Australian Geographic - SeptemberOctober 2022

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TAKING THE ROCK AND A FIND OF THE BIOLUMINESCENCE

SLOW ROAD HARD PLACE CENTURY Lamington National
A trip along the Climbing bans in King Tutankhamun’s Park photographed
old Hume Highway the Grampians Aussie connection after dark
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Issue 170
Contents
Australian Geographic September • October 2022
76 The Australian Geographic Nature

Photographer of the Year competition
56 The Curdimurka Outback Ball
NT
QLD
46 46 First Nations Voice
WA
56
SA 102
NSW
90
Features 16
66
VIC
130
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: GARY MEREDITH;
128
COURTESY MELANIE FAITH DOVE/YOTHU YINDI FOUNDATION;
40 Off with her head TAS

Australian banknotes feature more women
than those of any other country.
46 Listening to the Voice 76 An eye for nature

Thomas Mayor explains the First Nations Voice The best of the Australian Geographic
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Gowidon longirostris
and why we need it. Nature Photographer of the Year competition.

THOMAS WIELECKI; DEAN SEWELL
56 Spirit of Curdimurka 90 The road less travelled

Not all goes to plan at the legendary Driving down the old Hume Highway can truly
outback ball, but you can’t stop this lot. be described as a trip down memory lane.
66 A rock and a hard place 102 Lamington after dark 90 Old Hume
There’s conflict in the Grampians between Experience this treasured national park in a Highway
Traditional Owners and rockclimbers. way you’ve probably never seen it before.
September . October 7
Contents Australian Geographic September • October 2022
102 Lamington NP after dark
Your 66 Conflict in
24 Tutankhamun’s Aussie connection
Society
Find out where
the Grampians
your donations
are going in 2022
and get the latest
Geobuzz and regulars news. p36
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ISAAC WISHART;

11 From the Editor-in-chief 111 Travel with us: Unique experiences
14 Your Say with our trusted travel partners
16 Big Picture 127 AusQuiz: Test your wits
18 Geobits: Bite-sized news and events 128 Aussie Towns: Warrnambool, VIC
22 Earth View: The laws we need 130 Traces: The Lost Children of Daylesford
FRANCESCO VICENZI; SHUTTERSTOCK
24 King Tut’s forgotten man
30 Dr Karl: Atmospheric rivers
31 Defining Moments: Life. Be in it.
32 Tim the Yowie Man: The Bungonia Bear
Special note: Members of Aboriginal communities are
33 Book Club warned that this edition of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC
34 Space: Deflecting an asteroid may contain images and names of deceased people.
The very best of Australia’s nature, culture, people and places

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From the Editor-in-chief
A plea from the heart

I
N A COUNTRY fairer future for themselves for the
that enjoys such a benefit of us all (see page 46). AG subscriber
high standard of It won’t be an easy path for some; benefits
living, it’s a source of truth-telling can be confronting. But a IF YOU ARE a subscriber to AUSTRALIAN
shame that a fair share means just that – sharing some GEOGRAPHIC you are automatically a
significant part of things, while relinquishing others. The member and supporter of the Australian
our society suffers climbing bans now in place in the Geographic Society. A portion of each
serious disadvantage Grampians (see page 66) demonstrate subscription goes towards supporting
based on ethnicity. just how hard that path may be as we scientific and environmental research,
We Australians pride ourselves on the inch forward towards reconciliation. conservation, community projects and
notion of a fair go and a willingness to The new federal government has Australian adventurers.
spring to the aid of people in crisis. made, as one of its first priorities, the Benefits include:
We’re good at it and sincere, yet we’re call for an Indigenous Voice in the
also collectively guilty of looking the Australian Constitution. But it is First Substantial savings off the
magazine’s retail price
other way when it comes to issues faced Nations people who are driving the
by Aboriginal Australians. agenda for change. They’re taking VIP access to Australian
Hiding in plain sight in our healthy charge of their own story and forcing Geographic product sales
First World economy is a Third World fundamental shifts in how they live and throughout the year
nation: Indigenous Australians experi- interact with non-Indigenous Australia. Discounts on travel and
ence violence, unemployment, incarcer- We need to be alert to the truth and accommodation through Australian
ation, chronic physical and mental prepared to make some sacrifices to Geographic partners
health problems, illiteracy, and suicide at magnify those changes so we can all Free Paddy Pallin membership
rates far higher than the national claim equal membership of the proud (10% off full-price items in-store
average. This disadvantage plays out far nation of Australia. and online, excludes Launceston
and Katoomba stores)
from view to most of us. We invite you to join us at the AG
The Uluru Statement from the awards on 28 October to hear Thomas
Heart sprang in 2017 from one of Mayor speak in his warm and impas- AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC acknowledges that
Australia’s most iconic landscapes. In sioned way about the Uluru Statement its offices are located on land for which
this issue, Thomas Mayor, one of the from the Heart and what an enshrined the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation are
authors of the Statement, invites us to Voice will mean for us all. the Traditional Custodians. We remember
all Aboriginal ancestors with respect, and
read and understand this powerful and
commit ourselves to working for reconcili-
eloquent document. He asks us to ation and justice for Indigenous people.
start our own journeys, walking with
Indigenous Australians as they forge a
AG SOCIETY FUNDRAISER SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2022

Save our squirrel glider now
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY AUSTRALIAN REPTILE PARK/AUSSIE ARK
The squirrel glider is in trouble. status. The squirrel glider was also
The main threat it faces stems from devastated by the 2019–20 bushfires.
fragmentation of its habitat. This is Aussie Ark will rebuild squirrel glider
compounded by the loss of trees with populations with a holistic approach
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Petaurus norfolcensis
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Notes from the field
MANAGING DIRECTOR Piers Grove

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chrissie Goldrick
It never rains CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mike Ellott

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT EDITOR Karen McGhee
GROUP PICTURE EDITOR Nicky Catley
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Maggie Cooper
STAFF WRITER Esme Mathis
COPY EDITOR Jo Hartmann
RAINFALL PROVED A mixed blessing SENIOR DESIGNER Mel Tiyce
for two of our correspondents while on PRODUCTION MANAGER Andy Franks
DIRECTOR OF CARTOGRAPHY Will Pringle
assignment for this issue. Nature PROOFREADER/SUB-EDITOR Susan McCreery
photographer Isaac Wishart found AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC ADMINISTRATOR Beth Owen
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Send letters, including an address
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edited for length and clarity.
Does Australia need

the dog fence ?
DR JUSTINE PHILIP is entitled to her

opinion (The Dog Fence, AG 168). However,
if such an opinion has repercussions that
could affect thousands of lives and rural
enterprises, careful consideration must
be given to the facts, rather than a
presentation that may suit the whim of
a few. I offer my views based on many Bryan Lock during his time
years as an employee on the Dog Fence in as a worker on the Dog Fence
South Australia. in South Australia.
From day one of sheep farming, stock
losses to wild dogs have been a serious
problem. Many early landholders built
vermin-control fences to keep wild dogs
out of their flocks. By the late 1800s there State Dog Proof Fence, providing
were approximately 54,000km of such significant cost savings to this state.
fences in SA. Despite this, in 1893 high
stock losses through wild dog predation
were reported in the Bordertown, Naraco-
orte and Morgan districts.
The fence currently helps protect a
sheep industry worth close to $4 billion
and which employs about 200,000
people (including the beef sector). The
$50
After World War II, the Dog Fence Act red meat industry is worth another WRITE TO US!
PHOTO CREDITS, THIS PAGE: BRYAN LOCK; OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM TOP: NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY; TOBIAS HAYASHI; NASA
1946 was passed for the purpose of $5.23 billion.
creating a single line of defence. Send us a great letter
Would the sheep Industry survive if about AG or a relevant
Pastoralists in the far north of SA had the fence was removed? topic. If it’s selected as our
already constructed, at their own cost, The answer is a clear and categorical featured letter we’ll send
hundreds of kilometres of high-quality no. “No fence, no sheep.” It’s as simple as you a $50 gift voucher for
dog-proof fencing around their holdings, QBD Books that you can
that. use in-store or online.
some of which became part of the BRYAN LOCK, IRON KNOB, SA.
WELLSPRING OF NEGLECT stallion that broke a leg and had RESILIENT NATION
The abandoned mines story in AG to be destroyed. The unpredictability, violence and
169 omits to mention the failure of Holders of exploration and mining destruction caused by natural disasters
generations of miners in Queensland permits are required to record the (and pandemics) will continue. We are
to plug and rehabilitate exploration location of drillholes and to submit not in control of everything. However,
drillholes, especially in the coalfields. samples for analysis. More recently, we Australians have a propensity to pick
Many tens of thousands of these can specific environmental obligations ourselves up, support each other and
be found in the Bowen, Surat and require the holes be promptly plugged get on with recovery. We take action
Galilee basins. and rehabilitated. Compliance with this to rebuild, to make things better.
Aquifers drain into open boreholes, has been poor. The mining industry AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC’s stories
allowing bad water to contaminate should locate and plug all those open help remind us we can if we have the
good and vice versa, or the supply is holes, however old they are. Their will, and we will if we believe we can.
diverted and lost. There’s also a subsid- environmental impact is severe and LINDSAY BREACH, ILUKA, WA
ence risk that threatens people and widespread. It’s almost beyond belief
stock. I know of a big kangaroo that that successive state governments have SHEDDING LIGHT
an animal rescue team worked hard to turned a blind eye to it. Congratulations on producing such a
fish out of a hole, and a valuable GEORGE HOUEN, MIDDLE RIDGE, QLD quality magazine that has been a “read
Your say
every word” exercise for me for more

than 10 years now. Many articles in
these issues have highlighted light
pollution. This world light pollution
map (right) was published online by
skyandtelescope.org during the week
of 24 June 2022. Notably, Australia’s
worst offenders are in remote
Western Australia. Surely our mines
This 2012 satellite map of
out there don’t emit more light than
the world shows artificial
our capital cities? light at night.
IAN SOUTHWELL, ALSTONVILLE, NSW
FRED WATSON: Actually, mines do rival

capital cities in their light emissions.The great. I add rum liqueur to my
three brightest skyglow plumes visible from Diamantina Cocktail. It warms you up
Siding Spring Observatory in New South on a cold night.
Wales are Dubbo at 100km, Sydney at DAVID EDE, MAGNETIC ISLAND, QLD
330km and the Hunter Valley Coalfield
at 300km. Older mines in particular have STRONG WORDS
very bad lighting in terms of their upward I must condemn the language used in
light-spill.There’s another factor at play Taking the hard path (AG 169). Given the
here, too; the ALAN (Artificial Light at Ukraine situation, I’m pretty sure the
Night) world map was made with a satellite Florentine Valley was never a battle-
whose sensors are orange and red sensitive, ground. If it was, it was a very one-sided
and under-represent light further down the one. Andrew Bain makes a serious error
spectrum. Mines typically use high-pressure of language when noting the Florentine
sodium and metal halide lamps, which peak Valley Road is “lush rainforest on one
at those longer wavelengths. side, freshly logged coupes on the
other”. I’m not sure this is true at any
A COCKTAIL OF CHARMS point on the whole road. But the
The Diamantina River and surround- statement is a huge exaggeration.
ing area is beautiful and so variable in Andrew appears quite happy to
habitat and channel country river flats. cover 80km in quick time but never
I saw the biggest red kangaroos (my acknowledges the role of forestry or
favourite land animal) ever – so mining in making this transit possible. Postscript
majestic and bold on a Diamantina A little more balance and somewhat
riverbed. The Diamantina Cocktail less hyperbole would make a better We apologise for our incorrect photo of a
mentioned in Kel Richard’s Place story, in my opinion. mignonette leek orchid, or Prasophyllum
Names (AG 169) is also the name of a It makes me wonder about all the morganii (Geobits 169). The correct
rum and warm milk nightcap that other stories in an otherwise overall orchid is pictured above. Thank you for
ringers once enjoyed on a cold night great magazine. keeping us on our toes with all your
in front of the campfire. The aroma is LEIGH AND JEN EDWARDS, TAROONA, TAS letters and emails.
DENIS CRITTENDEN “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I

FREE
Talkb@ck Come out come out
whoever you are.
wonder what you are. Up
above the world so
In July we shared the first Universe spectacular. high, like a diamond
set of images from the in the sky.” Now I’m
JOHN HANDLEY
Sign up to the Australian James Webb Space 37 and I know what
Geographic email newsletter Astonishing. And this is
Telescope, showing cosmic that star is.
on our homepage and we’ll just the quick tour. Wait
features that have been
deliver fresh content to your until they get started on
elusive to astronomers ISOBELL
inbox every week! the serious stuff!
until now. MCCONNELL
SANTOS ICAT So hard to get your head
Here’s what you had When I was three years old my mum around 13 billion years ago...
to say: used to recite a rhyme to me:
Geobuzz
SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2022
BIG PICTURE
Urban Animals
AFTER A FEW years of being confined Family Portrait, 2021
to home, we’ve come to know our Photo by Sam Oster, South Australia
neighbourhoods better, and are maybe European fox (Vulpes vulpes)
more aware of the creatures that share Macclesfield, South Australia
these precious green spaces with us.
Nature on our doorstep is celebrated in “We moved to the Adelaide Hills recently,
the new category Urban Animals in this and surveillance cameras revealed a fox
year’s AG Nature Photographer of the den under the house,” Sam said.
Year competition, for which this image “I set up an outdoor camera to help us
by Sam Oster was shortlisted. problem-solve. We discovered that our
For all the winning entries see page 76. garden was their playground and pantry
– a vixen and eight cubs. This family
portrait was taken just outside my son’s
bedroom at 1.05am.”
Geobits
Wandering back from
the brink of extinction
Researchers at Melbourne’s La Trobe University have
detected a record number of critically endangered
plains-wanderers in the Northern Plains of Victoria. The
small, quail-like bird has an estimated population of
just 250–1000. The survey, conducted by PhD student
Dan Nugent, detected 60 adults and 41 chicks – more
than double the previous best result of 30 adults and
17 chicks in 2018. More than 85 per cent of monitoring
sites in the study now support plains-wanderers, the
highest percentage since surveys began in 2010.
Ecologists believe this population boost is the result
of both human intervention and a change in natural
conditions. Habitat management and other protection
measures, such as conservation covenants, have helped
safeguard the endangered species. But also, after years
of drought, the La Niña climate cycle has created a pro-
longed and widespread breeding event for the species.
The biggest threats currently faced by plains-wander-
ers are habitat loss and predation by feral cats and foxes.
Once plentiful throughout Australia’s eastern grasslands,
plains-wanderers are now only found in fragmented
populations. In good condition, females can lay multiple
clutches of 2–5 eggs a year. After mating, the female
will seek out other breeding partners while the male
incubates the eggs and rears the chicks. The plains-wanderer displays reverse
sexual dimorphism. Unlike many other
Plains-wanderers are the only surviving species of
bird species, it’s the females, such as this
the Pedionomidae family, an ancient lineage of birds that
one, that are larger and more brightly
evolved in Gondwana more than 100 million years ago. coloured than the males.
Not-so-silent stingrays
Cowtail stingrays are now thought to
F
OR THE first time, movement of the head or
communicate using clicking sounds.
scientists have jaw and spiracles (open-
If you have any recordings of other
discovered stingrays ings behind the eyes used shark or ray species, Sharks and Rays
can communicate through during respiration). Australia would love to hear from you.
PHOTO CREDITS, FROM TOP: OWEN LISHMUND; JOHN GASKELL
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Pedionomus torquatus; Pastinachus sephen
sound. A paper in the Until this discovery, it Ph: 1800 298 247
journal Ecology has report- was thought cartilaginous Email: hello@saw.fish
ed that mangrove whip- fishes – sharks, rays and
rays and cowtail stingrays skates – were mute. Now
produce a series of short, it’s likely that many of the
loud clicks that are likely more than 1000 species of
to be for defence or as a shark and ray can produce
warning response. sound. Research organ-
Although they have isation Sharks and Rays
yet to discover exactly Australia is encouraging
how the sound is citizen scientists and other
produced, researchers researchers with recordings
believe it’s caused by rapid to contact them.
Geobits
Uncle Bunna Lawrie.
First Nations storytellers

celebrated in new literature awards
Professor Fred Hollows
examines the eye of Tran
The Wilderness Society and tell stories about Van Giap in the courtyard
has launched its new land, language, culture of the Hanoi Institute of
Karajia Award for and community. One of Ophthalmology in 1992.
Children’s Literature, the inaugural judges of
celebrating First Nations this new award is Uncle
children’s authors and Bunna Lawrie, Senior Elder
illustrators across
Australia. In Mirning
of the Mirning people and
a Karajia. The winners of
Remembering Fred Hollows:
Country, Karajia is a holder
and teller of ancient
the Karajia Award will be
announced during 30 years on
stories, carried from when Nature Book Week,
the world was young. The 5–11 September 2022.
S
shortlisted titles explore HOT IN 1992 by pho- The child in the image,
connection to Country tographer Michael seven-year-old Tran Van
Amendolia, a regular Giap, was going blind in
AG contributor, this his right eye after devel-
Adam Goodes and iconic image of ophthal- oping keratitis. He and
the children’s book he mologist Fred Hollows is his father had travelled
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY WILDERNESS SOCIETY; MICHAEL AMENDOLIA; ALEX VAUGHN
co-wrote that’s been one of the most recognis- 170km to Hanoi’s Institute
shortlisted for a able in Australia. of Ophthalmology, where
Karajia Award. Fred travelled to Hanoi they were told little could
30 years ago to train be done to treat his con-
Vietnamese eye doctors in dition, except remove the
VIC
Place BENDIGO
modern cataract surgery. eye to prevent the spread
At the time, about 50 of infection.
names surgeries were being per- But in the chance en-
by Kel Richards formed by two Vietnamese counter outside the hospi-
surgeons each year across tal, captured in Michael’s
This city was indirectly boxer with a style like the nation. photo,Tran met Fred, who
named after a British that of the great Bendigo By providing intra- performed surgery later
champion bare-knuckle Thompson, and Bendigo ocular lenses and micro- in the year to fully restore
fighter. The Thompsons of Creek running through scopes along with his Tran’s sight.
Nottingham had a son in Ravenswood was named training, Fred precip- Fred Hollows passed
1811 to whom they gave after the Nottingham boy. itated a revolution in away in February 1993,
the portentous Biblical The discovery of gold in eye health among the but the Fred Hollows
name Abednego. He the area generated the Vietnamese. His goal was Foundation was founded
became a famed pugilist birth of a town that an to train 300 surgeons after his death to continue
in the 1830s and his fans English gold commissioner in three years. When he his legacy of eradicating
called him Bendigo. A named Sandhurst. But in finally left Vietnam, he’d avoidable blindness. In the
shepherd at Ravenswood 1891 local sentiment de- trained 1100 surgeons. past 30 years, the founda-
Run homestead in central feated English stuffiness Today, 250,000 cataract tion has restored sight to
Victoria 20 years later and the booming town surgeries are performed more than 3 million peo-
was also a bare-knuckle was renamed Bendigo. annually in Vietnam. ple across 25 countries.
September .. October 19
Geobits This image of a feral cat on Phillip Island was
captured on a trail camera.
Cat curfews
Conservationists have welcomed
the cat containment policies pro-
posed by Phillip Island’s Bass Coast
Shire Council. As well as killing
native wildlife, domestic cats signifi-
cantly contribute to stray and feral
cat populations. From next year, cat
owners on Phillip Island will be faced
Bernhardt Otto Holtermann with fines if their itinerant felines
poses proudly with the huge are caught away from their property.
gold-quartz specimen The new policy will protect popula-
discovered in 1872. tions of little penguins and the en-
dangered eastern barred bandicoot
(see AG 167) on Phillip Island.
One in a bullion:
chance discovery of the Holtermann Nugget
O
CTOBER MARKS THE 150th to go directly against his orders,
anniversary of the discovery which were to vertically extend the
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY CHARLES BAYLISS/BEAUFOY MERLIN/STATE LIBRARY
of the Holtermann Nugget, shaft. Instead they sealed the shaft
the world’s largest gold specimen. It at 150 feet and pushed westwards.
was found on 19 October 1872 at The reef gold in which the ‘nugget’
the Star of Hope Gold Mine, Hill was located was discovered when Software keeping
End, New South Wales. detonated explosives revealed a ‘wall cane toads in check
OF NEW SOUTH WALES; PHILLIP ISLAND NATURE PARKS; AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC

Although dubbed the of gold’.
Holtermann Nugget, the gold was The discovery of the A new simulation program, virToad,
not, in fact, a nugget. Weighing in at Holtermann Nugget made developed by researchers at
a whopping 285kg, it was a mixture headlines around the world, and Melbourne’s Monash University,
of gold, quartz and slate. It stood Holtermann himself became one allows conservationists to test cane
144.8cm high, and was 66cm wide of the richest men in Australia toad management strategies virtu-
and 10.2cm thick. The 93.2kg of at the time. Hundreds of people ally before implementing them in the
gold extracted from the specimen viewed the gold specimen when it field. It simulates the vulnerabilities
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Felis catus; Rhinella marina
had an estimated value of was briefly put on display, before of cane toads at various stages of
$5.2 million at today’s prices. it was crushed in a stamper battery their life cycle, exposing their weak-
As manager of the Star of Hope, and melted down. With his new- nesses and how best to exploit these
German migrant and prospector found fortune, Holtermann built in different environments. As cane
Bernhardt Otto Holtermann was a palatial mansion in St Leonards, toads encroach upon the Kimberley–
credited with the discovery. Howev- Sydney (now in North Sydney). Pilbara region, this program will
er, the object was uncovered when A replica of the Holtermann improve management strategies
miners – who were more experi- Nugget is housed in the Australian and curtail the spread of the
enced than Holtermann – decided Museum in Sydney. feral amphibian.
Spot a dugong
in Moreton Bay in
Geobits
Brisbane, QLD.
Wild Diary
QLD
Find dugongs,
Moreton Bay
Take part in Australia’s
The dugong, one of few herbivorous biggest citizen-science
marine mammals, is shy and elusive. But event in your own backyard
that doesn’t mean they’re impossible to or your local park.
spot. One of the best ways to see them
is on an organised tour in Moreton Bay
Marine Park, near Brisbane, which is home
to hundreds of them. They’re found here
year-round, but September–October is
The Aussie Backyard
calving season.
MORE INFO: dolphinwild.com.au
Bird Count returns
or call 07 3880 4444.
Get involved in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count, Australia’s
TAS largest citizen-science event. Simply spend 20 minutes
during the week of 17–23 October in your favourite outdoor
Whale watch, space and observe and count the number of birds there. Log
Bruny Island your results with the Aussie Bird Count app or web form
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SHUTTERSTOCK; TRACEY NEARMY/GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY AUSSIE ARK; SHUTTERSTOCK
at aussiebirdcount.org.au/submit-a-count to help BirdLife

In September–October see humpback Australia better understand bird population distributions and
and southern right whales off Tassie’s concentrations across Australia.
east coast, as they migrate south to
summer feeding grounds. Bruny Island’s
Adventure Bay is one place to see both
species from land, but joining a wilderness Tim Faulkner bares all
cruise led by Robert Pennicott can offer a
closer look. in upcoming memoir
MORE INFO: brunycruises.com.au
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Dugong dugon; Cacatua galerita; Phascolarctos cinereus; Petrogale penicillata
or call 03 6234 4270. For the first time, Tim

Faulkner will be sharing
NSW lessons and stories from
Experience his conservation career in
his upcoming memoir, Tim
Gondwana, Faulkner’s Aussie Ark.
Brush-tailed
Oxley Wild rock-wallaby.
Tim is co-owner and a
director of the Australian
Rivers NP Reptile Park, and manag-
Mark World Rivers Day on 25 September ing director of conserva-
2022 by exploring the stream-hewn tion organisation Aussie
gorges, thundering waterfalls and myriad Ark. In 2015 he was
other waterways of Oxley Wild Rivers NP, recipient of the Australian
near Armidale in NSW. Look out for brush- Geographic Australian
tailed rock-wallabies, which have been Conservationist of the
recovering since the 2019–20 bushfires Year Award. The book
incinerated huge areas of gum trees here. is due for release on
MORE INFO: nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/ 5 October 2022. Well-known conservationist Tim Faulkner
visit-a-park or call 1300 072 757. shares his stories in his upcoming memoir.
Geobuzz
EARTH VIEW
Will we at last get the

environment laws we need?
Australia is losing more species than any other developed
nation, but this year’s switch of government may herald
legislative change to stem destruction.
The iconic koala has been one of many species to join

Australia’s ever-growing list of endangered species.
E
VERY FIVE YEARS since the mid-1990s the federal Conservationists say the law is rarely enforced, is beset
government has released a State of the Environment by loopholes and exemptions and doesn’t require evidence
Report documenting the condition of Australia’s of measurable outcomes, meaning few species have ever
natural assets and progress in protecting them. The latest recovered enough to come off the list. Speaking at the
report was released on 19 July 2022. Unsurprisingly, after National Press Club in July 2022, Minister Plibersek de-
years of federal neglect and ever-growing climate change, scribed the new report as shocking and telling “a story
it makes for depressing reading. of crisis and decline in Australia’s environment” and also
The new federal government has, however, offered a “a decade of government inaction and wilful ignorance”.
glimmer of hope for the future by promising to substantially She added that, under Australia’s new government, “envi-
overhaul Australia’s ineffectual legislation for threatened ronment is back on the priority list”, and as environment
species protection. According to the report – which the minister she wouldn’t be putting her head in the sand.
previous government received in December 2021 but We have to wait to see if her government can deliver on
didn’t release before the May 2022 election – Australia’s its promises, but what’s been said so far sounds encouraging.
threatened plants and animals grew from 1774 to 1918, Minister Plibersek says she wants to completely overhaul
or by more than 8 per cent, between 2016 and 2021. the conservation legislation in 2023, but isn’t rushing into
That included the gang-gang cockatoo and northern hop- anything. She wants a wide consultation process with rel-
ping-mouse as well as victims of the 2019–20 bushfires, evant parties before a new policy is formulated. She also
such as the silver-headed antechinus and eastern bristlebird. wants to create an Environment Protection Agency and
The report also found that: the impact of climate-related increase the proportion of Australia’s protected lands from
extreme events, such as floods, droughts and bushfires, is in- 19.8 per cent (currently) to at least 30 per cent by 2030.
creasing; many ecosystems are on the brink of collapse; and Whether or not new legislation can succeed where
environmental management is poorly coordinated across current laws have largely failed depends on the form the
the continent. It further concluded that the destruction of laws will take and, crucially, whether there’s an indepen-
our environment is directly affecting human wellbeing and dent monitoring mechanism of some kind to determine
that habitat loss and degradation, wrought for example by if they’re doing their job and also whether endangered
land clearing and forestry, remain the biggest threats to species are recovering. The laws also need to be enforced.
PHOTO CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC/DREW HOPPER
declining species. All this skims the surface of the findings Legislation is just one part of the answer; it’s currently
(for details: soe.dcceew.gov.au), but it’s what Australia’s estimated Australia is only spending 15 per cent of what’s
new environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, needed to prevent extinctions and reverse declines. There-
said as the report was finally released that gives me hope. fore the government is going to have to put its money where
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Phascolarctos cinereus
While there’s little doubt Australia’s environment is in a its mouth is if it wants to turn things around.
perilous state, weak and ineffective legislation for protect-
ing threatened species has done little to stem declines (see
Wild Australia, AG 160). In fact, the protection proffered
by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation JOHN PICKRELL is the author of Flames of
Act 1999 is so poor that for some iconic species, such as Extinction: The Race to Save Australia’s Threatened
Wildlife (NewSouth, $29.99). Follow him on
the koala and greater glider, land clearing has increased Twitter: @john_pickrell
in vital habitats since they’ve been listed under the Act.
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Geobuzz
King Tut’s
forgotten man
STORY BY CHRISSIE GOLDRICK
As celebrations ramp up to mark 100 years

since the most famous archaeological
discovery of all time, meet the little-known
Tasmanian Egyptologist who played a
pivotal role.
IKE ANCIENT HIEROGLYPHS on old temple walls, the
L
names Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became
firmly etched in the public imagination during the
Roaring Twenties.
Carter, a British archaeologist funded by the fifth
Earl of Carnarvon, discovered the entrance to King
Tutankhamun’s tomb on 4 November 1922, unleashing
a worldwide sensation that still fascinates a century later.
Suddenly Egypt was all the rage, influencing fashion,
jewellery, hairstyles and furniture. It inspired songs and
dances, and its motifs can still be recognised today in the
Art Deco style that came to define the era.
Carnarvon was a keen, wealthy amateur Egyptologist
Howard Carter (kneeling), who was underwriting Carter’s work in the Valley of the
engineer Arthur Callender Kings on the Nile’s west bank across from the old city of
and an unnamed Egyptian Ipet, now called Luxor. Ancient Egyptians believed in an
workman peer into afterlife and were buried with all the necessities they might
Tutankhamun’s burial need there. The valley was a royal burial ground during the
chamber through the open New Kingdom (1539–1075 BCE) and provided rich pickings
doors of the four gilded
shrines towards the quartzite
for modern archaeologists and ancient tomb raiders alike.
sarcophagus. It was taken by More than 5000 objects would eventually be retrieved
the Met’s Harry Burton and from King Tut’s tomb, which had been sealed in 1323 BCE,
colourised later. and, apart from a couple of very early raids, no human had
entered the young king’s four small stone burial compart-
ments for 3000 years.
Among the more solid objects, there were fragile items
such as linen cloths and even floral wreaths. They ran the
risk of disintegrating on exposure to the air or when han-
dled, so an expert hand was called for. That hand belonged
to a modest Tasmanian by the name of Arthur C. Mace.
The sensational discovery of Tutankhamun’s treasures led to a craze
in the 1920s for all things Egyptian, including popular music hall songs and
dances (left) and women’s apparel, such as this metallic headpiece.
Arthur valuable lessons in self-reliance and resourcefulness, which

