January - February 2021

Australian Geographic

The journal of the Australian Geographic Society

Australian Geographic2 min read
Portrait Of A City Reborn
For our catch-up with the city of Christchurch 10 years on from the devastating 2011 earthquake (p78), we sent writer Geoff Chapple (above, at right, with Mike Langford) who penned our Whakaari/White Island volcano feature in AG 158. “The assignment
Australian Geographic3 min read
Moving On
We can all be forgiven for our collective unbridled glee in waving goodbye to this past year as we enter 2021, arguably the first year of the new decade according to many. It’s completely understandable if your farewell gesture is even less polite! N
Australian Geographic1 min read
Australian Geographic
MANAGING DIRECTOR Jo Runciman EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chrissie Goldrick CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mike Ellott SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT EDITOR Karen McGhee SUB-EDITORS Maggie Cooper, Elizabeth Ginis DIRECTOR OF CARTOGRAPHY Will Pringle PROOFREADER Susan McCreery ART D
Australian Geographic2 min read
Your Say
Isolating in Canberra from my usual home in Melbourne, I have had the benefit of reading my father’s copies of AUSTRALIANGEOGRAPHIC. AG 159 was again full of fascinating articles, intriguing facts and beautiful pictures. The echidna story noted that
Australian Geographic5 min read
The Hermit Of Griffith
ONE RAIN-LASHED January night in 1929, a lonely and defeated Italian immigrant by the name of Valerio Ricetti arrived on the outskirts of Griffith, New South Wales, and sought shelter in a rock overhang. Another depression-era drifter seeking work, h
Australian Geographic1 min read
Big Picture
THIS STUNNING IMAGE was taken by Gary Meredith in a remote part of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. There, rainbow bee-eaters roost together at night and each morning sit in the warmth of the rising sun. In winter they huddle to stay warm. The
Australian Geographic3 min readPhysics
When Earth’s Magnetic Poles Change Places
SINCE ITS DISCOVERY IN 1831, magnetic north has been quietly drifting across Arctic Canada. For 150 years, it wandered between 0km and 15km a year. But in the 1990s magnetic north took off. Within 30 years, the North Magnetic Pole had fled Canada and
Australian Geographic3 min read
Colonisation Begins
CAPTAIN ARTHUR PHILLIP RN was commander of the First Fleet of 11 ships that sailed into Botany Bay, New South Wales, in January 1788. Work on the site he chose for a convict settlement at nearby Sydney Cove, in Port Jackson, began shortly after, on 2
Australian Geographic2 min read
The Iceman Cometh
ON A SWELTERING January day in 1839, 250 tons of ice in huge blocks cut from frozen lakes near Boston, USA, arrived in Sydney on the ship Tartar. Overseas, harvested ice was stored in icehouses, underground buildings with thick brick walls. In Sydney
Australian Geographic2 min read
Stallions Of The Sea
THE OCEAN REMAINS a place of mystery, even to me as a marine biologist who spends more time in the water than out. Seahorses are marine animals that particularly capture the imagination of people, including myself. They’re very un-fish-like fish that
Australian Geographic1 min read
Talking Australia
Tyson, of the Apalech Clan from Cape York, Queensland, is a senior lecturer in Indigenous knowledge, published poet, exhibited artist and author of the award-winning book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (The Text Publishing Comp
Australian Geographic2 min readScience & Mathematics
BIRDING BASICS with Peter Rowland
BIRDING IS WONDERFULLY addictive! This year I will be sharing birding tips and tricks and my favourite sites from my 40-plus years of birding. Good field guides are essential: I keep a comprehensive one in the car and carry a compact one in my bag. T
Australian Geographic3 min read
Better Laws Needed To Stop Extinctions
THREATS SUCH AS land clearing and climate change are leading to declines in Australia’s native flora and fauna, yet legal protection for threatened species is weak. In 2020 the federal government put $200 million towards helping species badly hit by
Australian Geographic1 min read
Nature Photo Exhibition
THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM has reopened after a major revamp of its historic central Sydney sandstone precinct that dates back to 1845. Construction work, which began in early 2019 and continued right through the COVID-19 lockdown, has released an additio
Australian Geographic2 min read
Tim The Yowie Man the Tale Of The Nullarbor Nymph
THESE DAYS, if a grainy photo of a half-naked woman living with kangaroos on the Nullarbor was circulated it would probably get a run on a fake news website before disappearing into obscurity. Savvy readers would realise it was a prank. But back in l
Australian Geographic2 min readBiology
A Bird With Two Genders
GENDER CAN be very fluid. Strangely, a bird can have two genders, and a human can sometimes be two people. Imagine being the mother of three adult children who discovers she’s not related to two of them, even though she became pregnant using her own
Australian Geographic1 min read
Wild Australia Diary Entries
Only 90 minutes from Melbourne, the nature haven of Phillip Island delivers the goods – koalas, penguins, fur seals and more. At least 4000 of the 32,000 little penguins here have burrows near Summerland Beach. From boardwalks at Phillip Island Natur
