in unison is one of the most
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As well as being infrequent, the rains
which bring new life to the land are
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at all. Even at such times, an astounding
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to be found by those willing to wander
slowly through the land, from oasis to
oasis, stopping to observe and enjoy the
small things the masses miss as they
rush through - a grasshopper so perfectly
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moves, a small lizard scuttling by in
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Wet year or dry, the eternal landscape
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time to experience it. White ghost gums
stand in stark contrast to the red rock
and blue sky. The soft pastel lilacs and
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slowly fade with the increasing sun
then deepen into the magnicent reds
'Those who wish to experience
the best that the arid lands
have to offer have a special
responsibility to care for these
lands"
which precede the sunset. At night the
cool, dry air brings every star into focus
allowing you to appreciate the heavens
in a way which is impossible in any city
or town.
Respect and responsibility
But for all of its timeless grandeur, the
land is a harsh mistress and quickly
punishes those who dare to go out with
inadequate water, clothing or
knowledge. Those who take the time to
get off the beaten track and out into the
wilderness need to treat the land with
respect, respect both for what it can do
to them and for the damage they can do
to it. The slow pace of natural change in
the arid lands makes them surprisingly
fragile. Those who wish to experience
the best that the arid lands have to offer
have a special responsibility to care for
these lands, to ensure that they keep
each waterhole as pure as it was before
they arrived, to avoid careless acts which
might damage the natural surrounds, to
take nothing but photographs and leave
nothing but footprints.
Bushwalking holidays
If you are reasonably t and would like
to enjoy a wilderness bushwalking
experience with a small group of like
minded people in an arid land
environment, Willis's Walkaboutsmay
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A view from Liffey
B Y B O B B R O W N
MY FRIEND OLD JACK
f^^ly father is dead and buried, next
I Lii lt0 my momer' m the Bracknell
I I I ICemetery, near Liffey. 'Old
UhUI Jack's Last Anchorage' is etched
on his tombstone, just as he wanted it to be.
A country policeman for most of his time,
Dad spent the last 20 years of his working
life as a deep sea sherman at Coffs Har
bour. He went there when the town had
3,500 people and whales frequently sur
faced near his small vessel out at sea.
After my mother died, he spent much of
his time with my sister, and two brothers.
Each summer he would come to stay with
me at Liffey. After my weeks away in Ho-
bart or beyond, it was a terric pleasure to
arrive home late at night, to nd the stew
and potatoes he would leave in a pot,
together with a note about anything special.
Dad had some chooks, a pup and a bottle of
whisky, and he went to bed with the birds.
He took over a hut up under the trees.
There was plenty of room in the house and
he had most of his meals down here, but he
liked to be out of the way of visitors.
Sometimes they found him. One day I was
entertaining friends and their small boy
went out to play. Shortly after, he arrived
back, hands on hips, demanding - 'Mr
Brown, why are you keeping that old man
up in the shed?' Later, Dad told me that
when he'd heard a tap on the door, he got
up in his pyjamas, opened the door and
looked down to see the boy whose mouth
was open a mile.
The old man also had a wire-cage trap.
He set out, unsuccessfully, to catch a big
feral cat which stalked the neighbouring
bush. I cannot overstate the old man's
loathing of feral cats, especially after one
of his chooks was torn to bits, leaving
feathers all over the paddock.
But he did make one big catch. Early one
morning I caught up with him as he was
carefully poking his walking stick into the
cage at a large Tasmanian devil which
growled, gurgled and bared its teeth in
return. When we opened the cage the beast
ed straight back into the bush. I wonder if
it's the same one which galloped away
from the back door tonight, when I went
out to feed the scraps to the horses.
Another lot of visitors to nd my father
were two elderly men, from Queensland,
who had grown up on this farm. Dad yarned
Slowly but surely eucalypts,
dogwoods and wattle are
returning to the back
paddock where these great,
foreign pines have shaded it
for decades.
with them and helped them nd an old
sandstone boulder in the bush, on which a
brother had etched tiny roads and quarries
to play with his toys early this century.