Arthur had a major influence would make him a valued colleague when doing field work in
remote places.
on the innovative way Egyptian After a few seasons with Petrie, Arthur began working with an
American team funded by the Hearst newspaper dynasty and led
objects and art were displayed. by the University of California’s George Andrew Reisner. Arthur
was appointed lead on a dig at the pyramids at Giza near Cairo;
he was becoming a highly skilled and respected archaeologist.
He developed a friendship with fellow team member
Arthur Cruttenden Mace was working on an American-led Albert Morton Lythgoe, which ultimately led to a job offer
dig at Lisht when news of the extraordinary find went public. in the newly established department of Egyptian art at New
PHOTO CREDITS, PREVIOUS PAGE AND OPPOSITE PAGE: REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION OF THE GRIFFITH INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD;
His reputation was already well established by 1922, and he York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), where Lythgoe
was seconded to what would come to be regarded as the most was the founding curator in 1906. Arthur was sent to Egypt
important archaeological discovery of all time. on behalf of the Met to establish a new dig site at Lisht, the
Arthur was born in a Church of England parsonage in cemetery of the Middle Kingdom capital, about 56km south-
Hobart’s Glenorchy on 17 July 1874 to a notable family of west of Cairo.
Anglican clerics. His grandfather was Charles Bromby, Bishop The Met had reached an agreement with the Egyptian gov-
of Tasmania, and his father a curate. Arthur enjoyed a carefree ernment to excavate key sites, with any artefacts to be divided
childhood on a rural sheep property, Woodsden Farm, with equally between them. Arthur was responsible for the formal
THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT: TERRY PARKER; ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS/MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY
his siblings and cousins, but the family relocated to Britain in applications to the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to exca-
1882 upon the retirement of Bishop Bromby. vate at Lisht. He also hired the local workforce and supervised
The family wasn’t well off, but they were well connected. construction of the dig teams’ living quarters.
After graduating from Oxford University in 1897 at the age of When Lythgoe arrived later at the site he reported back to
23, a career in the church beckoned Arthur. Instead, he opted the director of the Met: “Mace is carrying everything along
to work for a distant cousin, the man widely regarded as the and is losing no time in getting things into full swing. He is
father of modern Egyptian archaeology, William Matthew most enthusiastic over our new expedition, and I consider him,
Flinders Petrie. as you know, invaluable to us in the work.”
After his first highly successful season with the Met, Arthur
A
RTHUR’S FIRST EGYPTIAN field dig with his illustri- married his cousin Winifred Blyth in November 1907. Winifred
ous relative was at Denderah, principal city of the sixth was a supportive, practical and cheerful companion to her shy
province of Upper Egypt in ancient times and the cult husband during the next few seasons in Egypt. And when, in
centre of the goddess Hathor, located about 60km north of Luxor. 1909, Arthur was promoted to assistant curator of Egyptian art
Petrie’s main interest was not in the temple there, but in the old at the Met, she took enthusiastically to New York life.
city and its cemetery, which hadn’t yet been excavated. Here, the Arthur had a major influence on the innovative ways that
young apprentice Arthur learnt from the master Petrie the value Egyptian objects and art were displayed when the Met’s new
of painstakingly recording and cataloguing all excavated objects, purpose-built Egyptian Gallery wing opened in 1911. His cre-
no matter how seemingly insignificant. ative eye and understanding of the need to make objects relevant
Petrie’s interest in more mundane household objects formed to the public were ahead of his time; he introduced slide shows
the basis for a dating system using ancient pottery styles and and created displays that compared ancient objects with modern
decoration. The austerity of life at Petrie’s dig camps also taught life in Egypt.
Geobuzz
In this Harry Burton photo,
Arthur Mace, standing, and
Alfred Lucas work inside
a makeshift laboratory on
the conservation of one
of the sentinel statues.
Tutankhamun is shown
wearing a headdress, kilt and
sandals, and carrying a mace
and a staff.
Geobuzz
Visitors crowd around Tutankhamun’s gold funerary mask in Arthur Mace’s old
workplace, the New York Met, in 1978. The queue to gain entry to the long-anticipated
exhibition reportedly stretched for 23 blocks down Fifth Avenue.
“Details of the room emerged

slowly from the mist, strange
animal statues, and gold –
everywhere the glint of gold.”
touched or moved, have become invaluable research aids for
modern-day Egyptologists.
Carter and Arthur couldn’t have been more different. Arthur
was quietly self-assured, but understated and unassuming. Carter
was insecure, with a famously short temper, but he enjoyed
the limelight. As opposites they got along well, and although
Arthur’s work at the tomb site was invaluable, his role has since
been largely been forgotten.
About this time, Arthur began to be plagued by the health Carter estimated that if it hadn’t been for the onsite conser-
problems that would eventually cause his premature death vation efforts of Arthur, and that of the British chemist Alfred
at the age of 53 in 1928, just six years after Tutankhamun’s Lucas, only about 10 per cent of the objects would have been in
tomb was discovered. This ensured his name was added to a suitable condition for exhibition when they arrived in Cairo.
the litany of unexplained deaths among visitors to the site Arthur himself is partly to blame for his lack of recognition,
that fuelled the legend of the Curse of Tutankhamun. Lord according to Daniela Rosenow, co-curator of Tutankhamun:
Carnarvon’s sudden demise started that grim list when he died Excavating the Archives, an exhibition by the Griffith Institute on
on 5 April 1923, purportedly from blood poisoning caused display at the Weston Library in Oxford until February 2023.
by an infected mozzie bite. The institute is Oxford University’s Egyptology research centre,
Arthur served as a sergeant in World War I. He lied about and holds Arthur’s and Carter’s field journals and private papers.
his age and hoped to serve in Egypt, where his knowledge “In the Tutankhamun story his name doesn’t really come
of language and customs might have been useful. Instead, he up. But over the one and a half years I’ve been working on this
ended up training field engineers in Italy. project, I’ve warmed to him, not just because of the documents
After the war, Arthur returned to the Met, where he re- he produced, but because he seems to be a really decent human
stored two exquisite Lahun jewel caskets from thousands of being but very much in the background,” Daniela says.
small fragments that had been discovered by Petrie in 1914. “He was a meticulous person, and he came with everything
The painstakingly reconstructed cases drew both visitors to Carter needed. He had the skill set, the experience, the knowl-
the museum and high praise from his peers, and helped ce- edge and, on a personal level, Carter already knew he could
ment his reputation as a skilled conservator of fragile objects. work with him and that their personalities wouldn’t clash.”
He was back working at Lisht in the autumn of 1922 when It wasn’t just at the tomb that Arthur proved useful. The early
Carter’s call for help came. 1920s was a period of increasing Egyptian nationalism, and the
old colonial arrangements, whereby finds were equally divided,
T
HE ENTRANCE to the staircase that led to King Tut’s wouldn’t last much longer. Arthur was the more diplomatic
tomb was discovered by one of Carter’s local workers on negotiator when it came to dealing with Egyptian authorities.
4 November. But it wasn’t until Lord Carnarvon arrived Interest in King Tut’s treasures reached fever pitch and the
from England on 26 November that Carter broke through the site was often crammed with dignitaries, the press and tourists,
sealed entrance below. It was the most intact royal burial site which hampered the work. Carter and Arthur worked fast to
ever found and its significance was immediate. produce a book for the eager public. The Tomb of Tut.Ankh.Amen:
“At first I could see nothing, the hot air from the tomb Search, Discovery and the Clearance of the Antechamber, published
causing the candle to flicker,” Carter has been famously quoted in 1923, was an instant bestseller. It’s been in print since, and
as saying. “But presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the while early editions credited both men, many modern editions
light, details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange fail to acknowledge Arthur as co-author.
animal statues, and gold – everywhere the glint of gold.” He worked as a conservator at the Tutankhamun site for two
He recognised the significance of the find, describing it as seasons, in 1922–23 and 1923–24, preparing thousands of objects
“colossal”, but, as an independent operator unaffiliated with to be displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. His failing
PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
any large academic institution, he needed help – and fast. health prevented any further field work and in 1928 he passed away.
Lythgoe sent his congratulations along with an offer of prac- While the role of Arthur Mace in the legend of Tutankhamun
tical assistance and Carter grabbed it with both hands taking may have faded from view, his contribution to the New York
on Arthur and Harry Burton, the Met’s talented photographer. Met hasn’t been forgotten. His finely detailed journals and
Burton’s first photographs of the undisturbed tomb con- exhaustive field notes are still referred to by archaeologists
tents, along with Arthur’s detailed notes before anything was working in Egypt today.
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Geobuzz
? NEEDWith
TO KNOW
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki
Atmospheric
rivers
A
LTHOUGH THEY’VE been around
for millennia, atmospheric rivers
were only discovered by humans
during the past 25 years. Atmospheric rivers across Australia in 2020 show
In February 2022, one dumped cu- up as wispy white clouds in this infra-red satellite
bic kilometres of water onto the city meteorological image.
of Brisbane. An atmospheric river is a
narrow, fast-flowing stream of moist
air. It can be many thousands of kilo- In 1862 an atmospheric river Greenhouse gases generated by
metres long, and a few hundred wide. turned Central California into a human activity are now capturing an
It’s a giant and invisible conveyor belt temporary inland sea, 500km long extra 600,000 Hiroshima atom bombs’
of water in the sky, moving above and and 30km wide. Not only did thou- worth of heat each day. This means
across the planet. sands of people die, so did one- the amount of both heat and moisture
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY KIMBERLEY REID AND HIMAWARI-8/MET AGENCY

At any given moment, there are quarter of the 800,000 head of cattle carried by atmospheric rivers is much
about a dozen of these atmospheric in California at the time. higher than in the recent past.
phenomena across the globe – most Sacramento, the state capital, was A quarter of a century ago we didn’t
of them over water. But, unlike a flooded with more than 3m of muddy know atmospheric rivers existed, much
land-based river, they are not fixed water and took six months to com- less that climate change would make
in location. Instead, they continually pletely dry out. By then, California them worse. Who knows what other
form, fade, reform and evolve. So they was bankrupt. And just for a little extra surprises climate change has for us?
come and go. ecological impact, the water in San
Atmospheric rivers are essential to Francisco Bay turned from salt water DR KARL is a prolific broadcaster,
the water cycle. They shift 90 per cent to fresh water. author and Julius Sumner Miller
fellow in the School of Physics at the
of the air’s water vapour, but cover less The atmospheric river that hit University of Sydney. His latest books
than 10 per cent of the planet. A big Australia’s east coast in March 2021 are Dr Karl’s Little Book of Climate
atmospheric river can move a quar- caused several fatalities, forced the Change Science and Dr Karl’s Surfing
Safari Through Science, published
ter of a million tonnes of water each evacuation of more than 24,000 peo- by HarperCollinsPublishers
second past a given point. If one gets ple, and cost the Australian economy Australia. Follow him on
really big, it can be disastrous. about $652 million. Twitter: @DoctorKarl
Loose unit
Oz
Words During the 2022 federal election, the sliding across a deck in a storm would
By Kel expression “loose unit” was bandied be unpredictably dangerous. Yet it only
Richards about by political enemies. To my becomes common long after the era of
delight this turns out to be an sail; despite mentions in 1889 and
Australian coinage – first recorded in 1946, it only seems to catch on from
2009 (and applied that year to Pauline the 1970s. How was “cannon” replaced
Hanson). It’s clearly from the earlier by “unit”? I suspect legendary Sydney
“loose cannon”, meaning “an unpredict- radio announcer Ward ‘Pally’ Austin
able or uncontrollable person or thing”. sparked the use of “unit” for “human
This seems to come from the days of being”: one of his expressions was “It’s
sailing ships, when having a cannon too much for the human unit!”
GOT A QUESTION ABOUT AUSSIE ENGLISH? Contact Kel at ozwords.com.au
Geobuzz
The main
character of the Life.
Be in it. campaign of
the 1970s and ’80s was
beer-bellied, middle-
aged Norm, a ‘normal’
Aussie bloke.
Launch of
Life. Be in it.
1975: One of Australia’s most
recognisable health campaigns begins.
A
USTRALIA’S LIFE. BE IN IT. campaign – to increase
physical activity and general wellbeing among
Australians and encourage them to take control
of their health – was ahead of its time. It came well before The success of the Life. Be in it. campaign was largely
the first International Conference on Health Promotion, due to the close collaboration in 1975 between advertising
organised by the World Health Organization and held in executive Phillip Adams and graphic designer Alexander
Ottawa, Canada, on 21 November 1986, when the Ottawa Stitt. Adams was a well-known broadcaster, columnist
Charter on Health Promotion was signed. and cartoonist who had begun his career in advertising
This document defined health promotion as “the process at Briggs and James and then became a partner in Brian
of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, Monahan and Lyle Dayman’s agency.
their health”. Campaigns to facilitate this new definition Stitt later recalled the brief that Adams gave him. “‘Sid-
of health promotion aimed to encourage people to adopt down,’ he said, offering me a gold-tipped Sobranie Black
good health practices and avoid those that lead to ill-health. Russian [cigarette]. ‘Brian Dixon, the minister for Youth,
Such campaigns were a response to former efforts that had Sport and Recreation, saw some German fitness campaign
focused only on individuals and groups already at risk for while he was away and now he wants to do one here – a
certain illnesses and diseases. They were also an attempt to community service campaign to get people fit.We did some
avoid late intervention. research and if we get it right, it might work.’ He tossed a
Life. Be in it. began as a Victorian government health book-thick document across the desk.‘I’ve called it Life. Be
initiative, launched in 1975 by the state Department of in it. We need a family – an animated family, I told Dicko,
Youth, Sport and Recreation with support from the federal to get rid of any class stuff and age groups problems.What
government. The campaign, developed by the Monahan do you think?’” The creative pairing of Adams and Stitt
Dayman Adams advertising agency, involved community went on to create other iconic advertising campaigns, such
announcements on television, cartoons in newspapers, and as Slip! Slop! Slap! which promoted sun safety.
community-based programming. It aimed to educate the A 1979 report evaluated the Life. Be in it. program. It used
Australian public about exercise in a fun and non-threat- a sample size of 3960 respondents drawn from the capital
ening way. city and two regional cities in each state, and proportional
In 1977 the state minister forYouth, Sport and Recreation, representation from the Australian Capital Territory and
Brian Dixon, claimed that 97 per cent of Victorians were the Northern Territory. It claimed that more than 40 per
IMAGE CREDIT: REPRODUCED COURTESY ESTATE OF ALEXANDER STITT AM
aware of the campaign, 47 per cent were thinking about cent of respondents felt that the Life. Be in it. campaign had
becoming more active and 35 per cent had become more made them think about being active. Twenty per cent of
active. This great success in Victoria prompted the federal respondents actually identified taking steps to be more active.
government to roll out the campaign across the country Life. Be in it. lost federal funding in 1981 as health pro-
in 1978. motion gained momentum and larger, more elite programs
The central cartoon character of the campaign was Norm, were developed. It was subsequently registered as an incorpo-
so named to signal his status as an everyday Australian. He rated company and worked in partnership with other health
was a “lethargic, beer-bellied, middle-aged couch potato, organisations, including the National Heart Foundation.
more interested in watching telly than doing formal ex- Today, the Life. Be in it. brand is managed under licence
ercise”. It was hoped viewers who associated any kind of in each state by companies or associations.
physical activity with too much effort or difficulty would
identify with Norm. During the course of the campaign, Part of the Defining Moments in Australian
Norm promoted the inclusion of daily exercise into his History project
“normal” routine, which increased his fitness and wellbeing TO FIND OUT MORE:
with little effort. nma.gov.au/defining-moments
Geobuzz
TIM THE YOWIE MAN
“Bungonia Talking
Bear” Australia
Subscribe and never
miss an episode of our
entertaining podcast.
I
T’S RUGGED out Bungonia way, near
Goulburn in south-eastern New
South Wales. The tiny town is
surrounded by forest and steep gorges
and pockmarked with some of the
mainland’s deepest cave systems. If a
large new mammal species was ever to
be discovered in a hidden valley, then So where exactly did Gayndah’s
it’s more likely to be in the wilds of bear come from? It apparently escaped
Bungonia than in many other places in when a circus truck crashed on the
the county. It has a similar feel to the nearby Binjour Range in the 1950s. BRADLEY TREVOR GREIVE
gorge in Wollemi National Park where Yeah, right. The good old circus crash The CV of BTG, as he’s known, is
the ancient Wollemi pine was discov- theory is often rolled out by true be- impressive – former paratrooper,
ered in 1994 (see AG 80). lievers to explain the existence of other Russia’s cosmonaut program
graduate, Polynesian rock-lifting
So when Bungonia made national out-of-place creatures in the Australian champion, photographer, conser-
headlines in 1964 after an unusual bush, especially pumas or panthers. In vationist. Need we say more?
creature with “black fur and big, long this case, there was no concrete proof
teeth” was sighted, it came as a surprise of a bear escaping any crash. Even if it SOPHIE MATTERSON
to few. But many were shocked at the did, how would it have survived for Come on a wild ride as Sophie
animal’s appearance, which resembled 50 years in Gayndah, especially when shares the epic story of her
5000km trek across Australia
a bear. Of course, you don’t need me a grizzly’s life expectancy is 30 years,
during the global pandemic with
to tell you bears, whether grizzly, black tops? The mind boggles. only her beloved camel team.
or polar, are as likely to be roaming Needless to say, I returned home
the Aussie bush as emus are to be with a full can of bear spray. No phys- LISA BLAIR
wallowing in a New York sewer. The ical evidence of Gayndah’s grizzly was We hear from Lisa, the first
creature’s unlikely moniker appears ever found. Perhaps it was a prankster woman to sail solo around Antarc-
to have come from a 27 August 1964 in a bear suit. tica, as she sets sail again, in an
attempt to become the fastest
newspaper report in which local hunter As to the plight of the Bungonia
person to complete the journey.
Peter White claimed to have seen an Bear? That mystery was solved in
unknown beast that “turned around and October 1964 when, the night after his DICK SMITH
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHEL STREICH; PHOTO CREDIT: BTG STUDIOS/WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

stood on its legs”. With that, the legend neighbour “lost nearly 20 lambs and Described as “part Bill Gates,
of the Bungonia Bear was born. three sheep”, farmer Reece Taylor shot part Bear Grylls”, this entrepre-
Peter wasn’t the only Bungonian to the bear, which he described as “a cross neur, philanthropist, record-
spot the ‘bear’. During the next three between an Alsatian and a dingo”. breaking explorer and founder of
Australian Geographic talks of
months the curious creature was seen The Bungonia Bear saga makes you his inspiring life.
by another nine locals, including a Mr wonder how many other monsters
Cooper, who said it was “crouching and denizens of the Australian bush
down and looked about 4 feet high”. are merely cases of mistaken identity,
Bear reports aren’t restricted to whether they be wild dogs, feral cats
Bungonia. Gayndah, a farming town or other known species.
a 350km drive north of Brisbane,
Queensland has its own legend. In 2000
mango farmer Shirley Humphreys was Tim, a naturalist, author, Listen
one of several residents to see a creature broadcaster and tour guide, Other inspiring podcast guests
has dedicated the past 25 include aviator Ryan Campbell and
on the banks of the Burnett River. “It
years to documenting unusual wildlife photographer Justin Gilligan.
looked like a man but was the shape natural phenomena in Australia. He’s written For a full list and how to subscribe
of a bear,” she told your wide-eyed several books, including Haunted and Mysterious for free to the AG podcast, see:
columnist, who raced to the scene with Australia (New Holland, 2018). Follow him on australiangeographic.com.au/
a can of bear repellent to investigate. Facebook and Twitter: @TimYowie series/talking_australia
Geobuzz
The Australian Geographic Book Club
Latest releases from our retail partner, QBD Books
new ones. Read about Denise Allen, who

KOALA: A LIFE IN TREES wintered on all four permanent Australian
stations and was awarded the Australian
By Danielle Clode Antarctic Medal; Dr Tas van Ommen making
Despite their iconic status, koalas remain a a mad dash for a mess tent as a 120km/h
mystery. Often affectionate in captivity, they blizzard raged on Law Dome; and Dr Jaimie
Cleeland sitting in the tussock grass
seek out human assistance when in need
on Macquarie Island and observing two
of water or care yet can also be fierce and male wandering albatrosses nursing
belligerent. They are beloved worldwide and enormous eggs.
feature in popular children’s stories, and are From the very first imaginings of what
also plagued by sexually transmitted disease might lie to the south to the inspiring early
and maligned for a lack of intelligence. Their expeditions and valuable scientific work
diet consists solely of leaves that are full of that is happening today, Ice Bound gives the
toxins. In some states they are threatened with reader a real sense of what it is like to live
extinction, while in others they are dying and work on “the vast, solitary snow-land”
from overpopulation. Fuelled by her biologist’s of the polar south.
background and deep curiosity, Danielle Clode delves into the world of AVAILABLE NOW RRP $49.99
koalas to discover what’s behind the sweet face on thousands of postcards.
From their megafaunal ancestors to the disastrous effects of colonisation,
from remarkable conservation success in the 1920s to the devastating THE COWRA BREAKOUT
bushfires of 2019–20, Clode tells the story of koalas and their complex By Mat McLachlan
This is a riveting read that brings to light a
relationship with humans. missing piece of Australia’s World War II
AVAILABLE OCTOBER RRP $34.99 history, told by bestselling historian Mat
McLachlan. During WWII, in the town
Purchase this book from QBD, online or in-store, and go into a draw to win
of Cowra in central New South Wales,
one of three Australian Geographic subscriptions. Japanese prisoners of war were held in a
POW camp. By August
1944, more than 1000
A GUIDE TO THE CREATURES in Antarctica, written by environmental were interned, and on
IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD historian Joy McCann. These stories are the icy night of 5 August
By the Urban Field Naturalist Project filled with adventure, tragedy, triumph and 1944 they staged one
This book provides an groundbreaking science. The legendary of the largest prison
informative and inspiring Douglas Mawson and his teams had to breakouts in history,
guide for readers of all learn to crawl, and then walk, through launching the only land
ages wanting to learn hurricane-force winds, dig exit tunnels battle of WWII to be
more about, and engage through the snow that continually buried fought on Australian soil.
creatively with, these their huts and haul heavily laden sledges Five Australian soldiers and more than 230
urban species. Crammed across treacherous Japanese POWs would die during what
full of fascinating fields of crevasses. became known as the Cowra breakout.
facts presented in an This spirit has This compelling and fascinating book,
accessible style, the continued through written by one of Australia’s leading
book teaches readers the 20th century battlefield historians, vividly traces the full
about some of the common plants and and into the 21st, story of the Cowra breakout. It is a tale
animals they’re likely to encounter in urban with Australians of proud warriors and misfit Australian
Australia, while also providing them with establishing soldiers, of negligence and complacency,
new techniques and practical exercises to scientific bases and of authorities too slow to recognise
develop their skills in capturing and sharing in Antarctica and danger before it occurred – and too quick to
their own encounters in stories, sketches continuing to make cover it up when it was too late.
and more. Combining science with art, vital contributions to the world’s knowledge But mostly it’s a story about raw human
philosophy and storytelling, this is a of Earth science and climate change. emotions and the extremes that people will
book that aims to cultivate a sense of McCann uses diary entries and interviews, go to when they feel all hope is lost.
wonder and appreciation for our remarkable alongside official expedition accounts,
natural world. to flesh out well-known stories and tell AVAILABLE NOW RRP $32.99
AVAILABLE NOW RRP $32.99
ALL OF THESE titles are available to pre-order or purchase from your
ICE BOUND nearest QBD bookshop, online at australiangeographic.com.au/shop or
By Joy McCann by calling 1300 555 176 (from within Australia only) or +61 2 8089 3953
Ice Bound is an exciting and comprehensive (if calling from overseas).
anthology of stories about Australians
Geobuzz
+ SPACE
Deflecting
an asteroid
A
S THIS ISSUE goes
to press, space The DART impactor spacecraft – with the
scientists everywhere are fol- smaller LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for
lowing the final movements of Imaging of Asteroids) to its right – is shown in
a little craft in deep space on a mission this illustration approaching Dimorphos.
that could profoundly affect human-
kind’s future. The mission is called
DART (the Double Asteroid Redirec-
tion Test), which spells out exactly what Suppose a PHA is discovered with Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos
it’s hoped it will achieve – test whether an orbit that could result in a collision is known and can be measured again
we can redirect an asteroid. down the track – say in a decade or after impact, so scientists will be able to
Why a double asteroid? That’s what so. What you’d like to do is change accurately gauge the effect. That would
makes this ambitious project so clever. the asteroid’s trajectory just enough to be harder if you were only hitting an
To explain, let me begin with the basics. guarantee a miss, which means apply- asteroid in orbit around the Sun.
Our planet’s space environment is ing an acceleration to it. The sooner Once this ingenious double asteroid
quite busy with rocks, and astronomers you can do that, the smaller the force test has been carried out, we’ll have
are constantly on alert for potentially that would be needed. Slamming a a much better understanding of what
IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS APPLIED PHYSICS LAB

hazardous asteroids (PHAs), which have half-tonne spacecraft into the asteroid would be required to deflect a danger-
orbits that might one day bring them might be one way to achieve that. But ous single asteroid – which is something
into contact with Earth. how would you know if you’ve applied we might one day need to do for real.
Typically, astronomers are on the enough force?
look-out for objects 140m or so in size That brings us back to DART,
because these are capable of causing which will indeed slam into an aster-
PHOTO CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

FRED WATSON is Australia’s
state-wide devastation on impact. (For- oid later this month, on 26 September Astronomer-at-Large. Find him on
tunately, the larger, even more danger- 2022. But it’s not just any ordinary ABC Radio, the weekly Space Nuts
ous ones are easier to find and already asteroid. It’s a 170m rock named podcast and @StargazerFred.
His new book for young people
well catalogued. None are on a collision Dimorphos, which is actually the moon (and the young-at-heart) is
course with us during at least the next of a larger asteroid called Didymos. Spacewarp: Colliding Comets and Other
100 years.) Together, they are a double asteroid. Cosmic Catastrophes.
Looking up by Glenn Dawes

