Living in the forest

The forest in the summer
Is really hard to beat
With shady bird-filled greenness
Giving shelter from the heat

While our neighbours in their paddocks
Curse the heat and flies
And rub the endless dust
From their red and gritty eyes

And when the icy winter wind
Cuts through them like a knife
It is warm inside our forest
And filled with happy life

And the streams within the forest
Run full and crystal clear
Regardless of the rainfall
All throughout the year

The forest has its seasons but it also has an eternal quality. It is buffered from the elements and irrespective of the time of the year is vibrant and full of life. We live in a forest that extends into State forest and National Park on three sides and cleared farmland to the west. We always notice how warm it is in the forest during the winter compared to the cleared land with its morning frost and cold winds that cut through you like a knife. And in summer, the leafy shade protects us from the scorching summer sun and we look with pity on the unfortunate sheep sweltering in their open paddocks next door. We are also fortunate in having a spring fed creek that flows year round irrespective of rainfall. Forests buffer rainfall run-off! Heavy rain soaks into the forest floor rather than sheeting off and causing floods and it is then steadily released during the dry times. The cleared land in contrast is much more subject to flooding in wet times and dry creeks beds during dry spells.

The cleared land is spectacularly pretty during our wet winter in its green European way but the gloss is quickly gone and by December the fields are dry and dusty and the dams are often dry. In summer in particular we are grateful for our forest. While our neighbours swelter in their dust bowl we have the pleasure of watching fledgling black cockatoo’s learn to fly and are lulled to sleep with the lullaby of Mopokes hunting in the forest.

Yes, we do have a fire risk but we are well prepared and would always get out early should a fire come. Cleared paddocks, however, are no guarantee of safety in the event of a fire. Most of the 38 homes lost in our nearby town of Toodyay in last season’s summer fires, for example, were located in open paddocks. I think bush fires are deadly where-ever you live and it is dangerous to be complacent just because your house is located in a paddock a long way from trees.

Christmas Tree

Every year at Christmas

We see a sight amazing

As brilliant orange blossom

Sets our bush ablazing

Nuytsias in bloom

Burning clear and bright

Outshine the indoor trees

With their gaudy Christmas lights

This gift of mother nature

Both marvellous and free

Is enjoyed in Perth at Christmas

By folk like you and me

The only thing Western Australia’s spectacular Orange Christmas Tree has in common with indoor Christmas Trees is that they both light up at Christmas. One with natural blossom and the other with electric lights! Everyone loves a Christmas tree and Perth people are blessed in having a unique self decorating native Christmas tree to admire in the festive season.

The Orange Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda) is actually a giant Mistletoe reaching 10 m in height. Like all Mistletoes it is a parasite feeding off other plants but unlike other Mistletoes it is rooted in the ground and taps into the roots of other plants for its food. This can cause problems for the solitary specimen left standing by a fond farmer in his newly cleared paddock despite its extensive root system and ability to parasitise grasses.

Nuytsia are named after the Dutch explorer, Pieter Nuyts, who explored 1,000 miles of Western Australia’s south coast in 1626 -27 on-board the Guilden Zeepaard, captained by Francois Thyssen. The floribunda specific name refers to the stunning cascades of orange flowers that adorn the tree in December. Nuyts was likely the first European to observe the spectacular blossom of the Orange Christmas Tree but the Nyungar will have appreciated this beautiful display of the Mudjar from time immemorial during their Kambarang Season (October to December). They also appreciated the edible inner bark and the sweet edible gum exuding from wounds made while excising bark shields. The sweet shallow roots close to the tree were particularly favoured.

Christmas is a good time to relax, enjoy the company of family and friends and contemplate life. It is also a good time to appreciate the marvels of our natural world.

Good Deeds

Mankind has a dream
To rid the world of strife
To manipulate and scheme
And create a better life

But by eradicating illness
And improving food supply
We lost the population checks
Of ancient times gone by

Now a sterile urban jungle
Replaces complex life
Gone the living jungle
Gone the web of life

We must restore the dream
Put some balance back in life
And manipulate and scheme
To enhance the web of life

It is easy to blame the world’s problems on greedy self serving people living in comfort at the expense of the less fortunate but when you look at things more closely it is not like that at all. The world is full of inequality but most people do their best to contribute to society and to make the world a better place. The fundamental problem is that every positive advance or contribution we make is generally balanced by a negative and often unforseen consequence to other people or the environment. Few people would consider for example that the donation of unwanted clothing to a third world country may put the local textile industry out of business or that the expansion of agricultural land needed to feed hungry people could drive species to extinction. It is never the intention of those who spend their lives eradicating disease and improving food security to increase human population pressure on the environment but this will always be the consequence. Our huge and rapidly expanding global population that is threatening the web of life that sustains us all is largely due to the efforts of talented and selfless people trying to make the world a better place.

The good news is that we can learn from our mistakes and it has never been easier to share information. We will never be able to anticipate all the consequences of our actions but acknowledging that there could be consequences, learning from experience and thinking things through carefully before we act is an important step. We need to, or we and our children and grandchildren will face a bleak future in an impoverished and sterile world. Then it really will be a case of paradise lost.

Ravens and Crows

So sleek and glossy
And darker than night
But agressive and bossy
And his call is a fright

Ah ah ahhhh quoth the Raven
Its road kill I’m cravin'
Oh oh oh way to go
Says the old Aussie Crow
Ark ark ark says his little mate
Dig in quick no time to wait

Is it a crow or a raven? I was listening to a radio talk back show when a listener rang in to inform everyone that there were no crows in Perth only ravens. Well, it is true that ravens dominate in Perth but there are crows here as well and they are difficult to tell apart. The Australian Raven is the dominant corvid in Perth and the southern forests while the Australian Crow dominates north of Perth and through the tropics. Perth also has Little Crows that dominate in arid Australia and Indian Crows sometimes stow away on ships and are occasionally seen near the Fremantle Port. Australia also has the Little Raven and Forest Raven confined to the SE forests of Victoria and Tasmania respectively.The Australian Raven has long throat hackles and grey bases to its feathers while the Australian Crow has white bases to its feathers. The Little Crow is like a miniature Australian Crow. The Raven has a powerful ah ah ah aaah call that Peter Slater describes as falling off like a death rattle. The Australian Crow has a high pitched staccato oh oh oh oh oh call and the Little Crow a nasal nark nark nark nark call. The infamous Graham Kennedy crow call was undoubtedly based on the cry of the Little Crow. Crows are intelligent, mischievous and can be serial pests if it is your garden that they decide to make their playground.

Crows are everywhere but Australia is the land of crows and the home of their ancestors. Villified as carrion feeders and wicked eye peckers the crow is a universal symbol of death and decay but this is only part of the story. Like all scavengers they serve an important ecological role in recycling dead carcasses and they are astonishingly clever. Watch the David Attenborough You Tube video called Clever Crow.  It shows Japanese Crows that have not only figured out how to crack nuts by dropping them in traffic but have also learned to drop them on pedestrian crossings so that they can retrieve the cracked nut safely on the red traffic light. I like crows a lot and while their harsh cry is grating it always reminds me of home.

Blue Tongue

This lizard is well known I think

To me and also you

His gaping mouth is vivid pink
His tongue a brilliant blue

He is a true blue Aussie
Despite his All Blacks tongue
Beautiful and glossy
As he lies there in the sun

He slowly and with quiet dispatch
Will eat the grubs and snails
That infest your vegie patch
When pesticides all fail

But being useful and iconic
Is no defence to cats
Nor to careless drivers
Who kill them with a splat

The Blue Tongue is a national icon. It is harmless and inoffensive and probably our best known and most loved lizard. For most of the year this reclusive and well camouflaged creature remains well hidden but in spring they seem to be everywhere as they emerge from their winter dormancy to feed and mate. This is also the time they are at their most vulnerable as they get squashed on the roads by inattentive drivers and consumed by the dozen by domestic cats and dogs. William Dampier may have considered them foul to the point of being inedible when he first dissected one in 1699 but the average cat does not share this opinion. A Blue Tongue is a slow moving and defenceless creature relying on bluff and camouflage for its survival. A gaping pink mouth and vivid blue tongue are not much defence against a cat.

Blue Tongues are very useful in the garden where they happily consume garden pests such as slaters, grubs and snails. They will also unfortunately consume snail pellets with fatal consequences so think carefully before you are too liberal with the snail pellets.

We have many kinds of Blue Tongues in Australia including rough scaled and stumpy tailed “Shingle-backs" and the sleek and glossy classic Blue-Tongued Skinks but they have many things in common as well as their blue tongues. They mate for life and have about 25 young each season which unlike most lizards are born live rather than as eggs. They also live for decades. So look after these special creatures by providing them with a lizard friendly environment with plenty of hiding places, logs to sun themselves on and of course a large variety of plant life which in turn will support many insects and other creatures. The Blue Tongue will eat them all as well as many of the plants. Did you know that the Blue Tongue is about 500 times more resistant to 1080 poison than a fox or a cat due to its high natural concentration in Western Australian plants? And of course do what you can to protect them from cats and dogs although with cats this is very difficult. You will in turn be rewarded by the sight of a garden full of these gentle, beautiful and interesting creatures who will work very hard and effectively at protecting your vegetables and prized flowers from pests.

The Red Weed From Mars

In its native southern Africa
It is beautiful and rare
But a curse in poor Australia
That fills us with despair

Escaping from a garden
So English and so neat
It marched across the country
Leaving wasteland at its feet

Where once was biodiversity
A monoculture stands
Sickly pink and hideous
And a blight upon the land

Gladioli and Watsonia
And sweet Salvation Jane
Brought here in ignorance
And causing untold pain


There is an old maths question that is great for kids. If a waterlily doubles each day and takes 29 days to cover half a pond, how long will it take to cover the whole pond? The answer of course is 30 days and therein lies the problem with environmental weeds. Their spread is initially slow and insidious and we hardly notice them until one day we look at on a sea of sick Pink Gladioli and wonder where it came from. By then of course it is too late to do much about it.

We have few weeds on our property but Pink Gladioli are trying hard to get a foothold. At this stage they are mainly confined to the firebreaks and in low numbers, or so we thought until we went around pulling them out in their hundreds yesterday. Often the bulbs break off so it will be the work of some years to rid the place of this curse but at least the flower heads with their thousands upon thousands of papery wind-borne seeds are gone.

Gladioli are a curse but not the worst one by far. Thickets of Watsonia and Arum Lilly choking our waterways and the purple fields of Salvation Jane now more aptly namely Paterson’s Curse are far worse, at least for now, but the pretty aromatic Pink Glady’s are bad enough. They are outcompeting the magnificent Red and Green Kangaroo Paw, Blue Leschenaultia and thousands of other sand plain species in Western Australia’s biodiversity hot spot and doing untold damage.

And the key question is why? Just because some settler homesick for merry England and oblivious and dismissive to the native beauty in abundance around them wanted something pretty to look at. And inevitably they escaped from the gardens and with no natural controls have wreaked havoc. But the saddest thing of all is that it is still happening. We have learned little! There is growing awareness about potential environmental weeds but gardens and nurseries throughout the country continue to propagate a huge variety of plants from all corners of the globe. Our next major invasive weed, and possibly our next 10 are likely already to be growing in someone’s garden.

