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I lived in the middle of the Nullarbor with my family and 3 other families from 1981 – 1984. We were employed by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and manned the Weather Station 24/7. The Weather Station closed in 1995. The Nullarbor is a huge flat arid area with no trees which straddles the States of South Australia and Western Australia. The name Nullarbor derives from the Latin Nullus - Arbor ( no trees ). It is larger than the UK. In the 2016 census it had a population of 50. Also on the 2016 census, Forrest, where we lived, had a population of zero. In the book I have described the history, geography, how it was formed, fauna and flora of the area, and some of the experiences we had during our three years there. We had an airstrip there. Apart from my job at the Weather Station I had the contract for refuelling both civilian and military aircraft. Most of the military aircraft are now obsolete and have either been scrapped or are in museums. We lived there at a place and time which will never be the same again.
This makes a detailed consideration of these extinctions a useful system for investigating the impacts of human activity over time.
The Australian vegetation is the end result of a remarkable history of climate change, latitudinal change, continental isolation, soil evolution, interaction with an evolving fauna, fire and most recently human impact. This book presents a detailed synopsis of the critical events that led to the evolution of the unique Australian flora and the wide variety of vegetational types contained within it. The first part of the book details the past continental relationships of Australia, its palaeoclimate, fauna and the evolution of its landforms since the rise to dominance of the angiosperms at the beginning of the Cretaceous period. A detailed summary of the palaeobotanical record is then presented. The palynological record gives an overview of the vegetation and the distribution of important taxa within it, while the complementary macrofossil record is used to trace the evolution of critical taxa. This book will interest graduate students and researchers interested in the evolution of the flora of this fascinating continent.
This is the first book created primarily for the field identification of parrots, one of the most familiar and colorful groups of birds. From the mighty. macaws to the diminutive pygmy parrots, the 350 species of parrots include cockatoos, parakeets, lovebirds, and Budgerigar. Most are brightly colored or even gaudy, but a few are drab, and some are nocturnal and flightess. Parrots, found throughout most of the warmer regions of the world, occur in greatest numbers in Australasian and South America. This book includes 88 superb color illustrations of every species and most identifiable subspecies of parrot, as well as range maps of their locations. It offers many firsthand insights into the ecology of each species, vocalizations, life cycle characteristics, and geographical variation. It also provides up-to-date information on the conservation status of those species of parrots that are threatened or endangered.
In Boom and Bust, the authors draw on the natural history of Australia's charismatic birds to explore the relations between fauna, people and environment in a continent where variability is 'normal' and rainfall patterns not always seasonal. They consider changing ideas about deserts and how these have helped us understand birds and their behaviour in this driest of continents. The book describes the responses of animals and plants to environmental variability and stress. It is also a cultural concept, when it is used to capture the patterns of change wrought by humans in Australia, where landscapes began to become cultural about 55,000 years ago as ecosystems responded to Aboriginal management. In 1788, the British settlement brought, almost simultaneously, both agricultural and industrial revolutions to a land previously managed by fire for hunting. How have birds responded to this second dramatic invasion? Boom and Bust is also a tool for understanding global change. How can Australians in the 21st century better understand how to continue to live in this land as its conditions are still dynamically unfolding in response to the major anthropogenic changes to the whole Earth system? This interdisciplinary collection is written in a straightforward and accessible style. Many of the writers are practising field specialists, and have woven their personal field work into the stories they tell about the birds.
An up-to-date, fully illustrated monograph on all Australian species of grassfinches.
This book challenges traditional perceptions of Australian Aboriginal prehistory: that the environment is the major determinant of hunter-gatherers; that Aborigines were egalitarian and culturally homogeneous and therefore experienced few economic and demographic changes. Harry Lourandos argues that the social and economic processes of hunter-gatherers were complex and that the prehistoric period was dynamic and revolutionary. Lourandos presents prehistoric data, reviews archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence, and analyses environmental, demographic and socially-oriented perspectives - drawing from them an original hypothesis. He addresses initial colonisation, the role of Tasmanian Aborigines, the role of fire, faunal extinctions, the intensification debate, horticultural origins, plant exploitation, and the significance of Australian prehistory in the study of other prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies.