Zeitschriftenartikel zum Thema „Range ecology South Australia Far North Region“

Specimens of Phebalium glandulosum Hook. subsp. glandulosum representing the entire geographic range of the subspecies were examined for morphological and anatomical variation. Phenetic patterns were identified with the pattern analysis package PATN, and three distinct groups were identified. One group consists of plants from inland areas of New South Wales, north-western Victoria, and the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas of South Australia; a second group consists of plants collected from alongside the Snowy River in eastern Victoria and south-eastern New South Wales; and a third group consists of plants from Queensland and northern New South Wales. The climate analysis program BIOCLIM was used to compare climate variables across the geographic range, and showed clear climatic separation in support of the phenetic analysis. The three groups are formally recognised here as distinct subspecies. Plants from Queensland and the Bourke region of northern New South Wales belong to the typical subspecies; plants from north-western Victoria, central New South Wales, and the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas of South Australia form a cohesive assemblage and are recognised as a new subspecies P. glandulosum subsp. macrocalyx; and plants from the Snowy River in far eastern Victoria and the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales form a distinct and isolated group recognised as a new subspecies P. glandulosum subsp. riparium. These new subspecies are formally described, and an identification key and summaries distinguishing all six subspecies of P. glandulosum are presented.

Three new species of pinguipedid fishes from northern Australia are described based on specimens collected by deep water demersal trawling. Parapercis algrahami sp. nov. is recorded from off Dunk Island, Qld, south to Newcastle, NSW, in 67–333 m. It is distinct in having five narrow transverse dark bars across the upper body and a dark spot dorsally on the caudal-fin base, 6 canine teeth in outer row at front of lower jaw, palatines with 1–2 rows of teeth, and predorsal scales extending far forward on the nape to the posterior portion of the interorbital region. Parapercis imamurai sp. nov. is recorded from off Saumarez Reef, Qld, south to off Coffs Harbour, NSW, in 256–405 m. It is unique in having colouration that includes a broad dusky bar from lower margin of eye across the suborbital region and three broad dusky bands crossing the body between the middle of the soft dorsal-fin and the caudal-fin base, 10 canine teeth in outer row at front of lower jaw, and the fifth dorsal-fin spine longest. Parapercis pogonoskii sp. nov. is unique in having a combination of three reddish-brown vertical bars on the upper body between the anterior and posterior portions of the soft dorsal fin, the soft dorsal fin with two large dusky blotches and caudal-fin base with a dusky blotch in the upper corner, 8–10 canine teeth in outer row at front of lower jaw, fifth dorsal-fin spine longest, angle of subopercle with a single broad spine, and angle of preopercle with 4–5 large widely-separated spines. Comparison of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO 1) genetic marker utilised in DNA barcoding produced significant genetic divergences of at least 8.1% and 14.1% between P. algrahami sp. nov. and P. pogonoskii sp. nov. respectively and their closest sampled congeners. The geographic range of Parapercis rubromaculata Ho, Chang & Shao, 2012 is extended from Taiwan to the southern hemisphere waters off Western Australia, based on specimens collected from Shark Bay, north to Ashmore Terrace, in depths of 56–107 m. A revised diagnosis for the species is presented, meristic, morphometric and DNA barcoding data for the two populations are compared, and a detailed description of the colouration of fresh and preserved specimens from Australia is provided. Previous records of Parapercis macrophthalma (Pietschmann, 1911) from Western Australia are established as misidentifications of Parapercis muronis (Tanaka, 1918) and the latter is thereby confirmed from the southern hemisphere and Australian waters for the first time. Comparative meristic, morphometric and DNA barcoding data is provided for populations of P. muronis from Japan, Philippines and Western Australia.

Patterns of distribution are described for the three subgenera and nine sections that make up the Australian Acacia flora. Subgenus Phyllodineae (833 species) is widespread and contains 99% of the species; subgenus Acacia (six species) and subgenus Aculeiferum (one species) are poorly represented and virtually confined to the north of the continent. The geographic patterns of species-richness are strongly influenced by sections Phyllodineae (352 species), Juliflorae (219 species) and Plurinerves (178 species). Section Phyllodineae has centres of richness south of the Tropic of Capricorn in temperate and adjacent semiarid areas of eastern, south-eastern and south-western Australia. The section is poorly represented in the tropics. The closely related sections Juliflorae and Plurinerves predominate in the north of the continent, semiarid areas of the south-west, many rocky tablelands of the Arid Zone and along the Great Dividing Range and adjacent inland riverine lowland areas in eastern Australia. The remaining four sections contribute little to the overall patterns of species-richness. The principal speciespoor areas are sandy and fluvial lowland regions of the Arid Zone. In eastern Australia, sections Botrycephalae, Juliflorae, Phyllodineae and Plurinerves show discontinuous patterns of species-richness along the Great Dividing Range. All sections have species whose ranges terminate in the area of the McPherson-Macleay Overlap region.

The status of Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies (Petrogale xanthopus) and Black-footed Rock-wallabies (P. lateralis) in South Australia was assessed by comparing recent survey and census data with previously collated information about the distribution and relative abundance of each taxon. Petrogale xanthopus has maintained most of its known geographic range within the state; however, its relative abundance has declined significantly and 35 (or 15%) of a total of 229 recorded colonies have become extinct since European settlement. Eight of these colony extinctions have occurred over the past 25 years; three of them since 1981. As this species is continuing to decline it should be regarded as threatened within the state. Petrogale lateralis has at least two sub-species which occur in South Australia. Petrogale lateralis pearsoni is endemic to the state and occurs on offshore islands. Since 1960 its natural occurrence of about 3-500 individuals on North Pearson Island has been expanded to four other islands through translocations and the total population is now about 700-1100 animals. This subspecies, while not occurring in large numbers, is nonetheless relatively secure due to the additional populations established and the fact that these are on islands isolated from most mainland threats. The mainland subspecies, Petrogale lateralis MacDonnell Ranges race, by comparison has suffered a drastic reduction in both geographic range and abundance to the point where it is South Australia’s most critically endangered vertebrate taxon. It has declined from being a very common species in the state’s far north- west to only two known, widely separated, colonies which total less than 100 animals between them. Management and research recommendations are provided.

In this paper we examine the forces that have shaped Australia’s far northern (north of 20° south) beef industry over the past 35 years. This is done for the purpose of tracing its transformation from a state of relative isolation to an integral part of the national beef industry. We note that integration is being accompanied by a greater focus, particularly by corporate producers, on specialised breeding in the far north and this is being assisted by innovations that increase herd fertility and raise the meat quality of the progeny, while retaining adaptation of the breeding herd to the local environment. Among a range of technologies, genetic improvement has significant potential to bring about rapid improvement in the meat quality of tropically adapted cattle. With respect to gene-based technology, however, independent producers will have to be convinced about the rigour of the technology and the prospects of economic gains before they make significant management changes. To this end, innovative marketing systems are needed that will reveal the link between expected meat returns and the offer prices applying to groups of growing cattle in any location. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop and introduce a descriptive and informative trading language for growing cattle that incorporates inherent qualities including those that influence meat quality. Innovations that will complement those applying to enhancement of meat quality are more general but will significantly raise herd productivity. We also compare the operating systems of both corporate and independent producers in the region.

Mud crabs (Portunidae; Scylla spp.) have become established recently in some south-west Australian estuaries – almost 1000 km south of their recorded distribution. Colonisation may have occurred by a natural range expansion from the north-west or by translocation from source(s) within the Indo-West Pacific. To identify the species and the potential source population(s), genetic analyses was used to compare south-west crabs (N = 32) to other populations. Levels of diversity at two independent genetic markers were also compared to obtain relative estimates of effective population size between colonist and suspected source population(s). Comparisons of mitochondrial DNA sequences (COI) indicated that all south-west crabs were Scylla serrata. Indeed, the sole haplotype found among colonists was identical to one prevalent but endemic to more diverse north-west Australian populations. In contrast, source and colonist populations had equally high levels of genetic diversity at two microsatellite loci. It is argued that the south-west region was colonised by large numbers of S. serrata from north-west Australia through a recruitment event enhanced by the strong 1999/2000 Leeuwin Current. Differences in diversity among nuclear and mitochondrial loci may reflect different responses to the colonisation process; it is predicted that such differences are prevalent among plankton-dispersed species.

Within New Zealand and eastern Australia, over 58,000 southern right whales were harvested by commercial whalers between 1790 and 1980, with approximately 19,000 harvested from south-eastern Australia. Local extirpation is believed to have led to a loss of cultural memory of calving areas, contributing to the limited recovery of the south-eastern Australian population. While the number of whales observed using the south-eastern Australian coastline is increasing, there has been no change over three decades in the annual abundance of cow-calf pairs at Logans Beach in Warrnambool, Victoria, the only established calving ground in the region. Knowledge of life history parameters of the south-eastern Australian population is lacking. Here, we examine sightings and photo-identification data from southern Australia to investigate calving intervals, long range movements and fidelity to the Logans Beach nursery ground. Sightings data revealed at least 93 calves were born at Logans Beach between 1980 and 2018 (an average of 2.6 per year) with a mean calving interval of 3.5 ± 1.0 years (± SE, n = 34). Comparison between photo-identification catalogues compiled for south-eastern and south-western Australian populations shows that southern right whales are wide ranging within southern Australian waters. Females can be sighted at locations as far apart as 3,800 km across seasons and there is overlap in the wintering range of the south-eastern and south-western populations, with at least 7% of whales using both regions. We also provide the first report of an Australian southern right whale female with strong site fidelity to a calving area in one region relocating long-term to a calving area in another region. This work highlights several knowledge gaps, such as; the location of feeding and conception grounds for this population as well as the degree of mixing between the two Australian populations outside their wintering areas. In addition, the proportion of female calves born at Logans Beach returning to their natal site to calve remains unclear. Our work provides the first assessment of calving rates, movement and site fidelity within the south-eastern Australian population, critical for understanding constraints to recovery and informing conservation management of southern right whales in Australia. Targeted, long-term monitoring programs across the south-eastern Australian region are needed to provide demographic information on which to base predictions of the impacts of anthropogenic threats such as noise disturbance, entanglement and vessel strike.

Mushrooms named Gymnopilus spectabilis and G. junonius have been reported widely in North America on both dead hardwood or dead or living conifers. Based on DNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) and large ribosomal subunit (LSU), we found that although Gymnopilus junonius (= G. spectabilis s. auct.) is widespread in Europe, South America, and Australia, none of the limited sequences available from North America represent this species. We report five species of this group from North America, including three previously described species, G. luteus, G. subspectabilis, and G. ventricosus, and two new species, Gymnopilus voitkii and Gymnopilus speciosissimus. We recognize a sister species to G. luteus, based on sequences previously reported as G. spectabilis from China, Japan, and the Russian Far East, but, lacking material to describe it as a new species, we give it an informal clade name, /sororiluteus. Another new species in this complex is described from Japan, as Gymnopilus orientispectabilis. Species in this group may be distinguished by their ITS sequences as well as by macro- and micromorphology, substrate, and geography.

Two species of rock-wallabies occur in New South Wales; the Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus in the far west and the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Petrogale penicillata in the east. Both species have contracted in distribution and abundance across their former range and are threatened in NSW. The P. xanthopus population in NSW now comprises only two sub-populations. Removal of large numbers of goats, thought to be the primary threat, has not halted the wallaby's decline. Fox and cat predation is now considered the major threat. Fox control is currently being conducted. P. penicillata has undergone a dramatic and continuing decline from being common throughout south-eastern Australia to currently being extremely rare in the southern and western parts of its range and found only in isolated colonies throughout the north of its range. Predation (particularly fox, but including dog and cat), once again, is considered the major threat. A recovery program has been commenced involving the media and wider community in locating extant colonies, as well as developing and implementing Population Management Plans. This program has documented further local extinctions and extremely low numbers of individuals in colonies in the southern and western parts of the range. While no surviving colonies are known between the Shoalhaven area and the Victorian border, there remain more and larger colonies in the north of the state.

Several range disjunctions have been identified in the Australian species of the genus Terminalia L. Field studies and examination of herbarium specimens of taxa with range disjunctions have demonstrated that taxonomic changes are justified. Detailed morphological studies of the Terminalia canescens (DC.) Radlk. species complex showed that four taxa should be recognised. The name Terminalia circumalata F.Muell. is resurrected as a taxon endemic to the Pilbara region, with T. canescens not occurring in that region. The distinction of Terminalia bursarina F.Muell., T. canescens and T. pterocarya F.Muell. is also supported. Terminalia cunninghamii C.A.Gardner has been considered to have a disjunct range between the far north and south-west of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Terminalia kumpaja R.L.Barrett is described as a new species to accommodate the disjunct southern populations because morphological examination has shown them to be distinct. Terminalia kumpaja is restricted to the Dampier Botanical District. Full descriptions and illustrations of key identifying features are provided for these species. Keys to all Australian Terminalia species are presented. Additional species with disjunct distributions that warrant further study are noted. Lectotypes are selected for Terminalia circumalata and T. rogersii W.Fitzg.

The helminth fauna from 124 water-rats, Hydromys chrysogaster, collected from 33 localities in Queensland was analysed. A total of 45 species of helminths was found, comprising 2 acanthocephalans, 2 cestodes, 13 nematodes and 28 trematodes. The helminth community of the water-rats in the region north of latitude 18˚ (far north) was different from that of water-rats south of 18˚ (central); Sorensen’s Index 45·8% similarity, whereas Holmes and Podesta’s Index gave 32·1% similarity. Comparisons with data from water-rats from southern and Tasmanian regions showed that they were different from each other and from both Queensland regions. The helminth communities were characterised by high diversity, dominated by trematodes in the central and Tasmanian regions, but with nematodes becoming more prominent in the far northern and southern regions. No core or secondary species were found in the Queensland helminth communities, the southern community was suggestive of a bimodal distribution and the Tasmanian had two core species. A checklist of helminth species occurring in water-rats from eastern Australia is provided.