The seeds of life

The salt lake harsh and lifeless
Glitters white hot in the sun
A wasteland free of life stress
Until the day is done


But hidden in the salt crust
Waiting for a storm
Are tiny seeds of life dust
That one day will be born

And finally there comes a time
A day of salt lake dreaming
When tiny shrimp of brine
Fill the flooded lake all teeming

The water birds are gobbling
And shrieking while they feed
And over partners squabbling
As they seek a mate to breed

When you look at an apparently lifeless salt lake glittering in the harsh summer sun under a cloudless sun bleached sky it is difficult to envisage an environment less amenable to life. And yet there, embedded in the salt crust, are tiny almost invisible brine shrimp eggs or cysts waiting for the rain. These small brown cysts measuring about 200 microns in diameter are almost fully dehydrated and will remain viable for decades. There they lie, dormant in suspended animation until the day it rains. When the rains come and the salt crust dissolves tiny microalgae living in the salt and the underlying mud of the salt lake begin to reproduce rapidly turning the brine into a green organic soup. The brine shrimp cysts draw in water through their permeable shells and when fully hydrated begin to hatch. Within 24 hours the newly hatched brine shrimp begin to feed on the green soup and grow rapidly. They then begin to reproduce and the salt lake becomes thick with brine shrimp. And not just brine shrimp. The cysts of many other species of small molluscs and crustacea that were also dormant in the salt quickly join the party. In barely no time, the previously lifeless salt lake is a seething sea of life. And then the birds arrive in their countless thousands to feast on the sea of plenty and to breed. Ducks and pelicans are joined by migratory wading birds from as far away as Siberia in a magnificent spectacle of abundant life. And then when the party is over and the lake dries out the seeds of life again remain dormant in the salt crust until the next rain.

It is easy to overlook the immense ecological importance of salt lakes to bird life in particular and in their own right.

Tears of Salt

Blurred skeleton trees
Ring the salt lake all shimmering
Shades of life memories
Through the long summer simmering

Gone now the sweet water
And green leafiness
A lamb to the slaughter
The price of progress

Uncontrolled clearing
For sheep and for wheat
Replace kangaroo spearing
And wild bush treats

Wounded land crying
In great tears of salt
Wounded land dying
From farming assault

How quickly things change! In less than 100 years Lake Ninan has transformed from a sweet lake with water fresh enough for steam train boilers into a dazzling white salt lake. The lake was the water supply for Wongan Hills as recently as the 1930’s. Today, the skeletons of ancient trees killed by rising salt levels ring the lake and shimmer eerily in the heat haze reflecting off the salt. A stark testament to the consequences of over-clearing!

The matted shallow roots of the native vegetation once inhibited rain-water infiltration into the soil and ensured that fresh rain water flowed into streams and river systems and that water tables remained low. When this vegetation was removed for broad acre wheat and sheep farming, rates of infiltration increased greatly. This caused saline ground-water to rise to the surface and salt to concentrate in the surface soil. Rain-fall run-off into streams became increasingly saline and large tracts of previously arable land became salt-affected. In the case of Lake Ninan the now salty Mortlock River delivered millions of tonnes of salt into the once fresh lake. Dry land salinity is a major problem for both agriculture and biodiversity across Western Australia’s wheat belt which is one of the world’s biodiversity “hot spots.”

One solution is to return native vegetation to over-cleared farm-land but this is not easy in soil that is now salt affected and can no longer support the growth of salt sensitive plant species. Another option is to physically lower water tables using bore drains carved into the hillsides. Both strategies are now being applied with some effect across Western Australia’s wheat belt. And if things weren’t difficult enough already there is the added problem of climate change and a significantly drier climate to contend with.

Handfish

There’s a funny looking fish
In old Van Diemen’s Land
That walks about on fins
That look a lot like hands

He doesn’t like new neighbours
From far off tropic seas
Eating all his food
In the estuaries

And lately he’s been finding
That it’s getting very hot
And the Kelp beds are declining
And he’s in a nasty spot

It really is unpleasant
He would like to up and go,
If there was a place to go to
And he didn’t walk so slow

Tasmania’s marvellous Handfish are in trouble. All of the many species of Handfish are finding it difficult to adapt to the rapidly warming waters around Tasmania and the Spotted Handfish is now endangered. But what options are there for an estuarine species adapted more for walking than swimming? Unlike the warm-water fish invading in their droves from the tropical north, swimming to a new place is not an option for the Handfish. And where would it go in any case? The rapid warming of the waters around Tasmania is driving major ecological change with kelp beds vanishing and a dramatic shift to warmer water species. It doesn’t bode well for Tasmania’s aquaculture industry and particularly the culture of Atlantic Salmon which likes cold water. And if rising sea temperatures were not bad enough there is the hideous Japanese Seastar to contend with. This invasive species was introduced to Tasmania in ballast water and has infested the Derwent River Estuary home of the Spotted Handfish in their countless millions eating their food and their eggs. But what can be done? Getting rid of the Japanese Seastar will help and the CSIRO is working on this but the underlying problem of Climate Change appears unresolvable. I have no doubt that when the situation reaches crisis point in the terrestrial world there will be concerted global action to tackle climate change. The impact of climate change in the marine world is, however, much more rapid and profound than in the terrestrial world. By the time we get around to doing something about climate change it will be far too late for the Handfish and many other marine species.

You won’t find climate change sceptics among marine biologists. They see the consequences first hand and know it is real. The problem with climate change sceptics as stated by Gordon Livingstone in his book Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart , “ It is difficult to remove by logic an idea not placed there by logic in the first place.”

Helping Mother Earth

We grow fat with our technology and despoil
And neglect our mother earth
Who has sustained us since our birth
With natures fruits now left to spoil
As we pollute the air and soil
And laugh at warnings with great mirth
Until we finally face her wrath
And die or be condemned to toil

For despite our arrogance and pride
Each of is natures child
There is nowhere we can hide
We need the earth and nature wild
To be always at our side
And never get our mother riled

We are in a lot of trouble. Climate change, invasive species and habitat loss are wreaking havoc on our ecosystems and threatening the wonderful web of life on our precious planet. And yet it seems that the more comfortable we get the less we think about the consequences of our high population and high technology lifestyle on our fragile planet. It is not in our interest to think about it never lone actually trying to do something about it. We are daily beset by visions of massive floods, raging fires, intense cyclones and endless droughts exacerbated by climate change but for most of us it is not our problem. In the words of the great Moody Blues rock band “someone dropped a bomb today but it wasn’t on anyone I knew.”