After winter, the Milky alpha star to Pisces ON DISPLAY NOW
Way lies low in the west,
with Scorpius’s Scorpion
Austrinus. Next up is the
bow-shaped Grus. Two
Full Moon
Saturday
Bright planets at their finest
10 September
diving headfirst into the neighbouring galaxies Earlier this year the naked-eye planets aligned
horizon, followed by are rising in the spectacularly in the dawn sky. The best,
Sagittarius’s teapot. south-east: the Small New Moon
Saturn and Jupiter, are now well displayed in
Escape to the country to Magellanic Clouds (SMC) Monday the northern evening sky. These gas giants are
26 September
see other distinctive but precedes the Large MC. also at their biggest and brightest for the year,
fainter constellations. Beside the SMC is one of making them great targets for small telescopes.
Low in the north lies the the brightest globular Jupiter’s northern and southern equatorial belts stand out, as
Full Moon
great square of Pegasus, star clusters, 47 Monday should the Great Red Spot, if visible. Saturn is due north in the
below brilliant Jupiter. Tucanae. This com- 10 October mid-evening, with Jupiter following at about midnight.
Moving up is the pressed cluster of
roof-shaped Capricornus millions of stars is GLENN DAWES is a co-author of the yearbook Astronomy 2022 Australia
and almost overhead is impressive through any New Moon (Quasar Publishing), which can be purchased from Australian Geographic.
Tuesday
the bright Fomalhaut, telescope or binoculars. 25 October australiangeographic.com.au
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Your Society
Australian Geographic Society news and events
September • October 2022
Oceanic rower Michelle Lee

is awarded Adventurer of the
Year in 2019 by Jeff Gillies of
Coral Expeditions.
You are invited to the

Australian Geographic
Society Awards The Australian Geographic
Society Gala Awards Dinner
T
HE PANDEMIC clipped traps in Victoria to protect platy-
the wings of Australia’s pus populations, while palaeon- Hosted by Ray Martin AM
adventurers and conser- tologist Mike Archer has been Keynote Speaker Thomas Mayor
vationists, limiting their move- on the frontline of the moun- Friday 28 October 2022
ments both within Australia and tain pygmy possum breeding 6pm–9.30pm
internationally. But borders have program. Nigel Sharp’s Odonata Shangri-La Hotel Grand Ballroom
176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks,
opened, and previously Foundation continues its
Sydney NSW 2000
postponed expeditions great work investing
are underway once in “nature-first” Tickets, general $295
Special AG members/subscribers
more. From Sarah companies, so that discounted price $255
Davis paddling sustainable practices
Includes three-course banquet,
the entire length and values can be wine and beer.
of the Nile to translated into Book now by visiting our website
Sophie Matterson Australian businesses. australiangeographic.com/awards
completing her trek Join us as we cele-
with camels 5000km Ray Martin AM. brate the achievements
across Australia, our most of Australia’s dedicated
courageous adventurers conservationists and adventur- PRESENTING SPIRIT OF
PARTNER & LIFETIME OF ADVENTURE
remain determined and ers at the Society Gala Awards OF ADVENTURE
dedicated to push themselves with Master of Ceremonies Ray
to the limits of their abilities. Martin and Keynote Speaker
Conservationists across the Thomas Mayor (see page 46).
country have continued to Winners in seven categories CONSERVATIONIST ADVENTURER
work tirelessly throughout the will be announced, and we will OF THE YEAR OF THE YEAR
pandemic. Photographer Doug enjoy an opportunity to gather
Gimesy’s advocacy has overseen together once again after a long
the banning of enclosed yabby three-year hiatus. LIFETIME OF CONSERVATION
Your subscription is
Society essential to the
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These are just some of the projects EVERY SUBSCRIBER to this journal
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Paul Pritchard scientists, conservationists,
adventurers and explorers.
In July, Paul Pritchard and his team,
Larapinta Adaptive, successfully tra-
versed the Tjoritja/West MacDonnell To subscribe, call
Ranges in an expedition sponsored by Paul Pritchard takes a well-earned break along 1300 555 176
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are the first all-abilities adaptive team to All-abilities Larapinta Adaptive team. Who are the Australian
complete the 223km Larapinta Trail. Geographic Society?
“For a person with a disability, the
Tjoritja/West MacDonnell Ranges was all Richard will gather daily data about air Patron: Dick Smith AC
we expected; beautiful but brutal,” Paul temperature, cloud characteristics and Chair: David Haslingden
says. “At night the team embraced the patterns, barometric pressure, moisture Secretary: Caroline Fitzgerald
peacefulness of the starry sky whilst liv- content, wind speeds, solar radiation, Directors: Peter Anderson,
ing with blisters, knee pain and dislocated and ice surface properties. They will also Nick Croydon, Page Henty,
toes in the day.” collect ice samples for the Million Year Ice Jo Runciman
Despite contending with both mental Core project, to help researchers under- Advisory Committees: Chrissie
and physical hardship, the Larapinta stand changes in climate and greenhouse Goldrick (chair), Chris Bray, John
Adaptive team’s morale remained high gas concentrations over time. Leece AM, Tim Jarvis AM,
throughout the expedition. Robert Purves AM, Anna Rose,
“The team proved that people with Quokka fundraiser update Heather Swan, Todd Tai
disabilities can achieve great things,” Funds donated through the AG 165
Paul says. “We are some of the most cre- fundraiser have allowed the Rottnest THE SOCIETY runs sponsorship
ative, determined, patient and resilient Foundation to buy 12 motion-activated rounds in April and November
people in any workforce. It makes no wildlife cameras. There are 43 cameras each year, during which it
PHOTO CREDITS, OPPOSITE PAGE: DAN GRAY/GRAYNOISE; THIS PAGE, FROM TOP: COURTESY LARAPINTA ADAPTIVE;
sense to disregard us in society by not spread across Rottnest Island now that considers applications and
disburses grants.
including us.” monitor the quokka population 24 hours
a day. The Australian Geographic
The Last Great First The footage is reviewed by the business donates 10 per cent of its
In October 2022, Gareth island’s environment division. annual profits to the AG Society,
Andrews and Richard The quokka is a small which in turn supports worthy
Stephenson will finally type of wallaby unique causes in the areas of
embark on the world’s to south-western conservation, the environment
and adventure exploration.
first fully unsup- Australia. Populations
ported ski crossing of the threatened
of Antarctica. The quokka have reduced AG SOCIETY FUNDRAISER
SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2022
2600km expedition markedly during the
will take about 110 past 100 years due to SQUIRREL GLIDERS are in
days, commencing at Quokkas grazing introduced predators, trouble. See page 11 for more
the Ross Ice Shelf and on Rottnest Island. habitat destruction and information about Aussie Ark’s
finishing at Berkner Island in disease. Because of the conservation program.
COURTESY ROTTNEST ISLAND AUTHORITY
the Weddell Sea. vulnerable status of quokkas,

To successfully traverse the continent it is important to monitor the popula- Please donate today via our
in that time, Gareth and Richard will ski tion over time so worrying trends can be website, or scan this QR
an average of 26km per day. All equip- detected. The Rottnest Island Author- code to go
ment – fuel, tents and food supplies – will ity uses the motion-activated cameras directly to our
be pulled in sleds that double as mobile to monitor the resident population of GiveNow page.
weather stations. quokkas. If numbers vary significantly,
Working with scientists from the further investigations will be carried out SCAN THE
Australian Antarctic Program, Gareth and to understand the causes. QR CODE
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with her
STORY BY PETRA STOCK
Despite the dumping of Caroline

Chisholm from the $5 note in
1990 in favour of the Queen,
today we are the only country
to feature a woman on every
banknote.
The face of Australia’s international opera star of the

late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dame Nellie Melba,
beams proudly from our $100 bill.
In May 1990, when the Reserve
Chisholm, and recommended the deci-
sion be rescinded, a report in The Sydney
Morning Herald on 30 June 1992 recorded.
Bank of Australia (RBA) announced plans to replace Opinion writers of the day proposed
women more suitable than the Queen,
Caroline Chisholm with the Queen on a new $5 note, ranging from May Gibbs and Phyllis
Cilento to Germaine Greer and Sophie
the decision stoked growing republican sentiment and Lee. Subsequently Australia Post weighed
unleashed a fiery backlash about the representation of in, printing Chisholm’s portrait on a new
set of travellers cheques. “Economically
Australian women on banknotes. and financially, it was a pretty torrid time,”
explains Selwyn Cornish, an economic
Paul Keating called the decision a “national disgrace”. historian at the Australian National University (ANU) and the
Historian Manning Clark described it as “deplorable” and “ret- RBA’s official historian. Selwyn says the introduction of the
rograde”. The mauve-coloured fiver was the first of a series of new banknotes coincided with Australia’s 1991 recession and
new polymer banknotes to be issued between 1992 and 1996 the collapse of a couple of state banks. He says that ultimately
and there were concerns about what it might mean for the the RBA’s board decides who’s on our banknotes – not the
designs of the remaining notes, which had yet to be revealed . Parliament or the people.
The initial series of decimal currency, featuring 11 men and
I
the Queen, was released in 1966, followed by a $5 note in 1967 N 1992 THE RBA stuck staunchly by its decision to put the
depicting Caroline Chisholm, a 19th-century humanitarian, Queen on the Australian $5 note instead of Chisholm, citing
and the only Australian woman on the notes. Yet almost three the established tradition of depicting the monarch on our
decades later, she was first to go from the new polymer series. currency. But it also acknowledged there had been a “mixed
As well as formulating monetary policy and maintaining a reception” to its decision and early in the saga RBA spokesperson
strong financial system, the RBA, which was established in 1960, Peter McWilliam assured The Canberra Times “a woman will be
is responsible for issuing currency and that includes producing represented, and possibly more”.
banknotes. Its decision to replace Chisholm on the $5 note came in Soon, the bank revealed, a different woman would, in fact, be
the wake of decades of campaigning for women’s equal represen- depicted on every single banknote. It was a decision that three
tation across all aspects of Australian society. That sparked anger decades later remains world-leading.
and disgust from the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL), which As well as carrying an image of the Queen, the polymer
called for 50 per cent of the faces on banknotes to be of women. notes, which are still in circulation, feature palm-sized portraits
Labor MP for the Queensland seat of Forde Mary Crawford said of writer Dame Mary Gilmore, businesswoman Mary Reibey,
the decision showed “total disregard for women and women’s first female member of an Australian parliament Edith Cowan
place in our society”. Hundreds of schools and citizens petitioned and soprano Dame Nellie Melba. Australia remains the only
the Parliament, urging the bank to reconsider. country with a different woman depicted on every banknote,
At the time prime minister Keating, opposition leader John well ahead of the next best nations Denmark and Sweden.
Hewson and National Party leader Tim Fischer all publicly agreed. Given that women feature on only about 15 per cent of
The House of Representatives even adopted a rare bipartisan res- banknotes globally, it’s a striking achievement, particularly
olution expressing concern about the bank’s decision to remove when compared with USA’s greenbacks, where all the faces
are currently men, despite efforts to have African American
activist Harriet Tubman put on the $20 bill.
“If you look at the changes in the people who appear on
the banknotes…it can tell us quite a bit about our own social
history and our thinking as a nation,” Selwyn says. There was
PHOTO CREDITS, PREVIOUS PAGE: GETTY; THIS PAGE: ALAMY
a “preponderance of males” on the decimal notes of 1966, he

agrees. As women became more prominent in Australia’s par-
liament, business and academia, that’s been reflected in the
portraits on the notes.
Julie McCarron-Benson says the decision to honour women
equally on Australia’s currency will be important for coming
generations. Julie was the national coordinator of the WEL
back in 1992 and among those calling for 50:50 representation.
“If they’ve got women portrayed in positions of esteem and
The image of 19th-century Australian humanitarian Caroline respect, it does have an effect on [both] boys and girls. The
Chisholm graced the original $5 banknote (rear), but was replaced boys don’t question that women can do things, and the girls
by that of the Queen on the new polymer version in 1992. don’t question that they can do them,” Julie says.
Dame Nellie Melba Edith Cowan
The first woman in an Australian parliament, Edith
World-renowned soprano Dame
Cowan (pictured below in 1878), appears on the $50 note,
Nellie Melba, who’s on our $100 bill, was
wearing the gumnut brooch she had made to symbolise
also the first Australian to grace the cover
entry into Parliament for women as a “tough nut to crack”.
of Time magazine, in 1927.
Mary Reibey
The $20 note celebrates Mary
Reibey, who arrived as a convict
charged with horse stealing
PHOTO CREDITS, CONTEMPORARY BANK NOTES: SHUTTERSTOCK; DAME MARY GILMORE: COURTESY DAPHNE MAYO COLLECTION/UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND; EDITH BROWN, LATER COWAN, C.1878:
but became a highly respected

businesswoman running
successful shipping and
trading operations.
COURTESY STATE LIBRARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA; DAME NELLIE MELBA, DATE UNKNOWN: COURTESY JOHN OXLEY LIBRARY/STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND
Dame Mary Gilmore

The hut depicted on the $10 note, which carries a
most important people in Australian history”.
portrait of poet Dame Mary Gilmore (pictured at right
in 1952) references the life in the Australian bushland
Clare suspects this might be because the peo-
that she described in her poetry. ple on banknotes are generally considered to
be respectable, safe choices. But Goldstein was
a highly political suffrage campaigner who
was also against war and conscription. She
did, however, make the shortlist, according
to the fourth volume of the Pocket Guide to Australian Banknotes
published by the RBA Museum. That list also included artist
Margaret Preston, writer Miles Franklin, landscape designer
Edna Walling and botanist Thistle Yolette Harris among others.
L
A TROBE UNIVERSITY professor of history Clare Wright Currency design is complicated and, as events of the 1990s
says it’s the everyday nature of this recognition that enters show, sometimes controversial. It must serve multiple goals –
people’s consciousness. “It’s about the implicit messages sent being commemorative, aesthetic and secure. As well as being
to boys and men about who they share the planet with,” she says. pocket-sized artworks that honour significant Australians who,
“And about women’s implicit call for equality and deservingness of apart from the monarch, are all deceased, notes must incorporate
equality in all things.” A convenor for the community campaign technical features to prevent counterfeiting. Australia’s high-tech
A Monument of One’s Own, Clare advocates for gender equality polymer notes are world-leading in this respect.
in statues and monuments. In Australia, women’s representation For the polymer notes, design choices were assisted by an
on banknotes is in stark contrast to statues and other formats. advisory panel that included historian Geoffrey Blainey, ar-
“You tell people that less than 4 per cent of statues in Australia chitect Philip Cox and artist Janet Dawson. Also on the panel
are of women – that we have more statues of animals than we was designer of the original decimal currency notes Gordon
have of women - and their jaw hits the floor,” she says. Andrews, who was said to be “very unhappy” with the new de-
Although women are now well represented on our banknotes, signs. As well as balancing women and men, the panel weighed
diversity is lacking in other ways. In particular, the contribution up the representation from different states, time periods and
of Indigenous women is missing. Another notable omission, backgrounds, and sought to include the celebration of Aboriginal
Clare says, is Vida Goldstein, whom she describes as “one of the culture, according to the RBA’s Pocket Guide.
Pre-1901 banknotes were issued by private or
state banks. This one, issued by The Bank of Adelaide,
dates from 1893.
Gordon Andrews
Designer of Australia’s first
decimal currency banknotes
Gordon Andrews checks a layout
transparency for the Henry
Lawson side of the $10 banknote,
in 1965, ahead of its 1966 release.
Since Federation, Australia’s
banknote designs have changed
several times.
N
EW BANKNOTE DESIGNS are often contentious, says Australia didn’t have a national currency before Federation.
Mick Vort-Ronald, who has collected and studied But women were often depicted on the banknotes issued by
Australian banknotes since the 1960s and self-pub- private and state banks before 1901, Mick says. However, these
lished about 150 books and numerous articles on the subject. weren’t real women, but rather allegorical figures who were
“Every time the government announces they’re going to portrayed by stock images used by banknote printing companies
put someone new on a banknote the media get stuck into it at the time. These fictional females wore laurel crowns and
and advise people to write in about who they want,” he says. classical robes, and were occasionally depicted carrying a sheaf
Mick suspects that’s why for the latest banknote series – the of wheat or scroll of paper or holding a lamb.
Next Generation Banknotes progressively released between Since Federation, Australia’s banknote designs have
2016 and 2020 – the RBA decided to stick with the same his- changed several times. The first set to feature significant his-
toric people, “instead of running the gauntlet of changing the toric, mainly colonial, figures, such as Matthew Flinders and
designs”. According to the RBA, designers, artists and historians Arthur Phillip, was issued in 1954. Banknote design changes in
were consulted and it was decided to “retain many of the salient Australia have been prompted by events such as the succession
characteristics of the current series, including the people por- of a new king or queen, in 1966 by the switch to decimal
PHOTO CREDITS, FROM LEFT: COURTESY RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA ARCHIVES, PN-006808; COURTESY COINWORKS
trayed on the banknotes” to reflect Australia’s cultural identity. currency, and later by the development of new banknote se-
Historian and ANU professor Angela Woollacott was one curity technology.
expert approached to join a new panel to assist with the Next While the RBA dodged a public conversation with the Next
Generation designs back in 2011. She says the bank made it Generation Banknotes, Australia’s $5 note will face unavoidable
clear from the outset that the main elements of the notes – the design changes when the Prince of Wales ascends the throne.
people, their face values and even the overall colour palette It’s a change that would tip the gender ratio back towards men
– weren’t up for discussion. and could spark a new public discussion about who should be
Yet this didn’t stop her and others on the advisory panel on the note.
from agitating for the removal of the monarch. “Several of us When that happens, the question will inevitably arise as to
at the beginning tried hard to convince them that it was time whether the RBA will stick with the tradition of putting the
to switch from the Queen,” she reveals. reigning monarch on the lowest denomination banknote.
The panel’s role was constrained to advising on how historic “That will be a fascinating moment for banknote design,”
people should be represented, as well as the aspects of their Angela says. She anticipates the change will ignite public debate,
careers and historic significance that should be highlighted. not just about who to put on the note, but a conversation more
For example, Angela and others on the panel wanted to broadly about Australia and the monarchy.
ensure that the new $50 note emphasised Edith Cowan’s role as Clare already has a view about what should happen. “Well,
the first woman elected to any Australian parliament. As such, obviously we should become a republic. And we should put
the new design includes microtext from her maiden speech our first head of state – who will hopefully be a woman – on
to the Western Australian parliament, as well as text from the the banknote,” she says.
private bill Cowan introduced that became the Women’s Legal “I suppose it would be rather controversial if they didn’t
Status Act 1923. put the reigning monarch on them,” Selwyn says. But, he says,
Few people would know also that the abstract white diagram the timing could also open up an opportunity to put eminent
on the note is “actually the floor plan of the lower house of the Australians on the $5 note instead, like on the other notes.
Western Australian parliament at the time she [Cowan] was in “Whichever way they go, they’re going to be criticised, no
it”, Angela says. doubt,” he says.
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PHOTO CREDIT: MELANIE FAITH DOVE
Young Gumatj boy Jovan Yunupiŋu

stole the show at the opening
ceremony of the Garma Festival in
2019 dancing buŋgul (ceremonial
dance) for the first time.
An invitation
to listen
BY THOMAS MAYOR
Thomas Mayor, ambassador for the Uluru Statement

from the Heart and advocate for a First Nations Voice
enshrined in the Constitution, invites us all to walk in a
spirit of reconciliation with First Nations Australians as
they strive for a better and brighter future.
T
HE ULURU STATEMENT from the Heart our youth, languishing in detention in obscene
is a sacred First Nations’ invitation to numbers – the awful effects of intergenerational
the Australian people. It was con- trauma and systemic powerlessness writ large in the
ceived on 26 May 2017 from the col- official statistics of Australia. It should be obvious
lective experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait that these dimensions of our crisis are not due to a
Islander peoples during an unprecedented process genetic propensity to crime, nor to a lack of love and
of dialogue and consensus building. Forged from care for our own. But sadly, it seems it hasn’t been
more than two centuries of hardship and strug- obvious in Australia, where there is still a toxic in-
gle, the Uluru Statement gives hope to a nation ertia that perpetuates the “great Australian silence”.
born from many nations, that we may find our In the Uluru Statement, First Nations people
collective heart. did more than lament our present and our past; we
The eloquent words of the Uluru Statement make did not write it to simply stir empathy. On 26 May
an affirmation that the first sovereign nations of the 2017, through the Uluru Statement, Aboriginal
Australian continent and its adjacent islands have and Torres Strait Islander peoples gifted all
never ceded sovereignty – not when first colonised Australians with their vision – a road map to find
by the British, and not with the enactment of the the heart of the nation.
Australian Constitution in 1901. The words remind The Uluru Statement from the Heart was
us that neither colonisation nor the federation of made through a process that imbued it with un-
those early colonies could extinguish the sacred link precedented cultural authority. Further, it carries
that no other civilisation on Earth can claim – that the name of a sacred place and was given its name
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – Uluru – from those Elders of the Mutitjulu com-
are born from, remain attached to, and will return munity who are its cultural guardians. They gave
thither to, Country, to be united with ancestors the name to the Statement because they want its
stretching back an amazing 60,000 years. At the proposals to succeed.
same time, the Uluru Statement acknowledges the The Uluru Statement makes three very import-
sovereignty that we all share, as citizens of Australia. ant proposals that will be transformative. They are
In haunting prose, and with First Nations Voices in sequence: first, for a First Nations Voice enshrined
that sing as a chorus, the Uluru Statement decries in the Constitution; second, for a Makarrata Com-
the scale of our crisis – disproportionate incar- mission to supervise agreement-making, or treaties;
ceration rates that are the worst in the world; our and third, to oversee a process of truth-telling for
children, aliened from their families and culture; the nation.
We invite you to
walk with us in a
movement of the
Australian people
for a better future.
The establishment of a First Nations

Voice enshrined in the Constitution is
the priority reform – indeed it is now an
urgent reform – because, unlike other Thomas Mayor with the
racial or ethnic groups, laws and policies Uluru Statement from the Heart
are being made by governments specifi- canvas during his journey to
cally about us, without us, and too often share its vision with First Nations
to our detriment. A Voice is the first people across Australia in 2017–18.
reform because it will start to address this
political disempowerment, setting us on
the path for the future reforms of Treaty and Truth. Anthony Albanese, who has demonstrated a capacity to listen to
When we gifted Australia with the Uluru Statement from First Nations people. With the minister for Indigenous Australians,
the Heart, we struggled to be heard. The federal government Linda Burney, and the Special Emissary for Reconciliation and
almost immediately dismissed it, and there was no money for Implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Pat
a campaign. Dodson, the Prime Minister has made the commitment to hold
With the support of First Nations Elders and my union, the a First Nations Voice referendum, just as my people invited the
Maritime Union of Australia, I decided to travel the country federal government to do in 2017.
with the canvas on which the Uluru Statement is written. I A referendum is imminent.
showed the artwork, the signatures and the words to thousands
M
of people. I shared what I had heard, seen and felt at Uluru with ANY AUSTRALIANS have taken up the invitation to
small crowds in remote places, such as ancient meeting places walk with First Nations people to establish a First
like Yule River in the Pilbara, and densely populated places, Nations Voice in the constitution. Polling has in-
including the capital cities. With other passionate Indigenous dicated that as the Australian people learn about the proposal
change-makers, I took the Uluru Statement to the people, and and how it came from the wonderful Indigenous consensus in
we started a people’s movement. the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the chance of a successful
In June 2018, after 12 months on the road with the Uluru referendum grows. The following is some simple information
Statement canvas, I realised I had a compelling story to tell. I had that will help you understand, not so much for your reading
met many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had pleasure, but because I hope you will help us convince others
unique stories and perspectives that I thought should be heard. to vote “Yes”, as I hope you will too.
I thought of the idea of sharing these stories in a book. When I
discussed the idea with Marcia Langton, who had just written What is constitutional recognition?
her book Welcome to Country, she immediately encouraged me Put simply, the Constitution is the rule book of the nation. It is
to start writing. So I did. the highest of written laws that determine how all other laws
Twelve months later, I published my book. I gave it the title: are made, and by whom – the state or federal parliaments. As
Finding the Heart of the Nation – The Journey of the Uluru Statement the foundational document for the Australian Federation or,
Towards Voice, Treaty and Truth. It became an Australian bestseller as some describe it, the birth certificate of our modern nation,
– an important handbook for people to learn about the Uluru above all other laws and decrees, the Constitution defines our
Statement and why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people modern nation. Yet it does not recognise Indigenous people.
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY THOMAS MAYOR
support it. Along with my story and the stories of 20 other First Who would say that First Nations people – a people and a
Nations people from a variety of backgrounds and age groups, and culture that has lived and flourished on and with this coun-
from all around the country, I narrated our journey of struggle try for tens of thousands of years – should not be included
and hope. I wrote about our many challenges and achievements. in Australia’s Constitution? Australia’s forefathers may have
Most importantly, I wrote a book that will teach you why you denied this, and did so violently. But today, Australia can
should walk with us. be different.
Finding the Heart of the Nation is now in its second edition, For our ‘young’ nation to mature, constitutional recognition
published this month (August 2022) by Hardie Grant. It comes is vital. It is a matter for all of us – a chance to redefine our
at a crucial time. Australians have elected a new prime minister, Australian identity and to right a wrong from the past.
Uluru Statement from the Heart
We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points
of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander With substantive constitutional We call for the establishment of
tribes were the first sovereign nations of change and structural reform we a First Nations Voice enshrined in
the Australian continent and its adjacent believe this ancient sovereignty will the Constitution.
islands, and possessed it under our own shine through as a fuller expression of Makarrata is the culmination of
laws and customs. This our ancestors Australia’s nationhood. our agenda: the coming together after
did, according to the reckoning of our Proportionately, we are the most a struggle. It captures our aspirations
culture, from the creation. According to incarcerated people on the planet. We for a fair and truthful relationship with
the common law, from time immemorial. are not an innately criminal people. Our Australia and a better future for our
And according to science more than children are aliened from their families children based on justice and self-
60,000 years ago. at unprecedented rates. This cannot determination.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion. be because we have no love for them. We seek a Makarrata Commission
The ancestral tie between the land or And our youth languish in detention in to supervise a process of agreement
Mother Nature, and the Aboriginal and obscene numbers. They should be our making between governments and
ASDASDASDKJASBDKJAGSDKASDKJHGASKDJGASDGHALKSDG
Torres Strait Islander people who were born hope for the future. First Nations, and truth-telling about
therefrom, remain attached thereto, and These dimensions of our crisis tell our history.
must one day return thither to be united plainly the structural nature of our In 1967 we were counted, in
with our ancestors. This link is the basis problem. This is the torment of our 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave
of the ownership of the soil, or better, of powerlessness. base camp and start our trek
sovereignty. It has never been ceded or We seek constitutional reforms to across this vast country. We invite
extinguished. And it coexists with the empower our people and take a rightful you to walk with us in a movement
sovereignty of the Crown. place in our own country. When we of the Australian people for a
How could it be otherwise? That a have power over our destiny, our chil- better future.
peoples possessed a land for sixty millen- dren will flourish, they will walk in two
nia and this sacred link should disappear worlds, and their culture will be a gift to ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART ©RENE KULITJA,
CHRISTINE BRUMBY, CHARMAINE KULITJA,
in merely the past 200 years. their country. HAPPY REID/COPYRIGHT AGENCY, 2022
Anangu artists explain the
Tjukurrpa Creation Story on the
Uluru Statement from the Heart in
the community of Mutitjulu, NT,
where it was painted. Uluru can be
seen in the background.
When Australia embraces the longest continuing culture on