The visitors remarked on a missing pine
tree (one of ve) near Dad's cabin. Their
parents had cleared this patch of Liffey
forest, eking a hard living from their or
chard, potato patch and farm animals.
Finding the house open to cold winds they
planted ve pine trees where once great
eucalypts had stood. As he told me later
with an impish glint in his eye, Dad told the
men I had cut the pine down to get a better
view of the mountain.
I had the tree cut up in 1974. Large boughs
of the pine had browned or died, indicating
an encroaching disease. It also harboured a
thriving ock of sparrows which were
ousting the native bats nesting in the sheds'
shingle roong.
The tree's removal did return the view of
the towering buttresses of Drys Bluff be
hind the house.
Two of the pines remain. I am now cut
ting up the third which was destroyed by a
windstorm last winter and a fourth, further
back in the bush, has died.
Slowly but surely eucalypts, dogwoods
and wattle are returning to the back paddock
where these great, foreign pines have shaded
it for decades. The pines, while beautiful in
themselves - the last two will stay till they
are dead or dying - are as feral and forbid
ding to Tasmania's native insects, birds
and animals as are we, and the cat my
father failed to catch.
A year or two after the brothers called, I
opened the place for a family reunion to
celebrate their sister's 80th birthday: about
60 people turned up to wander about the
farm and look through the house and the
photos I've collected of their 'old days'.
Now I know that a lot of the original
European settlers' descendants, most of
whom live far away these days, don't share
my views on conservation. But I did not
know how those visits would rebound on
my father and me.
The other night in Parliament, a govern
ment politician held up a photograph from
the two elderly men, six years after their
visit, and quoted notes they had sent to his
Government about the pine. Parliament
heard my father's words converted from
his jocular reply to real scorn of his son.
Here is how the Australian wrote it up:
Greens Leader Cut Down Trees
Tasmanian Greens leader. Dr Bob Brown,
yesterday admitted he had cut down trees
on his secluded Liffey properly in north
ern Tasmania.
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
A V I E W F R O M L I F F E Y
'Prosecuted' in State Parliament by passion
ate anti-Green MP Mr Michael Hodgman
QC. Dr Brown admitted the charge.
Mr Hodgman, brandishing an old black
and white photograph of the stumps sup
plied by a relative of the previous owner of
the property, then quoted 'Brown's late
father, Mr Jack Brown, who allegedly had
said: "That...son of mine cut them down
because he wanted a better view of the
mountain" '.
This article comes from a pen which has
not written one word on our three months'
peaceful blockade of logging roads in
Tasmania's wild southern forests: a block
ade met with the wrecking of a bus,
rebombing of cars and staking of tyres by
pro-logging attackers: a blockade high
lighting widescale destruction of tall euca-
lypt forests, 90 per cent of which are being
sent - subsidised - to Japan as woodchips.
I suppose if my whole farm had been
attened by a logging consortium, and
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planted out to pines or eucalypts, the visi
tors would have shrugged their shoulders
and said 'that's progress'.
But to have a 'Greenie' here, and an old
pine tree missing, was more than they could
But to have a 'Greenie' here,
and an old pine tree missing,
was more than they could
bear.
bear. For me, there's a good old man miss
ing, and to have our regard for each other
abused is more than I can bear.
At the moment I feel like locking the
gate and retiring to Dad's shed. He'd un
derstand. But he also had a streak of de-
GREEN ARCHITECTURE
Sensitive buildings should work with nature
rather than against her.
Taylor Oppenheim Architects have been
involved insensitive energy efcient architecture
since 1976 and their buildings have won State
and National awards, and have been featured in
magazines both here and overseas. This work
includes private housing, State and private
schools (including a Steiner school), a green
resort scheme, and small ofce buildings.
Director David Oppenheim combines teaching
and research with this work in the architectural
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giving advice on solar energy, and recently was
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short courses.
We would be pleased to send you a brochure or
you can call David Oppenheim directly.
O <* A
Taylor Oppenheim Architects
3/743 Glenferrie Road Hawthorn Victoria 3122
Tel (03) 818 0234 Fax (03) 818 3239
ance. He didn't like big wigs, dobbers or
imposers. (And, especially when he looked
at what's happened to Coffs Harbour, he
didn't like 'progress'.)
Some of the best times in my life were
spent with him, as we shared a beer and
waited for tea to cook on our open re
where that pine tree once stood, where the
giant eucalypts stood earlier still, watching
out across the valley as the evening gath
ered and the chooks went to perch. I have a
special attachment to the spot.
That's why, if the elderly men return, or
any of their family, or more particularly
any descendants of their Aboriginal pred
ecessors, they will be welcome again. For
all of us, whatever our differences might
be in the eeting present, share a longing
to return to places where fond memories
live and old spirits greet us, like friends,
from the past.
OR BOB BROWN is a Green Independent member of
Tasmania's Parliamant.
QUESTION:
What's so
special
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ANSWER:
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Based OH IW1 audited circulation gure
34 A U S T R A L I A
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RENEW
UNFOLDING A NEW STORY
THE DREAM OF THE EARTH
by Thomas Berry, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1988,
pb, RRP $21.95 & $3.50 p&p.(Available from ACF Books)
B O O K R E V I E W
B Y L E O N A R D W E B B
Tb
!MjMHMaHH
D
e DREAM of the EARTH
THOMAS BERRY
In 1960 Paul Tillich, the German-
American philosopher, wrote a
benchmark essay in which he as
serted that the predicament of west
ern civilisation was largely due to the loss of
'the dimension of depth'. He explained that
his metaphor applied to the spiritual life of
humans who had lost an answer to questions
such as the meaning of life, where we come
from, where we are going, and what we
should do. Many people throughout human
evolution have treated such questions with
great seriousness, and it has become clear
that the narrow dimensions of institutional
ised religion have rarely satised them.
Tillich wrote two years BC, that is Before
(Rachel) Carson, whose brilliant book Silent
Spring initiated the new ecological epoch in
environmental consciousness. Although she
was less interested in cosmology and ethics
that in the pollution of natural ecosystems,
she ended her book with a plea for 'new,
imaginative, and creative approaches to the
problem of sharing our earth with other
creatures...(because)...the "control of na
ture" i s a phrase concei ved i n
arrogance...when it was supposed that na
ture exists for the convenience of man'.
Various scientists now recognise Tillich's
questions as the third, neglected motive of
science: to know ourselves, to understand
the meaning of human consciousness among
all the other species on Earth. Ecologists in
particular have been unable to avoid com
mitments to 'concerns of ultimate worth' in
nature, as Charles Birch attests. Hence the
rise of 'deep' as opposed to 'shallow' ecol
ogy, and its most recent translation into
'transpersonal ecology', which involves
unity and great empathy of self with the rest
3 6 H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
SIERRA CLUB NATURE AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY LIBRARY
of nature.
Nevertheless, virtually all the high-minded
discussion of these basically ecological
matters has been by philosophers, historians
(especially Anna Bramwell) and theologians.
The professional ecologists, specialising in
some branch of biology, remain mostly ig
norant of their new role, or fearful of its
implications. Of course there are magni
cent exceptions: besides Carson and Birch,
the list could begin with C. H. Waddington,
Charles Elton, Loren Eiseley, Jean Dorst,
Rupert Sheldrake...
Thomas Berry does not seem to t any of
these categories. He likes to call himself a
'geologian', implying 'an effort to deal with
the psychic dimension of the planet, not just
the mechanics of it'.
This selection of his essays, now in paper
back, was rst published in hard
cover in 1988, as the rst volume
in the Sierra Club Nature and
Natural Philosophy Library. The
dust jacket describes Thomas
Berry in nakedly secular terms as
'a historian of cultures' and is coy
about his theological connection.
Passionist Father Thomas Berry
is Director of the Riverdale Cen
tre for Religious Research in New
York. Born close to the land in
North Carolina, Berry was or
dained in 1942, taught until he
'got into trouble', went to China
and taught in Beijing where he
suffered a similar fate before re
turning to the United States. There
he continued his lifelong studies
of the 'wisdom of nature' and the
insights of great thinkers ranging
from Buddha and Plato to Teilhard
de Chardin and E. F. Schumacher,
plus native American elders. He
still thinks that China has much to
offer: 'they dene the human as
the hsin of heaven and earth, that
is, the consciousness or the heart
of the universe'.