THE orange leaf-nosed bat, Rhinonicteris aurantius, has been poorly studied in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The range of R. aurantius is continuous across the tropical north of Australia, extending throughout the Kimberley region and the Top End of the Northern Territory. Within this distribution, the species is reported to be rare and restricted to a few sites (Churchill 1991a). This pattern of distribution is due to a reliance on caves with warm, humid roost microclimates. Jolly (1988) and Churchill et al. (1988) recorded a narrow range of preferred roost temperature and relative humidity (RH) in the Northern Territory of between 28-32�C and 90-96% respectively, although Churchill (1991a) recorded RH in roosts of R. aurantius of between 85- 100% (30.43 � 2.18 g m-3 vapour density). The species also tends to roost as far from the entrance as possible, which is often correlated with such extreme microclimate variables (Jolly 1988; Churchill 1991). The roost microclimate of R. aurantius in July 1987 in a medium-sized limestone cave near Geike Gorge (18� 06?S 125� 42?E) was recorded as 29.5�C and 28.44 g m-3 (Churchill 1991b), within the preferred range of R. aurantius.

This paper presents an updated catalog of all taxa of Leiodidae (s.lat.) reported from the Neotropical Region. Keys are presented for the identification of all subfamilies, tribes, and 62 described genera. Three undescribed genera are included in the keys. A total of 600 valid named species are listed, with type localities, type depositories, synonyms, distributions, and biologies where known, and some unnamed species as recorded in the literature. Many species remain to be described. In this work we formally establish no new synonyms and no new combinations although we may indicate the existence of these; but we add new records for described species, and we make spelling corrections of scientific names, when appropriate. A brief review of distribution patterns is given. The fauna has been derived partly from some Nearctic elements that have penetrated as far south as Bolivia. A few genera in the Neotropical element have penetrated the Nearctic Region as far north as the northern U.S.A. or southeastern Canada. Most of the Neotropical genera are autochthonous. In southern South America there is a diverse Neo-Austral fauna with clear “Transantarctic” relationships to Australia and New Zealand and weakly to southern Africa. Some genera variously occur on other continents.

The marine form of the South American dolphin Sotalia fluviatilis has an extensive and possibly continuous distribution, from the Florianópolis region, Brazil (27°35′S, 48°34′W), north to Panama (~9°22′N, 79°54′W). The high number of records from 25–20°S is due to the presence of many observers in those latitudes. The freshwater form of this species inhabits the Amazon and Orinoco drainages. It is commonly seen in the Amazon, and has been found as far inland as southern Peru. The southern limit of the range of the marine form of Sotalia is associated with the confluence zone of the Brazil and Falkland currents, suggesting that low sea-surface temperature is a limiting factor, whereas in fresh water the distribution of Amazonian Sotalia seems more closely related to the movements and concentrated occurrence of prey.

We describe a new species of velvet gecko (Diplodactylidae: Oedura) from north-east Queensland, Australia. Oedura jowalbinna sp. nov. is a robust, medium-sized (SVL 60–69 mm) gecko that is readily distinguished from its congeners by its distinctive dorsal colour pattern. The dorsum is grey with faint freckling and a pale, dark-edged band across the neck and another across the base of the tail. The combination of a yellow tail and a grey body is also distinctive. Oedura jowalbinna sp. nov. also differs significantly from the most similar congener, O. coggeri, in a multivariate analysis of morphology and scalation, primarily due to its smaller body size, higher interorbital, supralabial and infralabial scale counts, and lower subdigital lamellae scale count. These traits are generally non-overlapping between O. jowalbinna sp. nov. and O. coggeri, however, more individuals of O. jowalbinna sp. nov. need to be assessed to accurately determine variation within the new species. All O. jowalbinna sp. nov. were found at night on overhangs in dissected sandstone escarpment south-west of the town of Laura. Surveys are required to determine the distribution of O. jowalbinna sp. nov. across the sandstone escarpments of the Laura region. This species is the third reptile species (along with the skinks Ctenotus quinkan and C. nullum) described that has a highly localised range centred on the sandstone escarpments of the Laura region. Additionally, included herein is a comparison of O. coggeri and O. monilis. Typical dorsal colour pattern differs between these two species but the large amount of variation (particularly in O. coggeri) merges these differences. Oedura coggeri and O. monilis could not be distinguished in multivariate analyses of morphology and scalation. Genetic data and further analyses of colour pattern, morphology and scalation are required to resolve species boundaries within and between these two species.

Over the past several years, increased emphasis has been placed on conducting comprehensive ecological-risk assessments of virus-resistant genetically modified organisms (GMOs) prior to their release into the environment. In this paper we report on the first stage in our assessment of the level of risk posed by virus-resistant transgenic Trifolium repens L. (white clover) to native plant communities in south-eastern Australia. We investigated the distribution, abundance and phytosociological characteristics of naturalised T. repens populations in two areas in the subalpine region of New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and determined the distribution and abundance of Alfalfa mosaic virus, Clover yellow vein virus and White clover mosaic virus in 31 populations of white clover in this region. We found that T. repens is a significant component of Poa grasslands and Eucalyptus–Poa woodlands in the subalpine region, but is absent or rare in Eucalyptus species forests and Carex–Poa species bogs. Clover yellow vein virus was by far the most common virus in the study area, being present in 18% of T. repens plants across a wide range of plant communities. Alfalfa mosaic virus and White clover mosaic virus were each recorded in only one white-clover population growing in a native plant community. We conclude that white clover is a significant constituent of subalpine grasslands and woodlands in the region studied, and that of the viruses investigated, Clover yellow vein virus is the most abundant and widespread.

Morphological variation in Eucalyptus baxteri (Benth.) Maiden & Blakely ex Black is described throughout its range. There are two geographical forms, the principal differences between which are seedling morphology and the time of transition from juvenile to intermediate growth phase. The forms are hereby recognised as two species. E. baxteri s.str. has adult leaves broad near the apex, warty flower buds, often large fruits, and an early transition to intermediate foliage. It occurs in South Australia on Kangaroo Island, Fleurieu Peninsula, Barossa Range and near Wandilo, and in Victoria on the Grampian Ranges, Great Dividing Range and coastal areas, E. arenacea sp. nov. has tapering adult leaves, generally more slender, non-warty flower buds with longer, narrower pedicels and peduncles. Fruits are generally smaller with the disc less raised. Seedlings typically show a later transition to the intermediate foliage. It occurs on Mt Stapylton in the Grampian Ranges and the desert sand country of north-western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia. It is parapatric with E. baxteri on Kangaroo Island and Fleurieu Peninsula, and is restricted to sand deposits. A previous cladistic analysis suggested that E. baxteri s.l. is paraphyletic, E. arenacea sp. nov. being the sister taxon to E. baxteri s.str. and E. akina (an endemic of the Grampian Ranges). A sequence of evolutionary events is hypothesised by using the cladogram, the distribution of the taxa on different soils, and the geological history of the region.

Gymnosporia sekhukhuniensis, a new species from north-eastern South Africa, is described, illustrated, mapped, and compared with closely related species. It belongs to Gymnosporia sect. Buxifoliae, more specifically Group 1, the members of which are characterized by the capsules being (2)3(4)-valved, rugose or verrucose, and the seeds partially covered by the aril. The new species has a restricted distribution range and is near-endemic to the Sekhukhuneland Centre of Endemism. This biogeographical region rich in restricted-range plants is more or less congruent with surface outcrops of mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks belonging to the Rustenburg Layered Suite of the eastern Bushveld Complex. The range of the new species shows marginal intrusion into the far northern part of the nearby Wolkberg Centre of Endemism, where it is associated with dolomites of the Malmani Subgroup. Gymnosporia sekhukhuniensis is a suffrutex mainly associated with rocky outcrops in open savannah. Diagnostic characters include its dwarf habit (up to 1.6 m tall), capsules that are relatively small (5–8 mm long), woody, scaly-rugose, with hard pointed apices, and leaves that are very laxly arranged on the stems, with some often present on the thorns. Also included is a key to the 10 currently accepted species in G. sect. Buxifoliae Group 1. The taxonomic significance of capsule and seed characters for demarcating sections and species in the genus Gymnosporia is emphasized.

The review of literary sources on ecology, biology, distribution of bean bruchid ( Acanthoscelides obtectus ) and its main food plant - Phaseolus vulgaris in North and South America; Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and more details in Russia; the influence of abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic factors on the invasive process, phytosanitary condition of common bean crops in Russia is presented. Some aspects of the invader management are shown. The main stages and areas of cultivation of common bean and invasion of bean bruchid from their primary habitat in South America and in the south of North America are traced; the vectors and reasons causing them are considered. In Russia, the economic importance of bean bruchid has increased since the mid-1980s, which coincided with the climate warming; there was an expansion of its distribution in the eastern and north-western directions. At the last decades of the 20th century, it had penetrated in Smolensk and in the south part of the Tver and the Tomsk regions. With the increase in production of beans in Russia, the lack of systemic protection from bean bruchid and further increase of climate warming will contribute to the extension of its range to the north in the European part of Russia and the Urals to 57-58° N. Lat., where the conditions of the summer period are favorable for development of common bean and bean bruchid. To the east, it may spread to Tyva, Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal territory, the Amur region, the Jewish Autonomous region, and the southern part of the Khabarovsk territory. With the introduction of strict internal quarantine and a system of protection of common bean from this pest, which prevents the spread of infected dry bean, on the contrary, it is possible to reduce the distribution range of the bean bruchid, with its disappearance in the Siberian, Ural districts, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan.

Kelp gulls (Larus dominicanus) have a circumpolar distribution in the southern hemisphere. Their range extends as far north as Ecuador and they occur along the southern coast of South America and Africa as well as Australia, New Zealand and sub-Antarctic Islands. This study presents a checklist that summarizes sites of infections, localities, life cycles and their intermediate hosts (if known), and the pertinent references to demonstrate the wide diversity of kelp gull parasitic helminths. Our review of the existing literature (59 publications) on kelp gull parasites provided information on a total of 21 families and 49 genera, including 62 described species, of which 36 were described in Argentina, 21 in Chile, 12 in Antarctica, 11 in New Zealand, 7 in Brazil and 3 in South Africa. In addition, 11 parasites are recorded from Talcahuano, Chile, 10 of them are new records for Chile and 4 represented new host records, Aporchis sp., Maritrema eroliae, Microphallus nicolli and Tetrameres skrjabini.

The genus Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassl. (Solanaceae) has in the past been treated as a section of the large genus Solanum L., but is more closely related to Capsicum L. The eighteen species of Lycianthes occurring in Australia, New Guinea (defined as the island of New Guinea, comprising Papua New Guinea [incl. Bougainville] and the Indonesian provinces of Papua Barat and Papua, plus the surrounding islands connected during the last glacial maximum) and the Pacific Islands are here treated in full, with complete descriptions, including synonymy, typifications and synonyms, distribution maps and illustrations. The history of taxonomic treatment of the genus in the region is also discussed. These taxa occupy a diverse range of forested habitats, and are in diverse in habit, from small shrubs to large canopy lianas to epiphytic shrubs. They are for the most part rarely collected, and many are endemic (14 of the 18 species treated here). Australia has a single endemic Lycianthes species (L. shanesii (F.Muell.) A.R.Bean). Nine species are found in both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, one in Indonesia only, four in Papua New Guinea only, and L. vitiensis (Seem). A.R.Bean is known from Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) and the south Pacific as far east as Samoa. Lycianthes lucens S.Knapp sp. nov. is described from the islands of Lihir, New Ireland and the Louisiade Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. The cultivated L. rantonnetii (Carrière) Bitter is also treated in full, in this region known currently only from Australia; it is native to southern South America. Preliminary conservation assessments are presented for all species except the cultivated L. rantonnetii.

Knowledge about the coastal zooplankton of the south-eastern Indian Ocean is limited, with few studies having compared assemblages across the latitudinal range of the western seaboard of Australia. The dominant oceanographic feature in this region is the Leeuwin Current, which transports warm, lower-salinity, tropical waters southward along the shelf-edge. This study examined data collected by Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System at three coastal National Reference Stations located at 22°S 114°E, 32°S 115°E and 34°S 122°E. Spatial and temporal patterns in zooplankton abundance, composition and diversity were investigated, and differences in assemblage structure, particularly with respect to copepods, were related to oceanographic conditions. Clear dissimilarities among copepod assemblages were observed, becoming weaker in winter owing to enhanced connectivity of species driven by alongshore and cross-shelf transport in the Leeuwin Current. Both physical and biogeochemical factors were significant in structuring copepod assemblages, with seawater density, incorporating temperature and salinity, exerting the greatest influence. The results suggest that both broad-scale latitudinal gradients and mesoscale events contribute to variation in zooplankton assemblages in these waters. This study provides the first detailed comparison of zooplankton assemblages among the north-west, south-west and southern coastal waters of Western Australia, and enhances understanding of the processes influencing zooplankton distribution and structure.

The Striped Legless Lizard Delma impar Fischer 1882 occurs in grasslands of south-eastern Australia where it is sometimes sympatric with several congeners. Previous molecular analyses have revealed mitochondrial divergence between the northern and southern lineages of D. impar, but the status of a recently detected population assigned to the species in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales (NSW), 250 km north of other populations, remains unknown. Via morphological and molecular analyses across the known distribution of D. impar, we distinguish the population from the Hunter Valley, Liverpool Plains region as a unique taxon and describe this species as D. vescolineata sp. nov. The new species is divergent from D. impar in both nuclear and mitochondrial analysis, and differing facial scalation and colour patterning from the limited number of specimens available. The degree of mitochondrial and nuclear divergence between the previously identified northern and southern clades of D. impar is consistent with a single species. This is the first description of a Delma from south-eastern Australia since 1974, but the second new vertebrate taxon identified from the Hunter Valley region within a decade. Our research highlights our incomplete understanding of the biodiversity of the Hunter Valley region, despite its relative proximity to populous areas. The range of D. vescolineata sp. nov. is restricted and heavily overlaps with major habitat modification including mining and grazing, with no parks or reserves in this distribution protecting the species’ grassland habitat. Gathering more data to understand conservation status of this species should be a priority.