Australian Geographic2 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
Water Sign From The Moon
BEFORE TELESCOPES, sky watchers thought dark markings on the Moon were seas and named them maris – Latin for ‘of the sea’. The telescope revealed them to be vast plains, which are actually ancient lava flows that filled giant impact basins caused by
Australian Geographic1 min read
Oz Words
VERSING AUSTRALIAN SPORTING journalism appears to have birthed the word “versing”. It turns up on programs where blokes named Jacko and Cruncher preview weekend sport. They seem to have trouble referring to the Sharks versus the Bears because “versus
Australian Geographic3 min read
The Australian Geographic Book Club
By Tom Gilling This is the story of an Aussie war hero largely forgotten by history, and what a story it is! The Japanese put a bounty on Jock McLaren’s head as he escaped Japanese POW camps, fought with American-led Filipino guerrillas and sailed hi
Australian Geographic8 min read
Beauty On The Brink
IT’S JUST AFTER lunchtime, the morning rains have finally cleared and the sun begins breaking through the clouds. Max Breckenridge, a captive release project officer with BirdLife Australia (BLA) is slowly walking along a dirt road that cuts through
Australian Geographic1 min read
Habitat Support
BOTH LONG-FLOWERED mistletoe plants and broad-leaved ironbark trees are vitally important to regent honeyeaters breeding in the Tomalpin Woodlands. Regents feed there on the blossoms of ironbarks and mistletoes as well as building nests in both plant
Australian Geographic2 min read
Australia Day Awards
THE YEAR 2020 was like no other in living memory. The Black Summer bushfires were followed by the global pandemic. Tragic events in the USA ignited the Black Lives Matter movement, which rapidly gained traction in Australia where injustices suffered
Australian Geographic1 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
Looking Up
The world’s most recognised constellation is the Northern Hemisphere evening sky’s Orion the Hunter. From Down Under we see it upside down, with Orion’s three belt stars making the base of the Saucepan. His sword hanging off the belt extends to the u
Australian Geographic6 min readBiology
Our New conservation superpower
There were expectations it would reveal much about the evolution of this continent’s largely unique mammal fauna, and it has. But to most scientists working in Australian wildlife conservation, it didn’t seem to have a lot of practical relevance. “Si
Australian Geographic2 min read
Your Society
BUNDJALUNG woman Amelia Telford, the Society’s 2015 Young Conservationist of the Year, has taken the helm of Australia’s first Indigenous youth-led environmental organisation, Seed Mob. Its members are aged between 15 and 35 and hail from across the
Australian Geographic1 min readComputers
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Australian Geographic1 min readEarth Sciences
The Darling River
THE MURRAY–DARLING BASIN is a system of interconnected rivers and lakes that covers 1.06 million square kilometres of south-eastern Australia. The Darling and the Murray are the two main rivers in the system. But there are also another 20 major river
Australian Geographic16 min read
Lifeblood Of The Nation
Below the modern Brewarrina Weir in north-western New South Wales, a 2km bend holds the remains of this ancient structure, a complex of dry-stone walls and a site of engineering brilliance. Displaying advanced knowledge of river hydrology and fish ec
Australian Geographic1 min read
Snakebite And Its Aftermath
THE PRIMARY purpose of snake venom is to immobilise prey, but from the human experience it’s more significant when a snake bites to defend itself. Venom is modified saliva. It is stored in venom glands behind the eye and connected by ducts to the fan
Australian Geographic12 min read
Turning Toxins To Therapies
RESEARCHING VENOM can be a hazardous pursuit. Ask Associate Professor Bryan Fry. This Brisbane-based molecular biologist has been bitten 27 times by venomous creatures, mostly snakes on land and box jellyfish and stingrays at sea. He’s also had 23 br
Australian Geographic2 min readEarth Sciences
Fatal Waters
Thermal stratification occurs when the surface water heats up significantly more than deeper water. It usually occurs, or becomes most pronounced, during low or no flow periods in summer, whereby the potential for mixing in the water column is reduce
Australian Geographic3 min readBiology
A Venomous Nature
IN NATURE, VENOM either subdues prey or defends against attack. It’s found in a huge variety of wildlife, from spiders and scorpions, to jellyfish and frogs, and even a primate – the slow loris. At least 15 per cent of animal species are thought to b
Australian Geographic2 min read
Venoms And Antivenoms In Australia
CHARLES MARTIN AT THE University of Sydney began the first systematic study of Australian snake venom chemistry in 1891, using the red-bellied black snake and the tiger snake. He discovered two active proteins: one triggered clotting in blood vessels
Australian Geographic12 min read
When A City Rises
THAT FEBRUARY 2011 earthquake, which struck during the city’s lunch hour, was the most destructive in a series. It was the one that broke so many of the Central Business District’s verticals and horizontals – its buildings and the roads, sewers, wate
Australian Geographic13 min read
Grantham’s Road To Recovery