the planet as what constitutes us – the building blocks of our
national DNA – we will share a unique identity in the world
– an identity we can all be proud of.
We decided the political power
To achieve constitutional recognition, first, those to be rec-
ognised should determine how they are recognised. Australia’s
to influence decisions about us
Indigenous peoples have chosen to be recognised by establishing
a constitutionally enshrined Voice. Finally, a referendum must
was the most important step to
be held, asking the Australian people a question that is as simple
as this: Do you support an alteration to the Constitution that establishes
progress our interests.
an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?
For constitional recognition, the Australian people must
vote “Yes”. to alter or hinder existing government processes. We understand
such a proposal would not succeed at a referendum. Claiming
What do we mean by Voice? that this is what First Nations people want has been used as a
The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for a substantive form scaremongering tactic by those who oppose Indigenous rights.
of recognition: “We call for the establishment of a First Nations
Voice enshrined in the Constitution.” Why must we constitutionally enshrine the Voice?
A “First Nations Voice” is a First Nations representative body All past national First Nations representative bodies have been
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY THOMAS MAYOR
with a constitutional guarantee that it may provide advice to repealed or defunded when hostile governments have been
Parliament. Our people decided that the political power to influ- elected. We have learnt that we must protect our Voice so that
ence decisions made about us – decisions that affect our health, it cannot be silenced.
our livelihoods, our wellbeing and justice – is the most important The example that is most often recalled in this respect is the
step to progress our interests. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
This was established in legislation by the Bob Hawke Labor
Is a Voice a third chamber in Parliament? government in response to the 1988 Barunga Statement. The
We do not propose to establish a third chamber in Parliament, John Howard Liberal National Opposition vehemently op-
or a right to veto the passing of legislation. We do not propose posed its establishment. When Howard led the Coalition to
Thomas visited the Custodians of WA’s Pilbara lands who gathered Supporters of the Uluru Statement led by Thomas gathered in Cronulla’s
at an ancient meeting place, Yule River, for their annual Yule River Bush main shopping mall in former prime minister Scott Morrison’s electorate of
Meeting. The Uluru Statement was strongly endorsed by the Custodians. Cook in NSW, in early 2020. They received a positive response.
government in 1996, he immediately defunded ATSIC. He Gaining greater ability to influence the decisions made about
shut the representative body down completely in 2005 with the us is the most practical reform that can be made in a democracy.
support of the Labor Opposition, even though Professor Jackie
Huggins, John Hannaford and Bob Collins had just completed Is introducing a First Nations representative body
a wide-ranging review of the organisation. Their report made into the Constitution racist?
recommendations to address the challenges ATSIC was facing. Many Australians are unaware that the federal Parliament has
Rather than working with First Nations people to improve the explicit power to make special laws about First Nations
ATSIC, the government destroyed it. people based on our ‘race’. This is in Section 51 (xxvi) of the
It was easy for a hostile federal government to silence Constitution of Australia, known as the “Race Power”.
ATSIC because it was merely an Act of Parliament. Constitutional Indeed, because of this power, Australia’s Constitution allows
enshrinement of a Voice is different. It can only be achieved by Parliament to be racist. And this Race Power has only ever been
way of a referendum, not by an Act of Parliament. A successful used to make special laws about Aboriginal and Torres Strait
referendum will make it a permanent and politically strong voice. Islander people. As in the High Court’s Hindmarsh Bridge case,
It will speak with a mandate from the Australian people that must the Race Power may be used to the detriment of Indigenous
be heard. And because it will be irremovable, it can therefore be people, not necessarily to our benefit.
unapologetic in its advocacy. While “Indigenous peoples” are not a “race” different from
other humans, our unique connection to Country, culture and
How does a Voice help our people? experience of colonisation is substantive and deserving of rec-
It is important to recognise what happens when our Voice is ognition. The Uluru Statement does not propose to remove
silenced. In the absence of a Voice with an ability to effectively the Race Power, though. This is because some beneficial laws,
hold politicians to account, and to influence the decisions they such as Native Title legislation, would be jeopardised by its
make, they will continue to fail and harm us. removal. We also do not propose to replace the word “race”
Every year, the annual Closing the Gap health strategy targets with ‘Indigenous people’. Such tinkering does not empower us.
for reduced incarceration rates, levels of education, employment We proposed a more urgent and useful amendment. We seek
and improved life expectancy are dismally missed. The gap is to establish the representative body, the First Nations Voice, to
getting wider. As the Uluru Statement says: “This is the torment monitor the use of the Race Power and to influence its use to
of our powerlessness.” Without the political power a Voice pro- benefit us and to ensure it is not used to harm us again. A Voice
vides, we will continue to slip backwards. We know that gains is important for guiding Parliament, and also useful for holding
PHOTO CREDITS: COURTESY THOMAS MAYOR
made under a reasonably benevolent government can easily be politicians to account for the decisions they make.
lost the next time a hostile government is elected.
A Voice to Parliament is a practical reform, not merely symbolic, Aren’t First Nations people already equal? Instead
as some have argued, because policy and legislation decisions in of a First Nations Voice to Parliament, why don’t
Canberra affect everything we struggle with – housing, policing, Indigenous people just get elected?
healthy food affordability, community infrastructure – the list Some people who oppose the Voice to Parliament proposal
goes on. And it all affects the ability to close the gap. argue that Indigenous people already enjoy the right to vote
A Voice to Parliament would also support our ability to protect and the ability to run for Parliament. This ignores the fact
and care for Country. that Indigenous people are 3 per cent of the population,
When Thomas travelled the country with
the Uluru Statement from the Heart canvas, the
personal stories shared by the many Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people he met
provided inspiration for his best-selling book.
spread across hundreds of electorates. We are swamped by It is envisioned that the Makarrata Commission would su-
the priorities of the other 97 per cent. It also ignores that our pervise, promote and assist truth-telling to the nation. It may
Indigenous candidates are chosen in preselection processes that also act as an umpire and mediator as First Nations negotiate
rarely involve Indigenous people. And, if elected, Indigenous agreements, such as treaties, with governments.
members are outnumbered in Parliament and are answerable to The Makarrata Commission needs only to be legislated. It
a mostly non-Indigenous electorate. Again, First Nations people will be separate from the Voice with no constitutional change
are powerless in this democracy, and subject to the whims of a required. To develop the best powers and functions of the
Parliament that we cannot hold to account. Makarrata Commission, the constitutionally enshrined Voice
should be established first so First Nations representatives will
What does the Voice representative model look like? be in a position to influence its development.
The constitutional amendment will be simple. It will establish
that there will be recognition of First Nations people through
a Voice to Parliament and that the advice First Nations people
give is not justiciable. Once passed by the referendum, these Finding the Heart
aspects of the Voice to Parliament will be set in stone. The of the Nation
model, however, will be legislated so that it may evolve with The journey of the Uluru Statement
the needs of the people. This flexibility is important to the towards Voice, Treaty and Truth
continuous improvement of the Voice, and so it may evolve In this updated edition of his bestsell-
with the needs of the people. ing book, Thomas gets behind the
The proposal for a Voice isn’t new and it isn’t too much to politics and legal speak to explain
ask. First Nations people have been struggling for fairly chosen why the Uluru Statement from
representation and the right to self-determination since before the Heart is an invitation to all
Federation. This aspiration has been recorded in numerous Australians. Completing his writing
statements and petitions, such as the 1938 Day of Mourning, just after the 2022 federal election, Thomas has included a
new introduction and conclusion, as well as a call to action for
the 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petitions, the 1972 Larrakia Petition, all Australians.
the 1988 Barunga Statement and today, the Uluru Statement
from the Heart.
Simply put, we are establishing a representative body, com- AGS Gala Awards 2022
mon in a representative democracy. It is consistent with how
politics has always been done in Australia. We are thrilled Thomas Mayor will
be our special Keynote Speaker at the
What will a Makarrata Commission do? Australian Geographic Awards Gala
Makarrata is a Yolŋu word for a process of “coming together Dinner on 28 October 2022 at the
after a struggle”. In this ancient and continuing dispute resolu- Shangri-La Hotel Grand Ballroom
tion process, the parties must bring truthfulness and a genuine in Sydney’s Rocks district. He is a gifted
intent to reach a settlement on how the wrongs of the past will speaker, and a passionate advocate for the
PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY
enshrined First Nations Voice. Turn to Your

be resolved. At the completion of this process, relations are Society on page 36 to find out more about
strengthened and peace prevails. Makarrata has long been used the event, or scan this QR code to book
by First Nations leaders to describe our aspirations for a settle- your place for this landmark Australian
ment that improves relations and heals the wounds of the past. Geographic event.
ADVERTISING PROMOTION
GOING BEYOND
THE ICON
Sometimes the extent of a journey isn’t measured
by distance, but by the new thoughts and feelings
it generates. So I discovered when I recently took
an Indigenous-guided tour at Uluru.
Story by Roslyn Jolly

PHOTO CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
A cultural immersion tour

at Uluru casts this tourism
drawcard in a new light.
Join a local guide for an authentic

cultural experience.
To see Uluru through Indigenous eyes is to be

liberated from the old European idea of “Ayers Rock”.
No longer just a monolith to be captured in a photo- family side. At Kulpi Minymaku, the kitchen cave, we
graph or – until recently – conquered by climbing, Uluru see where generations of Anangu women prepared food
is transformed by the Indigenous perspective into a place under an extraordinary wave-like rock overhang. And
of spiritual meaning and social connection. at Kulpi Nyiinkaku, the teaching cave, we hear how
It all begins with a voice. Our guide, Ken, an Anangu grandfathers taught teenage boys the tracking and hunt-
man in his late 20s from the local Mutitjulu community, ing skills they would need for survival as men.
speaks in a low, gravelly tone. English isn’t his first lan- In this natural classroom the boys learnt about weap-
guage – it’s his fifth, acquired after the dialects of the onry, topography and the hunt itself, the cave walls here
Western Desert that are more familiar to him. That very functioning like blackboards. What look to us like painted
fact brings a jolt of foreignness to the experience of hear- decorations are in fact maps and diagrams representing
ing him talk about this land. Words of Pitjantjatjara, one features of the land such as waterholes; knowing their
of the two main local dialects, pepper his speech and are locations and how to find them was essential to the hunt-
translated for us by a second guide on this SEIT Outback ing process, because that is where animals would gather
Australia daytrip to Uluru. to drink. I’m surprised we’re allowed to photograph this
Under a flawless cerulean sky and against the backdrop rock art, but then I understand why. These aren’t sacred
of the mighty rock with its undulating striations, Ken images, but instruction manuals for everyday life.
tells the story of Kuniya the woma python, one of the I love this insight into the ordinary lives of Anangu.
ancestral beings of Uluru. It’s a passionate story of blood Even though in their Tjukurpa (body of traditional
ties, grief, anger and revenge. As he speaks, Ken’s gestures knowledge) Anangu don’t separate “lore” from “law”
dramatise the actions of the characters in the tale. His (mythic Creation stories from knowledge of Country and
way of conveying the story is raw, urgent, personal – a rules for living), to my Western mind this cave-classroom
PHOTO CREDITS: COURETSY AAT KINGS
world away from any textbook account. speaks of a different realm of being from the supra-human
Anangu believe that Kuniya has never left Uluru, a story of Kuniya. This everyday realm of child-rearing
place which remains sacred and mysterious. To hear this and education is easy to imagine and relate to. Ken’s wife
story, told by a Traditional Owner steeped in its spirit- and beautiful baby daughter join us for this part of the
uality at the exact spot where it originated, is an unfor- tour, reinforcing a sense of Uluru not as a distant mon-
gettable experience. ument but as a magnet for family and community.
On another stop during our tour of the rock we see The same is true at the Mutitjulu Waterhole, one of
and hear about a different side of Uluru – the human, the most visited points along the perimeter of Uluru.
TAKE A TOUR
ULURU
ABORIGINAL
ART AND
C U LT U R A L
EXPERIENCE
This day tour offers an
Indigenous experience
of Uluru with an emphasis on art.
A scenic drive around the base of Uluru opens
the 4.5-hour tour. You’ll then meet your guide, a
Traditional Owner from the Mutitjulu community,
together with a member of the local Maruku Arts
Gallery who acts as interpreter. Visiting the teach-
ing and kitchen caves, you’ll hear stories from the
Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku is the Creation period as well as accounts of traditional
Pitjantjatjara name for Field of Light, Anangu life. The storytelling may be wholly or
Bruce Munro’s massive art installation partly in Pitjantjatjara (translated as required) and
that was approved by the local is accompanied by symbolic sand-drawing, as it
Anangu community as a celebration of
humans’ interconnection with nature. would have been in ancient desert society.
Adults from $265 plus park entry fee of $38.
Park pass lasts three days and may be used
multiple times. Children from $135.
The walk around
the base of Uluru aatkings.com/tours/uluru-ayers-rock/
is 10.6km and uluru-aboriginal-art-and-cultural-experience/
takes about 3.5
hours. It’s best
done before 11am.
SUNRISE & FIELD OF LIGHT
It’s worth rising before the sun to see Field of Light
at its most evocative, looking like an expanse of
desert flowers waking up to the coming day. This
AAT Kings day tour begins in darkness. See the
Many people, including me, are amazed to learn that lights spread out in a brilliant patchwork of colour
there’s a semi-permanent pool of water here. It’s a seem- and wander pathways through the installation.
ingly magical place that holds reflections of the rock in Tea, coffee and hot chocolate await on the dune-
its tranquil surface. For Ken it also holds memories of top when you return to see the sun rise over Uluru.
coming here as a boy with his uncles and climbing the Adults $75, Children $40.
rock face with them. (“That was scary!” he says, laughing.) aatkings.com/tours/uluru-ayers-rock/
Did they swim here too? “Nah, we know better places,” sunrise-field-of-light/
he says – places that will not be revealed to us tourists.
When our tour comes to an end, I can’t believe how
far I’ve travelled from my meagre preconception of Uluru
as “a big rock”. I’ve experienced the Pitjantjatjara lan-
DINE IN THE SHADOW OF ULURU
guage, and been intrigued by the sound of English spoken Sample Indigenous-inspired cuisine
as a foreign tongue by First Nations people. I’ve felt the at the Anangu-named Mai Uluru La
power of story and witnessed the pull of memory, both Ila – “food close to Uluru” – the only
anchored in this place and in the family and community outdoor dining experience offered
relationships nurtured here. I understand now that Uluru inside Uluru-Kata Tjuta NP. Enjoy
is not just a sight to be seen, but the material embodiment the sunset and drink in the view while
of an ancient religion. you sip a locally inspired cocktail and
The journey has been far bigger than would seem munch on bush tucker canapés before
possible in a half-day trip. It has been a crossing into a the main course, a range of traditional
different way of life and a transformative way of seeing. barbecue favourites.
I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Q
Adults from $219 plus park entry fee of $38. Park pass
lasts three days and may be used multiple times.
Roslyn Jolly was a guest of SEIT Outback Australia and expe- Children over nine years from $110.
rienced their three-hour Uluru Highlights Tour. aatkings.com/tours/uluru-ayers-rock/mai-uluru-la-ila/
The spirit of Curdimurka
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEAN SEWELL
Not all goes to plan as a legendary outback

event is revived, but, with the irrepressible attitude
for which Aussies are famous, these country
partygoers find reason to celebrate.
Claire Harris, part of a bootscootin’ duo
with Kate Strong, spurs the crowd to get
up on the racetrack dance floor. Claire and
Kate are on a national tour to promote the
virtues of bootscootin’, or linedancing, and
volunteered their services to the ball.
Country music legend Troy Cassar-Daley headlined the revived event’s Country music aficionados and adoring fans of Troy jostle for
entertainment. Here the recipient of 40 Golden Guitars and multiple front-row positions to enjoy the music legend’s sizzling set that
other music awards lets loose during post-ball celebrations. wrapped up the ball’s entertainment.
Dancing at dusk. This classic
image by photographer
Frances Mocnik (AG 48)
shows two early arrivals as
the 1996 Curdimurka Outback
Ball swung into action
before they were joined by
thousands of other revellers.
SA
Marree
Adelaide
ALMOST 600KM NORTH of Adelaide, where one of the more popular theories is that it was a
tribute to the pioneering 19th-century Afghan
the famed Oodnadatta and Birdsville tracks cameleers who helped open up Australia’s interi-
or. After construction was completed in 1980 of
meet, John Simpson and Renee Ormesher are a standard-gauge railway linking Port Augusta
and Alice Springs, some 200km to the west, the
frantically working their phones. old narrow gauge Ghan line was abandoned.
Not long after his 1981 visit to the
Perched on stools in the front bar of the historic Marree Curdimurka siding, Simon had the idea to hold an upmar-
Hotel, they’ve set up a temporary office to coordinate the ket fundraising event there to support the preservation of its
logistics of bumping in the Curdimurka Outback Ball. This heritage, and, in 1986, 105 people sat down to a silver service
once-legendary annual outback event hasn’t been held for 18 dinner to raise money for its restoration.
years, but it’s about to be revived. Two years later, in 1988, 218 people gathered there again,
Moves for its resurrection began one day a few years back, when this time for the Fettlers Ball. After quickly developing a
John and Renee were having lunch in the Marree Roadhouse reputation, that event was held again the following year. By
and were asked by locals: “Why don’t you start it back up again?” 1990 patronage had swelled to some 1600 people and the
As collaborators in Revive the Regions with Music, a touring Curdimurka Ball was born.
company supporting regional South Australia and its musicians The 2022 rebooted version of the event, which John and
through remote festivals, they had the credentials. And in that Renee are organising from the front bar of the Marree Hotel,
laconic Aussie outback way, after a drink or two, John thought, has been relocated: the days of the Curdimurka Outback Ball
I’ll give it a shot. being hosted at the historical railway siding are long gone.
So began the epic task to resurrect and reclaim what had “It was BHP that killed that,” John says with a sardonic
become a largely forgotten late-20th-century Aussie institution. eyeroll as he mentions the big mining company that now
oversees the site. “They didn’t actually say ‘no’, but the re-
T
HE FIRST CURDIMURKA Outback Ball dates to 1981, strictions they put in place made it untenable, forcing us to
when Simon Coxon, a survey technician with what look for another venue.”
PHOTO CREDIT: FRANCES MOCNIK/AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE LIBRARY
was then the SA Department of Lands, drove past John and Renee initially looked around the historic ghost
the Curdimurka railway siding while working in the Lake town of Farina, about 50km south of Marree, before settling on
Eyre region. a site at Clayton station, about the same distance north up the
He noticed an upturned trolley on the abandoned tracks Birdsville Track. The 1600ha Clayton paddock offered as the
of the former Ghan railway line, which had been closed the location for the revived ball seemed ideal, its natural amphithe-
year before. Prompted by the state of deterioration he saw, atre and towering dunes providing the perfect desert aesthetic.
Simon founded the Ghan Railway Preservation Society But nature thought otherwise.
and successfully applied to have the siding listed on the SA An unseasonal trough that extended from the Gulf of
Heritage Register. Carpentaria in the continent’s far north down through the
“I was concerned that little effort was being made to pre- Lake Eyre basin and on to Adelaide threatened enough rain to
serve anything of the old line and its heritage,” he explained close the Birdsville Track. With a malevolent weather forecast
simply in Outback, & having a ball! (AG 48) in 1997. for the date of the event, the decision was made to relocate
The Central Australian Railway is a 241km narrow gauge the ball away from Clayton station.
railway that was built from 1878 to 1929 between Port Augusta “I initially thought of outside the pub in Marree, but in the
and Alice Springs. There are a number of stories surrounding how end settled on the [town’s] racetrack,” John says. “It was the right
the railway came to be known as the Ghan soon after it opened; decision. We had nowhere else to go.” Continued page 62
Tim and Vicki Kernick pose for a
formal portrait in their ball attire with
the backdrop of an abandoned van in
the interior of the Marree Racetrack, just
before the official start of the ball.
At the 1994 Curdimurka
Outback Ball, on their first
wedding anniversary,
Tim and Vicki Kernick
were photographed for a
magazine article.
Dressed in their finery, Tim and

Vicki join fellow Cahoontas and
other ball patrons to dance the
night away under the desert sky.
An outback love story

With a romance forged along the tracks of the
Ghan and cemented at the first Curdimurka Ball,
the Kernicks couldn’t miss the event’s reprisal.
x
W HEN VICKI LANGLEY
finished a hairdressing
course at Adelaide TAFE
in 1986, she headed overseas with
friends and landed a hairdressing job
“We ran into each other one
night at a Christmas party or some-
thing like that,” Vicki says, recalling
that at the end of the night she
position ended. But Tim joined her
as she caught her last ride back to
Adelaide out of Alice. “He packed
up all his worldly possessions and we
was given a lift home by Tim. Love stuffed the entertainment carriage
in London. On her return to Adelaide blossomed, and as Tim left to return with his belongings,” Vicki says.
in the spring of 1987, she naturally to Alice Springs, Vicki promised “The boss definitely didn’t like that!”
fell back into the company of Tim herself she’d get a job on the Ghan in In 1993 the pair married and in
Kernick, with whom she’d become the hope they could meet up again. 1994 looked for a unique experience
acquainted before her departure. She became employed in the train’s to celebrate their first wedding anni-
“I knew Tim previously through “entertainment carriage”, which had versary. They saw an ad promoting
overlapping social circles,” Vicki a hairdressing salon as well as poker the Curdimurka Outback Ball. “We
reminisces as she stands in the and video game machines and a tiny were both really familiar by then with
sodden interior of Marree Racetrack, souvenir kiosk. the Ghan, its history and the environ-
recalling the couple’s tentative teen- In the autumn of 1988, Vicki ment. We loved the remoteness of the
age mutual attraction. and Tim embarked on a three-year desert too,” Vicki says. “We’d read
But in early 1988 Tim left romance that became forged into about the Curdimurka Ball and
Adelaide for a round-Australia trip. a lifelong union along the tracks decided that was the place we’d go.”
“I jumped into my old Pontiac, threw of Australia’s most famous railway And so, after cobbling together
in the microwave and bike and was journey. Vicki began working a tight-knit group of friends, the
off,” he recalls. By mid-year he was regularly on the Ghan’s Adelaide Kernicks made their first wedding an-
based in Alice Springs, more than to Alice Springs section during the niversary a pilgrimage into the heart
1300km from Adelaide, working as April–October season and would call of SA’s remote interior, to a black-tie
a mechanic, but he would sometimes in regularly to see Tim. ball that, throughout the 1990s,
return to Adelaide to catch up with When the Ghan’s entertainment developed into one of Australia’s
friends and family.
x
carriage was closed in 1991, Vicki’s seminal outback events.
Local Marree man
Jeff Litchfield, who
volunteered to help the
ball organisers, drove
a donated dozer from
the Marree Hotel and
sold old Ghan railway
sleepers for firewood to
the ball’s patrons.
T
HEY BEGIN ROLLING into Marree two days before the
gates to the track are opened for the ball, and oversized But the forecast has delivered,
and over-accessorised mobile rigs soon colonise the
township’s centre. But the weather forecast has delivered on and ground crews are now
its promise, and ground crews are now working feverishly
around the clock and through a quagmire to get the ball’s working through a quagmire.
music stage in place on time.
It’s touch and go. Patrons have manoeuvred their rigs into
E
pole position, staking their claims on the edge of town to VENTUALLY VEHICLES ARE let into the designated camp-
capitalise on the best campsites. ing zone, and as they stream in, they slide, career, and
But still the indicator sign at the beginning of the even jack-knife while jostling to get their camping in-
Oodnadatta Track is reading CLOSED and an eager queue habitants settled before nightfall. Meanwhile, deep within the
extends back right through the centre of town. racetrack interior, the Cahoontas are already busy constructing a
Undeterred by their temporary holding patterns, festival- Hawaiian surf club tiki bar that will become the centrepiece of
goers begin to get down to what they’ve come here for. Spon- this group’s four-day stay. The Cahoontas – a portmanteau of
taneous cocktail parties spring to life. Lavish spreads of cheese, Cahoonas and Hooters – is the tribe of Tim and Vicki Kernick
cured meats and antipasto delicacies are laid hastily across camp (see previous page).
tables. And the wine starts to flow. They comprise a coalition of decorated SA surf lifesavers and
Inside the Marree Racetrack, 800m from the lunching Country Fire Service members and this is not their first time
roadside hordes, local Marree man Jeff Litchfield sits high in together in the remote Australian desert. They’re well versed
the driver’s seat of a bright yellow dozer, a donation from the in how to party with style, no matter the conditions.
Marree Hotel. When news of the return of the Curdimurka Ball began
Sporting a tan, wearing a 10-gallon Akubra hat and strid- filtering out, the Kernicks’ interest was piqued. “We were on
ing about the site with a three-days-in-the-saddle gait, Jeff a Simpson Desert trip with our crew in 2021 when our good
is one of a consortium of locals lending voluntary support to friend Paul Victory informed us and immediately we thought,
the event’s organisers. He’s busy dozing tracks through the This is OUR ball!” Tim says.
sludge to ensure passage to the track’s interior. After returning to Adelaide, Tim began scrambling together
Two hours before the first scheduled arrivals, Jeff is mired artwork for commemorative, personalised stubby holders, adorned
in multiple tasks, rescuing the festival’s already bogged gen- with the Cahoontas couples’ monikers laid over a Simpson Desert
erator, dragging stricken vehicles and vans from the morass, sunrise – The Toolman (Tim) and Voluptuous (Vicki), Croc and
and installing portable toilets in the soon-to-be-established Super Sally, and Wild Horse and Tumbleweed. “You have to do
campsite. Marree is famous for its hard, clay-like ground sur- this stuff,” Tim says, “because sometimes things get a little loose
faces, but they’ve been transformed into sludge as the forecast and you need to know whose drink is whose.”
rain has bucketed down and it’s now challenging even the Flanked by an ever-sprawling convergence, the Cahoontas
most intrepid of this gathering. already have several camp ovens on the go.
Stalwart of the SA country music scene Steven Wagner (top) stands Newcastle-based country rock festival regulars the Viper Creek
in front of his campsite adorned with the laminated photocopies of signed Band strike a pose for a group portrait between acts at the starting gates of
Australian country music albums he’s collected over the years. Marree Racetrack.
With sandals in
hand, a festival patron
negotiates the sodden
interior of Marree
Racetrack en route to
her campsite. Festival-
goers were plagued
by mud traps
throughout the ball.
The aromas of roast beef and rosemary-infused lamb shanks rise

in the crepuscular light and coalesce with the smoke from myriad
fires illuminating the landscape. Some have been fuelled by the
Ghan’s historic railway sleepers, which were laid more than 100
years ago then ripped up after the track between Marree and
Lyndhurst was discontinued in the early 1980s.
As night falls, camp ovens everywhere spit and sizzle in the
constant rain and late arrivals struggle haplessly to manoeuvre
onto dry ground. Among these unfortunates are Andrew and
Danielle Eglinton from Adelaide, whose camper trailer becomes
stuck fast in the wretched sludge. But there’s no shortage of good
Samaritans here. Strangers emerge from the dark with tow ropes
and four-wheel-drives magically appear. And someone trudges
off into the night in search of “that big fella with the dozer”.
“Getting bogged is a spectator sport!” quips a member of Ball volunteer Jeff Litchfield unhitches a portaloo in anticipation of the
Camp Cahoonta. “It’s all good and fun until it happens to arrival of the event’s patrons. As well as installing toilets, Jeff graded passage
you.” The Cahoontas’ site is now defined by an oversized to the racetrack’s interior, unbogged the generator and stricken vehicles and
sold firewood to campers.
Australian flag fluttering steadily under a cool westerly that’s
being driven by the passing cold front.
Next morning, it’s a grey, sodden dawn that greets the camp- our husbands! You want to see us fall face down in the mud,”
ers. Those valiant enough to keep up their usual morning con- I’m jokingly admonished by a company of women dressed in
stitutional find themselves ankle deep in mud after the night’s ball gowns and Blundstones; I’m trying to photograph them
rain. A few are in thongs; others have forsaken shoes altogether as they negotiate a passage onto the last furlong of the heavily
and some require rescuing from marooning. steeped Marree Racetrack, the designated dance zone.
There’s a stunning line-up of pre- and post-ball entertainment
O
N THE EVENING of the ball, they emerge from the offered up by the likes of Reg Dodd, the Cherry Pickers, Matt
darkness and the mud. Aided by the guiding light of a Cornell, Michaela Jenke, Caitlin Drew and the Viper Creek Band.
single strand of tungsten globes, they traverse the ruts Greeting the steady flow of arrivals on stage are the Nabiac-based
and trenches that now make them a captive audience. And most duet of Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley. These multi-
of them are decked out in all the finery and cheer of the ball’s award-winning country singer-songwriters and ball favourites
previous black-tie dress expectations. are among Australia’s finest country musicians.
Tails and top hats, boas and silk, they shuffle in harmony and Meanwhile, warming up the dance floor are bootscootin’
grace across corrugated iron sheets laid hastily across the track to aficionados Claire Harris and Kate Strong. Formerly a stock
preserve, mostly, the dignity of patrons. “Oh, you are just like report journalist and agricultural consultant respectively, the
“It’s bittersweet. We’ll go home
and cry a little bit, but it’s been a
beautiful little disaster.”
A series of malevolent storm cells that passed over Marree the day Cahoonta the party is just getting started. A burgeoning tradition
before the ball dumped directly upon the Marree Racecourse. In the foreground among this tribe of desert farers is about to begin – the burn-
is an old locomotive from when the Ghan passed through Marree; it’s now a ing of the bar – literally. With a concerted effort, the Cahoonta
tourist attraction. Bay Surf Club tiki bar is hoisted upon dying embers, igniting a
bonfire that draws neighbouring campers to rejoice the end of
pair threw away their jobs earlier this year to traipse around a spectacular ball.
the country promoting the virtues of linedancing in support of
R
several rural charities. IPPING THE SYNTHETIC grass from the partially sub-
The charm and elegance of theatrical stars Rachael Beck merged entertainers’ green room, laid waste by the pre-
and David Hobson helps entice the crowd onto the dance floor, vious day’s rain, organisers John and Renee are already
where for two long hours they swirl and dip in sequins and mired in thoughts of how to make their next venture work,
gumboots, ostrich feathers and vintage rabbit-fur coats. A pol- and how they’ll extract themselves from the financial hole this
ished repertoire of cabaret entertainment envelops the dancers ball has left them in. “Everyone had a fantastic time,” Renee
under a vast blanket of cool desert stars. “Welcome to the Royal enthuses. “The artists loved it and the patrons loved it. The
Marree Opera House!” David bellows down the straight as the greatest reward is seeing people and artists connect, and, most
dance floor erupts amid an enchanted cacophony. importantly, having a great time.”
But the night really belongs to one man whom everyone John, however, is less rosy about the ball’s outcome. “If it was
is here to see – the legendary Troy Cassar-Daley. With some a success, we’d actually make some money,” he says, as he elab-
40 Golden Guitars and many other music awards under his belt orates on the reason for his dejected mood. “It’s terrible – we’re
and more than three decades of treading the boards, Troy is one now facing losses in the tens of thousands of dollars. I just need
of the nation’s most celebrated mainstream country music artists. to work out how to get it back.”
Among this mob he’s king and on this night doesn’t disappoint as With heavy eyes, Renee looks out at the track from the con-
he segues from centuries-old traditional folksongs into a blistering fines of the huge, corrugated iron racetrack shed, watching as
country music hootenanny within the space of a few chords. the stage is slowly and meticulously dismantled. “It’s bittersweet,”
As the night draws to a close, a migration begins towards she agrees. “We’ll go home and cry a little bit, but it’s been a
the still-smouldering campsite of fires and sludge. But at Camp beautiful little disaster.”
BETWEEN A ROCK
AND A HARD PLACE
STORY BY LEIGH HOPKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANCESCO VICENZI
Home to Victoria’s highest concentration of rock-art sites – and to world-class

climbing – the Grampians National Park is truly spectacular, but also a site of
conflict. In the face of widespread climbing bans, land managers are working
to balance the interests of Traditional Owners and climbers.
Breanna Slattery trad climbs in