Five camps of flying-foxes (Pteropus alecto and P. scapulatus) were monitored regularly in the Darwin region between July 1994 and December 1997. For both species there was a relatively consistent annual pattern in the size and age–sex structure of camps. P. alecto appeared to be a local migrant, with numbers in the north of the study area negatively correlated with numbers in the south, but the movement did not involve all animals. Following births in February there was a southward movement of adult P. alecto in March and a return movement northward in September–November. The extent of three vegetation types surrounding camps had a significant effect (P< 0.05) on camp sizein P. alecto. Sex ratios varied between P. alecto camps, with a higher proportion of females being found in larger camps (P< 0.001), while the proportion of juveniles varied over the year (P< 0.05), but not between camps. Large numbers of P. scapulatus were annual migrants to the southern portion of the study region during July–October 1994–97, but relatively small numbers of the species were present at other times. When integrated with other published information, the pattern seen in this study supports the view that P. scapulatus undertakes regular long-range movements and uses habitat in time and space differently from P. alecto.

Trigonella suavissima Lindl. is an Australian native legume belonging to the tribe Trifolieae. It is an ephemeral species that is widely distributed in the arid interior of the continent where it occurs, following periodic inundation, on clay soils of the watercourse country of the Channel Country (far-western Queensland, north-east South Australia and north-western New South Wales). T. suavissima is the only member of its tribe that is endemic to Australia. Likewise, its root-nodule bacteria (Sinorhizobium sp.) may be the only member of its taxonomic group (S. meliloti, S. medicae) that is an Australian native. The distribution and frequency of occurrence of T. suavissima and the size of soil populations (density) of Sinorhizobium were monitored at 64 locations along inland river systems of the Channel Country. Measurements were made of (i) the nitrogen-fixing effectiveness of the symbioses between T. suavissima and strains of its homologous Sinorhizobium and (ii) the nitrogen-fixing effectiveness of the symbioses between legumes symbiotically related to T. suavissima and diverse strains of Sinorhizobium. It was concluded that the distribution and frequency of occurrence of T. suavissima is soil related. The species is most widespread on fine-textured clay soils with deep, self-mulching surfaces and high moisture-holding capacity. By contrast, the occurrence of T. suavissima is sporadic in the upper reaches of the inland river systems where the soils are poorly structured clays with lower moisture-holding capacity. Sinorhizobium is most abundant where the plant is most common. The nitrogen-fixing symbioses between T. suavissima and strains of Sinorhizobium isolated from soils across the region were consistently effective and often highly effective. Some of these strains fixed a little nitrogen with lucerne (Medicago sativa L.). T. suavissima also had some symbiotic (nitrogen-fixing) affinity with an exotic Trigonella (T. arabica Del.). The economic value of T. suavissima (and its symbiosis with Sinorhizobium) to the beef industry in the Channel Country is discussed.

Marine turtles regularly migrate hundreds to thousands of kilometres between nesting beaches and home foraging grounds. Effective conservation of marine turtles requires understanding of migration patterns in order to facilitate regional cooperation across the turtles' migratory range. Indigenous Australians maintain traditional rights and responsibilities for marine turtle management across much of the northern Australian coast. To better understand turtle migrations and identify with whom the Aboriginal people of north-east Arnhem Land (Yolngu) share turtles, we used satellite telemetry to track the migration routes of 20 green turtles (Chelonia mydas) departing from a nesting beach ~45 km south of Nhulunbuy, north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. All tracked turtles remained within the Gulf of Carpentaria. These results suggest that the foraging habitat for adults of this nesting population may be largely confined to the Gulf, offering an optimistic scenario for green turtle conservation. Given these results and the critical role indigenous people play in conserving and managing marine turtles, we recommend that a formal network of indigenous communities be established as the foundation of a community-based turtle-management strategy for the Gulf of Carpentaria region.

Following a sequence of favourable years in which pasture growth over much of the arid zone of Australia reached very high ievels, controlled burns were carried out on two contrasting vegetation types in the extreme north-west of New South Wales. A wheei-point apparatus was used to measure subse- quent changes in botanical composition and foliage cover over a four year period. On a pasture periodically dominated by Mitchell grass (Astrebla spp.) burning while growing conditions were favourable resulted in only a small long- term decrease in the cover of Mitchell grass. In the short-term all chenopod species were eliminated and a wider range and greater abundance of annual forbs were promoted in the following spring. On a similar area burned by wildfire in a year of low summer rainfall the response from Mitchell grass was much poorer and botanical composition of the pasture present in the following spring differed from that which developed in the spring following the controlled burn. It also differed from that of the unburnt pasture. The major differences were due to the response of forb species and are attributed to variation in seasonal rainfall. On a dune-system pasture the dominant grasses were species of Aristida and Enneapogon. These are relatively short-lived and appear to have little ability to regrow from the butt after fire. Their slow regeneration after the burn was reflected in the substantial increase in relative abundance of perennial forbs in the following autumn, and of annual forbs the next spring. Although fire appeared to have no long-term effect on the pasture it dramatically reduced tree and shrub numbers. It is suggested that during years in which abnormal quantities of Mitchell grass are present in this region, controlled burning could be a useful form of management. A mosaic of patches burnt at different times would reduce the potential for wide-scale wildfires, provide refuge areas for stock and wildlife in the event of wildfire, and promote a wider choice of plant material for grazing animals. However, in dune-systems vegetation, removal of the pasture cover and reduction of the tree and shrub density would constitute an erosion risk.

Lodgepole and jack pines (Pinuscontorta Dougl. ex. Loud. and Pinusbanksiana Lamb.), components of the North American boreal forest, have pioneering roles after major disturbances such as fire or glaciation. These species are closely related and hybridize in western Canada, but their fossil records and contemporary variation patterns suggest they had completely different late Quaternary histories. Several taxonomically recognized geographic races of lodgepole pine apparently survived the last glaciation without drastic modification, the northern races either persisting in far-northern refugia or migrating from the south. The uneven influence of jack pine on northern lodgepole populations implies repeated genetic contacts, but less marked introgression in the other direction could be of post-Pleistocene origin. Jack pine occupied its entire range after the last glacial maximum and lacks taxonomically recognized races. In the Great Lakes region, however, the presence of regionally distinct populations suggests the species had at least two Midwestern refugia. This hypothesis is contrary to the widely held view that jack pine occupied most or all of its range from a well-documented refugium in southeastern North America, but is supported by limited fossil evidence that pine persisted in the Midwest during the last glaciation.

Abstract In previous experiments, Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) were captured on a winter home range to which they had shown year-to-year site fidelity and held there until just before the autumn. They failed to show normal autumn migratory restlessness and fattening, which suggested that previous experience at the migratory destination suppressed readiness to migrate. We asked what the suppressing cues might be. Possibilities included very local features peculiar to the individual's winter home range (e.g. its trees) and cues common to the general region (e.g. geophysical or celestial information); features of the latter sort might give information about latitude. To test these possibilities we monitored autumn restlessness and fattening of new groups of juncos that were held before migration where some could perceive landmarks of their familiar winter home range and others only more general information about their location. In autumn those held at, near, and far south of their winter home ranges again failed to become restless or fat. A small group held far north of their winter home ranges became somewhat restless, significantly more so than the others. These may have perceived that they had not reached their usual winter latitude, but alternative explanations are possible.

Australian sites that are claimed to preserve evidence of fossil spores and pollen for Late Neogene (Late Miocene, Pliocene) climates, mostly lack one or both of the prerequisites, i.e. accurate dating and continuous preservation of plant microfossils. Nevertheless, the available data confirm that climatic gradients closely parallelled those of the present day in direction although not in strength: broad-scale vegetation successions are ecologically consistent with long-term cooling and (middle to high latitudes) drying trends in global climate. Although it is rarely possible to establish precise meteorological values for the individual sites along these gradients, climatic envelopes can be estimated for many localities. For example, during the Late Miocene–Pliocene, mean annual precipitation along the northern margin appear to range from 600 mm to 1500 mm in the Kimberley region of north-western Western Australia to above 2000–3000 mm on the Atherton Tableland, north-eastern Queensland. If these and other estimates are correct, then environments along the northern margin show only gradual (unidirectional?) change or did not fall below biologically critical thresholds during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene but began to approach modern values during Late Pliocene time. Whether the observation implies that meteorological controls at this time were similar to modern synoptic scale systems is unknown. Climates along the southern margin were more labile. For example, there is unequivocal evidence that Early Pliocene climates in the Bass Strait region were effectively more humid and warmer than at present, possibly resembling conditions now found on the northern New South Wales and southern Queensland coast. This phase was preceded (weak evidence) and succeeded (strong evidence) by less temperate conditions during the Late Miocene and Late Pliocene respectively. Forcing factors appear to include changes in relative sea level, orographic effects and, speculatively, remote events such as the isolation and reconnection of the Mediterranean Sea to the world ocean. One promising direction for future research is provided by a recently located onshore basin in Western Australia which preserves an extraordinarily long (100 m), detailed sequence of Late Neogene palynofloras.

Previous research on cane toads (Bufo marinus) has documented non-random selection of breeding sites by this invasive species. In the wet–dry tropics of the Northern Territory, toads selected spawning sites in open areas with gently sloping banks and shallow water. If consistent, such biases may present opportunities for toad control via waterbody manipulation – but first we need to know whether such criteria for spawning-site selection (1) are consistent across other parts of the toad’s extensive Australian range, and (2) differ from those of native anurans breeding at the same waterbodies. We quantified the attributes of potential and actual spawning-sites in north-eastern New South Wales, in temperate-zone habitat where cane toads have been present for many decades; our study area thus differs in many ways from the previously studied tropical site. We compared habitat and water chemistry variables between 23 cane toad breeding sites and 23 nearby unused sites. To examine habitat use at an even finer scale, we conducted nocturnal surveys of microhabitat use by calling male toads and native anurans. Our results revealed that cane toads in this region were highly selective in their choice of breeding sites, and that the criteria they used in this respect were similar to those used by toads in the Northern Territory. Calling male cane toads also used microhabitats non-randomly within each pond, apparently based on similar criteria to those used when selecting among ponds. Toads differed significantly from native anurans in these respects, suggesting that it may be feasible to manipulate waterbody attributes to impact on invasive toads without disrupting reproduction by native anurans.

Genetically controlled asynchrony in anthesis is an effective barrier to gene flow between planted and native forests. We investigated the degree of genetically controlled variation in the timing of key floral developmental stages in a major plantation species in subtropical Australia, Corymbia citriodora subsp. variegata K.D. Hill and L.A.S Johnson, and its relative C. maculata K.D. Hill and L.A.S. Johnson. Flowering observations were made in a common garden planting at Bonalbo in northern New South Wales in spring on 1855 trees from eight regions over three consecutive years, and monthly on a subset of 208 trees for 12 months. Peak anthesis time was stable over years and observations from translocated trees tended to be congruent with the observations in native stands, suggesting strong genetic control of anthesis time. A cluster of early flowering provenances was identified from the north-east of the Great Dividing Range. The recognition of a distinct flowering race from this region accorded well with earlier evidence of adaptive differentiation of populations from this region and geographically-structured genetic groupings in C. citriodora subsp. variegata. The early flowering northern race was more fecund, probably associated with its disease tolerance and greater vigour. Bud abundance fluctuated extensively at the regional level across 3 years suggesting bud abundance was more environmentally labile than timing of anthesis. Overall the level of flowering in the planted stand (age 12 years) was low (8–12% of assessed trees with open flowers), and was far lower than in nearby native stands. Low levels of flowering and asynchrony in peak anthesis between flowering races of C. citriodora subsp. variegata may partially mitigate a high likelihood of gene flow where the northern race is planted in the south of the species range neighbouring native stands.

The six species of mountain frogs (Philoria: Limnodynastidae: Anura) are endemic to south-eastern Australia. Five species occur in headwater systems in mountainous north-eastern New South Wales (NSW) and south-eastern Queensland (Qld), centred on the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. A previous molecular genetic analysis identified divergent genetic lineages in the central and western McPherson Ranges region of Qld and NSW, but sampling was inadequate to test the species status of these lineages. With more comprehensive geographic sampling and examination of the nuclear genome using SNP analysis, we show that an undescribed species, P. knowlesi sp. nov., occurs in the central and western McPherson Ranges (Levers Plateau and Mount Barney complex). The new species is not phylogenetically closely related to P. loveridgei in the nuclear data but is related to one of two divergent lineages within P. loveridgei in the mtDNA data. We postulate that the discordance between the nuclear and mtDNA outcomes is due to ancient introgression of the mtDNA genome from P. loveridgei into the new species. Male advertisement calls and multivariate morphological analyses do not reliably distinguish P. knowlesi sp. nov. from any of the Philoria species in northeast NSW and southeast Qld. The genetic comparisons also enable us to define further the distributions of P. loveridgei and P. kundagungan. Samples from the Lamington Plateau, Springbrook Plateau, Wollumbin (Mt Warning National Park), and the Nightcap Range, are all P. loveridgei, and its distribution is now defined as the eastern McPherson Ranges and Tweed caldera. Philoria kundagungan is distributed from the Mistake Mountains in south-eastern Qld to the Tooloom Scrub on the Koreelah Range, southwest of Woodenbong, in NSW, with two subpopulations identified by SNP analysis. We therefore assessed the IUCN threat category of P. loveridgei and P. kundagungan and undertook new assessments for each of its two subpopulations and for the new taxon P. knowlesi sp. nov., using IUCN Red List criteria. Philoria loveridgei, P. kundagungan (entire range and northern subpopulation separately) and P. knowlesi sp. nov. each meet criteria for “Endangered” (EN B2(a)(b)[i, iii]). The southern subpopulation of P. kundagungan, in the Koreelah Range, meets criteria for “Critically Endangered” (CE B2(a)(b)[i, iii]). These taxa are all highly threatened due to the small number of known locations, the restricted nature of their breeding habitat, and direct and indirect threats from climate change, and the potential impact of the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis. Feral pigs are an emerging threat, with significant impacts now observed in Philoria breeding habitat in the Mistake Mountains.