The silence of the major parties on environmental issues in Australia’s current federal election campaign is deafening. The exception to this is the Murray Darling River system and only then because the situation has reached crisis point. Irrigators and their communities are competing with the need for environmental flows to sustain stressed ecosystems and the water supply of Adelaide. The lack of water has triggered a water war and both sides of politics are focused on treating the symptoms. They assume it will rain soon and all will be well. Neither side seems to recognise that the situation is a long term consequence of climate change and it's only going to get worse. Neither party has any interest in tackling climate change and the leader of opposition is a climate change denier.

But if the people in the Murray Darling catchment are doing it tough spare a thought for the 2,000 people living on the Carteret Islands, northeast of Bougainville, where their ancestors have lived for 3,000 years. Their islands are disappearing under the waves and they are having to evacuate. The rate of sea level rise in the area is increasing and has been about 8 mm in the past 7 years. I witnessed the same thing happening at my old home town of Madang on the north coast of New Guinea when I visited there last year.

It is not easy to address issues such as climate change but denying it is happening is not going to get us anywhere. The time is fast approaching when we are going to have to unite as a world society and make some unpalatable choices.

I would greatly appreciate any comments you may have on these articles and would be very happy to write on any environmental topic that is close to your heart. Next week I will tell you about the marvelous Handfish that is being threatened by the warming waters around Tasmania and the invasive Japanese Seastar.

Mopoke

Last night I heard a mopoke
Calling from a tree
With a voice of forest folk
And nature wild and free

Ninox calls to me at night
As my emotions swirl
Bringing tales of delight
From the wild world

Mopoke Mopoke
Is how he spoke


There are few things more delightful than the call of a mopoke from the darkness outside our bedroom window. Ninox novaeseelandiae or the Boobook Owl is a small hawk like owl whose distinctive “mo-poke” call was once familiar to people all over Australia but sadly heard less frequently now as much of its forest habitat has disappeared. It is the call of the wild in the voice of the mopoke that reminds us why we made the decision to move out of the city to our forest retreat and why, despite the cost of time and inconvenience of long drives to the city, it is all worthwhile. And sometimes, when we are really lucky, we hear the mournful shrieking cry of the mopokes larger cousin the Barking Owl. The hideous hair raising shriek of the Barking Owl inspired the early settlers to call them the “Murdering Woman Owl.” It must have been a terrifying sound for lone travelers camping in the forest.

Men who stare at feral goats

Fish and crays and right hand breaks
Are marvelous to see
But the wonders of the north-west coast
Extend beyond the sea

Many rare and special plants
As hardy as can be
Stabilised the coastal dunes
And grew right to the sea

But the coastal dunes were hammered hard
By feral goats and sheep
And the awful damage these have done
Would make a strong man weep

The blasted sheep are bad enough
But with the feral goat
If these are not soon all gone
We will have missed the boat

The coast north of Carnarvon is spectacular. White spray towers up red cliffs battered by massive blue waves and sheltered coral lagoons teem with fish and crays. This is the home of the Blow Holes, the legendary right hand breaks of Red Bluff and spectacular mass gatherings of sharks and whales. Tourists, surfers and fishermen come in their droves but few take much notice of the land and its degradation.

The low, grey coastal flora is at first sight uninspiring but if you look closer and you will be amazed at the diversity and particularly in winter when everlasting daisies light up the landscape in a blaze of native colour. Here too, if you are lucky, you may see Tyler’s Chocolate Lilly that I discovered in 1981 nestling in the dunes. This is the land that supported the coastal Baiyungu people for millennia. Here in abundance, for those who know, is food, medicine and tools. Unfortunately most of those who know are gone and this marvelous ecosystem is being trashed by sheep and invasive Buffel Grass introduced by the pastoralists. Are these fragile dunes really sustainable sheep pasture? We know they are not and just one look at the plummeting carrying capacity over the past century underscores this point. Much of the saltbush that sustained the sheep in the early days is long gone but the sheep herders continue to ply their unprofitable trade and sustain themselves on the back of tourism and the husbandry of feral goats. It is a terrible irony that the attraction of tourists to this marvelous coast is allowing the destruction of the coastal ecosystem by sheep to continue.

And worse than the sheep are the feral goats also husbanded by the pastoralists. Commercialising vermin never works. All it does is exacerbate land degradation. The pastoralists unconvincingly argue that their commercial harvesting of feral goats keeps the population at sustainable levels when blind Freddy can see that the active farming of goats is destroying the country.

Wouldn’t it be marvelous to see the Ningaloo Marine Park extended southwards to the Blowholes and including the fragile coastal strip. With sheep and feral goats gone the land could begin the slow road to recovery and our marvelous natural heritage would be accessible to all Australians.

Sunlight

There's a special kind of battery

Drifting in the sea

That has harvested the sunlight

For all eternity

Locking light in carbon

Reversing entropy

Priceless like a diamond

At the bottom of the sea

This treasure trove of sunlight

Was found by greedy men

Who squandered in a heartbeat

The heritage of man

It took less than a century

To burn a billion years

To turn the night to endless day

And fill the world with tears

The rapidity with which we are squandering the world’s oil reserves is astonishing. For 5 billion years phytoplankton have used the miracle of photosynthesis to create sugar from carbon dioxide and water. This sugar with its trapped sunlight is ultimately transformed into oil in the sludge on the floor of the oceans. Vast pools of oil accumulated over incomprehensible eons are being burned at an incredible rate to sustain our energy intensive society and to support our huge population. But what happens when the oil runs out? How will we then feed the hungry people on our impoverished heated planet?