Summer Day Valley, under
the supervision of a licensed
tour operator.
T HE MOUNTAIN RANGES of Grampians National My life soon revolves around climbing
and I begin editing Argus, the newsletter
Park rise in silencing grandeur from the arid of the Victorian Climbing Club (VCC). In
early 2019, I’m shocked to find climbing
Wimmera Plains as a pulse-line of peaks and troughs. is now banned in a third of Grampians NP.
Parks Victoria has declared 55,100ha
This is the most south-western point of Australia’s Great off-limits and knocked out key crags pop-
ular for sport climbing, trad climbing and
Dividing Range: 1672sq.km of rocky plateaus and rugged bouldering. The bans have been made
bushland, three hours drive from Melbourne. pending cultural and environmental her-
itage assessments. Many of the areas set
aside are on the Victorian Aboriginal Her-
At Hollow Mountain car park my climbing partner and I itage Register and include rock-art shelters and quarries from
gaze in awe at towering, cornflake-orange escarpments. We where Aboriginal people took stone to make tools. Parks Victoria
walk the track towards them, then at the cliff-line take a faint says a rise in climber numbers, bolts and chalk use prompted the
path through the scrub, guided by a 2015 edition of Neil bans. Many climbers consider their environmental footprint to be
Monteith’s book Grampians Climbing. An hour later, I lead my low and disagree they could be causing harm. But most don’t real-
first outdoor sport climb, warm sandstone beneath my fingers ise this conflict has been brewing for decades. Gariwerd, as the area
and joy in my heart. It’s 2018 and I’m experiencing one of the is known to its Traditional Owners (TOs) the Djab wurrung and
world’s best places to climb for the first time. About 500 crags Jardwadjali peoples, contains almost 90 per cent of Victoria’s
(climbing areas) and 8700 individual routes await, including known rock art. Thousands of motifs attest to the presence,
the legendary Taipan Wall. It’s not long before I’m at Dyurrite knowledge and spirit of its first peoples. Much of it is on overhangs
(Mt Arapiles), a rock fortress an hour further north and home favoured by climbers, and some is more than 22,000 years old.
to thousands of trad (traditional) climbing lines.
Kevin Lindorff and his son Lachlan climb

at Dyurrite. Kevin has been climbing in the
area for more than 50 years and has put up
many notable first ascents.
Martin Hadley lead climbs in a designated
climbing area near Halls Gap.
Driven by a fear of losing what they loved,
some climbers turned on Parks Victoria,
convinced it had an anti-climber agenda.
“P EOPLE HAVE BEEN rockclimbing in Gariwerd for well

over a hundred years,” says veteran climber Kevin
Lindorff. During the 1970s, he was part of the second
wave of climbers to venture there before it became a national
park in 1984. They hiked to distant cliffs looking for new routes,
and mostly left little trace. Occasionally, when they
discovered a line that couldn’t be protected with
removable or ‘traditional’ gear, they’d hammer in
Gulgurn Manja is one of seven
caged rock-art sites open to the
a piton (metal spike) or drill a bolt. A few climbing
public in Gariwerd. community legends cut goat-tracks, established
crags and published guidebooks, encouraging
hundreds and then thousands to come and play.
Over the years, more lines got bolted. Tracks
were formalised. Climbing gyms opened – five in
Melbourne alone during 2015–18, another 10 since
2018 – and the niche pastime went mainstream.
Climbing entered the Olympics. Free Solo, a doc-
umentary profiling climber Alex Honnold, won
an Oscar and Alex even came to Gariwerd to test
himself on its world-class sandstone.
But there was a problem: climbing was to have
been prohibited from most of the now-banned ar-
eas under the 2003 park management plan, but
Parks Victoria never enforced the bans at the time.
Conversely it worked with climbing’s de facto peak
body, the VCC, and its environmental offshoot
CliffCare, to improve access to popular crags –
Summer Day Valley in 2000, Taipan Wall in 2008,
The Gallery in 2012 – with climbers fundraising
and volunteering their labour.
“Parks Victoria is now in an uncomfortable and challeng-
ing position as it attempts to enforce 15-year-old management
and usage rules after having encouraged climbing for so long,”
wrote Lucy Welsh in 2020. Lucy is a heritage registry collections
manager at First Peoples – State Relations, a group within the
state government that works with TOs on cultural heritage
management and protection.
Driven by fear of losing what they loved, some climbers turned
on Parks Victoria, convinced its upper echelon had an anti-climber
agenda. Errors in Parks Victoria’s publicity, such as exaggerated
user numbers and false accusations of bolting in rock-art sites, led
a core group of mostly hard-grade sport climbers to believe they
were being scapegoated. A new website, savegrampiansclimbing.org,
spearheaded by guidebook author and crag developer Neil Mon-
teith, seized on these errors, fuelling the groundswell.
Ignorant of the history, most climbers were unsure what to
Manja Shelter has more hand stencils than any other rock-art think, myself included. A belligerent minority dominated social
site in VIC. media, likening rock art to children’s drawings and question-
ing its authenticity. Other climbers claimed the bans were
Climber and environmentalist Louise
Shepherd at Dyurrite, shown now and 40
years ago, was one of the world’s strongest
women climbers in the 1980s and has been
involved in crag care ever since.
Other climbers claimed the bans were a misunderstanding

and argued that if they could just sit down with Parks Victoria and BGLC on behalf of its
TOs the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jardwadjali,
Traditional Owners all would be resolved. Wergaia and Jupagulk peoples. Serious climb-
ers, including Kevin, Glenn Tempest and
Louise Shepherd, had moved to the nearby
town of Natimuk to be closer to Dyurrite,
a misunderstanding and argued that if they could just sit down where many made their livings as guides. By now, savegrampi-
with TOs all would be resolved. Mike Tomkins, founder of ansclimbing.org estimated 38 per cent of routes in Gariwerd and at
the fledgling Australian Climbing Association of Victoria, said Dyurrite were closed. On a good day, climbers joked they still
he wanted to engage with TOs, then flouted the bans. Tracey had Taipan Wall. Then, in August 2020, that was struck off.
Skinner, CliffCare’s access and environment officer, who’d been Soon after, indemnified by the VCC, Kevin and Glenn
at the forefront of engagement with Parks Victoria since 2007, launched legal action against Parks Victoria. The case
resigned over the furore before expressing support for TOs. was later withdrawn but prompted BGLC to issue a posi-
Meanwhile, TOs remained silent. tion statement, calling the action “counterproductive and
In mid-2019 Parks Victoria announced a new park man- a direct challenge to our rights and cultural responsibili-
agement plan for Gariwerd to be co-authored with the bodies ties to protect our heritage values”. BGLC supported Parks
corporate that represent the rights and interests of Gariwerd’s Victoria’s protection efforts. “In fact,” it said, “we are the drivers
TOs: Barengi Gadjin Land Council (BGLC), Eastern Maar for these very actions.” The draft management plan confirmed
Aboriginal Corporation and Gunditj Mirring Traditional this, acknowledging that “for more than 22,000 years, Gariwerd
Owners Aboriginal Corporation. The planning process pro- was, and remains, the living, hunting, gathering, cultivating,
vided mechanisms for addressing climber concerns. Kevin ceremonial, Dreaming Country and territory of Jardwadjali
Lindorff, who’d emerged as a respected, level-headed represen- and Djab wurrung language groups and their ancestors”.
tative, would spend the next 18 months challenging the bans The plan prioritised TO aspirations for the park, including
through these channels. He argued they were disproportionate strengthening cultural tourism, reintroducing traditional fire
and unfair, and “a more fine-grained, cliff-by-cliff focus” that management practices, and focusing on Gariwerd as a place of
didn’t prohibit any user group from vast tracts of the park healing. It also flipped the approach to climbing: to be prohibited
indiscriminately was needed. But as months passed, there was throughout the park, except in areas deemed open or pending.
no indication climbers’ suggestions were being incorporated. Many climbers struggled to understand that TOs had power
Meanwhile, more areas were placed off-limits. Popular be- and agency, when for almost 200 years they’d had none. Within
ginner area Summer Day Valley was the one crag to be partial- a decade of colonists arriving in 1837, after Major Thomas
ly reopened, to licensed tour operators only, on the condition Mitchell’s 1836 expedition to the area, the Jardwadjali and
they completed a cultural heritage induction. Closures began at Djab wurrung peoples lost their land and with it their means
Dyurrite, in Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park, co-managed by of subsistence. By 1845 most were dead from either attacks,
THE GRAMPIANS
YING WITHIN AUSTRALIA’S most extensive
L volcanic province, the Grampians are five
sandstone ridges that run north–south with
steep, craggy slopes on their eastern side and
gentler slopes on their west. The sandstone that
forms them was originally laid down by rivers
during the Devonian, 425–415 million years
ago. This was later uplifted during volcanic ac-
tivity and has since been carved and shaped by
the erosive forces of wind and water. The area,
known as Gariwerd, has been home to the Djab
wurrung and Jardwadjali peoples for more than
20,000 years. Their Creation story tells of the
Great Ancestor Spirit Bunjil, who took the form
of Werpil the Eagle to create the surrounding
natural world, including the sandstone range,
its many waterways and the plants and animals
they support. The area is home to more than
975 native plant species. Nationally threatened
animals include the endangered red-tailed
black-cockatoo and smoky mouse.
A climber takes on Wave Wall, on the
eastern side of Gariwerd, in 2018. This
climbing area is currently pending review.
introduced diseases, poisoning or starvation. Survivors were later cultural heritage assessments, something the VCC had not man-
relocated to reserves where the systematic erasure of culture and aged to achieve.
custom continued.
G
A group of climbers who understood that the ARIWERD HAS ALWAYS been a place of
bans were part of broader conversation efforts was “immense spirituality” and “gathering”,
Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network according to Gunditjmara leader Damein
(GWRN). Created in response to the “critical Bell. “It connected Countries,” he told Joe Hinch-
need to form positive and enduring relationships liffe from The Age after drawings of a bunyip were
with Traditional Owners”, its goal wasn’t to con- rediscovered during the making of the Grampians
vince TOs that climbing and cultural heritage Peaks Trail.
should coexist, but to provide information about He described the sites as “revelations”. Former
the sport so TOs could make their own decisions. Eastern Maar CEO Jamie Lowe recalled seeing the
GWRN recognised TOs’ legal right to decide fi ngerprints of his ancestors as one of “the most
what’s best for themselves cathartic experiences” of his life.
and their communities as a This sign at Dyurrite indicates the
Jamie went on to say the population of his peo-
vital part of the reconcilia- presence of significant Aboriginal ple, the Djab wurrung, dropped as low as 50. “If
tion process. GWRN was cultural values on a section of cliff. you take 90 per cent of people out of any society,
invited to participate in the what goes with them is a whole lot of cultural knowledge
There are 132 rock-art shelters, most located
in the Victoria Range, the same area that
contains the best and hardest climbing.
Gariwerd has always
been a place of “immense
spirituality”, says
Gundtijmara leader
Damein Bell.
At Ngamadjidj Shelter,
artists used white clay to
depict figures, rather than
the typical Gariwerd red.
and power.” Rediscovering cultural heritage sites helps put Lil Lil is a small cliff-line in the Black Range known for
pieces of the puzzle together. its crack climbs, with a rock-art shelter (a cave) in the middle.
As of May 2020, Gariwerd has 474 registered Aboriginal plac- The area has five registered art sites, faint but visible. Back in
es, with stone artefact scatters accounting for almost half. There 1998, Parks Victoria met with the VCC to point out the art
are 132 rock-art shelters, most located in the Victoria Range, and request the club’s help in asking climbers to keep out of the
the same area that contains the best and hardest climbing. More cave, which had bolted routes close to artwork. Signage was
places are being found all the time: 37 were rediscovered during later installed at the start of the walk-in, asking climbers not to
PHOTO CREDIT, TOP RIGHT: JOHN WOUDSTRA/FAIRFAX
the initial cultural heritage assessments of 125 climbing sites. bolt. Most did the right thing. But in 2017 a new bolted route
Sixteen years ago, the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 was set up was found near an art panel on the main face.
to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage in Victoria and to give Crag developers have been quick to dismiss bolting and chalk
TOs control over it, recognising them as “primary guardians, use as reasons for the climbing bans, seeing bolts as barely vis-
keepers and knowledge holders”. Under the Act, both tangible ible safety infrastructure, and arguing chalk can be brushed
and intangible heritage can be added to the Victorian Aboriginal off. But documents show the incident of bolting at Lil Lil and
Heritage Register. Tangible heritage includes physical evidence another at Burrunj were catalysts for the climbing bans, as was
of past occupation, such as rock art, scarred trees and quarries. development in the Victoria Range.
Intangible heritage includes stories, knowledge and rituals. De- Concerns were initially raised by Parks Victoria’s umbrella
spite this, cultural heritage in Gariwerd was poorly protected organisation, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and
before the 2019 bans. Planning (DELWP), which sought advice from Aboriginal
Victoria, now First Peoples – State Relations. In response, Juan Hurtado bouldering at Trackside Boulders,
Parks Victoria undertook an audit of rock-art shelters in the a designated area near Mt Stapylton – one of
greater Grampians. Archaeologists employed by Parks Victoria 13 initially struck off then reincluded in the final
landscape management plan.
highlighted problems with bolting and chalk use at Lil Lil and
The Gallery, classing the use of chalk – magnesium carbonate
– within an Aboriginal cultural site as causing “damage com-
parable to graffiti”. BGLC said in its position statement: “When A section of Taipan Wall will be reopened after
Traditional Owners see visitors trampling over ceremony sites negotiations between Gariwerd TOs and the
Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network.
or artifact scatters, or see climbing bolts drilled into the bones
of our Creation Ancestors or around our rock art, it is a cause
of enormous distress.”
Bolting has been a contentious issue in the Grampians for
more than 20 years. CliffCare’s Tracey Skinner first brought it to
the attention of the VCC in 2007, noting the Aboriginal Heritage
Act 2006 could affect climbers’ access to routes in Gariwerd.
“Our relationship to Traditional Owners is
“Development of new climbing areas without permission, be-
sides being against Park rules, can directly contravene the Act,”
she wrote. “Maybe a little extra thought needs to be taken when
stronger now and our understanding of how
choices are made. And whether the future consequences [are]
worth it.” From 2015 Skinner’s requests became more frequent,
to protect cultural values is different.”
culminating in a moratorium on all new route development in
Gariwerd in 2018. By then it was too late.
Crag developers knew of the issue. In Grampians Climbing
(2015), Neil Monteith called bolting “borderline illegal” and process. The application was withdrawn after it required a
advised developers not to use power tools within “earshot of single entity to proceed. However, in December 2018 – just
tourists” or bolt near rock art. However, there had been few 10 weeks before the climbing bans were enacted – the state
repercussions, so perhaps developers saw no reason to stop. signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the three
I ask Jason Borg, Parks Victoria’s regional director, western corporations, protecting native title from extinguishment.
region, why climbing wasn’t banned from culturally sensitive It also committed parties to their responsibilities under the
areas earlier. “I think historically it was Parks Victoria trying Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.
to do the right thing by everyone, but not getting it right,” Earlier that same year, the state government passed the
he says. “Our relationship to Traditional Owners is stronger Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act (2018),
now and our understanding of how to protect cultural values Australia’s first-ever Treaty law. This legalised Aboriginal
is different.” Victorians’ right to self-determination and signalled the
The legislation is stronger now too. In 2016 members of government’s commitment to Treaty.
Gariwerd’s three TO corporations filed for native title over That same year, the Parks Victoria Act 2018 also saw Parks
Grampians NP, in response to the state of Victoria wanting Victoria come out from under the umbrella of the DELWP.
to extinguish native title as part of the Grampians Peaks Trail While still reporting to the minister for energy, environment
and climate change, Parks Victoria had more direct account- triggered a legal challenge, and though [it] was halted, the
ability: it was re-established as an independent statutory au- classifications were subsequently changed.”
thority, with its Board responsible for land managed by Parks TOs’ generosity in reopening areas should be noted. Jason
Victoria.These changes meant when it came to the protection says there is funding for this calendar year to assess priority crags
of cultural values, Parks Victoria “had its hands tied”, as one put forward by climbing’s nascent peak body. A free permit for
climber described it to me. After all, it is an organ of govern- climbing will be introduced to ensure climbers complete a cul-
ment. If policy changes, so too does its mandate. tural heritage induction, and chalk must match the colour of the
rock. Bolting will be permitted in designated climbing areas.
T
HE GREATER GARIWERD Landscape Management Plan, Other user groups have also been impacted to a lesser extent:
finalised in December, was developed with the inten- off-track walking is now prohibited in Special Protection Areas,
tion the park will be jointly managed in the future. and dispersed camping will be phased out by 2024. I ask Louise
“The important point to come back to is the reset we’ve Shepherd, one of the first climbers to move to Natimuk in
undertaken at Parks Victoria around seeing Gariwerd as a the 1980s, if she thinks Parks Victoria has done enough. She
cultural landscape, first and foremost,” Jason says. “Essentially, says it “did make an effort” and “we need to move forward”.
we’re trying to future-proof the park so that cultural heri- At Dyurrite, cultural heritage assessments were due to be
tage values and natural values are protected, but still allowing completed by June. Louise says the feeling in Natimuk is varied,
enough opportunity for people to recreate.” but overall people are “incredibly respectful” of the request to
About 100 crags remain open. Bouldering, virtually erased keep out of closed areas. “I think climbers across the board have
from the draft plan, is permitted in 13 sites, while a section of an awareness that things are going to change and there are other
Taipan will be reopened to climbers, as will several other areas. people for whom Dyurrite is very important.”
PHOTO CREDIT: SIMON CARTER
Summer Day Valley remains open to licensed tour operators The partial reopening of Taipan Wall, facilitated by GWRN,
only. “The positive changes that have been made have had to gives Louise hope for Dyurrite. “I think GWRN is doing
be fought for,” Kevin Lindorff says. “Almost all of the very a fantastic job and I really support them…I think it’s the
few climbing areas that have been reclassified since the draft way forward.”
plan were subjects of detailed, logically argued Regulation GARIWERD’S TOs declined to be interviewed for this story, as did
67 applications to climb. The refusals of these applications Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network.
Overall Winner
Nature’s Prey
Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)
Ashlee Jansen, Western Australia
A humpback whale carcass found on the

ocean floor, stripped clean of its flesh by
surrounding sharks. This subadult whale
died while making the annual migration
north along Ningaloo Reef. A harsh act
of Mother Nature, but an important part
of the natural ecosystem.
Coral Bay, Western Australia
Sony A7R II, Canon EF 8–15mm f/4,

1/320, f/10, ISO 400, handheld,
Nauticam underwater housing
Best photos of the year
As COVID restrictions eased, nature photographers
ventured forth once more to document Australasia’s
spectacular animals, plants, landscapes and starry skies.
Overall winner Ashlee
Jansen, based in Exmouth,
WA, is living her dream as an
underwater photographer.
W
ELCOME TO the results of the Australian
Geographic Nature Photographer of the
Year competition for 2022. This is the 10th
year of our partnership with the South
Australian Museum to present this con-
test and its public exhibitions, and it’s very
gratifying to see it flourish with a record
year for entries. We also welcome two new categories Photography encourages you to look carefully at the
– Astrophotography and Urban Animals. world around you. It increases knowledge and under-
Photography is critical to how we communicate ideas standing, and in turn raises awareness. Nature photog-
and information at Australian Geographic. The power raphers are active conservationists through the enduring
of images to tell stories or focus on issues transcends records they naturally create, and that’s part of the real
traditional linguistic and cultural barriers. Images can power of this competition.
act as attention grabbers that allow us to follow up with Some will carefully examine the f-stop number or
more complex ideas and information. They have the the choice of lens, but for most, the AG Nature Pho-
power to pull us in, whet our appetite and stimulate our tographer of the Year is simply a chance to be inspired
curiosity. They can also shock us or sadden us – maybe by the beauty and wonder of nature.
even galvanise us into action. The conservation move- We commend all those who entered, and extend our
ment relies heavily on the impact of strong imagery to sincerest congratulations to the worthy overall winner
move people to care enough to advocate, donate funds Ashlee Jansen (pictured above). Well done to all the
or become involved in practical ways. category winners and runners-up, and all whose works
Nature photography was once the preserve of an elite have been selected for the exhibitions.
group of professional photographers, but technology has The judges have done a superb job. Among them this
revolutionised the business of both photography and year was our very own Australian Geographic picture
publishing. The sophistication of cameras, including editor Nicky Catley.
those on our smartphones, plus the endless possibilities We thank Brian Oldman, Tim Gilchrist and all the
to share photos via social media, provide many good staff of the South Australian Museum for their excellent
reasons why photography is such a rapidly growing and diligent stewardship of the Australian Geographic
recreational activity. Nature Photographer of the Year, and extend our grat-
Our involvement with this competition is very much itude to ReAmped Energy and all the sponsors below
part of our wider mission to encourage photography for their support.
of the natural history on offer in our quadrant of the Turn to page 89 for how and when you can visit the
globe. Our biogeographical region, which encompasses brilliant exhibitions at the South Australian Museum in
Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea, Adelaide and the Australian Museum in Sydney.
offers so much for any would-be photographer, and not
just in our wild and remote areas. The flora and fauna
in our suburban backyards and city parks are all worthy Chrissie Goldrick
subjects too. Editor-in-chief, AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC
Principal Sponsor Producer Presenting Partner Production Partner Touring Partner

Holiday Prize
Sponsor
Animals in Nature
Animals in Nature Winner Each spring, the Great Dividing Range is roost capture fireflies mid-flight, displaying a
treated to a magical event. After sunset, stunning acrobatic aerial battle.
Night Light Dining bioluminescent fireflies emerge from the Ella Bay National Park, Queensland
Dusky leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros ater) darkest corners of the forest for a short time.
Firefly (Lampyridae) However, they’re not entirely safe. Insectiv- Canon 7D, Tamron 24–70mm, 3.27 x 7, f/11,
Jannico Kelk, Queensland orous dusky leaf-nosed bats leaving their ISO 400, 5 x Yougnuo YN-560IV, Zoomei
Q666C tripod, Cognisys Range IR high-speed
motion sensor, seven images compiled from the
same location and time
Animals in Nature Runner-up
Midnight Seahorse
Knobby seahorse (Hippocampus breviceps)
Matt Testoni, Tasmania
A knobby seahorse hunts its prey in the

cold night-time waters off Kettering,
Tasmania. Sitting still among the sea-
grass, they become almost invisible to the
untrained eye. It’s an amazing experience
seeing these tiny seahorses hunt their
crustacean prey late at night.
Kettering, Tasmania
Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II, Olympus 30mm

macro, 1/100, f/7.1, ISO 200, handheld,
external Sea&Sea YS-D2 strobe (flash)
with Retra Snoot attachment, Isotta
underwater housing
Portfolio
WINNER ALEJANDRO TREVINO
1 3
2 4
1 2 3
Giant Cuttlefish and Mating Octopus Marine Tempest

the Winter Garden Common Sydney octopus Port Jackson shark
Giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) (Octopus tetricus) (Heterodontus portusjacksoni)
Alejandro Trevino, New South Wales Alejandro Trevino, New South Wales Alejandro Trevino, New South Wales
Giant cuttlefish are often seen and Common Sydney octopuses enter their Over the breeding season (winter into spring),
approached by swimmers and divers along reproductive cycle in September. This photo female Port Jackson sharks lay a pair of eggs
the southern coast of Australia in late winter. shows a female resting inside her den (sunken every fortnight and place them in narrow
This is the largest of all cuttlefish species, and tyre) while a male approaches from above gaps between the rocks for protection. Almost
despite being colourblind, they are masters with his hectocotylus reaching the female’s 90 per cent of laid eggs fall prey to other
of camouflage with the ability to change their mantle cavity for mating. Females often can- sharks, making the embryo-to-hatchling
size, shape, colour and even texture of nibalise their mating partners and this male period the most dangerous time of their lives.
their bodies. remained at a safe distance. Sydney, New South Wales
Sydney, New South Wales Sydney, New South Wales
Sony A7 III, Sony FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6
Sony A7 III, Sony FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 Sony A7 III, Sony FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 OSS, 1/160, f/3.5, ISO 125, handheld while
OSS, 1/200, f/3.5, ISO 250, handheld while OSS, 1/160, f/6.3, ISO 800, handheld while freediving, Seafrogs underwater housing with
freediving, Seafrogs underwater housing with freediving, Seafrogs underwater housing with 6" dome port
6" dome port 6" dome port
Judges’ comments:
An expertly sequenced portfolio unified by a consistent colour palette and subject.
The use of light across the work establishes a sense of place, and viewers will be
surprised to see such diversity in the water off Australia’s most populous city.
5 6
4 5 6
The Secret Cave Shark Passage Breeding Behaviour