This theme is at the heart of his
essays. I shall never forget the
revelatory thrill when I read (in 'The new
story') that, following Darwin and the
mounting insights of the new physics,
a sudden shift in the mode of consciousness
took place. The scientists suddenly became
aware that the opaqueness of matter had dis
solved. Science was ultimately not the objective
grasping of some reality extrinsic to ourselves.
It was rather a moment of subjective commun
ion in which the human was seen as that being
in whom the universe in its evolutionary di
mension became conscious of itself.
There is so much more in his essays where
Berry illuminates, without secular or sectar
ian bias, our emerging sensitivity to the
Earth as a living organism. If you are inter
ested not so much in the concept of God as
its underpinning, then here are rich clues.
Berry describes in his own (and to me, very
satisfying) terms how the excessively ana
lytical and mechanistic phase of western
science is giving way to integration with
'interior subjective processes', instead of
the external, objective 'things' which tech
nology loves to manipulate, but only tem
porarily controls.
Berry also points to an answer to Tillich's
watershed concern. Although 'our secular
society remains without satisfactory mean
ing or the social discipline needed for a life
leading to emotional, aesthetic, and spir
itual fullment', the new sciences provide
the elements for a fresh, basic story (myth)
to replace the traditional religious one. We
need a modern (post-modern if you like)
story 'that will heal, guide, and discipline
us'.
The passionate cosmic priest makes no
bones about his disagreement with some of
the outmoded doctrines of the Church. Thus
the 'redemptive mystique' is (he thinks) too
little concerned with cosmology and life as
we understand it today. The emphasis on
redemption does not give the wonder of
creation its due, however one may wish to
interpret origin and innity. Like the con
troversial American theologian, Mathew
Fox, Berry believes that the term 'creative'
- so important in human consciousness -
has been trivialised, and its 'visionary
quality' diminished.
Berry explains how the old Biblical story,
which served up to the Middle Ages, col
lapsed with the Black Death. The failure
thereafter of the sacred solutions proposed
is less relevant to us here than that of the
secular ones. These, in the form and power
of the scientic-technological revolution,
provided the vision of limitless progress,
then the chaos and violence of consumer
ism, and now the confusion and emptiness
inside humans treated as machines.
Berry, who was President of the Ameri
can Teilhard Association for the Human
Future, notes that his master was the rst
person to tell the story of the universe as
psychic-spiritual as well as physical-mate
rial. Moreover, he moved the religious issue
from redemption to creation. But he lacked
sensitivity to the natural world, and did not
grasp ecology - as Berry does so thoroughly.
Thus unfolds Thomas Berry's dream of
'biocracy', in which 'we situate ourselves
as a component of the earth process and
interact creatively with this process'. To
whet you appetite, here are a few of the
chapter headings: 'Technology and the
healing of the Earth', 'Economics as a reli
gious issue', 'Bioregions: the context for
reinhabiting the Earth', 'The cosmology of
peace'.
Berry's book has opened many new win
dows for me as a eld ecologist searching
beyond the forest ecosystem, and I heartily
recommend it to anyone concerned with the
values beyond the facts.
LEONARD WEBB is Honorary Professor in Australian
Environmental Studies at Grifth University.
Thinking Green? Think
GREEN PAGES
1991/1992
Edition
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H A B I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2
Towards a sustainable aesthetic
B Y P E T E R A D A M S
mm
M K*3rwUH()j0
0
ver me past tew years my micrest in tne environment lias leu to a major
change in the shaping of my aesthetic sensibilities. This shift has occurred
not so much literally, but on a more philosophical level where there has
emerged (within the framework of Deep Ecology) the conceptual possibil-
lat the form and function of a piece of furniture might be extended beyond the
norm of "good looking and comfortable' to include the possibility of assisting the
user towards the discovery of a new sense of Sell.
How this "new" function manifests itself physically I am only beginning to
understand, btit my initial research leads me to believe that it is through the bodily
senses coupled with an imaginative mind that a person can best use a chair (for
example) to transport themself into a new and closer relationship with nature, and
hence their larger, ecological. Self.