The Massacre at Sexy Beach

Ronny with Macassan prau paintings at Dulumba Bay 1995

The Sexy People, so they say

Lived down at Dulumba Bay

Making love throughout the day

Refusing to just go away

Near the lake of dolphin dreaming

Full of barrumundi teaming

Echoes of lost people screaming

Sunbleached bones on beaches gleaming

The massacre the elders say

Took place at the break of day

But some they say got away

And live down there until today

Dulumba Bay is in the south east corner of Groote Eylandt. It is a remote and beautiful place that is rarely visited and almost never by outsiders. It was here at Sexy Beach on the shore of a magnificent turquoise coral lagoon that the Sexy People met their doom. “Why were the called the Sexy People?” “They made love constantly and openly on the beach and in the forest. They did not respect our moral code. They were bad people.”

The Sexy People were the mixed race descendents of traditional Groote Eylandt Aboriginals and visiting Macassan Trepang Fishermen. For over 600 years the Macassans would arrive in the dry season from Sulawesi in their prau’s to collect Sea Cucumbers also known as Trepang or Beche De Mer. After a few months they would leave with their prau’s loaded with tonnes of the smoked delicacy that they would trade to the Chinese. Today the Tamarind Trees around the ancient smoking pits and the ochre cave paintings of the Macassans and their praus are reminders of those days. The Macassans also left behind the hideous neurological Franz Josef genetic disease that continues to plague some Groote Eyland families.

It is difficult to know for sure when the massacre occurred but it wasn’t long ago. People I spoke to said that their grandfathers were involved and that it was a combined expedition of Elcho Island and Groote Eyland warriors. The bodies were apparently left where they fell and the bones remain on the beach to this day. This could be why people tend to avoid this haunted place. Legends abound of survivors whose descendents continue to live in the area. Not likely, but I guess possible as the place is uninhabited, heavily forested and riddled with caves. It is also a land of plenty with abundant food in the forest and the sea.

Amata Lake or Salt Lake is a land-locked tidal lake about 3 km inland from Dulumba Bay. This is the lake of Dolphin Dreaming into which giant Irrawaddi River Dolphins enter on the rising tide chasing fish through the limestone cave system connecting the lake to the sea. It was a great privilege to have been shown some of the wonders of this mysterious and inaccessible wilderness by the traditional owners.

Whaling

Can you hear the humpbacks singing?

Can you hear their mournful cry?

What tales are they bringing?

What dreams of times gone bye?

We need to kill more whales

To make a tasty dish

We need more meat for sales

It’s only just a fish

Have you seen the hump-backs playing

And felt your spirit soar?

Have you seen them breach and leap about

As you watched them from the shore?

Don’t listen to those Aussies

They kill kangaroos

Why are they so bossy?

We do what we must do.

It’s been a week of whaling controversy. First there was the trial in Japan of NZ anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune who has been in custody since February when he boarded a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic and then there was Australia’s decision to take Japan to the International Court of Justice in the Hague to bring an end to Japans so called “scientific whaling.” Emotions are running high in both Australia and Japan. Both countries view the issue of whales and whaling as symbols of national identity and sovereign rights. Australians are appalled that Japan continues to slaughter hump-back whales within Australian territorial waters and within the Southern Whale Sanctuary in particular. Most Australians view the Hump-back as a sacred animal, or close to it, with an intelligence close to that of humans and react to their killing as they would to the murder of a human being. The Hump-back Whale is also very important for Australia’s ecotourism industry. The Japanese on the other hand do not recognize Australian sovereignty over Australian Antarctic waters and view whaling as their traditional right. The fact that they have no tradition of modern whaling and particularly in the southern ocean is not seen as relevant. Comments by Japanese citizens that whales “are just a fish” and that “Australians kill kangaroo’s so what is the difference” demonstrate a profound national ignorance in Japan about the nature of the issue. They view attacks on their right to whale as an assault on their national pride and they falsely assume that opposition to Japanese whaling is being driven by anti-Japanese sentiment verging on racism. The depth of feeling can be intense as demonstrated by nationalist activists at the trial of Peter Bethune waving “hang the terrorist” placards. Most Australians visiting Japan or socializing with Japanese friends in Australia simply avoid discussing the issue.

Japan has a long history of whaling. Japans first emperor in the 7th Century, Jimmu, was partial to whale meat and whaling has been practiced in remote Japanese villages forever but with less than 1% of Japanese consuming whale meat until 1908 it is a stretch to see it as traditional. The ancient Japanese whalers additionally worshipped the whale as a god in their Kujira Jinga Shrines and killed them only as necessary for the survival of the village. The ancient Japanese would be appalled by the concept of modern commercial whaling.

The father of modern whaling in Japan was not, however, Japanese but US General Douglas MacArthur. He saw whaling as an economical way of feeding post war Japan and authorized 2 factory ships and 12 chasers in 1946-47. The US additionally provided $800,000 in fuel in return for $4 million worth of whale oil which is a pretty good return on investment. The Japanese were taught modern whaling by the Norwegians and in the peak year of 1962 harvested 226,000 tons of whale meat. Catches then gradually declined as whales were hunted to the point of extinction and the catch in 1985 was a mere 15,000 tons. The United States closed Alaskan waters to Japanese whalers in 1986 and there was a moratorium on commercial whaling. The Japanese in an effort to continue whaling exploited a loophole in the International Whaling Commission rules to allow whaling for scientific purposes and expanded their operations into the southern ocean. Scientific whaling is recognized everywhere as a joke but until this week it has not been legally challenged because deeming it illegal could result in Japan resuming uncontrolled commercial whaling and render the International Whaling Commission irrelevant. Australia’s move is therefore a dangerous one but with flawed protocols and decisions corrupted by many small IWC nations subject to economic coercion by Japan it is important to bring the issue to a head. The bigger and as yet unanswered question is how can the world bring powerful rogue nations like Japan to heel? There is Paul Watson’s Sea-Shepherd approach which has the advantage of keeping the issue in the spotlight but which unfortunately antagonizes the Japanese and hardens their stance. Proactive engagement is probably a better way. There are right winged nationalist hard-heads in Japan but Australia too has its fair share of these. The problem is one of politics and information. Only 11% of Japanese support whaling but on the other hand only 14% oppose it. Most Japanese don't even think about it. The irony of the whole debate is that demand for whale meat in Japan is low. In 2005 for example, 20% of the 4,000 ton haul of whale meat remained unsold as unwanted frozen surplus despite attempts to promote its sale into new markets such as school lunches and dog food. The challenge is to increase political opposition to whaling within Japan. The Japanese tourists on the Perth whale-watching tours are after all just as enthralled by whale watching as the Aussies and most have no interest in consuming whale meat. The value of a living whale is immeasurably greater than that of a whale carcass.