Port Jackson shark Spotted wobbegong (Orectolobus maculatus) Giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama)
(Heterodontus portusjacksoni) Alejandro Trevino, New South Wales Alejandro Trevino, New South Wales
Alejandro Trevino, New South Wales
Spotted wobbegongs are another common Giant cuttlefish bodies are streamlined,
From winter into spring, Port Jackson sharks carpet shark species found in Sydney. They making them efficient at swimming. On
arrive at the temperate waters of Cabbage are safely approached by divers every day. certain occasions, such as their annual
Tree Bay. These sharks are active at night and Their skin pattern provides a unique spawning aggregation, the males
rest on the rocky reef during the day. I had camouflage, which blends with surrounding engage in a fierce mating competition. At
followed this shark into a narrow cavity where rocks and seabed where most of their time is this time they display elaborate colours and
suddenly this spectacular shelter and spent. Wabigang and dhabigang are words patterns and enlarge their bodies to attract
grooming station appeared. from the Dharug and Tharawal Aboriginal a mating partner.
Sydney, New South Wales language groups, meaning “shaggy beard”. Sydney, New South Wales
Sydney, New South Wales
Sony A7 III, Sony FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 Sony A7 III, Sony FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6
OSS, 1/80, f/3.5, ISO 800, handheld while Sony A7 III, Sony FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 OSS, 1/80, f/3.5, ISO 100, handheld while
freediving, Seafrogs underwater housing with OSS, 1/160, f/3.5, ISO 800, handheld while freediving, Seafrogs underwater housing with
6" dome port freediving, Seafrogs underwater housing with 6" dome port
6" dome port
Threatened
Species
Threatened Species Category is presented
in memory of Katerina Gebrtova.
Threatened Species Winner
Ocean Giant
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus)
Status: Endangered
Jake Wilton, New South Wales
A whale shark engulfs a bait ball of

fish on Ningaloo Reef. Little is known
about this behaviour, as it is so rare
only a handful of records exist. The
sharks are too slow, so must rely on the
efforts of other predators such as tuna
to catch them.
Coral Bay, Western Australia
Nikon D810, Sigma 15mm fisheye, 1/400,

f/9, ISO 400, freediving at 10m depth,
single breath
Judges’ comments
This photograph skilfully documents the
dynamic between the bait ball and the whale
shark, capturing this natural feeding behaviour
with amazing light on the bait ball.
Threatened Species Runner-up
Head On
Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
Status: Vulnerable
Matty Smith, New South Wales
To make this charismatic great white shot I

needed a shark that showed non-aggressive
behaviour, to avoid risk to us both. I had initially
used a fine mix of tuna oil and flake to lay a
scent trail to attract the shark (licensed) but the
shark was never actually fed.
Neptune Islands, South Australia
Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor 14–24mm f/2.8 S series,

1/1000, f/8, ISO 2800, Aquatica AD6/7
housing, Matty Smith 12” dome port, Matty
Smith remote pole
Botanical
Botanical Winner
A Pink Tomb
James Dorey, South Australia
Darkness rolls over Lake Crosby, adding an

eerie element to the smooth pink salt. All that
falls on the lake is slowly preserved as the
wind-driven tide ebbs and flows, leaving a little
more salt every time. Objects mar the lake’s
alien texture and the lake mars them in return.
Lake Crosbie, Victoria
Canon EOS 5D Mk IV, EF 16–35mm f/2.8L III

USM, 30, f/11.0, ISO 100, remote LED light,
tripod, manual mode
Judges’ comments:
The photographer has cleverly elevated the seem-
ing insignificance of a fallen branch to a revered
botanical subject in this ethereal image. The
mysterious scene has been enhanced by the salt’s
pink hue being captured in such delicate light.
Botanical Runner-up
Gnarled Mossy Cloud Forest
Justin Gilligan, New South Wales
The plateau of Mt Gower (875m) is home to

a critically endangered ecological community
known as the gnarled mossy cloud forest. This
stunted forest is home to many endemic and
endangered plants found nowhere else, bound
by dramatic slopes that descend through the
clouds into the sea below.
Lord Howe Island, New South Wales
DJI Phantom 4 Pro, 24mm, 1/240, f/4.5, ISO 100
Landscape
Landscape Winner
Breaking Dawn
Yan Zhang, New South Wales
The eastern horizon has already started to

glow, but the reflections of stars linger on the
snow of the Tasman Glacier, still visible thanks
to the lingering moonlight. This image was
a product of my four-day expedition to the
Tasman Glacier, where I climbed to the top of
Hochstetter Dome (2834m).
Tasman Glacier, New Zealand
Nikon D810, 14–24mm f/2.8, 10, f/5.6, ISO

1600, Berno C2980 tripod
Judges’ comments:
There is a magical sparkle in this technically
Landscape Runner-up
excellent image. The bright stars are echoed in
the glittering snow, and the landscape offers a
natural arabesque that walks our eye through Forces of Nature
the valley. Ellie Morris, Western Australia were created ahead of the rain and hail
that followed.
A stormy afternoon at the start of autumn Perenjori, Western Australia
in WA’s wheatbelt watching dark clouds
moving across the land, dropping rain as they Canon EOS 5D Mk IV, Canon EF 24–70mm
went. As the wind picked up, clouds of dust f/2.8L II USM, 1/125, f/5, ISO 400, tripod
Junior Monochrome
Junior Winner Junior Runner-up Monochrome Winner Monochrome Runner-up
Impermanence Abstraction of an Icon Fish Rock Cave Crackle and Pop

Cian O’Hagan, Forester kangaroo (Macropus Grey nurse shark Jarrod Koh, South Australia
New South Wales, 16 years old giganteus tasmaniensis) (Carcharias taurus)
Cian O’Hagan, New South Matt Krumins, Victoria A storm passed in front of our
My image “Impermanence” was Wales, 16 years old house. I have never been so
captured at my local beach after A school of critically endan- close to lightning strikes. The
harsh winds had uncovered My image “Abstraction of an gered grey nurse sharks hovers
numerous objects beneath the thunder rolled like undulating
Icon” is an expressive depiction almost motionless in front of galvanised steel sheets. This
surface. It depicts a decaying of a kangaroo spotted while the 24m-deep entrance to Fish
seabird stretched out among is a single frame capturing the
climbing along the rocks at Rock Cave. It’s such a privilege ferocity of the downpour and
the sand and is indicative of Friendly Beaches, Tasmania. to see this number of sharks in
the dangerous and unstable the energy released from the
I used a slow shutter speed to one place, and while ominous
nature of life among the lightning strikes.
obscure the form and to capture in appearance, these incredible
coastal elements. the power, grace and speed of animals are generally considered Middleton, South Australia
Dudley Beach, New South Wales this national symbol. harmless unless provoked.
Friendly Beaches, Tasmania Fish Rock Cave, South West Nikon D810A, Sigma Art
Nikon D3500, AF-P Rocks, New South Wales 50mm f/1.4, 30 seconds, f/8,
18–55mm VR, 1/160, f/4.0, Fujifilm XT3, XF 18–55mm, 1/8, ISO 200, tripod
ISO 800, handheld f/7.1, ISO 160, tripod Nikon D850, 16–35mm f/4,
1/200, f/8, ISO 320, 2 x Sea&Sea
Judges’ comments: YS-D1 flash, handheld, Nauticam
This simple photograph is contemporary in its underwater housing
execution. The photographer’s hand is strong
– stark lighting and a severe palette reflect the Judges’ comments:
sometimes harsh reality of nature. Clever compositional layering draws the viewer into the depths of
this graceful image. The seeming chaos of this aggregation intensi-
fies as the eye lingers and even more sharks become apparent. It is
captivating and holds the eye.
Astrophotography
Astrophotography Winner
The Outlier
Jason Perry, Victoria
A beautiful dead tree stands above the rest

as the fog lingers over Lake Toolondo and
the Milky Way lines up horizontally across the
night sky. When I saw this scene that night,
it was as if the tree and the Milky Way were
somehow connected despite the distance.
Toolondo Reservoir, Toolondo, Victoria
Nikon D850, Nikkor 14–24mm, 20mm, 20,

f/2.8, ISO 8000, tripod, 15 images stacked for
noise reduction
Judges’ comments:
This is a beautifully layered image with a gentle
tonal palette. The trees provide drama Astrophotography Runner-up
without detracting from the night sky. There
is a moody depth to the image, the Milky Way Flinders Rise twilight, and finished on the foreground just
silhouetting the trees while also appearing to William Godward, South Australia before blue hour.
illuminate the foreground. Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges,
One of the most amazing things to see in the South Australia
Australian outback is the colours across the
landscape at sunset and sunrise. I love how Sony A7 III, Sony 24mm 1.8GM, 30–60,
the Milky Way is perfectly positioned here f/2.0–f/2.8, ISO 6400, tripod, 25 x image
with the silhouette of the ridge line. I started horizontal panorama, tracked using a
shooting the image just before astronomical Skywatcher Star Adventurer
Urban Animals
Urban Animals Winner
The Tunnel of Eerie Blue Light

Australian glow-worm
(Arachnocampa richardsae)
Zichen Wang, New South Wales
The abandoned tunnel is illuminated by

thousands of glow-worms (Arachnocampa
richardsae). Glow-worms typically live in damp
sandstone crevices, but this tunnel is home to a
particularly large population. The site is closed
to the public, so I took this photo through an
iron gate, standing in a puddle of mud.
Helensburgh Glow Worm Tunnel,
Helensburgh, New South Wales
Sony Į7R II, Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art,

12 mins, f/1.4, ISO 800, Sirui W-2204
waterproof tripod, image processed using three
shots at four minutes/shot to capture shadow
detail and one shot at one minute to recover
Urban Animals Runner-up
highlight detail, noise reduction applied using that the insects attracted to the light above may
Topaz Denoise AI and Adobe Photoshop
Sleeping Dragon
Long-nosed dragon (Gowidon longirostris) be an easy meal at sunrise the next day.
Judges’ comments Gary Meredith, Western Australia Telfer, Western Australia
Eye-catching and mysterious, the viewer is
drawn to the wildlife inhabiting the tunnel. A long-nosed dragon sleeps on wire mesh Nikon D850, Nikkor 16–35mm f/4, 1/60, f/4,
The photographer has documented animals outside a building at a remote goldmining ISO 1250, Nikon SB-700 with soft box, Godox
that might not immediately be considered as operation in the Great Sandy Desert. This remote flash trigger, handheld
wildlife or easily seen with the naked eye. lizard may have positioned itself in such a way
Our Impact
Our Impact Winner
Snagged
Alan Kwok, New South Wales
While trying to jump fences, kangaroos some-

times get their feet snagged on the wire. Their
upper body flips towards the ground, tangling
their legs in the wires. Known as “fence hang-
ing”, the individual has no way of getting up or
freeing itself and usually dies, unless a human
can free it.
Darlington Point, New South Wales
Canon 1DX, Canon 100–400mm f/4–5.6L

Mk II, 1/200, f/14, IS0 2500
Judges’ comments
A brutal photograph, cleverly captured with
shallow depth of field and framing to tell an
important story about animal welfare. Using
a soft light and colours, the photographer has
crafted an image that is captivating enough
to stop us turning away from the horrible
event that is shown.
Our Impact Runner-up
Landing on Mars
Jiayuan Liang, South Australia
This photo of Broken Hill Mine was

taken during my journey to document
Australia’s historical mines. The Miners
Memorial building on the top of the
mine looks like a spaceship landing
on Mars. It shows how landscape was
changed by mining activities.
Broken Hill Mine, Broken Hill,
New South Wales
Sony ILCE-7RM4, Sony FE 16–35mm

f/2.8, 13, f/4, ISO 1600, tripod
Exhibition and book news

The Australian Geographic Nature Photogra- The exhibition at the Australian Museum,
pher of the Year exhibition opens at the South 1 William Street, Sydney, opens on
Australian Museum on North Terrace in Adelaide Saturday 17 September and runs until
on Saturday 27 August 2022 and will run until Sunday 11 December 2022.
Nature Photographer Sunday 30 October 2022. Get your copy of the Australian Geographic
of the Year The museum opens between 10am and 5pm Nature Photographer of the Year catalogue book
The year’s best wildlife and landscape photos
daily including weekends. from the museums’ gift shops, QBD Bookshops,
Entry from $8, with under-12s free. all good bookstores, or our online store.
Afternoon storm clouds roll in across a
lonely stretch of the old Hume between
Breadalbane and Gunning, in NSW.
The road
less travelled
STORY BY TIM THE YOWIE MAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS WIELECKI
Scattered along the old Hume Highway

are relics of bygone eras, from retro petrol
stations to bushranger haunts.
Some stretches of the old Hume are still in good
condition, but others, such as this one near Marulan,
are in the process of returning to nature.
Original mile markers can be found at various Christopher Dalton peers out from the stone
locations along the old Hume, including several near stables at the former Black Horse Inn, near Sutton
Camden. One of the most accessible is the one in the main Forest. The inn is now his home, which he shares with
street of Gunning, located between Goulburn and Yass. the ghosts of pioneers past.
B
ITING DOWN ON A flickering torch, with a dust-encrusted clay
tobacco pipe in one hand and his camera in the other, Thomas Wielecki
hauls himself up through a trapdoor at the historic Berrima Vault House.
“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when you told me we were going to drive
the old Hume from Sydney to Melbourne,” the photographer
says, as he plucks cobwebs from his hair.
After leaving Sydney this morning, the first couple of hours

of our road trip unfolded like clockwork. We stopped to admire
the exquisite workmanship of the heritage-listed Lansdowne
Bridge near Fairfield, in south-western Sydney. Opened in 1836,
the bridge features a sandstone arch with the largest span of any
surviving masonry bridge in Australia. We then checked out
the white concrete mileposts in the main street of Camden –
relics from the time when the Hume Highway ran through the
centre of town – and successfully negotiated the tortuous climb
over the Razorback Range, near Picton.
But after arriving in the historic hamlet of Berrima, we This clay pipe was discovered
discover that when travelling the old Hume you need to ex- at the bottom of the ‘Tunnel’
pect the unexpected. Unlike the monotonous drive along the beneath the Berrima Vault
modern Hume Highway – which, since 2013, incorporates House, previously a pub in the
the Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, and bypasses ev- historic Georgian-era village
of Berrima.
ery town between Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Victoria. Indeed, it was only in 1928
Melbourne – exploring the old Hume is like launching into a that both state governments agreed
choose-your-own-adventure story, especially if you’re willing to rename the entire inland route between Sydney and
to scratch the surface. Melbourne the Hume Highway after NSW-born ex-
That’s exactly what we do at the Berrima Vault House. plorer Hamilton Hume. In 1824 Hume and William
Built in 1844 as the Taylor’s Crown Inn, the landmark was Hovell, an Englishman, were the fi rst Europeans to
recently transformed into an elegantly appointed country club. travel the route. It wasn’t fully sealed until 1940. Later,
It’s open to the public from Thursday to Sunday, and event in 1954, the road was signed National Route 31.
manager Gabby Hopping gives us a tour. Sections that meander through now-bypassed towns
The underground spirit bar, cosy den and series of dining such as Berrima are signposted and well maintained.
rooms – one of which is home to one of the biggest open But for the curious motorist who wants to follow as
fireplaces in the country – are all impressive. But it’s a small much of the original route as possible, finding it is often
door enticingly labelled “Tunnel” that catches our attention. a case of hit or miss. Heading south, we soon discover
“Dating back to the mid-1800s, there are stories of con- stretches of the historic route that disappear without
traband being trafficked through a tunnel across to the jail warning into paddocks or end abruptly at fences, grids
on the other side of the road,” Gabby says. “During recent or piles of blue metal, some with and others without
excavation works we discovered what might be its entrance “Road Closed” signs.
– hardly anyone has been down there yet.” At one of these dead ends is Black Horse Farm. Despite
That’s all the encouragement Thomas needs. He lowers the fact that the farm stands only 15m from today’s Hume
himself into the tunnel entrance. “In the direction of the Highway, not many modern-day travellers know about
jail, it’s closed off with stone that looks like it’s been there a this former pub. Even fewer have visited. But it hasn’t
long time,” he says, showing us the photos he’s just captured. always been like that.
Thomas’s chance discovery of a partially buried 19th-cen- Strategically built in 1835 at the junction of several
tury clay tobacco pipe adds to our intrigue about what this roads, the famed watering hole – originally called the
space would have been used for, and who might have left the Black Horse Inn – was heavily frequented by passers-by,
pipe here. There’s so much to discover along the old Hume. including many who harboured nefarious motives.
In fact, the Black Horse Inn was robbed so many
T
HE OLD HUME HIGHWAY has had several monikers over times during the mid-1800s by bushrangers, including
the years. It was once known as the Great South Road the notorious Ben Hall Gang, that police would hide
in parts of New South Wales, and Sydney Road in in the bushes nearby waiting for the next robbery.
Almost three decades
after being bypassed, roadside
advertisements such as
this one still attempt to entice visitors
into Gunning.
Our digs are everything the old Les Davies and Julie Chalmers at
the entrance to their home, a former
Shell service station in Breadalbane.
Hume is – a delightfully dated
reminder of a bygone era.
These days it’s a private home, where Christopher

Dalton lives with a menagerie of horses and peacocks.
“They arrested the bushranger Jackey Jackey [William
J UST SOUTH OF Black Horse Farm is Hanging Rock Road,
a rare stretch of very old Hume, where between 1864 and
1874 travellers paid a fee towards road maintainance at a
Westwood] after a fight here in 1841,” Christopher toll bar. Bushrangers regularly fleeced the toll collector of his
says, leading us inside to where 19th-century travellers daily takings. Today, on the upgraded Hume Highway near
quenched their thirst. “His great-grandson even made a here, there is a service centre.
pilgrimage here recently to see where he was captured.” Such modern mega service centres and their adjoining fast-
Despite living here for much of his life, Christopher food outlets have sucked the life out of many small towns,
knows the building still holds secrets he has yet to including Marulan, with a population of about 1200, just south
uncover. Apparently, a cellar lies somewhere beneath of here. Its main street contains almost as many boarded-up
the creaking floorboards. “But I’ve never found the shops as those with their doors open.
entrance,” he says. Even some of the bigger towns have fallen victim. Although
However, it’s another original building – carefully many locals in Goulburn, which is one of the largest inland
crafted stone stables – behind the house that is the real population centres in NSW, celebrated the opening of the
treasure. Now overgrown by Boston ivy, the stables bypass in 1992, the owners of the town’s Big Merino tourist
feature open slit windows that were designed to be attraction were less than impressed.
used to defend attacks by marauding bushrangers and After missing out on the potential business of at least
other thieving criminals. 40 busloads of tourists a day for 12 years, the iconic 15.2m-high,
Christopher shows us around the stable buildings, 97-tonne concrete ram was moved about 800m down the road
which have fresh straw on the floor and feature rustic in 2007 to the service centre on the town’s bypass.
timber beams. “If only the walls could talk. Think of Between Goulburn and Yass, we climb up the Cullarin
all the animals – and probably some people – who’ve Range, a notorious stretch of highway where, in the 18 months
sheltered here over the years,” Christopher says, shout- before it was bypassed in 1993, 29 people lost their lives in road
ing over the constant whir of traffic zooming along the accidents. Even today, old truckies talk of this horror stretch of
Hume Highway. the old Hume in hushed tones. Continued page 98
Captain William Hovell.
Hamilton Hume.
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: OSWALD H. ALLEN/STATE LIBRARY OF NSW; COURTESTY STATE LIBRARY OF NSW;
THE QUARRELLING
EXPLORERS
I T’S NO SECRET THAT Australian-born

Hamilton Hume and Captain William Hovell,
a former British sea captain, weren’t the best
of mates. They saw themselves as rivals and
quarrelled for much of their 1824 journey from
Hamilton Hume’s final resting
place is in Yass. He died in 1873,
penning his own epitaph. His widow,
Elizabeth, joined him 13 years later.
Appin to Port Phillip Bay (now Port Phillip).
At the Goodradigbee River near the Snowy
Mountains, Hume and Hovell temporarily split
up their party after arguing about their route. credit for discovering the over-
They divided all their provisions. Robert Mack- land route to Melbourne. In
lin writes in his 2017 book, Hamilton Hume: Our fact, during a trip to Geelong
Greatest Explorer, that, “as both lay claim to the in 1853, Hovell was lauded as
single tent, they were on the point of cutting it “the man who discovered” Anglican Section of the Yass Cemetery, but
in half when Hume realised the futility of the that route. Hume responded angrily by in the last months of his life he also penned his
act and let Hovell have it”. Apparently, the publishing his Brief Statement of Facts, which own epitaph.
H. HANSFORD/STATE LIBRARY OF NSW
pair even fought over the frying pan, which Macklin describes as “a broad-brush account His main concerns were the preservation
broke apart in their hands. Hovell, realising his of the expedition” that “detailed Hovell’s re- of his family’s name and the regard in which
navigation error, eventually rejoined Hume for calcitrance and backed it with damning detail history would hold him. He wrote: “For the sake
the journey south. from other members of the [expedition] party”. of those who bear my name, I should wish it to
In the years after the expedition, their spat The two continued to trade barbs publicly be held in remembrance as that of one who,
became public. Hume was especially miffed that until Hume’s death in 1873. Not only did with small opportunities but limited resources,
Hovell would jump at opportunities to take sole Hume design his own tombstone in the did what he could for his native land.”
THE HUME HIGHWAY
Sydney to Gundagai
Perfect pit stops
T he old Hume is dotted with They still brew great coffee and
country cafes and historic
pubs that offer a range of
options from quick snacks
to hearty feeds, often
milkshakes still come in anodised
aluminium containers. They also
The Surveyor
serve arguably the best
mixed grill on the
washed down with a General Inn. old Hume.
generous serve of
nostalgia. Here are
four of the best. 3 The Old Hume
Cafe, Gunning:
In winter, curl up in
1 Surveyor General
Inn, Berrima: Built
by convict labour in
front of the roaring
fire or, if the sun is
shining, dine alfresco
1834 and licensed as an inn on the town’s historic main
the following year, this sandstone street. You’ll have no trouble
and sandstock brick landmark getting a parking spot here. Don’t
claims to be the longest continu- miss the famous lamb burger.
ously licensed hotel in
Australia. The original
tap room is still in
the main bar. Just
The Old Hume Cafe. 4 Long Track
Pantry, Jugiong:
The town of Jugiong
remember to duck struggled to find
when you enter due its feet after being
to the low lintels. bypassed in 1995.
But its renais-
2 Paragon Cafe,
Goulburn: When
it opened in the 1940s, this
sance began when
Huw and Juliet Robb
opened this produce store
landmark cafe with its booths and and cafe in the restored Jugiong
mirrors was one of the few places General Store in 2006. It’s a
you could get a decent espresso traditional country cafe dishing up
outside of Sydney or Melbourne. gourmet seasonal tucker.
Hume Highway construction

in Bankstown, 1938.
Goulburn.
PHOTO CREDITS, HISTORIC PHOTO: COURTESY NEW SOUTH WALES STATE ARCHIVES
Gunning.
Jugiong.
The powder magazine
is one of several relics Hidden treasure
of the convict road gang
who were based here at
the Towrang Stockade in
the 1830s and ’40s.
J ust south of Berrima is the Mackey VC Rest
Area. At first glance it looks like any other
roadside stop along the Hume Highway, with
a toilet best avoided unless absolutely necessary
and the ground strewn with fast-food wrappers.
However, if you walk behind the parking area,
there is a section of the paved old Hume that
runs back towards Sydney. About 200m along
and traversing a modest-sized rocky gorge is
one of the highway’s oldest – and arguably most
impressive – bridges.
Designed by master stonemason David
Lennox, the bridge was first built in 1836 as a
timber beam structure supported by sandstone
abutments. It was replaced in 1860 and then
again in 1896 by a concrete arch, supported
by the original sandstone abutments and
The Towrang Stockade retaining walls that have well and truly stood
the test of time.
B ehind the Derrick VC Rest Area,

between Marulan and Goulburn,
is an 1839 convict-built sand-
stone bridge, one of the most impressive
remnants of the Great South Road, the
If you look closely, you can even see a flight
of hand-carved steps that lead down to a
waterhole on Black Bobs Creek. In the 1800s
this would have been a reliable water source for
thirsty horses and later for overheating car en-
forerunner to the Hume Highway. It’s best gines. Today, it’s a tranquil spot to sit and reflect
accessed via a two-minute walk from the on all those who’ve made the journey down the
signboard at the rest area. Like many old Hume in different modes of transport across
bridges in this era, it’s thought to have many generations. Do take care though; the
been designed by master stonemason stairs can be slippery and the parapets are in
David Lennox. urgent need of repair.
However, the Towrang Stockade just one blanket each. Some desperate
across the road is the real treasure here. souls attempted to kill their fellow convicts
From 1833 to 1843, the stockade was in the hope they’d be sent back to jail in Although not signposted, this
home to chain gangs of convicts who built Sydney, where the food was purportedly historic stone bridge spanning Black Bobs
the sandstone bridge by hand as well as much better, and the nights not as cold. Creek, near Sutton Forest, is one of the
many kilometres of the original road both This heritage-listed site is recognised hidden engineering treasures to be found
north and south of it. as one of the best remaining relics of travelling the old Hume.
Life on the chain gang at the Towrang penal road gangs in Australia. Visitors are
Stockade was tough. Convicts were welcome to visit several historic locations
subjected to rigid daily routines and harsh here, including:
punishments. They earned up to 100 lash-
es for absconding and between 25 and 30 THE POWDER MAGAZINE Built into
lashes for trivial offences such as talking to the banks of the Wollondilly River, the
passing travellers. blasting powder used for road cuttings and
Convicts wore leg irons, were chained splitting building stone was stored here.
together at night and forced to sleep in
cramped transportable convict boxes with GRAVESITE Although the graves
of convicts who were killed
in accidents during road
construction or died of natural
causes are unmarked, there
are three headstones at this
roadside cemetery, including
one of a trooper and another
of a trooper’s four-year-old
daughter.
TROOPERS’ QUARTERS
A fenced-off area marks the
original site of the wood-
en and rubble quarters of
A self-guided walk leads the troopers, who guarded
to a number of sites at the 100–250 convicts.
Towrang Stockade.
Smaller towns along the old
Hume have struggled to find their
feet since being bypassed.
restaurant. “We came out here [from Sydney] to escape the

rat race,” Les says. “The fact we found an old servo was just
a bonus. We love it here; it’s so quiet.”
F
ROM BREADALBANE, THERE are two possible
This is the last in a long
routes into Gunning: the sealed old Hume,
line of signs marking the
entrance to the Collingwood
which was the main highway here between
property, near Gunning. 1940 and 1993, and its predecessor, the old old
Several previous versions Hume, or unsealed Sydney Road. At times they
were pilfered by fans of the run parallel to each other, only metres apart, and
AFL team of the same name. at other points on the long climb up the range they
Breadalbane (population about 100) is criss-cross over the tracks of the Main Southern
the first town on the range. Opposite the Railway. We choose the bitumen.
pub, the only business in town, we notice a highway It’s the right choice. This is the old Hume I’d dreamt about:
shield for Route 66 nailed to the brick wall of what a narrow sliver of silver snaking through paddocks dotted with
appears to be a long-abandoned Shell service station. bleating sheep, overgrown verges, moody skies, and no other
The 66 has been painted over with a 31. cars within cooee.
“Sorry, there hasn’t been any fuel sold here for over Thomas opens the sunroof and puts his foot down, but not
40 years,” Les Davies says as he emerges from the old for long. Here, the bridges aren’t named after dignitaries but
workshop, now his storage shed. He points to the “NO rather after the loads lost by trucks that toppled over on the
PETROL IN TOWN” sign flapping in the wind on the road’s very tight corners. First, there’s Biscuit Bridge. Next is
padlocked gate. Champagne Corner.
We’re driving an electric vehicle (EV), so aren’t in It’s a bit further along the windswept plateau at the top of
need of fuel, but we tell Les we’re following the old the Cullarin Range that, on 17 October 1824, Hume and
Hume and would love to take a photo of his Route 31 Hovell set out from Wooloowandella, a property Hume had
shield. “I love the old Hume; I can’t get enough of it,” he bought several years earlier. Their journey to Melbourne had
says, his frown transforming into a smile. He promptly begun on 3 October 1824, when the men left Hume’s farm
unlocks the gate and invites us in for a tour of the former at Appin, on the outskirts of Sydney. There’s also a com-
servo, which he and his partner Julie Chalmers have memorative cairn at Appin, but it wasn’t until the explorers
called home for 18 years. left this very spot at the top of the Cullarin Range that their
“Although I’ve never been to the USA, it’s a shame adventure truly began. From here, they headed into country
our Route 31 isn’t promoted in the same way as their that for European settlers was regarded as “beyond the limits
Route 66,” Les says. “I’ve ridden my Yami XT 600 along of civilisation”.
many stretches of the old Hume and often think how Part of Hume’s far-flung outpost was later purchased by
tough it must have been for Hume and Hovell when his brother John Kennedy Hume, who changed its name
they came through in 1824.” to Collingwood, apparently because of his admiration for
The old restaurant is now the couple’s lounge room Admiral Collingwood of the Royal Navy. During the 20th
where instead of dining booths there is a cinema-sized century, the sign at the property’s entrance was often pilfered
TV, wrap-around lounge, and floor-to-ceiling shelves by supporters of the Collingwood AFL team. Replacements
crammed with thousands of DVDs, including more than were subsequently made smaller and smaller and today the
a few about the legendary Route 66. lettering on the sign is so faint you almost need a magnifying
In their bedroom, taking pride of place on the wall, glass to read it.
is the old fuse box that once controlled the bowsers and After a long day behind the wheel, we arrive in Gunning
lighting on the forecourt. In another room, squirrelled and are tempted to bunk down in the renovated London
away among even more Route 66 memorabilia, is a House, built c.1881. It’s an elegant brick building with an
rare Spider beach buggy that Les has converted into arched coach entrance dating back to the days of Cobb & Co.
a gaming console. Out the back, you can still see the However, enticed by a sign boasting push button telephones,
big pit where they grew vegies for the former servo’s a TV and a pool, we check in to Motel Gunning instead.
This cairn marks the very spot from which
explorers Hume and Hovell set out on 17 October 1824
to find an overland route to what was then known as
Port Phillip Bay.
Not much has changed at Motel Gunning since the Some sections of the old Hume are easier to find
town was bypassed almost 30 years ago. than others, such as this stretch that runs parallel to
the new highway between Bookham and Jugiong.
Chris Broers volunteers as the farm and
buildings manager at Cooma Cottage, the former Yass
home of Hamilton Hume. He’s pictured here with
Nugget, one of the property’s Clydesdales.
Mechanic Craig Southwell takes a break from a Bailey’s Garage in Gunning has been a popular
busy day in his workshop in Gunning. stop-off on the Sydney–Melbourne route for more
than a century. Now it even has an EV charger.