I rst began exploring the idea that the furniture in our homes might reect our
As an ecological furniture designer, Peter Adams lives
asa 'friend of trees', defending our ancient, old-growth
forests wherever possible. In special cases, howevec
he argues that the use of precious, old-growth timbers
in furniture design can also enhance our sense of
interconnectedness with the natural world.
3iji5?i?a?5
mm
^m
The Forest Bench (1991) - the joining together ol two or more
"chairs" tor a more communal sharing ol the sacred act ol sitting'.
Myrtle, Huon Pine; 1800 mm x 450 mm x 400 mm.
Insets: Forest Bench details
Below lelt: Peter Adams
Photos by Uftie Schulze/Concept Photography
KSSs
G L L E R Y
! Above: 'Transformer' coffee table No 1 (1987), inspired by the bush 'furnishings' gathered together on a hiking trip.
(From left) '13 Black Sheep in a Corral/13 Black Sheep in Gridlock'. Huon Pine, black granite; c. 1400 mm x WOO mm x 450 mm.
" Photos by Uffie Schulze/Concept Photography
experiences in nature quite simply, by closely
observing what I came across on the trail or
in camp - a basic design skill. It was after a
hiking trip in Tasmania six years ago that I
rst started thinking about the relationship
between the bits of found objects that com
prised our group's 'assembled' bush furni
ture and the more sophisticated nished
items in my furniture collection in Hobart.
A fallen log, a crate washed ashore from a
shing boat, silver-grey lengths of drift
wood, as well as a rock or two provided
ample material for our outdoor furnishings.
And, the endless fussing around, the stack
ing, the balancing, the arranging and re
arranging proved more than just fun, it also
provided the insight for the 'Transformer'
series of coffee tables done upon my return,
one of which is the '13 Black Sheep in a
C0rral/13 Black Sheep in Gridlock'.
Gradually, however, this outward process
began to turn inward as my vision directed
itself towards establishing a deeper connec
tion between what I saw and felt in the
wilderness and what I could make in the
studio to remind me of the wilderness, or
more specically, the wilderness experience.
Could there be a way of creating something
that brought back the feeling of oneness and
peace that so characterised these times? If I
could sit on a large eucalypt stump, close
my eyes and go into the life within the dark
of that ghost tree, could I not also - back
home - sit in a wooden chair, close my eyes
and imagine I was back in the forest? Was
there some minute residual energy eld left
in the chair that could help with this trans
portation? Within the fragment could the
larger possibility be sensed?
It was at this time that I also came across
William Stafford's poem, 'Always':
Inside the trees, where tomorrow
hides along with years, tomorrow
stirs. And there my sisters
never born touch lips to bark
and begin to sing:
Brother of Air, Brother of Sun,
please tell our story, that we
may. live in the brief wind...
Wherever I stand I hear the trees
petition so. By listening
I know I'm born. By turning
the forest back toward itself
I live as a friend of trees;
Listen together; be ready.
You may be born. I touch the bark
and call deep as I can:
Part of me.
(from Stories That Could Be True, 1977)
For the last seven years I have both medi
tated on this poem and worked with the idea
that our everyday household items could
provide a key to reconnecting each of us
with something higher. Now, whenever I go
into the forest I will reach out and touch a
tree, calling deep as I can: ' Part of me'.
Whenever I am at home holding my wooden
bowl I call deep as I can: 'Part of me'.
The acts of eating, drinking, sitting be
come more than supercial daily activities
when we bring to the meal a heightened
awareness of what it is we are eating from,
or sitting on. 'Binding strongly' (from the
Latin root for 'religion', religare) with our
everyday objects can help serve to link us
with the cosmos. If our transpersonal Self
extends to the trees, just think how fabulous
the simple act of eating from a wooden bowl
might be - the meal becomes holy! And
even when dining alone, one is with the
family of all beings. Obviously, a wooden
bowl is not the standing tree, but by nestling
it, touching it, being conscious of what it is
we are holding, we continually make a re-
connection with our larger Self and with the
wilderness outside.
Ecodesign
I strongly support the efforts that environ
mental design groups are putting into the
problem of sustainability through reducing,
reusing, recycling, replacing and restoring.
However, I would not want ecodesign to get
caught up in another anthropocentric/
technocentric paradigm of 'what benets
humanity and what does not' (taken from an
Australian ecodesign pamphlet) without
considering the vitally important ecocentric
perspective that seeks to confront the en
trenched hierarchical positioning of human
above non-human life.
I believe that the development of
ecodesign has to be inspired by the recogni
tion of the deep interconnectedness - and
interdependence - of all living things. As
1 T A T - A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
the scientic
c o mmu n i t y
moves slowly
away from the
total embrace of a
mec hani s t i c
model of the uni
verse, so too must
furniture designers be
gin to accept notions of the
non-rational and the non-logi
cal in their design, and so 're-
enchant' the chair. We need to realise
that a strict reliance on technological
function or form, that is simultaneously
based in anthropocentrism, ultimately de
values humanity by alienating people from
nature and, hence, their larger sense of Self.
As a designer I have to live as a friend of
trees. It is not good enough anymore to just
use the resources of this world, even in a
sustainable manner, without understanding
the full consequences - positive or negative
- of their removal for our use. A truly sus
tainable aesthetic demands that we come of
age and start looking at the deeper signi
cance of the objects we make, the materials
they are made from, and the role they might
play in the healing of this planet.
Sacred awareness
I was once rebuked by a conservationist
friend who labelled me a schizophrenic de
signer because, even though I went to forest
rallies and supported Green issues, I used
Huon Pine and other rainforest timbers in
my work. My response then and now is that
the two are not necessarily incompatible.
Rather than reacting in a knee jerk manner
to the use of Tasmanian rainforest timbers,
one should at least listen to the designer's
arguments before taking a position.
In the case of my 'Forest Bench' my rst
line of defence is that the wood used was
salvaged from dam projects or clearfelling.
Should it have been left to rot at the bottom
of a lake, or burnt in a Forestry Commission
regeneration re? I don't think so. My
stomach knots up whenever I walk amongst
the stumps of our old-growth forests. And
so, I do what I can through peaceful protests
to stop further road building or logging in
these areas.
But, for me, it is just as important that
those trees that have fallen have as honour
able an ending as possible. I pick up the
felled tree bones of my Myrtle and Huon
Pine brothers and sisters, and cart them off
feeling
grateful that I
have the chance of
extending their wood life
a little longer. Maybe, when
placed within an urban environ
ment, their new bench form might in
some small way be ..responsible for. some
one's re-awakening.
My second line of defence is an extension
of the rst. The word 'cathedral' (a place of
refuge, peace, blessedness, worship) shares
the same root as the word 'chair' - kathedra.
Just think of the subtle psychological/physi
ological changes that could occur if, when
sitting down, people held onto the thought
that they were entering a sacred place. A
bench, or in this case, my Forest Bench, is
the joining together of two or more 'chairs'
for a more communal sharing of the sacred
act of sitting.
The choice of Huon Pine over other tim
bers reects its quality of ancientness, of
being more sacred. Should the user of the
bench have no understanding of the Pine's
historical/cultural/biological signicance,
then just by picking up any of the 45 blocks
and attempting to count the dense annular
rings should give some idea of what the
American potter and poet, M.C. Richards,
was talking about when she wrote in 'Imag
ine Inventing Yellow' :
We shall see wood as countenance of invisible
sun cycles, miniature nuclear worlds,
supersensible dynamics of coming into being
and dying away, the tree rings, the actions of
uids and minerals and oxygen molecules and
the combustion of growth and decay, the rising
sap and falling leaves. How the tree is feeding
earth and air, and is fed by. How the tree mar
ries the human hand and the door is born, the
archway, the lintel, the threshold, the rafter -
Brancusi's King and Queen are born - the
table, the altar, the box, the wheel, the cart, the
cross. Tree. Tree of life. Holy splinters and
toothpicks.