Albatross

At an ocean trench off Rotto
Where the sea is very deep
And the icy Southern Ocean
And the Leeuwin Current meet
You will find the wanderer
On winter time retreat

Skimming over wave tops
With the rhythm of the sea
His graceful soaring flight
Is marvellous to see
With rigid wings unmoving
Defying gravity

The Perth Canyon is a 1,300 m deep trench cutting inot the continental shelf 20 km west of Rottnest Island. It is well known for game fishing, Pygmy Blue Whales and southern ocean seabirds that migrate northwards in the southern winter. High productivity is supported by a localised upwelling of cold nutrient rich water at the eastern end of the trench. This upwelling is driven by the Leeuwin Current which paradoxically inhibits upwellings along much of the Western Australian coast and is responsible for the relatively low productivity of Western Australian fisheries dcompared to those on the western side of South America and Africa. The warm and nutrient poor Leeuwin Current is also responsble for the extension of coral reefs as far south as Rottnest Island. As the current swings westwards over the Perth Canyon it drives cold nutrient rich deep water from bottom of the Canyon into the photic zone to trigger blooms of phytoplankton which in turn support masses of krill. These in turn feed Pygmy Blue Whales that congregate in the area during summer and Humpback whales which pass through the area on their way to and from their tropical winter calving grounds. The Perth Canyon is a fabulous fishing spot that is coming under increasing pressure from an expanding long line fleet that currently operates with 5 million hooks. In Winter it is a feeding ground for pelagic seabirds such as Albatross and Petrels retreating northward from the stormy Antarctic Winter. The Perth Canyon and its marvellous fishing and wildlife are still a fairly well kept secret but charter operators are increasingly running charters to the area. If you get the chance to go you should do so. Alternatively why not get some friends together and charter your own boat. Marvellous!

Frilled Lizard

With mouth agape he raised his ruff
But I knew it was only bluff
I knew he was not that tough
And would soon tire of this stuff

But then he had a better plan
With brilliant orange frilly fan
Tucked in closely, off he ran
On two hind legs just like a man

Looking for a place to flee
He quickly ran straight up a tree
Where safety was a gaurantee
And he could keep an eye on me

Somehow watching through the tree
On the other side from me
Always moving round the tree
Practising his ESP

There are few sights more magnificant than a frilled lizard which is probably why it was selected as the cover photo on my 1979 Edition of Harold G.Cogger's Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia. It is an iconic species that adorned the now obsolete 2c piece and is still common in the dry sclerophyll forests of tropical Australia and New Guinea. They were very common on Groote Eylandt when I was there in the 1990's and referred to by the local Aborigines as man-lizards due to their habit of running on their back legs when alarmed which on Groote was frequent with no shortage of hungry hunters. Not suprisingly for an arboreal species, they climb really well despite their large size and this coupled with their speed gives them a fair degree of protection. What I could never figure out is how they would manage to keep on the far side of the tree when I was trying to get a closer look at one. Fast or slow, clockwise or anticlockwise they would mirror my movement to remain on the far side of the tree. Although arboreal, the frilled lizard spends a lot of time on the ground hunting for insects and small invertebrates and when started will initally raise its ruff and open its mouth to expose sharp teeth in an attempt to frighten off the intruder. If this fails it is time to run like the wind and straight up the nearest tree.

The Heart of Darkness

The once dark heart

Is pierced by blinding light

Which shatters the eternal night

Causing pulse to sicken

Leaving Baka stricken

How now will Baka eat?

To what darkness now retreat?

With lifeblood draining truck by truck

The Baka may be out of luck.

Light has come to the eternal night of the Congo Basin rainforest. Ancient forest giants festooned with vines crash to the forest floor with a mighty noise that for a moment drowns out the roar of the chainsaws. Monkeys and other forest animals flee in terror as the bright light of civilisation finally reaches the dark heart of Africa. The Baka pygmies look on while the forest resources so necessary for their livelihoods and culture disappear. But the Baka are pragmatic and there is always more forest to move to. Or is there? Unless something is done soon to slow or halt the rapid deforestation of the Congo Basin rainforest there will soon be no old growth forest left for the Baka and no wildlife left to hunt. What then for the Baka? What then for the planet? We cannot allow this to happen.

Black on Blue The Lament of the Black Cockatoo

The White Tailed Black Cockatoo is a large, raucous and conspicuous bird well known to the residents of Perth and the south-west. To some they are a pest but to most of us a treasure. They are such as integral part of our landscape that it is easy to take them for granted and most people have no idea that they are endangered or else do not believe it. They are so conspicuous and travel such large distances that a small number will be seen by large numbers of people. The fact is that there are not many left and of those many are old birds well past their breeding prime. Unlike us a bird in its 60’s looks much the same as a 2 year old.

There are two types of White-tailed black Cockatoos. The seed eating Carnaby’s Cocky which has a short beak and the Long-beaked Baudin’s Cockatoo which is a fruit eater that is being shot to oblivion by orchardists and is really in trouble. The main problem for Carnaby’s Cocky in particular is a shortage of ancient Wandoo trees with suitable nesting hollows within about 6 km of Kwongan Heath feeding grounds. The other problem is that many of the suitable nesting hollows have been taken over by feral bees. These are issues that must be addressed as a priority for us to have any chance of securing a long term future for these beautiful birds. Can you imagine the sky black with flocks of thousands of White Tailed Black Cockatoos as the Nyunger People and the early settlers used to witness?