The present paper completes a taxonomic revision of Cassinia subg. Cassinia, a group of 35 species separated from subg. Achromolaena by the structure of its inflorescence (capitula arrangement approximately dichasial, giving rise to flat- or round-topped compound inflorescences, as opposed to the irregular or alternate arrangement of capitula in subg. Achromolaena, where the overall shape of the inflorescence is conical or elongate). The seven species of Cassinia sect. Cassinia (C. aculeata, C. thinicola, C. wilsoniae, C. longifolia, C. aureonitens, C. trinerva and C. cinerea) are keyed, described and illustrated, with discussion of ecology, distribution and variation. Cassinia aculeata subsp. nova-anglica Orchard, C. thinicola Orchard, C. wilsoniae Orchard and C. cinerea Orchard are described as new. Cassinia aculeata is a variable and widespread species. Four morphological variants are described and discussed, although not formally named. Previously suggested hybridisation between C. aculeata and Ozothamnus obcordatus is discussed, and dismissed. A new subspecies, narrowly endemic to the New England region of New South Wales (NSW), and separated by 350 km from subsp. aculeata, is described. Cassinia longifolia is similarly widespread and variable, particularly in indumentum and leaf shape. Again, four more or less distinct local morphological variants are described, but they are not formally named because of problems with satisfactory circumscription. Cassinia thinicola is newly segregated from C. aculeata. It is a strikingly distinct species, confined to coastal habitats north and south of Newcastle, distinguished by its (usually) lack of hairs on the upper leaf surface, ochre-coloured inflorescences and compact habit. Cassinia wilsoniae, confined to Wyperfeld National Park in western Victoria, has hitherto been largely overlooked, with specimens assigned to a broadly circumscribed ‘C. uncata’, or C. aculeata or C. longifolia. It is geographically widely separated from all of these taxa. It is unusual in the genus, in being confined largely to the summits of consolidated sand dunes. It has rather small inflorescences with few capitula, and these are ochre-coloured. The leaf margins are strongly revolute, almost completely covering the midrib below, unlike related taxa where the midrib remains uncovered. Cassinia cinerea is a rare species confined to south-eastern Queensland, and hitherto confused with C. laevis and C. collina, both in subg. Achromolaena (and thus with conical inflorescences). It also differs from both in a range of indumentum and leaf characters. The remaining, previously recognised, species are redescribed in detail, and their nomenclature, variation, ecology and distribution are discussed as required.

The impression has been given in previous studies that there are few bird conservation problems in the arid zone, particularly because not one of a total of 230 species has become extinct. In stark contrast, almost half of the native terrestrial mammalian fauna of the Australian arid zone has become extinct on the mainland since European occupation. Here we show that the status of one half of the avifauna has changed since European occupation, and conclude there are many threats to avian biodiversity at the regional scale in the arid zone. There are 19 species (8%) in the arid zone classified as rare and threatened nationally. Twelve more (5%) are uncommon species which have declined or are at risk in two or more regions. A further 40 species (17%) have declined in at least one arid region, although many of these remain common and some have increased elsewhere in arid Australia. At least 45 species (20%) have increased in range or abundance, including a suite of ground-feeding birds associated with degraded landscapes. Striking patterns emerged from analysis of 29 threatened and declining species: • birds associated with chenopod shrublands and grassy, riparian or floodplain environments have been most affected whereas mulga inhabitants and canopy-dwellers of riparian woodland have been little affected; • birds generally with a northem distribution have declined in the south of the arid zone and birds with a southern distribution have declined in the north of the arid zone, and these patterns contrast with many birds with a southern or continental distribution which have declined more in southern semiarid regions than within the arid zone itself; • birds which feed at ground and low shrub height have been most adversely affected; • sedentary bushbirds (passerines) are more at risk than nomads and their limited mobility seems to be a risk factor; • among non-passerines, parrots, cockatoos and pigeons are most at risk, while three passerine families stand out, namely wrens, quail-thrushes, and thornbills and allies; • contrary to findings for mammals, size does not generally appear to be an important risk factor. Land degradation and habitat alteration such as shifts in abundance or dominance of plant species caused by the introduction of exotic herbivores appear to be the principal factors causing change in status while the provision of reliable water sources in pastoral districts is also important. Introduced predators are implicated in some cases and altered fire regimes may have played a part in spinifex and mallee habitats. Competitive interactions between increasing and declining species, although not demonstrated, appear to be likely for some species. We have documented a hitherto unsuspected degree of change in avian biodiversity in the Australian arid zone. In the absence of widespread regeneration of dominant plant species in the southern arid zone, the decline of many arid zone birds will accelerate dramatically. Also, unless better management ensues, the next major drought could cause accelerated declines and extinctions. We advocate a range of measures designed to improve the conservation prospects for arid Australian birds, including lower stocking rates on pastoral properties, rehabilitation of critical habitats and their protection from exotic herbivores, experimental research on the impact of grazing and predation, and monitoring of both threatened species and a range of sedentary passerines typically associated with representative habitats in the arid zone.

The great bulk of the world’s charophyte literature of the past 100 years or more suffers from several major limitations. Much is entirely descriptive with but few attempts to ascribe any functionality to the features under consideration, or how they adapt such species to their respective ecological niches. Charophyte distributions have been attributed almost entirely to physical parameters with virtually no consideration given to the role of aquatic herbivores or other biotic environmental factors. Furthermore, most workers have focused on relatively restricted areas with little or no reference to others either near or far removed. That there is much to be gained from a wider focus (both spatially and conceptually) that incorporates greater conjecture as well as enhanced collaboration is here suggested. How are the charophyte floras of one region similar to, or different from, those of another, and, of particular significance, ‘Why?’ The authors, being North American, focus on that continent but with the firm conviction that most generalities applicable there hold equally true for other landmasses, and have done so for the previous 10, if not 100, million years. This account focuses first, if somewhat superficially, on 14 widely distinct North American charophyte communities (plus South American Lake Titicaca) and then in greater detail on four of those. Among other issues considered are how species richness relates to latitude; why some geographical entities support more charophyte species than do others; the extent to which charophyte floras reflect the availability of different habitats; the contributions of herbivory to the preceding; the stability of the North American charophyte flora; the ecological considerations most often reflected by charophyte zonation and how–or to what extent–range extensions reflect niche preferences or requirements. While the authors well appreciate just how minimal their efforts may appear a century hence, at least they hope to have placed on the table some considerations with which colleagues from other landmasses may agree, disagree or suggest modifications.

Explaining why some species are widespread, while others are not, is fundamental to biogeography, ecology, and evolutionary biology. A unique way to study evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that either limit species’ spread or facilitate range expansions is to conduct research on species that have restricted distributions. Nonindigenous species, particularly those that are highly invasive but have not yet spread beyond the introduced site, represent ideal systems to study range size changes. Here, we used species distribution modeling and genomic data to study the restricted range of a highly invasive Australian marine species, the ascidian Pyura praeputialis. This species is an aggressive space occupier in its introduced range (Chile), where it has fundamentally altered the coastal community. We found high genomic diversity in Chile, indicating high adaptive potential. In addition, genomic data clearly showed that a single region from Australia was the only donor of genotypes to the introduced range. We identified over 3,500 km of suitable habitat adjacent to its current introduced range that has so far not been occupied, and importantly species distribution models were only accurate when genomic data were considered. Our results suggest that a slight change in currents, or a change in shipping routes, may lead to an expansion of the species’ introduced range that will encompass a vast portion of the South American coast. Our study shows how the use of population genomics and species distribution modeling in combination can unravel mechanisms shaping range sizes and forecast future range shifts of invasive species.

We report some surprising recent distributional range extensions of one extant genus and two more families of primitive moths discovered in amber fossils from South-east Asia which were previously only known from Australia and/or the southwestern Pacific, with the possible exception of an undescribed Siberian fossil attributed to Lophocoronidae. During entomological field work in rain forests of central Vietnam a new species of Micropterigidae was discovered. It is described herein as Aureopterix bachmaensis sp. nov. based on male and female specimens collected at light in the Bach-Ma National Park. The identification was corroborated by a molecular analysis. This is the first record of this genus in the Northern Hemisphere, previously thought to be restricted to the Australian Region (including New Caledonia). First results of investigations of Burmese amber inclusions now reveal the presence of the Australian Region families Agathiphagidae and Lophocoronidae in the Cretaceous of Asia. The fossil taxon Agathiphagama perdita gen. nov., sp. nov. is established on the basis of two females and this is assigned to Agathiphagidae. The fossil genus Acanthocorona gen. nov. is established in Lophocoronidae and includes seven species described here as A. skalskiisp. nov., A. bowangisp. nov., A. muellerisp. nov., A. kuranishiisp. nov., A. sattlerisp. nov., A. spiniferasp. nov. and A. wichardisp. nov. The new species can be distinguished by the male genitalia which are illustrated together with wing venation and other morphological characters. The disjunct ranges of these taxa are discussed in a historical biogeographic context. Vicariance and dispersal hypotheses explaining the disjunct pattern are discussed. The discovery of these new species suggests a broader ancestral range of Aureopterix, Agathiphagidae and Lophocoronidae. Their extant ranges may be regarded as remnants or relicts of a wider distribution in the Mesozoic, or at least in the case of Aureopterix they could be the results of recent or ancient dispersal processes, since the calibration of molecular splits does not so far accord with plate tectonics.

AbstractThe circumscription of the lichenized ascomycete genus Icmadophila Trevis. in the family Icmadophilaceae Triebel was investigated. Sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and large subunit of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nuLSU) were generated for the five Icmadophila species and additional members of Icmadophilaceae from the genera Dibaeis, Endocena, Knightiella, Siphula, Siphulella and Thamnolia. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that three Icmadophila species are closely related: the type, I. ericetorum (L.) Zahlbr., which is widespread in Eurasia and North America, I. aversa (Nyl.) Rambold & Hertel from Central and South America, and I. japonica (Zahlbr.) Rambold & Hertel, which is restricted to Far East Russia and Japan. The genus Knightiella Müll. Arg. is reinstated to accommodate I. splachnirima (Hook.f. & Taylor) D. J. Galloway emend. L. Ludw., which occurs in New Zealand and Australia. Two further species of Knightiella, K. eucalypti (Kantvilas) Kantvilas and K. queenslandica Kantvilas, are found to be unrelated to K. splachnirima, and are accommodated in two newly described genera, Knightiellastrum and Siphulopsis respectively. Knightiellastrum L. Ludw. & Kantvilas is characterized by a squamulose, erhizinate, whitish to pale grey thallus with a green, coccoid photobiont and by containing thamnolic acid. Siphulopsis Kantvilas & A. R. Nilsen is similarly characterized by an erhizinate, whitish to pale grey thallus, with a green, coccoid photobiont and containing thamnolic acid, but is instead fruticose. This study reveals considerable diversity within Australasian Icmadophilaceae; ongoing work in the Southern Hemisphere and tropical regions may reveal additional species in this family and clarify the relationships of these newly described genera.

Abstract A systematic programme of surveys for entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) was done in Chile between 2006 and 2008. The survey spanned the principal ecosystems of mainland Chile as well as a number of islands, and covered a wide range of habitats including the Atacama Desert, Andean Altiplano, temperate rainforests and subpolar territory. Nearly 1400 soil samples were collected, of which 7% were positive for EPN. Of 101 EPN isolates obtained, 94 were Steinernema spp. and seven were Heterorhabditis sp. Of the 94 Steinernema isolates, 39 were identified as Steinernema feltiae, the remainder being distributed between two new species, S. unicornum (52 records) and S. australe (three records). The Heterorhabditis isolates, all designated as Heterorhabditis sp.1, are referred to herein as H. cf. safricana. Steinernema feltiae and S. unicornum were collected predominately in the south of Chile and were obtained from a range of habitats, including forests, open grassland, montane soils and coastal zones; neither species was recovered from the far north of the country (viz., desert soils in the Norte Grande region). Steinernema australe was found in only three soil samples, all from humid, cool, coastal localities in the south. Heterorhabditis cf. safricana was recovered from the northern regions, with most isolates found in or on the periphery of the Atacama Desert; they were not recovered from cooler, more humid regions of southern Chile. Molecular information indicated there were two subgroups of both S. unicornum and S. feltiae, with a geographical, intraspecific split of subgroups between the most southerly and the more central survey zones. All isolates were collected by ex situ baiting with waxmoth larvae and the natural hosts are unknown.

Ptilinopus superbus (body mass 120.4 5.2 g) is a highly specialised, migratory avian frugivore that is widespread in the rainforests of the Indo-Pacific Region and north-eastern Australia. The effect of the specialised diet on metabolic rate (MR) and body temperature (Tb) were investigated at ambient temperatures (Ta) of 13-30ºC in activity (α) and rest (ρ) phases. At thermoneutrality (Ta = 26ºC), the basal metabolic rate (BMR) was 23.2 4.49 J g-1 h-1 , which corresponds closely to the predicted value (22.6 J g-1 h-1). Wet thermal conductance (Cwet) was 2.39 0.45 J g-1 h-1 ºC-1 in α and 1.75 0.13 J g-1 h-1 ºC-1 in ρ for Ta between 13 and 21ºC. These conductances are higher than expected (α: 1.87 J g-1 h-1 ºC-1; ρ: 1.16 J g-1 h-1 ºC-1) for a non-passerine bird of this body mass (M), indicating poor insulation of this tropical species. Tb was 39.6 0.76ºC in α and 38.1 0.55ºC in ρ in the observed Ta range, corresponding closely to expected values (40.9 1.35 in α and 38.6 0.66 in ρ). This study shows no evidence of an influence of the fruit diet on the metabolic physiology of superb fruit doves. Analysis of BMR data for all pigeon species sampled so far provides no evidence that a low basal metabolic rate is a general characteristic of the Columbidae.

Despite beetles (Coleoptera) representing most existing animal species, the ecological and biogeographical factors shaping their distribution are still unclear in many regions. We implemented state-of-the-art ecological niche models (ENMs) and niche overlap analysis to investigate climate–occurrence patterns for five flea beetle species of the genus Chaetocnema in South Africa (C. brincki, C. danielssoni, C. darwini, C. gahani, and C. natalensis). ENMs were fitted through Maxent and Random Forests, testing various parameterizations. For each species, tuned ENMs attaining good discrimination on spatially independent test data were selected to predict suitability across the study region and individuate its main climatic drivers. Percentage coverage of climatically suitable areas by seventeen Afrotropical vegetation formations was also computed. Predicted suitable areas do not extend far away from known presence localities, except for C. brincki and C. gahani in north-eastern South Africa. Temperate grasslands and shrublands cover most of suitable areas for C. brincki and C. gahani, along with warm temperate forests, as well as for C. danielssoni, in this case being followed by tropical flooded and swamp forests. Climatic suitability for C. darwini mainly relates to the Mediterranean grasslands and scrublands of the southern coastal region, while suitable areas for C. natalensis encompass various vegetation formations, coherently with its wide distribution. The environmental niche of C. danielssoni significantly overlaps with those of the wide-ranging C. darwini and C. natalensis, suggesting that historical factors, rather than low climatic tolerance, has determined its restricted distribution in the Western Cape Province. Maxent and Random Forests were confirmed to be of great help in disentangling the environment–occurrence relationships and in predicting suitability for the target species outside their known range, but they need to be properly tuned to perform at their best.

Abstract— Acaena (Rosaceae) is the most complex and ecologically variable genus in Sanguisorbinae. Although it has been the subject of several taxonomic treatments, the largest phylogenetic analysis to date only sampled a small fraction of the total global diversity (five to seven out of 45 to 50 species). This study included most of the species to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of Acaena and biogeographic patterns in Sanguisorbinae. Phylogenetic analyses of non-coding nuclear (ITS region) and chloroplast (trnL-F) DNA sequence markers using maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses suggested that Acaena is a paraphyletic group with species of Margyricarpus and Tetraglochin nested within it. We identified strong support for eight subclades that are geographically or taxonomically structured. Nevertheless, the species-level relationships within subclades are still uncertain, which may be due to rapid diversification and lack of informative characters in the markers used. Sanguisorbinae, a primarily Southern Hemisphere clade, exhibits a classic Gondwana disjunct distribution. This current distribution is explained primarily by eight long-distance dispersal events. Our results suggested that Sanguisorbinae split into Cliffortia and Acaena around 13.6 mya. While Cliffortia diversified in southern South Africa, Acaena experienced several migration events in the Southern Hemisphere. Our estimation of the ancestral range suggested that Acaena likely originated in South Africa, followed by migration and subsequent diversification into southern South America. From there, the genus migrated to New Zealand, throughout the Andes, and to tropical areas in Central America, reaching as far north as California. Chile and New Zealand are the main sources of propagules for dispersal as well as the greatest diversity for the genus. The evolutionary relationships of species in Acaena combine a history of rapid diversifications, long-distance dispersals, and genetic variation within some taxa. Further research should be undertaken to clarify the infraspecific classification of A. magellanica.

The phyletic relationships both between and within many of tardigrade genera have been barely studied and they remain obscure. Amongst them is the cosmopolitan Bryodelphax, one of the smallest in terms of body size echiniscid genera. The analysis of newly-found populations and species from the Mediterranean region and from South-East Asia gave us an opportunity to present the first phylogeny of this genus, which showed that phenotypic traits used in classical Bryodelphax taxonomy do not correlate with their phyletic relationships. In contrast, geographic distribution of the analysed species suggests their limited dispersal abilities and seems to be a reliable predictor of phylogenetic affinities within the genus. Moreover, we describe three new species of the genus. Bryodelphax australasiaticussp. nov., by having the ventral plate configuration VII:4-4-2-4-2-2-1, is a new member of the weglarskae group with a wide geographic range extending from the Malay Peninsula through the Malay Archipelago to Australia. Bryodelphax decoratussp. nov. from Central Sulawesi (Celebes) also belongs to the weglarskae group (poorly visible ventral plates VII:4-2-2-4-2-2-1) and is closely related to the recently described Bryodelphax arenosus Gąsiorek, 2018, but is differentiated from the latter by well-developed epicuticular granules on the dorsum. Finally, a new dioecious species, Bryodelphax nigripunctatussp. nov., is described from Mallorca and, by the reduced ventral armature (II/III:2-2-(1)), it resembles Bryodelphax maculatus Gąsiorek et al., 2017. The latter species, known so far only from northern Africa, is recorded from Europe for the first time. A taxonomic key to the genus members is also presented.

Using demonstrated relationships between body mass and humeral and femoral circumferences, we calculate the weight of the only specimen of Thylacoleo carnifex known from a near-complete skeleton. Body weights of 112–143 kg were estimated for this individual, from Moree, north-western New South Wales. Extrapolating on the basis of geometric similtude, we further estimated the weight of the largest T. carnifex for which we had cranial data at 128–164 kg. Moreover, estimates for at least three of the thirteen available specimens exceeded 124–160 kg, suggesting that individuals of this size were common. Our estimates of average weight for the species range from 101 to 130 kg. These results clearly show that Pleistocene Australia had a 'large' cat equivalent and that 'large' terrestrial predator niches were not then occupied exclusively by reptiles.They may also diminish the argument that soil-nutrient deficiency constrained the evolution of large mammalian carnivores on this continent in the Pleistocene. Similarly, we posit that prima facie evidence for reptilian domination of terrestrial carnivore niches during the Miocene is wanting, although it is conceded that far more detailed investigation is required to comprehensively test these hypotheses. Earlier studies have drawn parallels between T. carnifex and sabre-toothed predators, thought to have specialised in hunting particularly large and powerful prey. Taken in the context of upwardly revised weight estimates, we argue that Pleistocene marsupial lions may have dispatched even Diprotodon-sized animals. But again, more comprehensive study, including thorough biomechanical design analysis of the post-cranial skeleton in particular, will be required to thoroughly illuminate the predatory habitus and general ecology of Australia's largest and most specialised marsupial carnivore.

Social Return on Investment (SROI) is an internationally recognised methodology used to measure and value the economic impact of program outcomes. Like a traditional cost-benefit analysis, SROI examines economic outcomes, but also includes the social, environmental and cultural outcomes created by the investment. These outcomes are evaluated against their cost, using financial proxies to estimate their relative economic worth. SROI is particularly valuable in the indigenous natural resource management context, because of the strong ‘value’ or importance of non-economic (particularly cultural) costs and benefits. The Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resources Management Board undertook a study of the economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts and benefits of the presence of large feral herbivores in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, in the far north-west of South Australia. Camels, donkeys and horses present significant impacts for the community in terms of vehicle collisions, community health, damage to infrastructure and water pollution, as well as impacts on sites of cultural and spiritual significance to the local communities. With the annual cost impacts incurred by society caused by large feral herbivores in the APY lands valued at $4.2million and possible dollar value of those animals valued at $140000, the study found that there was a net cost impact of ~$4million from not managing the impact of these animals. The study also found significant cultural impacts of large feral herbivores, such as the fouling of natural springs and other culturally sensitive sites, and further analysis would be required to determine the economic cost of these impacts. Investment models that consider a broad range of costs and benefits are considered necessary for Australian rangelands, particularly Indigenous-owned land. This paper presents a case study of the development of a ranger program that employs local community members to manage the impacts of large feral herbivores that will provide a net benefit to society of ~$3million every year, aside from the additional benefits of employment and economic participation. The $3-million net benefit accrues from saving human lives and costs associated with vehicle accidents, and reduced management costs and increased income for pastoral areas of the APY Lands. APY community members, and the APY Pastoral business are core beneficiaries; however, there are several external beneficiaries that this SROI approach recognises including the Motor Accident Commission, Health Departments and South Australian Police. The strongly positive SROI in this case presents an excellent co-investment opportunity for agencies whose core focus is on road safety and health. Importantly, the SROI approach to creation of social value can be implemented in a way that is consistent with stated community aspirations for development.

Although the first issue of Zootaxa appeared in 2001 it was not until two years later, in August 2003, that this aspiring and inspiring new journal issued the first paper on the insect Order Thysanoptera, in Volume 268. Moreover, it was not until February 2005 that the second paper concerning this group appeared in Zootaxa. The subsequent expansion is summarized most succinctly by the number of Thysanoptera papers that appeared in Zootaxa in each of the four five-year periods of these two decades: 5; 40; 92; 134 (see Table 1). The 270 papers concerning this group of insects that appeared in Zootaxa over the 20-year period involved more than 120 authors. These papers were submitted by workers from about 30 different countries, but most of them were from areas of high but previously unexplored species diversity, particularly Australia, Brazil, China, India, Iran, Japan and Malaysia. However, significant contributions were submitted from the far north, including Poland and Russia, as well as the far south, such as Argentina and New Zealand. One reason for the popularity of Zootaxa amongst workers on thrips is presumably the knowledge that this section is edited by two active students of these insects. The editors are pleased to have rejected no more than five papers over these two decades, but they provide much help to authors in shaping manuscripts to ensure that the submitted information is both appropriate, scientifically correct, novel and clearly expressed. Moreover, the journal ensures that manuscripts are published very quickly, usually within four weeks of acceptance by the editors. For the readers a further advantage of Zootaxa is that just over 50% of the published articles on Thysanoptera are freely available on the web, as authors have arranged for Open Access. The thrips publications issued in Zootaxa have included descriptions of 563 new species and 41 new genera of Thysanoptera. These new species represent 9% of the 6300 valid extant species currently listed in this Order, and the new genera represent 5% of the 780 currently recognized genera (ThripsWiki 2021). Many of the publications are only of one or two pages and are issued as Correspondence. Each of these deals with a single new species, or a previously unknown male of a species, or some new and particularly unusual record for a country or host plant. At the opposite extreme are the Monographs that involve revisions of all of the species in a genus, such as the 60 species recognised in the South American genus Holopothrips, or the 30 species known in the worldwide genus Mycterothrips. Others provide illustrated keys to large numbers of genera, such as the 100 genera of Phlaeothripinae that have been recorded from South East Asia. Such extensive studies provide the factual resource on which many of the Articles published in Zootaxa are based. These Articles range from taxonomic revisions of small genera, or of the species found in particular geographic areas, through studies on character state variation and homologies, to historical accounts and catalogues. The very considerable increase in information in recent years about the taxonomic and biological diversity of this group of insects (Mound & Hastenpflug-Vesmanis2021) owes much to the existence of the journal Zootaxa.

Austral summer estimates of abundance are obtained for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Southern Ocean from the IWC’s IDCR and SOWER circumpolar programmes. These surveys have encircled the Antarctic three times: 1978/79–1983/84 (CPI), 1985/86–1990/91 (CPII) and 1991/92–2003/04 (CPIII), criss-crossing strata totalling respectively 64.3%, 79.5% and 99.7% of the open-ocean area south of 60°S. Humpback whales were absent from the Ross Sea, but were sighted in all other regions, and in particularly high densities around the Antarctic Peninsula, in Management Area IV and north of the Ross Sea. Abundance estimates are presented for each CP, for Management Areas, and for assumed summer feeding regions of each Breeding Stock. Abundance estimates are negatively biased because some whales on the trackline are missed and because some humpback whales are outside the survey region. Circumpolar estimates with approximate midpoints of 1980/81, 1987/88 and 1997/98 are 7,100 (CV = 0.36), 10,200 (CV = 0.30) and 41,500 (CV = 0.11). When these are adjusted simply for unsurveyed northern areas, the estimated annual rate of increase is 9.6% (95% CI 5.8–13.4%). All Breeding Stocks are estimated to be increasing but increase rates are significantly greater than zero only for those on the eastern and western coasts of Australia. Given the observed rates of increase, the current total Southern Hemisphere abundance is greater than 55,000, which is similar to the summed northern breeding ground estimates (~60,000 from 1999–2008). Some breeding ground abundance estimates are far greater, and others far lower, than the corresponding IDCR/SOWER estimates, in a pattern apparently related to the latitudinal position of the Antarctic Polar Front.

IntroductionRegional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.The Tasmanian Midlands have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot (Australian Government), with a long history of Aboriginal cultural management disrupted by colonial invasion. Recent archaeological work in the Midlands, including the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project, has focused on the use of convict labour during the nineteenth century in opening up the Midlands for settler agriculture and transport. Now, the Midlands are placed under increasing pressure by changing agricultural practices such as large-scale irrigation. At the same time as this intensification of agricultural activity, significant progress has been made in protecting, preserving and restoring endemic ecologies. This progress has come through non-government conservation organisations, especially Greening Australia and their program Tasmanian Island Ark, and private landowners placing land under conservation covenants. These pressures and conservation activities give rise to research opportunities in the biological sciences, but also pose challenges in communicating the value of conservation and research outcomes to a wider public. The Species Hotel project, beginning in 2016, engaged with the aims of restoration ecology through speculative design while The Marathon Project, a multi-year curatorial art project based on a single property that contains both conservation and commercially farmed zones.This article questions the role of regionality in these three interconnected projects—Kerry Lodge, Species Hotel, and Marathon—sited in the Tasmanian Midlands: the three projects share a concern with the specificities of the region through engagement with specifics sites and their histories and ecologies, while also acknowledging the forces that shape these sites as far more mobile and global in scope. It also considers the interdisciplinary nature of these projects, in the crossover of art and design with ecological, archaeological and agricultural practices of measuring and intervening in the land, where communication and interpretation may be in tension with functionality. These projects suggest ways of working that connect the ecological and the cultural spheres; importantly, they see rural locations as sites of knowledge production; they test the value of small-scale and ephemeral interventions to explore the place of art and design as intervention within colonised landscape.Regions are also defined by overlapping circles of control, interest, and authority. We test the claim that these projects, which operate through cross-disciplinary collaboration and network with a range of stakeholders and community groups, successfully benefit the region in which they are placed. We are particularly interested in the challenges of working across institutions which both claim and enact connections to the region without being centred there. These projects are initiatives resulting from, or in collaboration with, University of Tasmania, an institution that has taken a recent turn towards explicitly identifying as place-based yet the placement of the Midlands as the gap between campuses risks attenuating the institution’s claim to be of this place. Paul Carter, in his discussion of a regional, site-specific collaboration in Alice Springs, flags how processes of creative place-making—operating through mythopoetic and story-based strategies—requires a concrete rather than imagined community that actively engages a plurality of voices on the ground. We identify similar concerns in these art and design projects and argue that iterative and long-term creative projects enable a deeper grappling with the complexities of shared regional place-making. The Midlands is aptly named: as a region, it is defined by its geographical constraints and relationships to urban centres. Heading south from the northern city of Launceston, travellers on the Midland Highway see scores of farming properties networking continuously for around 175 kilometres south to the outskirts of Brighton, the last major township before the Tasmanian capital city of Hobart. The town of Ross straddles latitude 42 degrees south—a line that has historically divided Tasmania into the divisions of North and South. The region is characterised by extensive agricultural usage and small remnant patches of relatively open dry sclerophyll forest and lowland grassland enabled by its lower attitude and relatively flatter terrain. The Midlands sit between the mountainous central highlands of the Great Western Tiers and the Eastern Tiers, a continuous range of dolerite hills lying south of Ben Lomond that slope coastward to the Tasman Sea. This area stretches far beyond the view of the main highway, reaching east in the Deddington and Fingal valleys. Campbell Town is the primary stopping point for travellers, superseding the bypassed towns, which have faced problems with lowering population and resulting loss of facilities.Image 1: Southern Midland Landscape, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.Predominantly under private ownership, the Tasmanian Midlands are a contested and fractured landscape existing in a state of ecological tension that has occurred with the dominance of western agriculture. For over 200 years, farmers have continually shaped the land and carved it up into small fragments for different agricultural agendas, and this has resulted in significant endemic species decline (Mitchell et al.). The open vegetation was the product of cultural management of land by Tasmanian Aboriginal communities (Gammage), attractive to settlers during their distribution of land grants prior to the 1830s and a focus for settler violence. As documented cartographically in the Centre for 21st Century Humanities’ Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930, the period 1820–1835, and particularly during the Black War, saw the Midlands as central to the violent dispossession of Aboriginal landowners. Clements argues that the culture of violence during this period also reflected the brutalisation that the penal system imposed upon its subjects. The cultivation of agricultural land throughout the Midlands was enabled by the provision of unfree convict labour (Dillon). Many of the properties granted and established during the colonial period have been held in multi-generational family ownership through to the present.Within this patchwork of private ownership, the tension between visibility and privacy of the Midlands pastures and farmlands challenges the capacity for people to understand what role the Midlands plays in the greater Tasmanian ecology. Although half of Tasmania’s land areas are protected as national parks and reserves, the Midlands remains largely unprotected due to private ownership. When measured against Tasmania’s wilderness values and reputation, the dry pasturelands of the Midland region fail to capture an equivalent level of visual and experiential imagination. Jamie Kirkpatrick describes misconceptions of the Midlands when he writes of “[f]latness, dead and dying eucalypts, gorse, brown pastures, salt—environmental devastation […]—these are the common impression of those who first travel between Spring Hill and Launceston on the Midland Highway” (45). However, Kirkpatrick also emphasises the unique intimate and intricate qualities of this landscape, and its underlying resilience. In the face of the loss of paddock trees and remnants to irrigation, change in species due to pasture enrichment and introduction of new plant species, conservation initiatives that not only protect but also restore habitat are vital. The Tasmanian Midlands, then, are pastoral landscapes whose seeming monotonous continuity glosses over the radical changes experienced in the processes of colonisation and intensification of agriculture.Underlying the Present: Archaeology and Landscape in the Kerry Lodge ProjectThe major marker of the Midlands is the highway that bisects it. Running from Hobart to Launceston, the construction of a “great macadamised highway” (Department of Main Roads 10) between 1820–1850, and its ongoing maintenance, was a significant colonial project. The macadam technique, a nineteenth century innovation in road building which involved the laying of small pieces of stone to create a surface that was relatively water and frost resistant, required considerable but unskilled labour. The construction of the bridge at Kerry Lodge, in 1834–35, was simultaneous with significant bridge buildings at other major water crossings on the highway, (Department of Main Roads 16) and, as the first water crossing south of Launceston, was a pinch-point through which travel of prisoners could be monitored and controlled. Following the completion of the bridge, the site was used to house up to 60 male convicts in a road gang undergoing secondary punishment (1835–44) and then in a labour camp and hiring depot until 1847. At the time of the La Trobe report (1847), the buildings were noted as being in bad condition (Brand 142–43). After the station was disbanded, the use of the buildings reverted to the landowners for use in accommodation and agricultural storage.Archaeological research at Kerry Lodge, directed by Eleanor Casella, investigated the spatial and disciplinary structures of smaller probation and hiring depots and the living and working conditions of supervisory staff. Across three seasons (2015, 2016, 2018), the emerging themes of discipline and control and as well as labour were borne out by excavations across the site, focusing on remnants of buildings close to the bridge. This first season also piloted the co-presence of a curatorial art project, which grew across the season to include eleven practitioners in visual art, theatre and poetry, and three exhibition outcomes. As a crucial process for the curatorial art project, creative practitioners spent time on site as participants and observers, which enabled the development of responses that interrogated the research processes of archaeological fieldwork as well as making connections to the wider historical and cultural context of the site. Immersed in the mundane tasks of archaeological fieldwork, the practitioners involved became simultaneously focused on repetitive actions while contemplating the deep time contained within earth. This experience then informed the development of creative works interrogating embodied processes as a language of site.The outcome from the first fieldwork season was earthspoke, an exhibition shown at Sawtooth, an artist-run initiative in Launceston in 2015, and later re-installed in Franklin House, a National Trust property in the southern suburbs of Launceston.Images 2 and 3: earthspoke, 2015, Installation View at Sawtooth ARI (top) and Franklin House (bottom). Image Credits: Melanie de Ruyter.This recontextualisation of the work, from contemporary ARI (artist run initiative) gallery to National Trust property enabled the project to reach different audiences but also raised questions about the emphases that these exhibition contexts placed on the work. Within the white cube space of the contemporary gallery, connections to site became more abstracted while the educational and heritage functions of the National Trust property added further context and unintended connotations to the art works.Image 4: Strata, 2017, Installation View. Image Credit: Karen Hall.The two subsequent exhibitions, Lines of Site (2016) and Strata (2017), continued to test the relationship between site and gallery, through works that rematerialised the absences on site and connected embodied experiences of convict and archaeological labour. The most recent iteration of the project, Strata, part of the Ten Days on the Island art festival in 2017, involved installing works at the site, marking with their presence the traces, fragments and voids that had been reburied when the landscape returned to agricultural use following the excavations. Here, the interpretive function of the works directly addressed the layered histories of the landscape and underscored the scope of the human interventions and changes over time within the pastoral landscape. The interpretative role of the artworks formed part of a wider, multidisciplinary approach to research and communication within the project. University of Manchester archaeology staff and postgraduate students directed the excavations, using volunteers from the Launceston Historical Society. Staff from Launceston’s Queen Victorian Museum and Art Gallery brought their archival and collection-based expertise to the site rather than simply receiving stored finds as a repository, supporting immediate interpretation and contextualisation of objects. In 2018, participation from the University of Tasmania School of Education enabled a larger number of on-site educational activities than afforded by previous open days. These multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational networks, drawn together provisionally in a shared time and place, provided rich opportunities for dialogue. However, the challenges of sustaining these exchanges have meant ongoing collaborations have become more sporadic, reflecting different institutional priorities and competing demands on participants. Even within long-term projects, continued engagement with stakeholders can be a challenge: while enabling an emerging and concrete sense of community, the time span gives greater vulnerability to external pressures. Making Home: Ecological Restoration and Community Engagement in the Species Hotel ProjectImages 5 and 6: Selected Species Hotels, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credits: Patrick Sutczak. The Species Hotels stand sentinel over a river of saplings, providing shelter for animal communities within close range of a small town. At the township of Ross in the Southern Midlands, work was initiated by restoration ecologists to address the lack of substantial animal shelter belts on a number of major properties in the area. The Tasmania Island Ark is a major Greening Australia restoration ecology initiative, connecting 6000 hectares of habitat across the Midlands. Linking larger forest areas in the Eastern Tiers and Central Highlands as well as isolated patches of remnant native vegetation, the Ark project is vital to the ongoing survival of local plant and animal species under pressure from human interventions and climate change. With fragmentation of bush and native grasslands in the Midland landscape resulting in vast open plains, the ability for animals to adapt to pasturelands without shelter has resulted in significant decline as animals such as the critically endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot struggle to feed, move, and avoid predators (Cranney). In 2014 mass plantings of native vegetation were undertaken along 16km of the serpentine Macquarie River as part of two habitat corridors designed to bring connectivity back to the region. While the plantings were being established a public art project was conceived that would merge design with practical application to assist animals in the area, and draw community and public attention to the work that was being done in re-establishing native forests. The Species Hotel project, which began in 2016, emerged from a collaboration between Greening Australia and the University of Tasmania’s School of Architecture and Design, the School of Land and Food, the Tasmanian College of the Arts and the ARC Centre for Forest Value, with funding from the Ian Potter Foundation. The initial focus of the project was the