IT WAS 10 JANUARY 2011 and once again it was pouring with rain. Queensland had already endured its wettest spring and December on record, and yet still the rain kept coming. I was working at the time as a freelance photographer for Queensland’s main
Australian Geographic2 min read
Trams And Trauma
PETER SALVESEN was driving his tram on 15 March 2019 when sirens began to wail and police cars darted through the streets. Something was wrong. Radio messages came through calling him to return to base. An Australian white supremacist gunman had open
Australian Geographic12 min read
Homes On The Rangelands
I’M SITTING IN stunned silence in a minibus with pastoralist David Pollock. We’re 650km north-east of Perth, in Western Australia’s Southern Rangelands. Before us stretch vast unvegetated swathes of red dirt, but, as I’m discovering, it didn’t always
Australian Geographic1 min read
Tumbarumba to Rosewood Rail Trail
FACT Tumbarumba to Rosewood Rail Trail is the first rail trail to open on Crown land in NSW. One way takes 1–4 hours, depending on speed. 1 Tumbarumba Visitor Information Centre and Museum 2 Electric bike hire 3 Mountain biking trails 4 Pump track, p
Australian Geographic2 min readEarth Sciences
Ocean To Outback
FROM SPECTACULAR coastal landscapes to the wildly beautiful outback, and the wildlife that call them home, South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula has it all. Unsurpassed in its beauty, the region also teems with colourful characters. You’ll meet a host of
Australian Geographic3 min read
Timeline Of WA Pastoral Leases
1829 Swan River colony established. 1837–39 Captain George Grey explores parts of the Kimberley coast, then areas between the Swan River and Shark Bay for colonisation and grazing potential, reporting great pastoral capacity in many areas. 1841 WA’s
Australian Geographic7 min read
Cycling Through Railway History
It passes oblivious livestock, scattered old farm buildings and relics of forgotten railway stations. It fords creeks, ducks beneath bridges and occasionally stops altogether to yield to road traffic in a revealing twist of the old pecking order. In
Australian Geographic2 min read
Citizen Science On The Great Barrier Reef
LOOKING TO TRY something that’s both adventurous and educational? Join this small ship expedition to the remote outer Great Barrier Reef and help marine scientists observe, record and report on natural phenomena. With full access to the most respecte
Australian Geographic2 min read
Help Save The Koalas
WHILE RAYMOND ISLAND wasn’t burnt during the destructive Black Summer bushfires, the surrounding region was decimated, and so the former has now become a significant refuge for koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas and many bird species. On this tri
Australian Geographic2 min read
Dr Dean Miller
DR DEAN MILLER IS a scientist, multi-media professional, BBC television presenter and an Australian Geographic-sponsored explorer. With a PhD in coral reef management, tourism and resource allocation, and a wealth of scientific experience in the fiel
Australian Geographic1 min read
Far North Queensland Wildlife & Conservation Safari
Far north Queensland is a wildlife enthusiast’s paradise! This small group tour explores rainforest habitat, concentrating on the endemic wildlife found within. We have a firm belief that tourism is the key to the protection and conservation of this
Australian Geographic2 min readNature
Bird Research On An Island Haven
LORD HOWE ISLAND is a gem of the natural world. Its dramatic scenery, lush subtropical forests, rare flora and fauna, pristine beaches and colourful marine life are breathtaking and unique. So much so that Sir David Attenborough once wrote that Lord
Australian Geographic2 min read
Adventure In Culture, Arnhem Land
THE YOLNU often say the land is their mother. It nurtures, heals and guides their lives. This is why the female visitor experience and connection to the yolηu people is often so profound. Our Gay’wu women’s tour provides female visitors with the oppo
Australian Geographic1 min readFashion
Lightning Ridge Fossil Digs
The Australian Geographic Society offers you a chance to hunt for rare opalised fossils. Guided by experts, you’ll discover new specimens for the Australian Opal Centre’s world-leading museum collection. Enrich your knowledge of opals and gems, opali
Australian Geographic1 min readNature
Aussie Ark experience
Join Tim Faulkner for a unique hands-on experience with this breeding program for the Tasmanian devil and eastern quoll in the beautiful Barrington Tops of NSW. You’ll see devils up close as you help with feeding and monitoring individuals. There’ll
Australian Geographic3 min readFashion
Georgetown, QLD
GEORGETOWN IS A pleasant, sleepy little place on the Etheridge River, in far north Queensland. It’s famed for gemstones and surrounded by rich beef-cattle country, the district being known for Brahman and Droughtmaster cattle. One of Australia’s most
Australian Geographic2 min read
Why Travel With Us?
Travelling with Australian Geographic inspires people to care about the planet by providing meaningful opportunities to explore it. Our travel experiences are rich in nature and adventure, and our travel partners specialise in hard-to-reach places an
Australian Geographic2 min read
The Mermaid Tree
THE TREE, A BOAB, is back slightly from the beach, overlooking a scene that hasn’t changed in hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. Below the high-tide mark where bristly grass gives way to coarse sand, the beach slopes down to open water and on th

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