Lonely black against the blue
Once so many now so few
Once the black obscured the blue
When the flocks of thousands flew
Across the land the Nyungar knew

The nesting hollows in the trees
Are now most often filled with bees
And where to find good seeds to eat
With the loss of Kwongan Heath
Turned to paddocks full of beef

Is there a way to bring them back?
To once again coat blue with black
To once more hear the forest ring
With their chorus as they sing
And shriek and squawk like anything

Scarlet Robin

Early in the morning
There’s a flash of brilliant red
And a tap upon the window
While we are still in bed

He’s not there to say good morning
Or to stop us sleeping late
He is there in all his glory
To fight his mirror mate

He arrives early to greet his reflection in our northern windows. We hear a scratch on the window and there he is in all his glory. The vivid scarlet breast and white patched forehead mark him unmistakably as a Scarlet Robin. This inhabitant of the Jarrah and Wandoo Forests of South Western Australia is an Old World Flycatcher and not related to its English Robin Red Breast namesake. Apart from his good looks he has a beautiful trilling, warble. The female is not as gaudy but is also gorgeous with a pale red breast and more subdued colouring.

The Woylie and the Fox

And under the trees I saw Brown Barbaloots
Frisking about in their Barbaloot Suits
As they played in the shade and ate truffula fruits
The Lorax, Dr Seuss 1971.


How quickly things change. One hundred years ago the floor of our great jarrah and wandoo forests was churned up nightly like a freshly ploughed field by millions of small digging animals called Woylies. The Woylie, or Brush-tailed Bettong, spent its nights digging for truffles, which are the underground fruit of mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi attach to the roots of trees and act as root hairs to provide the trees with phosphate, nitrate and other nutrients in return for sugars. They also protect the trees from pathogenic Phytophthora fungi. Woylies and other small digging mammals like bandicoots would spread the mycorrhizal fungi through the forest as well as burying the leaf litter needed by the fungi as a source of food and reducing the fire risk to the forest. The forest was alive with Woylies. Each of an estimated 300 million Woylies in the southern forests of Western Australia would turn over about 6 tonnes of soil a year, aerating the ground and allowing rainwater to infiltrate into the naturally water repellent soils. It was a marvellous three-way symbiosis that sustained a healthy forest. And then in a blink the Woylies were gone, or almost so and the great forests began to sicken and die because of the feral fox.

The feral fox followed the rabbit across the country from Victoria and arrived in Western Australia in the 1930’s. In a few short decades the small forest mammals including Woylies, Numbats, Tammar Wallabies and bandicoots were wiped out. By 1997 the last of the Critically Endangered Woylies were hanging on by the skin of their teeth in a couple of isolated forest pockets containing Gastrolobium Poison Pea. This Pea, which was once widespread through the forests, is deadly to sheep and had been systematically eradicated by sheep farmers for 100 years. It is also deadly to foxes. Western Australian native mammals had evolved a resistance to the fluoroacetate poison in the pea and could survive with high levels of the toxin in their bodies. Foxes were often poisoned when they consumed these animals. This discovery and the consequent use of fluoroacetate in 1080 Poison Baits had enormous implications for the Woylie. Targeted baiting programmes under the Western Shield Fox Control Programme provided effective fox control and the Woylie and his mates are now on the road to recovery in many places. If you want to see this marvelous animal and other fox vulnerable species like Numbats I strongly recommend a visit to the Dryandra Woodland near Narrogin. Here you will experience a shadow of the ecological marvel that once sustained the southern forests and may one day do so again if we can eradicate the fox. I believe that the eradication of the fox is the single greatest ecological priority in Western Australia.

Endless woylies without rest
Dug truffles where they pleased
And protected the great forest
From fire and disease

But then the greedy feral fox
Ate woylies by the score
As they quickly like the pox
Spread from England’s shore

But now we halt this great decline
Of woylie and his mates
By killing off the fox malign
With potent poison baits

Fishy tales

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was established in 1975 to prevent international trade contributing to the extinction of endangered species. CITES has worked well but there is an increasing trend of economic opportunists hijacking the agenda to the detriment of conservation.This was demonstrated yesterday with two poor decisions taken at the CITES meeting in Doha. The first was the defeat of a US proposal to ban the trade of polar bear skins and the second the defeat of a Monaco proposal backed by the US to ban the export of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. The polar bear decision was dissapointing because polar bears are in enough trouble already from the loss of Arctic ice due to climate change without being subjected to hunting as well. It was, however, a decision made with the interests of poor people relying on subsistence hunting at heart.There was no such justification for the rejection of the Atlantic Tuna proposal which was the result of the active lobbying and coercion of small dependent nations by Japan. The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna population has reduced by 80% since 1970 and is in danger of complete collapse. Japan consumes 80% of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna catch to feed their insatiable appetite for Bluefin Sushi and do not want their supply jeopordized.

It is fascinating to see that Canada was one of the countries that voted with Japan against the proposal, apparently learning nothing from their 1992 experience with the collapse of the Canadian Cod Fishery. Canada refused to heed warnings from scientists prior to the collapse and just did not believe that their multi-billion dollar cod fishery could ever collapse. They continued to allow overfishing with destructive habitat destroying "draggers" until the fishery totally collapsed in 1992 with 40,000 people losing their jobs and many communities economically destroyed. The ecological changes as a result of cod fishery collapse make it unlikley that it will ever recover. We will never again see, like the exlorer John Cabot in 1497, fish so thick around the rocky shores of Newfoundland that they almost blocked his ship. If you are interested in the cod story I strongly recommend that you read the fascinating book by Mark Kurlansky written in 1998 titled "Cod".

Japan and Canada argue that the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna can be sustainably managed through the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICATT)and that it is unnecessary to impose a CITES trade ban but they ignore the fact that the fishery has not been managed well and this is not going to change. Japan has a lot to lose from the collapse of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna fishery but unfortunately they will then move on to other tuna fisheries that have not yet collapsed like those off the coasts of Somalia and Australia. In the absence of consequences for mismanagement and over-exploitation bad behaviour by selfish nations is not going to change.