development of interventions in the landscape that could address the specific habitat needs of the insect, small mammal, and bird species that are under threat. First-year Architecture students were invited to design a series of structures with the brief that they would act as ‘Species Hotels’, and once created would be installed among the plantings as structures that could be inhabited or act as protection. After installation, the privately-owned land would be reconfigured so to allow public access and observation of the hotels, by residents and visitors alike. Early in the project’s development, a concern was raised during a Ross community communication and consultation event that the surrounding landscape and its vistas would be dramatically altered with the re-introduced forest. While momentary and resolved, a subtle yet obvious tension surfaced that questioned the re-writing of an established community’s visual landscape literacy by non-residents. Compact and picturesque, the architectural, historical and cultural qualities of Ross and its location were not only admired by residents, but established a regional identity. During the six-week intensive project, the community reach was expanded beyond the institution and involved over 100 people including landowners, artists, scientists and school children from the region (Wright), attempting to address and channel the concerns of residents about the changing landscape. The multiple timescales of this iterative project—from intensive moments of collaboration between stakeholders to the more-than-human time of tree growth—open spaces for regional identity to shift as both as place and community. Part of the design brief was the use of fully biodegradable materials: the Species Hotels are not expected to last forever. The actual installation of the Species Hotelson site took longer than planned due to weather conditions, but once on site they were weathering in, showing signs of insect and bird habitation. This animal activity created an opportunity for ongoing engagement. Further activities generated from the initial iteration of Species Hotel were the Species Hotel Day in 2017, held at the Ross Community Hall where presentations by scientists and designers provided feedback to the local community and presented opportunities for further design engagement in the production of ephemeral ‘species seed pies’ placed out in and around Ross. Architecture and Design students have gone on to develop more examples of ‘ecological furniture’ with a current focus on insect housing as well as extrapolating from the installation of the Species Hotels to generate a VR visualisation of the surrounding landscape, game design and participatory movement work that was presented as part of the Junction Arts Festival program in Launceston, 2017. The intersections of technologies and activities amplified the lived in and living qualities of the Species Hotels, not only adding to the connectivity of social and environmental actions on site and beyond, but also making a statement about the shared ownership this project enabled.Working Property: Collaboration and Dialogues in The Marathon Project The potential of iterative projects that engage with environmental concerns amid questions of access, stewardship and dialogue is also demonstrated in The Marathon Project, a collaborative art project that took place between 2015 and 2017. Situated in the Northern Midland region of Deddington alongside the banks of the Nile River the property of Marathon became the focal point for a small group of artists, ecologists and theorists to converge and engage with a pastoral landscape over time that was unfamiliar to many of them. Through a series of weekend camps and day trips, the participants were able to explore and follow their own creative and investigative agendas. The project was conceived by the landowners who share a passion for the history of the area, their land, and ideas of custodianship and ecological responsibility. The intentions of the project initially were to inspire creative work alongside access, engagement and dialogue about land, agriculture and Deddington itself. As a very small town on the Northern Midland fringe, Deddington is located toward the Eastern Tiers at the foothills of the Ben Lomond mountain ranges. Historically, Deddington is best known as the location of renowned 19th century landscape painter John Glover’s residence, Patterdale. After Glover’s death in 1849, the property steadily fell into disrepair and a recent private restoration effort of the home, studio and grounds has seen renewed interest in the cultural significance of the region. With that in mind, and with Marathon a neighbouring property, participants in the project were able to experience the area and research its past and present as a part of a network of working properties, but also encouraging conversation around the region as a contested and documented place of settlement and subsequent violence toward the Aboriginal people. Marathon is a working property, yet also a vital and fragile ecosystem. Marathon consists of 1430 hectares, of which around 300 lowland hectares are currently used for sheep grazing. The paddocks retain their productivity, function and potential to return to native grassland, while thickets of gorse are plentiful, an example of an invasive species difficult to control. The rest of the property comprises eucalypt woodlands and native grasslands that have been protected under a conservation covenant by the landowners since 2003. The Marathon creek and the Nile River mark the boundary between the functional paddocks and the uncultivated hills and are actively managed in the interface between native and introduced species of flora and fauna. This covenant aimed to preserve these landscapes, linking in with a wider pattern of organisations and landowners attempting to address significant ecological degradation and isolation of remnant bushland patches through restoration ecology. Measured against the visibility of Tasmania’s wilderness identity on the national and global stage, many of the ecological concerns affecting the Midlands go largely unnoticed. The Marathon Project was as much a project about visibility and communication as it was about art and landscape. Over the three years and with its 17 participants, The Marathon Project yielded three major exhibitions along with numerous public presentations and research outputs. The length of the project and the autonomy and perspectives of its participants allowed for connections to be formed, conversations initiated, and greater exposure to the productivity and sustainability complexities playing out on rural Midland properties. Like Kerry Lodge, the 2015 first year exhibition took place at Sawtooth ARI. The exhibition was a testing ground for artists, and a platform for audiences, to witness the cross-disciplinary outputs of work inspired by a single sheep grazing farm. The interest generated led to the rethinking of the 2016 exhibition and the need to broaden the scope of what the landowners and participants were trying to achieve. Image 7: Panel Discussion at Open Weekend, 2016. Image Credit: Ron Malor.In November 2016, The Marathon Project hosted an Open Weekend on the property encouraging audiences to visit, meet the artists, the landowners, and other invited guests from a number of restoration, conservation, and rehabilitation organisations. Titled Encounter, the event and accompanying exhibition displayed in the shearing shed, provided an opportunity for a rhizomatic effect with the public which was designed to inform and disseminate historical and contemporary perspectives of land and agriculture, access, ownership, visitation and interpretation. Concluding with a final exhibition in 2017 at the University of Tasmania’s Academy Gallery, The Marathon Project had built enough momentum to shape and inform the practice of its participants, the knowledge and imagination of the public who engaged with it, and make visible the precarity of the cultural and rural Midland identity.Image 8. Installation View of The Marathon Project Exhibition, 2017. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.ConclusionThe Marathon Project, Species Hotel and the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project all demonstrate the potential of site-based projects to articulate and address concerns that arise from the environmental and cultural conditions and histories of a region. Beyond the Midland fence line is a complex environment that needed to be experienced to be understood. Returning creative work to site, and opening up these intensified experiences of place to a public forms a key stage in all these projects. Beyond a commitment to site-specific practice and valuing the affective and didactic potential of on-site installation, these returns grapple with issues of access, visibility and absence that characterise the Midlands. Paul Carter describes his role in the convening of a “concretely self-realising creative community” in an initiative to construct a meeting-place in Alice Springs, a community defined and united in “its capacity to imagine change as a negotiation between past, present and future” (17). Within that regional context, storytelling, as an encounter between histories and cultures, became crucial in assembling a community that could in turn materialise story into place. In these Midlands projects, a looser assembly of participants with shared interests seek to engage with the intersections of plant, human and animal activities that constitute and negotiate the changing environment. The projects enabled moments of connection, of access, and of intervention: always informed by the complexities of belonging within regional locations.These projects also suggest the need to recognise the granularity of regionalism: the need to be attentive to the relations of site to bioregion, of private land to small town to regional centre. The numerous partnerships that allow such interconnect projects to flourish can be seen as a strength of regional areas, where proximity and scale can draw together sets of related institutions, organisations and individuals. However, the tensions and gaps within these projects reveal differing priorities, senses of ownership and even regional belonging. Questions of who will live with these project outcomes, who will access them, and on what terms, reveal inequalities of power. Negotiations of this uneven and uneasy terrain require a more nuanced account of projects that do not rely on the geographical labelling of regions to paper over the complexities and fractures within the social environment.These projects also share a commitment to the intersection of the social and natural environment. They recognise the inextricable entanglement of human and more than human agencies in shaping the landscape, and material consequences of colonialism and agricultural intensification. Through iteration and duration, the projects mobilise processes that are responsive and reflective while being anchored to the materiality of site. Warwick Mules suggests that “regions are a mixture of data and earth, historically made through the accumulation and condensation of material and informational configurations”. Cross-disciplinary exchanges enable all three projects to actively participate in data production, not interpretation or illustration afterwards. Mules’ call for ‘accumulation’ and ‘configuration’ as productive regional modes speaks directly to the practice-led methodologies employed by these projects. The Kerry Lodge and Marathon projects collect, arrange and transform material taken from each site to provisionally construct a regional material language, extended further in the dual presentation of the projects as off-site exhibitions and as interventions returning to site. The Species Hotel project shares that dual identity, where materials are chosen for their ability over time, habitation and decay to become incorporated into the site yet, through other iterations of the project, become digital presences that nonetheless invite an embodied engagement.These projects centre the Midlands as fertile ground for the production of knowledge and experiences that are distinctive and place-based, arising from the unique qualities of this place, its history and its ongoing challenges. Art and design practice enables connectivity to plant, animal and human communities, utilising cross-disciplinary collaborations to bring together further accumulations of the region’s intertwined cultural and ecological landscape.ReferencesAustralian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Biodiversity Conservation. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2018. 1 Apr. 2019 <http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/conservation>.Brand, Ian. The Convict Probation System: Van Diemen’s Land 1839–1854. Sandy Bay: Blubber Head Press, 1990.Carter, Paul. “Common Patterns: Narratives of ‘Mere Coincidence’ and the Production of Regions.” Creative Communities: Regional Inclusion & the Arts. Eds. Janet McDonald and Robert Mason. Bristol: Intellect, 2015. 13–30.Centre for 21st Century Humanities. Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930. Newcastle: Centre for 21st Century Humanitie, n.d. 1 Apr. 2019 <https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/>.Clements, Nicholas. The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2014. Cranney, Kate. Ecological Science in the Tasmanian Midlands. Melbourne: Bush Heritage Australia, 2016. 1 Apr. 2019 <https://www.bushheritage.org.au/blog/ecological-science-in-the-tasmanian-midlands>.Davidson N. “Tasmanian Northern Midlands Restoration Project.” EMR Summaries, Journal of Ecological Management & Restoration, 2016. 10 Apr. 2019 <https://site.emrprojectsummaries.org/2016/03/07/tasmanian-northern-midlands-restoration-project/>.Department of Main Roads, Tasmania. Convicts & Carriageways: Tasmanian Road Development until 1880. Hobart: Tasmanian Government Printer, 1988.Dillon, Margaret. “Convict Labour and Colonial Society in the Campbell Town Police District: 1820–1839.” PhD Thesis. U of Tasmania, 2008. <https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7777/>.Gammage, Bill. The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2012.Greening Australia. Building Species Hotels, 2016. 1 Apr. 2019 <https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/projects/building-species-hotels/>.Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project. Kerry Lodge Convict Site. 10 Mar. 2019 <http://kerrylodge.squarespace.com/>.Kirkpatrick, James. “Natural History.” Midlands Bushweb, The Nature of the Midlands. Ed. Jo Dean. Longford: Midlands Bushweb, 2003. 45–57.Mitchell, Michael, Michael Lockwood, Susan Moore, and Sarah Clement. “Building Systems-Based Scenario Narratives for Novel Biodiversity Futures in an Agricultural Landscape.” Landscape and Urban Planning 145 (2016): 45–56.Mules, Warwick. “The Edges of the Earth: Critical Regionalism as an Aesthetics of the Singular.” Transformations 12 (2005). 1 Mar. 2019 <http://transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_12/article_03.shtml>.The Marathon Project. <http://themarathonproject.virb.com/home>.University of Tasmania. Strategic Directions, Nov. 2018. 1 Mar. 2019 <https://www.utas.edu.au/vc/strategic-direction>.Wright L. “University of Tasmania Students Design ‘Species Hotels’ for Tasmania’s Wildlife.” Architecture AU 24 Oct. 2016. 1 Apr. 2019 <https://architectureau.com/articles/university-of-tasmania-students-design-species-hotels-for-tasmanias-wildlife/>.

