Introduction The first telegraph message in the world was sent on 24 May 1844, using Morse code, a system of dots and dashes representing letters of the alphabet. The system was invented by Samuel Morse, inspired by the fact that when his wife died in 1825, he did not hear of the event until days …
Connecting Western Australia to the rest of the world Read More »
The reason why humans prioritise bad news, according to Nobel Prize-winning behavioural psychologist Daniel Kahneman, is because “organisms that treat threats as more urgent than opportunities have a better chance to survive and reproduce”. In the lead-up to this year’s Earth Day celebrations later this month, I thought it was timely to look closely at whether …
Why on earth do we continue to celebrate Earth Day? Read More »
Introduction The South Australian portion of the Nullarbor Plain was part of New South Wales. The reason can be explained by examining the stories behind the development of each of the state borders since colonisation. This blog will initially focus on the creation of the Western Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory border, which is …
The pitfalls of having a border follow a celestial line Read More »
“If you do not graze and/or burn the country, it will turn into scrub. It will turn into a time bomb and one day it will explode”. Vic Jurskis. “Burning small patches higgledy‐piggledy every 10 years or so doesn’t have much effect on wildfires”. Submission to the Wambelong fire Introduction My June 2022 forestry blog provided …
A case study in folly #3 – the 2013 Wambelong fire Read More »
Because the forestry profession is far from simple and the work highly variable, I have tried to describe what a forester does by outlining the development of the profession in Australia. In Part 1, I outlined the broad principles of forestry and the development of the forestry profession up until WWII. For this second part …
I first learnt about the Bush Church Aid Society (BCA) when I researched a story on pilot John Lindridge, who worked for BCA in the 1960s. While this story mentions the skills of the original pilot Allan “Chaddy” Chadwick, John Lindridge was also a very competent and professional pilot. My blog about John provides more details …
On the south-western shores of Australia when the storm clouds of winter has passedThe sun rises high in a clear assure sky and summer is with us at lastYou can fry an egg on the pavement or burn your feet on the sandSo we’ll wait for the breeze, the stiff summer breeze to cool the …
Esperance is a vibrant coastal town. It has a temperate climate and rainfall, which produces a reliable growing season of between five and eight months each year. Despite the favourable environment, Esperance had little permanent settlement before 1950. This was mainly due to soil deficiencies on the sandplains that surrounded the town. Immediately north of …
Introduction I found the coastline of Western Australia so different to places at equal latitude on the east coast. There are rocky islands and ledges that protect the coast from the incoming swells, tropical fringing reefs and vast meadows of seagrass. There is a tropical feel to the waters so far south. The main driver …
Tho’ it ain’t a life o’ pleasure, An’ there’s little time for leisure, It’s contentin’, in a measure, is the game of growin’ Wheat. C. J. Dennis ‘Wheat’ 1918 Introduction The Wheatbelt region in southern Western Australia extends across a large area as a crescent and is one of the few major agricultural regions in …