The sun was glinting off the sea
Reflecting brightly back to me
And I was squinting through the glare
Trying to see what’s hidden there

When scaly mirrors flaring bright
With a silver brilliant light
Glittered briefly in the blue
Dazzling as he flashed through

Echidna

The Visitor
I normally don’t appreciate being woken up at 1:00 am but last night was an exception. The dogs were barking and growling outside our bedroom window so I got up to investigate. It was a beautiful balmy night. The stars were blazing in the clear sky and the ghostly Wandoo gleamed in the silvery moonlight. There was just enough light to make out a low dark shape about half a metre long being harassed by the dogs. I put the dogs inside and took a closer look at our interesting visitor. He was an Australian short beaked echidna out foraging for termites.

We have a lot of echidnas on our property but we don’t often see them. We see their diggings everywhere but they are secretive and elusive and during the day will be hiding in a hollow log or buried in the leaf litter. They are very powerful diggers and use their strong short legs and claws to break open fallen timber in their search for termites which they mop up by the thousands with their sticky tongues. They are found in all parts of Australia but their numbers have plummeted in many places due to land clearing and predation from introduced foxes, despite their spiky armour which gives them some protection.

The echidna, along with its enigmatic platypus cousin, is a descendent of an early group of mammals called monotremes with reptilian characteristics such as fused shoulders and egg laying reproduction. It is a mistake, however, to think of an echidna as a primitive animal. It evolved relatively recently from a platypus ancestor between 19 and 48 million years ago and it has an exceptionally large brain and high intelligence. It is interesting to speculate how natural selection could have transformed an aquatic worm eating platypus type creature with a rubbery “duck bill” into a terrestrial animal with a fused beak feeding almost exclusively on termites. The intermediates are no longer with us but the worm eating long beaked echidna of Papua New Guinea is much closer to the platypus in its appearance and behavior gives us some clue as to how it could have happened.


I saw this evening magnificent
Echidna busy bustling
Pushing through leaves rustling
On the termite scent
A vision heaven sent
Glorious creature muscling
Single minded hustling
Nemesis of the white ant

Dense fur and white spines glistening
Powerful claw foot digger
With head cocked as though listening

Spiky fox repeller
With hidden eyes and snout protruding
Most welcome visitor

Opportunities to reduce emissions

While the debate on the reality of climate change rages, calls for action to curb emissions are being largely ignored. It is understandable that people are fearful of potential new taxes but there is much that can be done at no cost and in fact to the financial advantage of all. What individual or business would would knock back an offer from someone offering to pay 15-20% of their energy costs? For most individuals and businesses this is the general level of energy and emission savings up for grabs. In the case of large businesses this amounts to millions of dollars and in fact the larger the business the greater the potential for inefficiency. I know this to be true because I have helped a number of companies make these kind of savings. And if you don't believe it I challenge you to look closely at your patterns of energy consumption. When you do so you will be astonished at how much unnecessary energy is wasted. Careful tracking of energy use is the first step in identifying improvement opportunity. Managing energy is of course no different to managing the household budget. If you don't track your spending you will have no hope of living within your means. Once you understand your patterns of energy use you can take steps to reduce consumption. If you are consuming a lot of energy in hot water use for example it may be opportune to install a solar water heater, or to have shorter showers, or to install a pressure head on the shower nozzle, or get the kids out of the shower quicker. I am sure you get the idea. And then think about opportunities in design of the house. East west oriented houses with passive heating and cooling and good insulation for example will slash your heating and cooling bills. The point is that eliminating unnecessary waste is good for the environment and good for the budget. I will conclude with a poem which I have titled the Global Warming Rap.

Our heated world is stewin
And we’re on the way to ruin
If we don’t change what we’re doin
And cut the crap we’re spewin

But our Politicians roared
The Kyoto protocol is flawed
And the nation can’t afford
To sign to this accord

We don’t need revolution
When a technical solution
And a bit of resolution
Will cut the worlds pollution

They work on the assumption
Which is a huge presumption
That we have the gumption
To cut down our consumption

We must not give up trying
To stop our planet frying
And our farmland slowly drying
And our coral reefs from dying

The Reality of Climate Change

The Reality of Climate Change

You won’t find climate change skeptics among the Inuit. They watch in despair as their ice vanishes and the polar bears drown. You also won’t find climate change skeptics among the Pacific Islanders as they watch their atolls vanish beneath the waves and I too have witnessed this first hand. And, you won’t find climate change skeptics among marine biologists who get to see first hand the bleached coral, vanishing Tasmanian kelp beds and the rapid transformation of the marine ecology as tropical organisms move into the temperate zone. I have seen mosquitoes and malaria move into the mosquito free PNG highlands where I grew up back in the days when there was still snow on Mt Guluwe and Mt Wilhelm. No one can credibly argue that climate change is not happening. The evidence is everywhere and overwhelming and deep down all but the deeply deluded know this to be true. This is not some subtle and hard to measure thing, it is there for all to see. You only need to look at satellite pictures of Australia to see the transformation of the northern deserts into woodland and we all know that southern Australia is becoming drier which is why the Murray Darling River system is in such as mess. Why then are so many people skeptical and why is their orchestrated misinformation campaign being legitimized? I have some theories about this but suspect it is largely about selfishness. We are content and comfortable and should not and will not take any action that threatens our standard of living such as impose a carbon tax. This approach is of course folly. Climate change is real and we have to do something about it and the quicker we act the better. The first step is to acknowledge that the problem is real and then maybe we can find a solution. Like most scientists, I am not optimistic but we have to have a go.

The world heats with the folly of man

As hope fades like a dying ember

And we our green world remember

And regret the loss of snow and cooling rain

And wish we had our time again

To avoid greed and not to self interest surrender

And destroy the world in its living splendor

If only we were back where we began

To see once more the marvelous sight

Of coral reef and atolls, now long drowned

To see the snow fall brilliant white

On great green forests live with sound

Then our future was so bright

And our blessings were profound