“To think horse and carts used to
pull up here,” Craig says, looking
at our electric vehicle.
What a masterstroke. This place is retro without trying to

be. The clock radios look as though they were plucked straight
from a 1978 Tandy Electronics catalogue, and the
air conditioner thumps and whirrs all night like a You can still take a peek
worn wheel bearing on a B-double. No chance of into the stables at Cooma
hearing any road traffic over that. As for the phone Cottage, which were built
and pool, both are long gone. The latter is now for Hamilton Hume when he adding a classical Greek-revival portico
just a partially filled depression in the ground. But lived at the Yass farm for the facing the passing traffic. Today, Cooma
last 33 years of his life.
we wouldn’t have it any other way. Our digs are Cottage is a museum managed by the
everything the old Hume is – a delightfully dated National Trust.
reminder of a bygone era. South of Yass is Bookham, which, in 1839, poet
The next morning, not far along the main street of Gunning, we Banjo Paterson mentioned in his memoir in The Sydney
unexpectedly find an EV charging point outside Bailey’s Garage, Morning Herald. He described it as a town with a pub at
an old-school service station complete with a wonderfully clut- each end and not much in between. Paterson’s statement
tered workshop. Owner and mechanic Craig Southwell spots us remains accurate, except that both pubs are now long
admiring the historic facade. “We get lots of people stopping here closed. The town was bypassed in 1998.
for photos,” he says, pointing to a mural featuring old Holden cars The upgraded Hume Highway split what was left of
that extends along the entire length of the building. “To think the town in two, and today locals have to brave a walk
horse and carts used to pull up here,” Craig says, looking at our EV. through a tunnel under the busy freeway to access the
Craig is softly spoken, articulate and on the weekends recreation ground. Unlike in Berrima, you won’t find
doubles as the town’s lay preacher. Although his family any antique pipes on the ground here – just cigarette
bought the garage during the 1940s, they decided to keep the butts and more of those omnipresent fast-food wrappers.
Bailey’s name as a nod to the first owner. “Back in the 1970s, I Although some smaller towns along the old Hume have
repainted the name of the garage in an old-style font,” he says. struggled to find their feet since being bypassed, one place
“It just felt right.” that is booming is Jugiong. But it wasn’t always that way.
Born and bred in Gunning, Craig clearly remembers the first After it was bypassed in 1995, the town suffered. How-
night the town was bypassed in 1993. “I heard a train come ever, in 2016, mother–daughter duo Liz Prater and Kate
through and it completely freaked me out. I’d never heard a train Hufton purchased the Sir George, a dilapidated country
before because the trucks grumbling through town 24/7 were pub, and breathed life back into Jugiong. In just five years,
so noisy,” he says. the pair transformed the pub, which was originally built
in 1852, into something you’d expect to see in Sydney’s
A
BOUT HALFWAY TO Yass the road passes over Hovells Double Bay or Melbourne’s Toorak. It now features an
Creek Bridge, one of few places along the entire route upmarket restaurant, artisan bakery and chic heritage
named after William Hovell. Most are named after overnight accommodation in the restored original stables.
Hume. In fact, about 30km down the road, in Yass, almost every- Across from the Sir George is a lonely statue of Sergeant
thing has Hume in its name, from the drycleaner to the tennis Edmund Parry, who was killed near here by bushranger
courts. Ironically, one of the few places in Yass not carrying Johnny Gilbert in 1864. A shiny new interpretive sign
Hume’s name is Cooma Cottage, where he moved with his wife, details the mid-1800s tussle, describing it as “The Battle
Elizabeth, in 1840, having apparently camped there with Hovell for the Roads”. Today, the only battle here is a nightly
on 18 October 1824, the day after they left Wooloowandella. one, fought among grey nomads who flock to the adjoin-
Not only did Hume live out his final days on this riverside ing showground to score a spot at the free camping
property, but the very highway later named after him ran by his ground, the perfect place to recuperate before heading
front door…and later, by his back door. When the cottage was further south, along the road to Gundagai.
first built in 1835, the main track south traversed the paddock
fronting the Yass River, so the dwelling was designed with its JOIN US IN A FUTURE ISSUE for Part Two of our journey along
front door facing the road. However, soon after Hume moved the old Hume Highway from Gundagai to Melbourne.
in, the road was re-routed to the other side of the property,
prompting him to engage in extensive renovations, including WE THANK Hyundai for providing an Ioniq 5 EV for this story.

Where the
rainforest glows
STORY BY JENNIFER JOHNSTON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISAAC WISHART
Come on a rare and privileged

foray into the enchanting
world of Lamington National
Park by night.
The southern leaf-tailed gecko’s scientific name,

Saltuarius swaini, translates to “keeper of the
forest”. Here one waits patiently surrounded by
glowing green clusters of the bioluminescent
fungus Mycena chlorophos.

Are you
brave QLD
enough to
BRISBANE
explore a Lamington NP
rainforest at
night? I’m not talking any
old rainforest, but the
ancient one surviving in Queensland’s Lamington
National Park. As one of the last few remaining extensive
areas of subtropical Gondwanan rainforest anywhere in
the world, Lamington is revered for its rainforest bush-
walking experiences. I’ve hiked many trails inside this
21,176ha World Heritage wilderness, but never at night.
But on this chilly Sunday evening in late May I’m
waiting at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat –
a family-owned ecotourism operation on
the western side of Lamington Plateau, in Nature photographer
Isaac Wishart is regularly
the Green Mountains section of the park.
shortlisted in the AG
The temperature is hovering around 7°C Nature Photographer of the
and the crisp air feels even fresher as the last Year competition.
of the sun’s warmth retreats and night falls. After high school, Isaac volunteered
I’m about to take my first nocturnal tour at the Gold Coast hinterland’s Gecko
of this place that I know so well by daylight. My guide Environment Council, attracted by their ethos of pro-
is wildlife photographer Isaac Wishart, who’s about to tecting the natural world. “I’d visit state forests and
lead me into the Wishing Tree Track, one of 16 listed national parks taking photos of wildlife on a Canon 1000
nature trails leaving from O’Reilly’s. camera Mum gave me,” he says. From that voluntary role
I discovered Isaac’s captivating images on Instagram Isaac accepted a paid position as a bush regenerator. For
and was drawn to his photos of a glowing, vibrant emer- the past eight years, Isaac has assisted during the week
ald fungus with the scientific name of Mycena chlorophos with the recovery of Gold Coast hinterland ecosystems
growing on the rainforest floor, the bulbous eyeball of a that have been degraded, damaged or destroyed. But
white-lipped tree frog and dripping luminescent trails of on nights and most weekends he’s outside exploring
glow-worms. I reached out to Isaac, curious about how barefoot and taking photos.
he goes about capturing Lamington NP’s extraordinary “I love visiting Lamington because of the diversity
nocturnal biodiversity. So on this nippy evening I’m of the ecosystems, and the array of animals and plants
accompanying him on one of his night-time expeditions living in them,” he says. “In the protected rainforests of
to discover a side of Lamington most people never see. Binna Burra and O’Reilly’s you’ll find species in high
Oh, and did I mention Isaac goes barefoot? abundance you won’t find anywhere else in Australia.”
Lamington’s intactness makes it relatively easy for Isaac
I
SAAC GREW UP on the Gold Coast in Mudgeeraba, a to capture subjects such as bioluminescent fungi or glow-
semi-rural neighbourhood surrounded by bush, where worms without having to go for long hikes. I’m hopeful
Judy Wishart, a single mother, raised him and his three that tonight we’ll see some bioluminescent species.
brothers. “Mum would drop me and a mate into the bush
W
and off we’d go barefoot, hiking, fishing, looking for ITH DAYLIGHT FADING on the Wishing Tree
reptiles for hours,” Isaac recalls. “Then she’d come and Track we turn our torches on. Not being as
pick us up again.” sure-footed as barefooted Isaac, I’m taking
When he was 12, Isaac acquired his first snake, a spot- my time, trying not to trip over. Isaac is actively looking
ted python he named Grub, which lived in a tank in for critters that I’ve got minimal chance of spotting with
his bedroom. During Isaac’s teenage years, four more my untrained eyes.
snakes, one monitor lizard and two turtles joined his He disappears inside a hollowed-out Queensland brush
reptile collection. box tree, the exterior of which is charred black, and he
“While my brothers stayed in their rooms playing soon locates a southern leaf-tailed gecko. Its lichen-like
games, I looked after my pets,” he says. patterns are superb camouflage against the dark bark

This image of a colony of brightly
glowing fruiting ghost fungi
(Omphalotus nidiformis) was
taken with a slow shutter speed
to show the true colour of the
bioluminescence, and backlit with a
torch that highlighted the mist.

How can you be glum when light shines out of
your bum? The beautiful blue-glowing bottoms of
Arachnocampa flava glow-worms attract insect prey,
which are then caught on sticky threads of silk.
of the tree trunk. Isaac spots the motionless gecko by us- for the long exposure to finish. My ears tune in to our
ing his torch to light-reflect its eyeshine. These nocturnal surroundings. Rushing water babbles in the nearby creek.
lizards patiently wait for unsuspecting insects – crickets, A gentle breeze shifts the neighbouring trees’ elongated
cockroaches, moths – or spiders to pass. When they sense limbs. They rub against each other, creaking and moaning
movement, they pounce. like arthritic old men. I look up and a space between the
We veer left and head down a track to Glow Worm treetop canopy reveals a dazzling night sky.
Gully. O’Reilly’s discourages people from using this trail Isaac shows me the image on the camera display
by themselves at night. The retreat instead runs a glow- screen and I’m awestruck by its intimate detail. My
worm tour every night of the year to a safer and more naked eye missed the sticky silk threads the larvae create
accessible area. But this is Isaac’s home territory and he to catch passing invertebrates. But on the screen I see
knows it as well as anyone. We drop our bags and turn jewelled strands covered in sticky droplets dangling on
off our torches to allow our eyes to adjust to the darkness. the surrounding foliage. For about 20 minutes we wait
Flickering tiny specks of glowing blue-green light appear in this quiet haven as Isaac experiments with subjects and
across the embankment, looking like the inhabitants of camera angles. I observe his calm manner and infinite
a small village switching on their lights for the evening. patience with these constantly moving creatures.
Despite the common name, they’re the larvae of a small We search for bioluminescent fungi. They’re not al-
fly known as a fungus gnat. These tiny carnivorous grubs ways easy to find, and despite an enthusiastic effort, our
lure prey close with blue-green light, created by a chemical quest is fruitless. But we have a source of intelligence.
reaction when enzymes and a pigment called Luciferin Isaac contacts Matt Kelly, a guide who’s worked for nine
in their bodies come in contact with oxygen in the air. years at O’Reilly’s. He lives on site, is a rainforest expert
Isaac picks up his Nikon D850 camera and I enquire and provides us with the location of a patch of ghost
about lens choices. He explains they vary between a Laowa fungi that he’d noticed earlier by the roadside near the
100mm for macro subjects, or a Tamron 15–30mm for retreat’s entrance. This common fungus is found up and
wide-angle shots. The settings also vary, but are usually down Australia’s east coast after good rain, and grows
a 30-second shutter speed, f-stop or aperture size of 7.1 on wood, on trees both alive and dead.
and an ISO of 640. Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher is an ecologist with a
Isaac nimbly scrambles onto higher ground and I passion for fungi. Currently based in Victoria, her par-
shine the torch for him to prepare his tripod and camera, ticular interest in subtropical fungi began when she was
careful not to shine light directly on the larvae. An eerie living on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. She joined the
silence hovers in the rainforest while we wait in darkness Queensland Mycological Society and learnt about fungi

“It’s still a mystery as to why the
fungi glows. That’s the delight of
nature that we still don’t know.”
The Mycena chlorophos fungus glows green in
the rainforest understorey. After wet conditions in
Lamington NP, its fruiting bodies are often found
pushing up like this through the leaf litter.
B
found in south-eastern Queensland and northern New ARRY DAVIES HAS a degree in terrestrial ecology,
South Wales. “I’d visit Lamington NP and see the but he’s now nearing 70 and admits that was a very
amazing fungi making the most of the moist rainforest long time ago, so he prefers to be called a naturalist.
conditions to push up their reproductive structures,” Residing in Beechmont, a rural town close to the boundary
she explains. of Lamington NP, he regularly drops in for a visit.
“The mycelium, the body of the fungus, gathers nu- For more than 20 years Barry was a guide at Binna
trients to make baby mushroom shapes; they’re preparing Burra Lodge located inside the park. He now conducts
to reproduce. They wait for rainfall when the reproduc- specialist wildlife tours through his business, Gondwana
tive structures can stretch out like little water balloons. Guides, and has led many night tours through Lamington.
Moisture in the air is usually the trigger for fungi to “I encourage people to stop, stand still, be quiet and
reproduce by sending out their spores. When you listen,” Barry says. “Once they start listening, the rainforest
see fungi that’s magically popped up overnight after becomes a whole different world.”
rainfall, that’s because of all the hard work [that] was Spiders are easy to find because they’re active at night.
done [previously].” “Funnel-web, trapdoor and tube spiders are easily spotted
Sapphire says that where the glow occurs depends on because they are sedentary,” he explains.
both the species and individuals – for some, the mycelium Using a red-light torch, Barry regularly shows his groups
glows, for others, parts of the mushroom glow and in a a particular trapdoor spider with its tunnel entrance open
few the whole mushroom glows, even the spores! and legs sticking out waiting for something to pass. “I get
“It’s quite eerie to see, that very nebulous glow. I love people to look in and they’re blown away by the engineer-
to [explain to] people that the fungi actually glow all day ing and construction skills; that a spider can build a [home]
and all night,” Sapphire says. Unfortunately, there have with a door with a hinge and a bevelled edge that plugs up
been few studies of luminescent mushrooms in Australia. and seals the tunnel is amazing.”
“There’s been a series of good scientific South American Barry also likes the luminescent fungi and only re-
experiments on bioluminescent fungi in Brazilian rainfor- cently – in early June – has seen some examples of ghost
ests,” she says. And so far, the evidence suggests none of fungus. “It’s surprising to see the fungi now because it’s
the pet theories about the luminescence either attracting quite unseasonal,” he observes. “Their season has been
insects or defending itself from insects are well supported. much longer than I ever remember – likely because it’s
“So I think it’s still a mystery as to why the fungi been very wet and mild until recently.”
glows. And I guess that’s the delight of nature that we With the fungi come the snails. “Suddenly there are
still don’t know.” snails everywhere,” Barry says. One snail species that is easy

This image of Mycena chlorophos fungi taken from
below was created using a focus-stacking technique.
This involved taking 50 separate photographs at differing
depths of field that were then stitched together to create
one sharp, clear macro image.
“We probably have fungi that

to see because its shell can be almost as large as a tennis are in trouble too, but we just
ball is the giant panda snail. This rainforest specialist is
attracted to the ghost fungus. don’t have the data to prove it.”
Fungi expert Sapphire explains that the snail’s size
“is because they have such a fabulous damp fungi-
filled spot to live in”. Fungi in rainforests are an im-
B
portant food source for invertebrates such as insects ARRY DAVIES IS FASCINATED by strangler figs.
and snails. “They eat both the mycelia and reproductive On night tours he asks everyone to turn off
parts of the fungi. These invertebrates are then eaten their lights, then he shines a torch inside the
by insect-eating birds and frogs,” Sapphire says. “But hollowed-out section of one specimen, where its host
there’s cause for concern with bird populations crashing tree has died. “Once the host tree has rotted away, there
for decades and then the so-called Insect Armageddon is a lattice work of aerial fig roots that have grown down
[dramatic global decline of insects] five years ago. from the trunk of the fig, which is growing up to the
“With all the invertebrates disappearing, we need to canopy,” he says. “You can see the light shining out
look at the bottom of the food chain, which is the fungi of the lattice all the way up to the start of the trunk.
and bacteria and other microbes that actually feed on Everyone is suitably wowed.”
the microfauna the bigger animals eat.” Sapphire says One story he loves to share is the role a tiny wasp plays
that researchers of birds, frogs and other higher animals in pollinating the strangler figs. When they are ready to
have not looked closely enough at their food sources. be pollinated, the female flowers inside the fruit of the
“And, more importantly, their food’s food!” she fig emit a scent that attracts the winged females of the
adds. “Threatened birds have been singing their hearts fig wasp. They arrive carrying fertilised eggs and burrow
out to warn us that their whole ecosystem is in trouble. into the fig via an opening so small that they lose their
We haven’t learnt enough about the bird’s food chain, wings in the process. These female wasps then wriggle
which is scary. There are also frogs and dead trees we around within the fig, pollinating its flowers and laying
know are in trouble. And we probably have fungi that their eggs within them.
are in trouble too, but we just don’t have the data to Wasp pupae hatch from the eggs and develop into
prove it.” mature wasps entirely within the fruits. The males,

It’s not only the fruiting bodies of
bioluminescent fungi that emit light in
Lamington’s rainforest. The glowing parts of
this leaf are made of fungal threads, known as
mycelium, of the species Mycena chlorophos.
which never develop wings, fertilise the females then

crawl up and bore a hole to the outside of the fig before than going without them on the weekends. “There are
dying – completing their entire life cycle within the fruit many pluses to going barefoot,” he says. “I can find
of the fig. The fertilised females then crawl up through leeches a lot faster than most, and I can feel the snakes
the flowers, picking up pollen on the way. They only under my feet.”
have a few days to fly to find another fig, where they I’m not a snake fan like Isaac. My love affair with
dig a hole, crawl in, lay their eggs and the cycle begins Lamington has been about the rainforest mosaic. You can
all over again. start your journey of discovery in the warmer subtropical
“The little grubs feed, pupate, hatch and the process rainforest around O’Reilly’s with the strangler figs and
continues, never stopping, which means there are always booyong trees, then climb Mt Bithongabel (1195m) into
ripe fig fruits in the forests all year round,” Barry says. the cool temperate rainforest where the coachwoods
This means fruit-eating animals such as bowerbirds, and – my favourite – the Antarctic beech trees reside.
rifle birds, pigeons and flying foxes, which are important These rainforest patriarchs – with their shamrock
dispersers of seeds in the rainforest, can live in the forests green, moss-coated limbs – are estimated to be more
throughout the year. than 2000 years old and are our present-day links with
“Those huge fig trees are critical to the long-term ancient Gondwana. Near Binna Burra, as the elevation
survival of the forest. Therefore, remarkably, the forest’s drops into the warm subtropical rainforests, there are
long-term survival is dependent on a wasp only 2–3mm wet sclerophyll forests with awe-inspiring giant New
long!” Barry says. England ash and tallowwood.
But exploring Lamington NP at night is like stepping
D
ESPITE THE DAMPNESS of the rain-soaked earth into a new world. As the sun disappears, the bush wakes
and the rapidly dropping temperature, Isaac is up species that you don’t see during the day.
at his happiest without shoes. “You can go to the same location on different nights
“Everyone looks at me, wondering who is that bare- and see something new each time, which is a drawcard
foot man picking up rainbow fruits?” he says. “People – and fun,” Isaac explains. “And a lot of the nocturnal
ask if I’m trying to get grounded, or if I have forgotten species are reptiles.”
my shoes. I just like going barefoot. I get plenty of funny I’ve been on bushwalks during the day where trails
looks and a lot of high fives too.” are busy with other bushwalkers. At night you rarely see
His work as a bush regenerator means he must wear another soul. And if you go with someone who knows
work boots during the week, so he loves nothing more where to look, you will see a whole lot more.

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T RAVE L WITH US
Tony Sharley
Tony Sharley is a proud riverlander with a passion for a healthy Murray River.
Tony Sharley is the creator of the award-winning
T
HROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, Tony
Murray River Trails, providing multi-day guided
has worked as a biologist on the tours across SA’s river country.
Molonglo and Thredbo rivers, a
research scientist at Kakadu National
Park, a soil and land use surveyor at Tourism Awards Hall of Fame in the
the Loxton Research Centre, and a Ecotourism category.
riverland and catchment scientist with In 2020 he developed Murray River
the Murray–Darling Basin Authority Safari, a tour focused on observing
in Canberra. wildlife while walking, canoeing, cruis-
In 1999 Tony became the manager ing and driving to outback ephemeral
of Banrock Station Wine and Wetland lakes for birdwatching.
Centre and led the process of restoring In 2021 Murray River Trails won
Banrock Station’s wetlands, success- its fourth consecutive South
fully listing it as a Ramsar Wetlands of Australian Tourism Award in the
International Importance. He initiated Ecotourism category. It went on to
an 8km boardwalk through the wet- win silver at the Australian Tourism
lands that doubled visitor numbers Awards against the best ecotourism
and introduced wine tourists to nature. experiences in each state.
In 10 years he helped Banrock Station of Destination Riverland, working with
wines build an international wine brand a board and local councils to set strate-
with a reputation for environmental gic directions for tourism in the region. See page 119 for details on cruising
leadership, sponsoring more than 100 en- He established the Murray River with Murray River Trails on an
vironmental projects in 14 countries. Walk in 2016 and joined the Great Australian Geographic tour. More
Tony followed his interests into re- Walks of Australia collective. In 2019 information: australiangeographic.
gional tourism as the general manager he entered the South Australian com.au/murray-river

DIsembark onto white sand
Citizen science on beaches, grab a snorkel and

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A hands-on journey of science and conservation on the Great Barrier Reef.

YOU R E X P E R T GUIDE
I
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Encounter kangaroos on
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Across the Great

Australian Bight
Explore Australia’s iconic bight on an epic wildlife adventure at sea.
J OIN US ON an epic crossing of the Great Australian

Bight aboard Coral Geographer, exploring the hard-to-
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YOU R E XP E RT GUIDE
grounds of sea lions among scattered islands and outcrops Micheline-Nicole
as we venture across the Archipelago of the Recherche and
follow Shearwater Bay’s snorkel trail in search of the elusive
Jenner AM
leafy sea dragon. Along the way, your Australian Geographic With a passion for conducting
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scientific and conservation knowledge and passion for whales. regions and for the giant
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13 nights Adelaide to Fremantle contributed to more than
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is an exciting moment is home to a variety of at locations such as Woody learn about its formation over was appointed as a Member
for those who love the seabird including the Island, Cape Le Grand and thousands of years. of the Order of Australia
sea. This iconic marine little penguin. Here we Bremer Bay. Learn intriguing history as (AM) in September 2018.
area includes the enjoy beachcombing Discover the wild islands of we visit Albany, Augusta and Details of her life on the high
Great Australian Bight and a boardwalk to the the Archipelago of the Cape Naturaliste. seas, daring research exploits
Marine Park, which pink Lake Hillier. Recherche and follow the snor- Experience close encoun- and lively family adventures
protects an area of Climb Cape Leeuwin kel trail at Shearwater Bay. ters with wildlife, including feature in documentaries and
global importance for lighthouse then walk Wander the peaceful coastal sunset drinks with the friendly her award-winning book,
endangered southern among the vines and town of Bremer Bay and take a kangaroos of Lucky Bay and The Secret Life of Whales.
right whales. enjoy the wines of stroll along its renowned white swimming with large stingrays
Currently a protected Margaret River. sand beaches. and eagle rays at Hamelin Bay.