The 13th-century Su mystic Rumi said,
'There are a thousand ways to kneel and
kiss the ground'. Someone else has said,
'The altar is anywhere you kneel'. In my
! 'Matrix' coffee table (1992) with
removable trays. Solid eucalypt,
eucalypl burl veneer, MDF board;
1300 mm x 800 mm x 450 mm.
U Photo by Ufe Schulze/Concept
Photography
opinion, done sympathetically and
with a participatory consciousness,
there is a place for the inclusion of
precious rainforest timbers into
ecodesign guidelines. Cultures have
always depended upon very special
religious and secular artefacts to help
facilitate a sense of atonement (at-one-ment)
with the universe. Should we be cutting
ourselves off from a possible powerful
source from which to fashion those very
items that could help carry us, not only into
a new awareness, but also safely into the
21st century?
PETER ADAMS is a furniture designer based in Hobart.
He has recently left a teaching career at the University of
Tasmania in order to devote himself fully to making concrete
the relationship between ecophilosophy and furnilure design.
THE WILDLIFE ART SOCIETY
OF AUSTRALASIA INC.
BP 19th ANNUAL
WILDLIFE
ART
EXHIBITION
Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
430 Albert Street East Melbourne
Sunday 16 August to
Sunday, 23 August 1992
Gallery hours: Daily 10.30am to 5.30pm
Thursday and Friday 10.30am to 9.00pm
For further information please contact:
Adele Forsyth-Grant (03) 836 2836
A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
Being Aware
is helping your
waterways.
Aware is ci premium quality laundry powder to
clean clothes, making them fresher, brighter...
A ware works in hot or cold water and the low suds
action of Aware makes it ideal for top and front load
washers and. /mlike most other laundry detergents...
Aware has a Phosphate Tree Formulation...
excessive phosphate fertilizes algae and weeds and
contributes to clogging your waterways. d*g|
Aware has Oil id Coconut Cleaners -
^<*
tests show these are rapidly biodegradable, so
... shouldn't you use it now that you're more
Aware?...
BIONOMICS
- KrrowD
ftnuteDC^
JK& *
Wa l k W i l d Ta s m a n i a
Experience the grandeur of Tas
mania's spectacular World Her
itage wilderness on a 60 km, 6
day walk along Cradle Moun
tain's historic Overland Track.
At the end of each day a hot
shower, comfortable bunk and a
great meal. Discover Australia's
rival to the Milford Track.
Pine Forest Moor Hut
ENQUIRIES
CRADLE HUTS PTY LTD
2 2 B R I S B A N E S T R E E T
L A U N C E S T O N 7 2 5 0
P H O N E :
( 0 0 3 ) 3 1 2 0 0 6
F A X :
( 0 0 3 ) 3 1 5 5 2 5
Cradle Mountain and Lake Dove
42 1 T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y 1 9 9 2
ESCAPE
to Victoria's World-Famous
National Park -
The Grampians
SOUTHERN
GRAMPIANS
C A B I N S
You will marvel at the fantastic rock
formations and breathtaking mountain views.
You will be amazed at the abundance of
native wildlife and fabulous wildowers.
Experience the rugged beauty of the
southern Grampians. Go bushwalking, bird
watching, rock climbing or just relax by a
mountain stream and regain your sanity.
Stay in a charming well appointed cottage
and unwind by the re. Enjoy the grandeur
and serenity of this unique national park.
ESCAPE TODAY!
For brochure or reservations
telephone 055 77 2457 or
write to P.O. Box 88,
Dunkeld. Victoria 3294.
Gipsy Point Lodge
Situated at the head of beautiful
Mallacoota Inlet and surrounded by
Croajingolong National Park, the
Lodge provides a relaxing, comfortable
base from which to explore a unique,
unspoiled area rich in bird life, ora
and fauna. Package holidays for bird
observers and eld naturalists. Other
activities include shing, boating,
swimming, surng and bushwalking.
First class, all-inclusive accommodation
in the Lodge or self-contained cottages.
For further details contact
Alan Robertson
Gipsy Point Lodge
Gipsy Point, Victoria 3891 Australia
Telephone: (051) 58 8205
Grvstal Greek
R A/lN FOR EST RETREAT
in the beautiful Tweed Valley
Experience the World Heritage listed sub
tropical rainforests of the Border Ranges
National Park in northern N.S.W. The 100
ha. property adjoining the park has over
120 bird species, rare trees and plants
and a pristine creek. Nestled under the
escarpment of Mt. Springbrook the new
architect designed two bedroom self-
contained villas offercomfort, privacy and
rainforest tranquility. Self cater or dine
with your hosts.
For brochure ph. 066 791591 or write
P.O. Box 69 Murwillumbah NSW2484
Join us for BIRD WEEK October 25 - 31
For Your Next Holiday ...
WARRUMBUNGLE
NATIONAL PARK
Famous for its spectacular
scenery and varied ora and
fauna. En route from Mel
bourne to Brisbane
and an easy day's drive
from Sydney.
The nearest accommodation
is "Tibuc", an 800 acre or
ganic farm adjoining
the park.
Our charming self-contained
mud-brick cabins offer you a
unique opportunity to enjoy
the solitude of the bush
in comfort.
For a brochure,
write to Robyn and Tony,
"Tibuc",
Coonabarabran NSW, 2357,
or Phone (068) 421 740,
after dark.
Exploration Science Adventure

Expedition Witjira
17 August - 5 September
An expedition for people of all ages. Join us as we return to the
intriguing Witjira National Park in the far north of South Australia.
Work together with a learn of specialist scientists studying the area's
unique plant and animal communities including the ancient and
fascinating Dalhousie Springs and the famous Simpson Desert dunes.
Expedition Desert Wetlands
21 September- 10 October
An all women expedition to the magnicent desert wetlands of
South Australia. Work with researchers studying the abundant
birdlife of the ephemeral lakes, the huge variety of desert plant
communities and the scatters of Aboriginal stone artifacts.
Expedition Fraser Island
2 November - 29 November
An expedition for people of all ages (over 17 years). Fraser Island is
one of Australia's most exciting destinations for anyone interested in
natural science. From the famous coloured sands to the crystal clear
"window" lakes. Fraser offers a taste of tropical wilderness found
nowhere else in Australia.
Applications are now open for people wishing to join these
expeditions. Suitably qualied or experienced people are needed as
Science Group Leaders and people with an interest in science are
needed as general expeditioners (fee applicable). Others with a sense
of adventure can play a valuable role by joining our support teams.
Applications and further information are available from:
ANZSES The Exploring Society
P O B o x 1 7 4 P a t r o n - i n - C h i e f
A l b e r t P a r k , 3 2 0 6 ^ K f r v HR' H
Phone: (03) 690 5455 J^P fr The Prince of
Fax: ( 03) 690 0151 wk BH Wal es
JOIN US ON A TRIP
TO THE
HI MA L AYA
SikkimA Trek
TibetOverland
BhutanTrans Himalaya
KangchenjungaTrek
EverestPhoto Expedition
StudentBudget Holiday
SchoolAdventure Holiday
Send for details now!
I he Irekkinq Lomi
i nq
Pty. Limited
ipany
37 Tor r ens St . Br addon ACT 2601
Ph: (06) 257 6494 ! Fax: (06) 257 5664
Travel Agents Licence 225/D/l
I T A T A U S T R A L I A J U L Y
Fastbook Holi

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The natural assets are its greatest attraction and led to Lord Howe island being included on the prestigious World Heritage List.
It's a place where humanity and nature live in perfect harmony, with many programs in place to protect and promote the environment.
Special in-depth scientic tours can be arranged and conducted by naturalist - Ian Hutton.
For more informtion on LORD HOWE ISLAND NATURE TOURS write to: P.O. Box 6367, Coffs Harbour NSW 2450. Australia.
OR CALL
Fastbook Holidays
Lord Howe Island Fastbook Vacations Pty Ltd. A.C.N. 003926369 Lic:2TA003131
(02) 958 2799
008 244 336 (From outside Sydney metropolitan area)
1st Floor, 163 Eastern Valley Way, Middle Cove, NSW 2068. Australia.
Stay at
BlaebagooR
LORD HOWE ISLAND
Fly
E a s t e r n a
Aust r al i a m
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