Flies! Damn flies! Everywhere in Australia, there are flies. Some areas have more than their fair share of annoying flies.
Sometimes it can be impossible to do anything outside without applying something to ward them off. This is because they are so persistent in trying to land on us. Unfortunately, all we can do is feebly adopt the Aussie salute to try and deter them from our face.… Read more
The insect that created the Aussie salute Read More »
“Think of forests of WA and you picture the green south-west; think of Kalgoorlie and you conjure thoughts of gold, not trees. But the green and gold are inseparable. The trees that kept the hearts of the mines pumping were cut from native woodlands miles from the goldfields and hauled along specially constructed bush railways”. … Read more
“Surely there can be no greater cathedral as forests such as those of the karri.” Vincent Serventy
“If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools” Rudyard Kipling
The “defenders of the South West forests” are celebrating the recent announcement by the Western Australian Premier to cease native forest logging by January 2024.… Read more
Who are the real forest saviours in Western Australia? Read More »
“Fire has helped the flammable spinifex invade this vast land, and that spinifex has helped fire to dominate the landscape”. Peter Latz
So I’ll see you out on the mulga and spinifex plain; Anytime, Tjilpi, I’ll be coming back this way; See you out on the mulga and spinifex plain; Just light me a fire and I’ll soon be home again
“Mulga and spinifex plain”, Warumpi Band (Track 10 on Big Name, No Blankets)
As we have travelled through large arid and semi-arid areas of Australia, two vegetation communities have dominated the country – spinifex grasslands and mulga shrublands.… Read more
Grass rings of the outback and trees of the artificial wilderness Read More »
When I imagine a desert landscape, I conjure thoughts of endless sand dunes under a blue sky with a relentless sun beating down. And not much vegetation.
Travelling inland through some of the arid red centre for the first time in 2007, I was shocked at how different the reality was from my imaginings.… Read more
Are Australia’s deserts really deserts? Read More »
How buffel grass changed the dead heart of Australia
When you enter the Northern Territory from South Australia the landscape changes immediately from mulga scrub to more open savannah woodland dominated by the introduced buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris).
Buffel grass is a deep-rooted perennial native to Africa, the Middle East and India.… Read more
A tale of two grasses Read More »
This month’s guest blog is written by David de Little.
In my book “Fires, Farms and Forests” I outlined the pivotal role Dick de Boer played in the development of eucalypt plantations on Surrey Hills. David was fortunate to work with Dick from 1975 to 1983 and got to know him very well.… Read more
Bob Hardy was born and grew up in Burnie. His mother, a Jones, came from a mixed farm at Cuprona, with her Jones line going back to Britton Jones, the ex-convict who built Franklin House. As a twenty-year-old graduate from Hawkesbury Agricultural College, Bob first started working on Surrey Hills in 1960.… Read more
Sod seeding on Surrey Hills in 1960 Read More »
Fraser Island is a beautiful place. It is the world’s largest sand island and vegetated dune system. I had the opportunity to work on Fraser Island in the mid-1980s and have had several recreational visits to the island over the years. I still pinch myself these many years later on how fortunate I was to spend two weeks bush-bashing through the satinay (Syncarpia hillii)-brush box (Lophostemon confertus) forests while doing regeneration surveys.… Read more
The aristocratic satinay Read More »