Experience the myriad
wonders of Antarctica,
including walking among
penguin colonies, on this
once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Antarctica and
Falklands expedition
Antarctica – go where few have gone before. AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC
SOCIETY EXPEDITION HOST
A
USTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC and Hurtigruten
Expeditions have partnered to offer you this once- David Haslingden
in-a-lifetime experience. Explore Antarctica during David is the chair
its summer, touring icebergs and visiting penguin colonies of the Australian
ashore.You’ll also go to the Falkland Islands, visit its capital, Geographic
Stanley, and see penguins and seals. Society, and
This journey is hosted by David Haslingden, owner of his company
RACAT Group
Australian Geographic and chair of the Australian Geographic owns Australian
Society. Join us and enjoy exclusives only available to Geographic, along with several
Australian Geographic and Hurtigruten Expeditions guests. other media companies.
He was raised on a sheep
and cattle farm in the foothills
Departures & fares see thousands of penguins
of the Snowy Mountains and
his father, Bruce, was an alpine
16 days courting and building pioneer (and Olympic skier)
Departs 21 November 2022 aboard the Itinerary nests. Throughout your who is credited with introducing
journey, you can join the competitive Nordic skiing to
state-of-the-art, world’s first hybrid- expedition team in fascinat- Australia and building one of our
powered ship, MS Roald Amundsen. ing lectures, landings and earliest and highest ski lodges,
From $12,317pp twin share Start off in the romance- ice-cruises. long before there was any kind of
infused city of Buenos Aires The rolling green hills lift access. David skied there from
Expedition highlights before heading to Ushuaia
where your hybrid-powered
and white-sand beaches of
the Falkland Islands will be
a very early age.
After ending his career as a
Hosted by David Accompanied by ship is docked. We sail the a welcome sight, as will the top media executive both here
Haslingden, owner Hurtigruten Expeditions’ Drake Passage and arrive friendly pubs in the capital and in the USA, David set about
of Australian expert expedition team. at the white wilderness of of Stanley. Spend time building media companies that
Geographic and chair Citizen science Antarctica where you’ll touring the picturesque celebrate nature and the envi-
of the Australian program allowing you spend five wonderful days. archipelago where we go ronment. These include Northern
Geographic Society. to assist with live Exactly where we go and ashore to visit a variety of Pictures, Australia’s leading blue
Inclusions and scientific research. when is down to the sea-ice penguin and seal colonies. chip natural history filmmaker,
exclusives for Australian Use of the ship’s and weather conditions on After two weeks of Runaway Play, a company that
Geographic travellers. Science Centre, which the day, but we’ll always enjoying Antarctica and the makes computer games inspired
Escorted landings with has an extensive library, bring you to the best spots Falklands, we dock back in by nature, and, of course,
small expedition boats advanced biological and available at the time. Ushuaia to complete our Australian Geographic.
while in Antarctica. geological microscopes. During November, you’ll epic journey.
Contact us today hurtigruten.com.au Phone 1300 322 062

Journey through the islands Immerse yourself in the
pristine waters of Micronesia.
and atolls of Micronesia

A unique aquatic adventure of culture and history through the
island states of Micronesia.
J OIN US ON an extraordinary island adventure as

we journey through the rarely explored islands of
Micronesia. Aboard Coral Adventurer, sail from Manila
through the Philippines, Palau and around the remote
YO U R E X PE R T GUIDE
Alasdair
islands of the Federated States of Micronesia. Share in the
spirit of local islanders and partake in centuries-old cultural
McGregor
traditions including dance, weaving and carving.Visit Writer, historian and painter,
historical sites with expert historian guide and experienced Alasdair has been traversing
seafarer Alasdair McGregor. Across the archipelago, learn Antarctic waters since 1983
and has been a guest lecturer
about the endeavours of early Portuguese explorers and the Be captivated by Micronesia's and guide on expeditions to
Austronesian peoples and their seafaring culture. stunning geography and rich the islands of the Southern
cultural heritage. Ocean and the Kimberley for
more than 15 years. He has
Departures & fares Embark on an authored, co-authored or
edited a number of books, of
25 nights Manila to Kavieng Itinerary ocean voyage like which several have been short-
Departs 9 November 2023 listed for major literary prizes,
From $21,250pp twin share no other and is a regular contributor to
Australian Geographic. With
a true spirit for exploration,
Trip highlights Call on North Sibuyan Explore the remote reefs
Alasdair will share his insights
Explore the remote and Survey rare bird species from decades of seafaring,
Island, famed for its thou- and lagoons of Chuuk and ranging from topics of natural
rarely visited Sohoton across the island chains sands of years of isolation Pohnpei, sharing the waters
Cove, with its limestone including the endemic history, the environment,
resulting in remarkable biodi- with sea turtles, anemone, architecture and history as we
karst island hills and Chuuk monarch in the versity within its virgin forests, lionfish, octopus and
lakes of harmless golden Chuuk Islands. journey though Micronesia.
waterfalls and caves. moray eels hunting crabs
jelly fish. Visit Lamotrek for Snorkel and dive among the in the shallows.
Visit all four of the demonstrations of weav- “ghost fleet” of more than Wander among the archae-
Federated States of ing and the creation of 50 World War II coral-en- ological ruins of Nan Madol,
Micronesia, including traditional foods, as well crusted shipwrecks in Chuuk a former royal residence
the isolated Kosrae, as exploring the beaches Lagoon; visit the Japanese and political seat of the
known for its lush moun- and snorkelling over the war memorial and a former Saudeleur Dynasty
tainous landscape. fringing reef. wartime command centre. on Pohnpei.

Travel with us
From the serene alpine

landscapes of Cradle Mountain
to the white beaches of
Freycinet Peninsula, sample
the best of Tasmania.
Wildlife and conservation with

Wilderness Flight Safari, Tasmania
From orange-bellied parrots to New Zealand fur seals, Tasmania is a wildlife wonderland.
T
HIS COMPREHENSIVE NINE-DAY wildlife and conservation
tour beautifully illustrates just what a special place Tasmania
is – its pristine natural environment is one of the best places
to observe animals in their natural habitat. During this tour you’ll
be treated to a goldmine of unique opportunities to learn about
conservation efforts to save marine life, rare species of bird and other
native Tasmanian animals. Combine this with spectacular wilderness,
great food and the well-known and friendly hospitality of the locals,
and you’re sure to collect memories that will last a lifetime.
Departures & fares

5 days, 4 nights 1–5 September 2022
From $5135pp twin share
Single supplement available
Group size Minimum four, maximum Itinerary Surround yourself with
six guests TAS spectacular landscapes while
learning about endemic flora
and fauna species.
Prepare to be Cradle
Trip highlights enchanted on Mountain Freycinet NP
Take a scenic flight passionate animal expert

this journey of Hobart
to the remote area of Greg Irons will explain its a lifetime Southwest NP Tasman Peninsula
Melaleuca and meet native animal conserva-
ornithologist Mark tion program, its newly Day 1: Arrival Hobart – Day 5: Freycinet Peninsula. Day 9: Tour ends in the
Holdsworth, who specia- built animal hospital and walking tour. Day 6: Freycinet National morning. For those wanting to
lises in the endangered its renowned sanctuary. Day 2: Southwest National Park to Cradle Mountain. extend their trip our team can
orange-bellied parrot, Be mesmerised by the Park and orange-bellied Day 7: Explore Cradle provide suggestions.
and aim to spot these alpine landscapes of parrots flight safari. Mountain–Lake St Clair
shy and rare birds. Cradle Mountain and Day 3: Tasman Peninsula National Park and Dove Lake.
Visit the Bonorong the deep blue waters of and seals in the wild. Day 8: Cradle Mountain to
Wildlife Sanctuary, where Dove Lake. Day 4: Wine and Launceston.
conservation.
Contact us today travel@australiangeographic.com Call 1300 241 141

Be immersed in the
natural beauty of Kakadu
NP and Arnhem Land.
Top End luxury safari adventure

Davidson’s Arnhemland Safaris camp and Bamurru Plains, Northern Territory.
J OIN US ON this
once-in-a-lifetime exclusive Top End adventure and immerse
yourself in an extraordinary trip across World Heritage-listed Kakadu National
Park and Arnhem Land to experience the world’s oldest-living continuous
culture. Stay at two award-winning properties. The first is Bamurru Plains, an
exclusive safari lodge with exclusive access to 300km of floodplains and savannah
woodland on the Mary River. Then travel to Davidson’s Arnhemland Safaris at
Mount Borradaile, a registered Aboriginal sacred site in a remote 70,000ha
exclusively leased area nestled against the Arnhem Land escarpment.
Mount
Borradaile
Departures & fares Darwin
Bamurru
5 days, 4 nights From $7995pp twin share Plains.
8–12 October 2022 Single supplements on request

19–23 May 2023 Group size Four guests
More dates to come for 2023
We can tailor dates to your needs, NT From birds and reptiles to marsupials
including private tours. and buffalo, the Bamurru Plains is
teeming with life.
Trip highlights
Access Mount
Borradaile, a protected
Land, fringed by idyllic
billabongs, floodplains,
home to an extraordinary
diversity of birdlife. Experience the
and highly restricted paperbark swamps, Cruise along the billa- Itinerary magic of this ancient
Aboriginal sacred site. monsoonal rainforests and bong to see the sun set
Immerse yourself caves that have been occu- over the floodplain and landscape
in Bamurru Plains, a pied for more than 50,000 Mount Borradaile.
birdwatcher’s paradise years. View magnificent Discover galleries of Day 1: Darwin to Davidson’s Day 4: Bamurru Plains.
with 236 recorded species galleries of rock art, as Aboriginal rock art and Arnhemland Safaris. Day 5: Spend the morning
including magpie geese, well as occupation and learn about the variety Day 2: Davidson’s on the plains in an airboat,
plumed whistling duck, burial sites. of techniques used as Arnhemland Safaris at returning to Darwin in the
egrets, ibis and brolgas. Enjoy the exhilaration of styles changed over the Mount Borradaile. late afternoon.
Experience the beautiful a morning airboat safari thousands of years of oc- Day 3: Davidson’s Arnhem-
wilderness of Arnhem on the Mary River region, cupation and storytelling. land Safaris to Bamurru Plains.

Travel with us
Luxury combines with the
great outdoors in this once-in-
a-lifetime adventure.
Murray River luxury

houseboat safari
A wildlife adventure on water, South Australia.
J OIN OUR GUIDES on a journey to discover the culture, incredible

wildlife and ecology of the Murray River.You’ll be welcomed
to Country by Erawirung Elder Eric Cook, who will take you
on a cultural walk along an ancient river oxbow.Your guides will
lead you through the forests, creeks, billabongs and outback lakes,
sharing knowledge of vital conservation work. See the benefits of
environmental flows to restore red gum forests and protect wetland
species, including the vulnerable southern bell frog. Explore diverse
landscapes in search of wildlife, including red kangaroos, emus, koalas,
goannas and many of the 180 bird species found in this region.
Departures & fares

4 days, 3 nights From $3310pp
7–10 November 2022 From $1655 single supplement Encounter
More dates to come Group size Minimum six, Australia’s most
We can tailor dates to your needs, maximum 10 guests iconic wildlife.
including private tours. Itinerary
Trip highlights Discover the

Cruise the river on your Canoe in tranquil back- View floodplain lakes in Cruise the river by night diversity of the
private pontoon cruiser, waters encountering ducks, a high conservancy area to see the stars of an out- Murray River
spotting koalas, kangaroos darters, cormorants and where spectacular bird- back sky while spotting Day 1: River cruise and
and diverse birdlife across whistling kites. watching can include mi- brush-tailed possums and cliff walk.
different floodplain habi- Walk through woodlands gratory waders and rarely listening for boobook owls. Day 2: Birdwatching on
tats and ephemeral lakes. and around cliffs spotting seen blue-billed ducks and On a luxury houseboat, ephemeral lakes.
Walk with Erawirung kangaroos and emus, whis- musk ducks, black swans sample local food, Day 3: Cruising and walking
Elder Eric Cook and hear tlers, babblers, honeyeaters, and their cygnets, pied stilts, including the famed the backwaters.
stories of a culture dating parrots and migratory red-necked avocets and Murray River cod, with Day 4: Kayaking and
back thousands of years. rainbow bee-eaters. yellow-billed spoonbills. paired wines. houseboat cruising.

Travel with us
Gum Swamp bird hide and wetlands
– a natural haven
Gum Swamp attracts many different species of
birdlife all year round; it’s a very popular location Information
for the birdlife – and the enthusiasts who wish to
observe them.
Always open
It can be found just a few kilometres south of Best visited at sunrise
the town of Forbes, just off the Newell Highway, and sunset
and features four hides, allowing guests the Cost FREE
opportunity to view the birds in their habitat.
Gum Swamp is also home to a magnificent Bookings No booking
goanna (gugaa) sculpture, part of the amazing required
Sculpture Down the Lachlan public art trail.
More information amazingforbesnsw.com

Phone 02 6852 4155 (Forbes Visitor Information Centre)
Your outback adventure awaits

This epic 15-day exploration traverses re-
cord-breaking canyons and gorges, national
Dates and prices
parks and World Heritage sites. It’s nature writ Select departure dates
large – no wonder television and movie directors
find inspiration here (as you will too). And then
13 and 20 June, 11 and 18 July, 8 and
there are the cities, from multicultural Adelaide 15 August 2023
and the world-famous wine country nearby,
to steamy Darwin, where sunsets are as brash From $7855pp twin share
as the characters that call it home. You can
save up to $800 per couple* with Australian
Geographic’s exclusive offer on selected
AAT Kings tours when you sign up to the AAT
Kings newsletter.
* See website for terms and conditions.
Contact us today aatkings.com/ausgeo

Phone 1300 228 546
Bremer Canyon killer

whale expedition
Experience one of the world’s greatest full-day Dates and prices
oceanic expeditions departing from Bremer
Bay in Western Australia. Led by expert marine Departure dates
biologists, the tour includes encounters with 2 January – 24 April 2023
killer whales, with behaviours likely to be
witnessed ranging from hunting to socialis- From $385pp
ing in family groups. Highlights also include
spotting a spectacular mix of pelagic birds,
Australian sea lions, dolphins and long-finned
pilot whales.
Contact us today info@whales-australia.com.au

Phone 08 9750 5500

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Bathurst Harbour in south-western
Tasmania is remote and hard to reach. The
South Coast Track provides walkers with
access to this stunning landscape.
COMING SOON:
Amazing new fossils uncovered

The Wimmera region
In praise of bogs
Lisa Blair’s record-breaking voyage
The CWA celebrated
Out
early Nov
Join us next issue

Loved to death?
How should we balance the demands of tourism with the
preservation of Tassie’s wilderness?
PHOTO CREDIT: CHRISSIE GOLDRICK/AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC
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2 Name this mountain. AusQuiz
3 Who is the youngest Australian to
1 Tanysiptera sylvia is reach the summit of Mt Everest?
more commonly known
by what name?
6 What is the name

of this marsupial?
7 Bar Beach is
located in which
Australian state
or territory?
4 British settlers
used this plant as a 5 What was Miles
Franklin’s full name?
substitute for which
dietary staple?
AusQuiz
How much do you really know about Australia? Test yourself!
8 When did Australia become 15 Petaurus breviceps, an 22 In taxonomic classification, 28 What occurs annually in
a federation? omnivorous, arboreal and the kookaburra is the largest Australia on 25 April?
nocturnal gliding possum, bird in which avian family?
9 Leadbeater’s possum is the is more commonly known 29 What is the avian emblem of
faunal emblem of which by what name? 23 Approximately how many Queensland?
state or territory? eggs does a female hunts-
16 Which iconic Australian man spider lay after being 30 What are termite larvae called?
10 In the 19th century, bird is among the largest impregnated?
COURTESY GABBY KANIZAY; AG; AG; COURTESY STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES; AG
which European explorer passerine (perching) birds in 31 What is the name of the
traced the courses of the the world? 24 True or false: There are more world’s largest sand island,
PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC (AG); AG;
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Tanysiptera sylvia; Spilocuscus maculatus; Tasmannia lanceolata
Macquarie, Bogan and sheep than people at 122km long, that lies off
Castlereagh rivers, and 17 What year did Tasmania’s in Australia. the coast of Queensland?
followed the Murray River thylacine become extinct?
to Lake Alexandrina on the 25 What is the largest species 32 Reader question: From Brydie
South Australian coast? 18 Which famous Australian of shark found in waters Jameson in Potts Point, NSW.
wrote and performed the around Australia? What’s the meaning of
11 Which group of islands are song “Tenterfield Saddler”? ‘monotreme’ – the word used
separated by the Apsley 26 Who was Australia’s longest- to describe the order of mam-
Strait, connecting Saint 19 The red and green kan- serving prime minister? mals containing the platypus
Asaph Bay in the north and garoo paw is the official and echidna?
Shoal Bay in the south? flower of which state or 27 What is the collective noun
territory? for a group of kangaroos?
12 What year was the cane
toad introduced to Australia? 20 Which large creature from FOR ANSWERS See page 130
the Aboriginal Dreaming
13 What was the name of lurks in swamps, billabongs SUBMIT A QUESTION Do you have a great
the first ship to circumnav- and creeks? Australian quiz question you’d like to share with us?
igate Australia? Submit your question to: editorial@ausgeo.com.au
21 What is the name of the Extraordinary The reader whose question is chosen for the
& Endangered
14 What land masses does train that runs between 100 AUSTRALIAN SPECIES AT RISK next AusQuiz will receive a copy of AG’s book,
Bass Strait separate? Sydney and Perth? Extraordinary and Endangered.

Aussie
Aussie towns
Warrnambool, VIC
This popular seaside holiday destination is known for the exceptional
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and delightful Maremma sheepdogs,
trained to keep predators from little penguins breeding on nearby Middle Island.
L
OCATED AT THE western end of the famed
Great Ocean Road, Warrnambool is a charm-
ing coastal city perched on Lady Bay between
the Merri and Hopkins rivers. It’s known for safe,
sheltered beaches, a moderate climate, parks and
gardens, and Logans Beach, where southern right
whales arrive between June and September each
year to calve. Surf, rock, sea and river fishing are
popular, particularly at Levys and Killarney beaches
and on the Hopkins and Merri rivers. The Flagstaff
Hill Maritime Museum and Village, which has
more than 40 historic buildings, is an outstanding
opportunity to experience life in a 19th-century
Victorian coastal village. It offers a unique insight into
the state’s infamous Shipwreck Coast, with artefacts
from more than 200 ships wrecked along the coast-
line that extends from here. While the city remains
a significant manufacturing centre, in recent times
it has become a popular seaside holiday resort town
attracting whale watchers in the winter months and
surfers and anglers in the summer months. It has
a vibrant laneway food and drink culture and an
ever-growing display of street art. Warrnambool’s in- ORIGIN OF NAME USEFUL WEBSITE
dustrial base includes milk-processing and dairy pro- Warrnambool comes from the The town’s official website is:
duction. The famous Fletcher Jones company began language of the Dhauwurd Wurrung visitwarrnambool.com.au
when David Fletcher Jones purchased a clothing store people. It was the name they gave to a
in the city in 1924. The company’s factory opened now-extinct volcano 24km north-east
in 1948 and closed in 2005. Warrnambool boasts a of the city.
large number of interesting historic buildings. With
VIC
VISITOR INFORMATION
its relatively modest population of about 35,000, it The Visitor Information Centre is
is, quite fairly, described as a happy cross between a MELBOURNE
at 89 Merri Street, in the Flagstaff
large country town and a small city. Hill Village.
Phone: 03 5559 4620 or Warrnambool
1800 637 725.
Email: vic@warrnambool.vic.gov.au Warrnambool is 256km west
of Melbourne via the Hamilton
The Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum Highway, through Geelong and
and Village, which features more Camperdown. It lies at the western
than 40 historic buildings re-created
end of the Great Ocean Road.
using authentic materials, is a huge
tourist drawcard for the town.

Aussie towns
Point Ritchie, below, at left, at the mouth of
the Hopkins River on the the western end of Warrnambool timeline
Warrnambool’s Logans Beach, is a popular lookout
over the town and the Southern Ocean beyond. The Dhauwurd Wurrung were the
area’s original inhabitants.
The first European at

Lady Bay was French
explorer Nicolas
Baudin in 1802.
Whalers and
sealers used the
bay in the 1830s.
Lady Bay was

surveyed and named
by whalers in 1844.
European settlement began with
Places of interest Logans Beach whale

graziers in the early 1840s.
watching platform. A survey of the townsite was

1 FLAGSTAFF HILL carried out in 1846. In 1847
MARITIME MUSEUM AND VILLAGE the first land sales happened in
This popular attraction is a re-creation of a Melbourne; it officially became a
late 19th-century coastal port, complete municipality in 1855 and a town
with cobblestone streets. Each building in 1883.
represents an important aspect of port life By 1850 the town had a school,
during the Victorian era. The hill was named community chapel, two hotels
in 1854 when a flagstaff was placed there and a blacksmith.
as a navigational aid after an international
flag-signalling code was devised. Fortifi- The first jetty was built in 1850
4 MIDDLE ISLAND AND
cations were completed in 1887 to defend THE MAREMMA SHEEPDOGS and Warrnambool emerged as a
against a possible Russian attack after Middle Island, a short distance offshore in significant port for local wool,
Anglo-Russian tensions rose due to rivalry Stingray Bay, is home to a colony of little wheat, potatoes, onions and dairy
over Afghanistan. The more than 40 build- penguins that was reduced by feral preda- produce.
ings, all re-created using authentic materials, tors from 800 in 1999 to fewer than 10 in The design for the Warrnambool
include: St Nicholas Seamen’s Church, the 2005. Maremmas, Italian sheepdogs bred Botanic Gardens was completed
Steampacket Inn, Bank of Australasia, a as guardians, were brought in for protec- in 1879.
brass foundry, newspaper office, ship chan- tion and by 2016 there were an estimated
dler’s office, slipway, steam-powered work- 180 penguins. Middle Island has been Gun emplacements were
shop, shipping agent, Masonic lodge, jail, closed to the public since 2006 to safe- installed in the 1880s due to fears
sailmaker’s loft, cooper’s workshop, armoury, guard penguin burrows. The Maremmas of a Russian invasion.
officers’ huts, port medical officer’s surgery now spend time there during the penguin The railway station was built in
and more. Open 10am–5pm daily. breeding season. At other times they are 1890 when the railway reached the
Phone: 03 5559 4600 homed at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village. town from Terang.
2 CANNON HILL LOOKOUT 5 LOGANS BEACH The City of Warrnambool was
Lying up along Artillery Crescent is WHALE WATCHING PLATFORM officially recognised in 1918.
Cannon Hill Lookout, which offers pan- Southern right whales migrate from cooler
The Fletcher Jones factory
oramic views across Lady Bay and Lake Antarctic waters to Lady Bay to give birth
opened in 1948 to supply the retail
PHOTO CREDITS: SHUTTERSTOCK; NICOLAS BAUDIN, WIKIPEDIA
Pertobe. It’s named for a World War I how- between June and September. The Logan
business, which began in 1924.
itzer and two World War II anti-aircraft Beach Whale Watching Platform, east of
guns. A marker commemorates what’s Hopkins River, is an ideal viewing point. In 1975 Flagstaff Hill
likely to have been early Portuguese explo- Behaviours that can be seen from here Maritime Museum opened.
ration. On the hill leading up to the lookout include tail slapping, spy hopping and fluke
there is a war memorial officially opened The Fletcher Jones factory closed
waving. Notifications of whale sightings are
in 1926 and, more recently (in 2010), an in 2005.
recorded at the Visitor Information Centre.
Aboriginal Soldiers Memorial.
3 WARRNAMBOOL HERITAGE TRAIL Since 1988 Bruce Elder has travelled to every town in Australia. He has written more
This easy 3km walk around the centre than 10 travel books, including the Globetrotter Guides to Australia, Sydney and
of Warrnambool passes 22 places of her- Queensland; 1015 Things to See and Do in Australia; Explore Queensland and Explore NSW.
itage and historic interest. A brochure is He worked as a full-time travel writer with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age from
available at the Visitor Information Centre. 1996 to 2012. aussietowns.com.au

A re-enactment of the
finding of the children
Traces took place shortly after
the tragedy.
The Lost Children

of Daylesford
BY ESME MATHIS
A
USTRALIA’S HISTORY has many
tragic chapters, and we commemo-
rate these events with monuments,
exhibitions and public services. Perhaps the
strangest memorial in Australia is the The gravesite of Daylesford VIC
Three Lost Children Walk, located on the the three children in MELBOURNE
outskirts of Daylesford, a historic gold- Daylesford Cemetery.
mining town 108km drive north-west of
Melbourne, Victoria. continue searching for the lost children.
The 30km return walking trail follows “In every direction the people turned out
the approximate route of three young boys with the most praiseworthy zeal, the great
who wandered from their homes in 1867 and body of them assembling at the Specimen
perished in the bush. Hill works and spreading out in the direction
The Graham brothers William, 6, and in which the boys were thought to have
Thomas, 4, and their friend Alfred Burman, gone,” reported the Daylesford Mercury. “The
5, went missing on Sunday 30 June. That hundreds who joined in the search returned
morning, the three children left their homes in groups, each bearing the sorrowful tidings
in Connells Gully, Daylesford, crossing that nothing had been seen or heard of the
Wombat Creek in search of wild goats. poor little fellows.”
The boys didn’t return. Concerned, their The boys were not found, despite eight
fathers and a group of neighbours spent successive public meetings and 25 days
PHOTO CREDITS, FROM TOP: COURTESY FRANK BLUNDELL/DAYLESFORD AND DISTRICT

the afternoon searching the junction of of searching. Nine weeks passed. On
HISTORICAL SOCIETY; COURTESY LEIGH MCKINNON/BALLARAT HERITAGE SERVICES

Wombat, Stony and Sailors creeks for 13 September, a dog from nearby Musk
the missing children. By evening, police than a hundred horsemen gathered at trotted home with a boot in its mouth. A
had been notified and two constables Specimen Hill the following day, and by eve- small foot was encased within the shoe. This
dispatched. They combed Daylesford’s ning a public meeting was called. morbid discovery prompted an organised
surrounding bushland until about 1am then “The town crier went through the principal search by Musk locals, of an area some 10km
resumed their search at dawn. streets, and at eight o’clock the fire bell was south-east of Daylesford.
Two eyewitness accounts of the children rung, immediately after which the large room A skull fragment, pieces of bones and a
began to circulate on Monday 1 July. Mr in the hotel was crammed to suffocation, second boot were recovered, but it wasn’t
Mutch, a storekeeper at nearby Musk Vale, and more were standing outside than would until the following morning that the boys
saw the boys on the afternoon of their dis- have filled it again,” reported the Daylesford were found, at Musk Creek, Wombat Forest.
appearance and gave them directions back Mercury, in an article published 3 July. Thomas and Alfred lay sheltering in the hollow
to Daylesford. With “utmost unanimity” it was agreed of a tree. The remains of William were located
The children backtracked to Falls Hotel, that businesses would close the next day, soon after. All three had died from exposure
Stony Creek, before taking a wrong turn allowing everyone able to participate in the and malnourishment.
and heading in the direction of Specimen search. Eleven men were nominated and The lost child is a motif that carries unique
Hill goldmine. Here they met an older boy appointed as “captains” to lead the search, currency in Australia, recurring in art, litera-
named John Quinn, who reportedly tried to and telegraphs were dispatched summoning ture and culture. The popularity of retracing
turn the children around but was ignored. Aboriginal trackers. the boys’ approximate journey in the Three
The parameters of the search increased The next morning, almost 700 people Lost Children Walk shows how this story
as news of these sightings spread. More gathered in miserable, inclement weather to continues to resonate today.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: goldfieldsguide.com.au/explore-location/644/three-lost-children-memorial-park
AUSQUIZ ANSWERS
1) Buff-breasted paradise-kingfisher 2) Cradle Mountain 3) Gabby Kanizay 4) Pepper 5) Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin 6) Common
spotted cuscus 7) New South Wales 8) 1 January, 1901 9) Victoria 10) Charles Sturt 11) Tiwi Islands 12) 1935 13) HMS Investigator
14) The island of Tasmania from the Australian mainland 15) The sugar glider 16) The lyrebird 17) 1936 18) Peter Allen 19) Western
Australia 20) The bunyip 21) The Indian Pacific 22) Kingfishers 23) 200 24) True 25) Whale shark 26) Robert Menzies 27) A mob
28) Anzac Day 29) The brolga 30) Nymphs 31) K’gari (Fraser Island) 32) ‘One hole’, from the Greek ‘monos’ (alone) and ‘trema’ (hole),
which refers to the combined urogenital opening of these animals.
Adam Jacot de Boinod, who compiled the quiz, was a researcher for the BBC series of QI and is the author of three books, including The Meaning of Tingo.

Be inspired,
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ADVENTURER
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PARTNER & LIFETIME ADVENTURE OF THE YEAR OF THE YEAR
OF ADVENTURE

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