Special Care Notice This article contains images of deceased people that might cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers. Introduction Like many cities, Perth was founded on wetlands that have been integral to its history and culture (Seddon 226–32). However, in order to promote a settlement agenda, early mapmakers sought to erase the city’s wetlands from cartographic depictions (Giblett, Cities). Since the colonial era, inner-Perth’s swamps and lakes have been drained, filled, significantly reduced in size, or otherwise reclaimed for urban expansion (Bekle). Not only have the swamps and lakes physically disappeared, the memories of their presence and influence on the city’s development over time are also largely forgotten. What was the site of Perth, specifically its wetlands, like before British settlement? In 2014, an interdisciplinary team at Edith Cowan University developed a digital visualisation process to re-imagine Perth prior to colonisation. This was based on early maps of the Swan River Colony and a range of archival information. The images depicted the city’s topography, hydrology, and vegetation and became the centerpiece of a physical exhibition entitled Re-imagining Perth’s Lost Wetlands and a virtual exhibition hosted by the Western Australian Museum. Alongside historic maps, paintings, photographs, and writings, the visual reconstruction of Perth aimed to foster appreciation of the pre-settlement environment—the homeland of the Whadjuck Nyoongar, or Bibbulmun, people (Carter and Nutter). The exhibition included the narrative of Fanny Balbuk, a Nyoongar woman who voiced her indignation over the “usurping of her beloved home ground” (Bates, The Passing 69) by flouting property lines and walking through private residences to reach places of cultural significance. Beginning with Balbuk’s story and the digital tracing of her walking route through colonial Perth, this article discusses the project in the context of contemporary pressures on the city’s extant wetlands. The re-imagining of Perth through historically, culturally, and geographically-grounded digital visualisation approaches can inspire the conservation of its wetlands heritage. Balbuk’s Walk through the City For many who grew up in Perth, Fanny Balbuk’s perambulations have achieved legendary status in the collective cultural imagination. In his memoir, David Whish-Wilson mentions Balbuk’s defiant walks and the lighting up of the city for astronaut John Glenn in 1962 as the two stories that had the most impact on his Perth childhood. From Gordon Stephenson House, Whish-Wilson visualises her journey in his mind’s eye, past Government House on St Georges Terrace (the main thoroughfare through the city centre), then north on Barrack Street towards the railway station, the site of Lake Kingsford where Balbuk once gathered bush tucker (4). He considers the footpaths “beneath the geometric frame of the modern city […] worn smooth over millennia that snake up through the sheoak and marri woodland and into the city’s heart” (Whish-Wilson 4). Balbuk’s story embodies the intertwined culture and nature of Perth—a city of wetlands. Born in 1840 on Heirisson Island, Balbuk (also known as Yooreel) (Figure 1) had ancestral bonds to the urban landscape. According to Daisy Bates, writing in the early 1900s, the Nyoongar term Matagarup, or “leg deep,” denotes the passage of shallow water near Heirisson Island where Balbuk would have forded the Swan River (“Oldest” 16). Yoonderup was recorded as the Nyoongar name for Heirisson Island (Bates, “Oldest” 16) and the birthplace of Balbuk’s mother (Bates, “Aboriginal”). In the suburb of Shenton Park near present-day Lake Jualbup, her father bequeathed to her a red ochre (or wilgi) pit that she guarded fervently throughout her life (Bates, “Aboriginal”).Figure 1. Group of Aboriginal Women at Perth, including Fanny Balbuk (far right) (c. 1900). Image Credit: State Library of Western Australia (Image Number: 44c). Balbuk’s grandparents were culturally linked to the site. At his favourite camp beside the freshwater spring near Kings Park on Mounts Bay Road, her grandfather witnessed the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Irwin, cousin of James Stirling (Bates, “Fanny”). In 1879, colonial entrepreneurs established the Swan Brewery at this significant locale (Welborn). Her grandmother’s gravesite later became Government House (Bates, “Fanny”) and she protested vociferously outside “the stone gates guarded by a sentry [that] enclosed her grandmother’s burial ground” (Bates, The Passing 70). Balbuk’s other grandmother was buried beneath Bishop’s Grove, the residence of the city’s first archibishop, now Terrace Hotel (Bates, “Aboriginal”). Historian Bob Reece observes that Balbuk was “the last full-descent woman of Kar’gatta (Karrakatta), the Bibbulmun name for the Mount Eliza [Kings Park] area of Perth” (134). According to accounts drawn from Bates, her home ground traversed the area between Heirisson Island and Perth’s north-western limits. In Kings Park, one of her relatives was buried near a large, hollow tree used by Nyoongar people like a cistern to capture water and which later became the site of the Queen Victoria Statue (Bates, “Aboriginal”). On the slopes of Mount Eliza, the highest point of Kings Park, at the western end of St Georges Terrace, she harvested plant foods, including zamia fruits (Macrozamia riedlei) (Bates, “Fanny”). Fanny Balbuk’s knowledge contributed to the native title claim lodged by Nyoongar people in 2006 as Bennell v. State of Western Australia—the first of its kind to acknowledge Aboriginal land rights in a capital city and part of the larger Single Nyoongar Claim (South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council et al.). Perth’s colonial administration perceived the city’s wetlands as impediments to progress and as insalubrious environments to be eradicated through reclamation practices. For Balbuk and other Nyoongar people, however, wetlands were “nourishing terrains” (Rose) that afforded sustenance seasonally and meaning perpetually (O’Connor, Quartermaine, and Bodney). Mary Graham, a Kombu-merri elder from Queensland, articulates the connection between land and culture, “because land is sacred and must be looked after, the relation between people and land becomes the template for society and social relations. Therefore all meaning comes from land.” Traditional, embodied reliance on Perth’s wetlands is evident in Bates’ documentation. For instance, Boojoormeup was a “big swamp full of all kinds of food, now turned into Palmerston and Lake streets” (Bates, “Aboriginal”). Considering her cultural values, Balbuk’s determination to maintain pathways through the increasingly colonial Perth environment is unsurprising (Figure 2). From Heirisson Island: a straight track had led to the place where once she had gathered jilgies [crayfish] and vegetable food with the women, in the swamp where Perth railway station now stands. Through fences and over them, Balbuk took the straight track to the end. When a house was built in the way, she broke its fence-palings with her digging stick and charged up the steps and through the rooms. (Bates, The Passing 70) One obstacle was Hooper’s Fence, which Balbuk broke repeatedly on her trips to areas between Kings Park and the railway station (Bates, “Hooper’s”). Her tenacious commitment to walking ancestral routes signifies the friction between settlement infrastructure and traditional Nyoongar livelihood during an era of rapid change. Figure 2. Determination of Fanny Balbuk’s Journey between Yoonderup (Heirisson Island) and Lake Kingsford, traversing what is now the central business district of Perth on the Swan River (2014). Image background prepared by Dimitri Fotev. Track interpolation by Jeff Murray. Project Background and Approach Inspired by Fanny Balbuk’s story, Re-imagining Perth’s Lost Wetlands began as an Australian response to the Mannahatta Project. Founded in 1999, that project used spatial analysis techniques and mapping software to visualise New York’s urbanised Manhattan Island—or Mannahatta as it was called by indigenous people—in the early 1600s (Sanderson). Based on research into the island’s original biogeography and the ecological practices of Native Americans, Mannahatta enabled the public to “peel back” the city’s strata, revealing the original composition of the New York site. The layers of visuals included rich details about the island’s landforms, water systems, and vegetation. Mannahatta compelled Rod Giblett, a cultural researcher at Edith Cowan University, to develop an analogous model for visualising Perth circa 1829. The idea attracted support from the City of Perth, Landgate, and the University. Using stories, artefacts, and maps, the team—comprising a cartographer, designer, three-dimensional modelling expert, and historical researchers—set out to generate visualisations of the landscape at the time of British colonisation. Nyoongar elder Noel Nannup approved culturally sensitive material and contributed his perspective on Aboriginal content to include in the exhibition. The initiative’s context remains pressing. In many ways, Perth has become a template for development in the metropolitan area (Weller). While not unusual for a capital, the rate of transformation is perhaps unexpected in a city less than 200 years old (Forster). There also remains a persistent view of existing wetlands as obstructions to progress that, once removed, are soon forgotten (Urban Bushland Council). Digital visualisation can contribute to appreciating environments prior to colonisation but also to re-imagining possibilities for future human interactions with land, water, and space. Despite the rapid pace of change, many Perth area residents have memories of wetlands lost during their lifetimes (for example, Giblett, Forrestdale). However, as the clearing and drainage of the inner city occurred early in settlement, recollections of urban wetlands exist exclusively in historical records. In 1935, a local correspondent using the name “Sandgroper” reminisced about swamps, connecting them to Perth’s colonial heritage: But the Swamps were very real in fact, and in name in the [eighteen-] Nineties, and the Perth of my youth cannot be visualised without them. They were, of course, drying up apace, but they were swamps for all that, and they linked us directly with the earliest days of the Colony when our great-grandparents had founded this City of Perth on a sort of hog's-back, of which Hay-street was the ridge, and from which a succession of streamlets ran down its southern slope to the river, while land locked to the north of it lay a series of lakes which have long since been filled to and built over so that the only evidence that they have ever existed lies in the original street plans of Perth prepared by Roe and Hillman in the early eighteen-thirties. A salient consequence of the loss of ecological memory is the tendency to repeat the miscues of the past, especially the blatant disregard for natural and cultural heritage, as suburbanisation engulfs the area. While the swamps of inner Perth remain only in the names of streets, existing wetlands in the metropolitan area are still being threatened, as the Roe Highway (Roe 8) Campaign demonstrates. To re-imagine Perth’s lost landscape, we used several colonial survey maps to plot the location of the original lakes and swamps. At this time, a series of interconnecting waterbodies, known as the Perth Great Lakes, spread across the north of the city (Bekle and Gentilli). This phase required the earliest cartographic sources (Figure 3) because, by 1855, city maps no longer depicted wetlands. We synthesised contextual information, such as well depths, geological and botanical maps, settlers’ accounts, Nyoongar oral histories, and colonial-era artists’ impressions, to produce renderings of Perth. This diverse collection of primary and secondary materials served as the basis for creating new images of the city. Team member Jeff Murray interpolated Balbuk’s route using historical mappings and accounts, topographical data, court records, and cartographic common sense. He determined that Balbuk would have camped on the high ground of the southern part of Lake Kingsford rather than the more inundated northern part (Figure 2). Furthermore, she would have followed a reasonably direct course north of St Georges Terrace (contrary to David Whish-Wilson’s imaginings) because she was barred from Government House for protesting. This easier route would have also avoided the springs and gullies that appear on early maps of Perth. Figure 3. Townsite of Perth in Western Australia by Colonial Draftsman A. Hillman and John Septimus Roe (1838). This map of Perth depicts the wetlands that existed overlaid by the geomentric grid of the new city. Image Credit: State Library of Western Australia (Image Number: BA1961/14). Additionally, we produced an animated display based on aerial photographs to show the historical extent of change. Prompted by the build up to World War II, the earliest aerial photography of Perth dates from the late 1930s (Dixon 148–54). As “Sandgroper” noted, by this time, most of the urban wetlands had been drained or substantially modified. The animation revealed considerable alterations to the formerly swampy Swan River shoreline. Most prominent was the transformation of the Matagarup shallows across the Swan River, originally consisting of small islands. Now traversed by a causeway, this area was transformed into a single island, Heirisson—the general site of Balbuk’s birth. The animation and accompanying materials (maps, images, and writings) enabled viewers to apprehend the changes in real time and to imagine what the city was once like. Re-imagining Perth’s Urban Heart The physical environment of inner Perth includes virtually no trace of its wetland origins. Consequently, we considered whether a representation of Perth, as it existed previously, could enhance public understanding of natural heritage and thereby increase its value. For this reason, interpretive materials were exhibited centrally at Perth Town Hall. Built partly by convicts between 1867 and 1870, the venue is close to the site of the 1829 Foundation of Perth, depicted in George Pitt Morrison’s painting. Balbuk’s grandfather “camped somewhere in the city of Perth, not far from the Town Hall” (Bates, “Fanny”). The building lies one block from the site of the railway station on the site of Lake Kingsford, the subsistence grounds of Balbuk and her forebears: The old swamp which is now the Perth railway yards had been a favourite jilgi ground; a spring near the Town Hall had been a camping place of Maiago […] and others of her fathers' folk; and all around and about city and suburbs she had gathered roots and fished for crayfish in the days gone by. (Bates, “Derelicts” 55) Beginning in 1848, the draining of Lake Kingsford reached completion during the construction of the Town Hall. While the swamps of the city were not appreciated by many residents, some organisations, such as the Perth Town Trust, vigorously opposed the reclamation of the lake, alluding to its hydrological role: That, the soil being sand, it is not to be supposed that Lake Kingsford has in itself any material effect on the wells of Perth; but that, from this same reason of the sandy soil, it would be impossible to keep the lake dry without, by so doing, withdrawing the water from at least the adjacent parts of the townsite to the same depth. (Independent Journal of Politics and News 3) At the time of our exhibition, the Lake Kingsford site was again being reworked to sink the railway line and build Yagan Square, a public space named after a colonial-era Nyoongar leader. The project required specialised construction techniques due to the high water table—the remnants of the lake. People travelling to the exhibition by train in October 2014 could have seen the lake reasserting itself in partly-filled depressions, flush with winter rain (Figure 4).Figure 4. Rise of the Repressed (2014). Water Rising in the former site of Lake Kingsford/Irwin during construction, corner of Roe and Fitzgerald Streets, Northbridge, WA. Image Credit: Nandi Chinna (2014). The exhibition was situated in the Town Hall’s enclosed undercroft designed for markets and more recently for shops. While some visited after peering curiously through the glass walls of the undercroft, others hailed from local and state government organisations. Guest comments applauded the alternative view of Perth we presented. The content invited the public to re-imagine Perth as a city of wetlands that were both environmentally and culturally important. A display panel described how the city’s infrastructure presented a hindrance for Balbuk as she attempted to negotiate the once-familiar route between Yoonderup and Lake Kingsford (Figure 2). Perth’s growth “restricted Balbuk’s wanderings; towns, trains, and farms came through her ‘line of march’; old landmarks were thus swept away, and year after year saw her less confident of the locality of one-time familiar spots” (Bates, “Fanny”). Conserving Wetlands: From Re-Claiming to Re-Valuing? Imagination, for philosopher Roger Scruton, involves “thinking of, and attending to, a present object (by thinking of it, or perceiving it, in terms of something absent)” (155). According to Scruton, the feelings aroused through imagination can prompt creative, transformative experiences. While environmental conservation tends to rely on data-driven empirical approaches, it appeals to imagination less commonly. We have found, however, that attending to the present object (the city) in terms of something absent (its wetlands) through evocative visual material can complement traditional conservation agendas focused on habitats and species. The actual extent of wetlands loss in the Swan Coastal Plain—the flat and sandy region extending from Jurien Bay south to Cape Naturaliste, including Perth—is contested. However, estimates suggest that 80 per cent of wetlands have been lost, with remaining habitats threatened by climate change, suburban development, agriculture, and industry (Department of Environment and Conservation). As with the swamps and lakes of the inner city, many regional wetlands were cleared, drained, or filled before they could be properly documented. Additionally, the seasonal fluctuations of swampy places have never been easily translatable to two-dimensional records. As Giblett notes, the creation of cartographic representations and the assignment of English names were attempts to fix the dynamic boundaries of wetlands, at least in the minds of settlers and administrators (Postmodern 72–73). Moreover, European colonists found the Western Australian landscape, including its wetlands, generally discomfiting. In a letter from 1833, metaphors failed George Fletcher Moore, the effusive colonial commentator, “I cannot compare these swamps to any marshes with which you are familiar” (220). The intermediate nature of wetlands—as neither land nor lake—is perhaps one reason for their cultural marginalisation (Giblett, Postmodern 39). The conviction that unsanitary, miasmic wetlands should be converted to more useful purposes largely prevailed (Giblett, Black 105–22). Felicity Morel-EdnieBrown’s research into land ownership records in colonial Perth demonstrated that town lots on swampland were often preferred. By layering records using geographic information systems (GIS), she revealed modifications to town plans to accommodate swampland frontages. The decline of wetlands in the region appears to have been driven initially by their exploitation for water and later for fertile soil. Northern market gardens supplied the needs of the early city. It is likely that the depletion of Nyoongar bush foods predated the flourishing of these gardens (Carter and Nutter). Engaging with the history of Perth’s swamps raises questions about the appreciation of wetlands today. In an era where numerous conservation strategies and alternatives have been developed (for example, Bobbink et al. 93–220), the exploitation of wetlands in service to population growth persists. On Perth’s north side, wetlands have long been subdued by controlling their water levels and landscaping their boundaries, as the suburban examples of Lake Monger and Hyde Park (formerly Third Swamp Reserve) reveal. Largely unmodified wetlands, such as Forrestdale Lake, exist south of Perth, but they too are in danger (Giblett, Black Swan). The Beeliar Wetlands near the suburb of Bibra Lake comprise an interconnected series of lakes and swamps that are vulnerable to a highway extension project first proposed in the 1950s. Just as the Perth Town Trust debated Lake Kingsford’s draining, local councils and the public are fiercely contesting the construction of the Roe Highway, which will bisect Beeliar Wetlands, destroying Roe Swamp (Chinna). The conservation value of wetlands still struggles to compete with traffic planning underpinned by a modernist ideology that associates cars and freeways with progress (Gregory). Outside of archives, the debate about Lake Kingsford is almost entirely forgotten and its physical presence has been erased. Despite the magnitude of loss, re-imagining the city’s swamplands, in the way that we have, calls attention to past indiscretions while invigorating future possibilities. We hope that the re-imagining of Perth’s wetlands stimulates public respect for ancestral tracks and songlines like Balbuk’s. Despite the accretions of settler history and colonial discourse, songlines endure as a fundamental cultural heritage. Nyoongar elder Noel Nannup states, “as people, if we can get out there on our songlines, even though there may be farms or roads overlaying them, fences, whatever it is that might impede us from travelling directly upon them, if we can get close proximity, we can still keep our culture alive. That is why it is so important for us to have our songlines.” Just as Fanny Balbuk plied her songlines between Yoonderup and Lake Kingsford, the traditional custodians of Beeliar and other wetlands around Perth walk the landscape as an act of resistance and solidarity, keeping the stories of place alive. Acknowledgments The authors wish to acknowledge Rod Giblett (ECU), Nandi Chinna (ECU), Susanna Iuliano (ECU), Jeff Murray (Kareff Consulting), Dimitri Fotev (City of Perth), and Brendan McAtee (Landgate) for their contributions to this project. The authors also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands upon which this paper was researched and written. 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