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CONTENTSAUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC NOVEMBERDECEMBER 2013

FEATURES

TRENDSETTERSWe examine six major social and environmental trends

that are already shaping the future of your life.

PARLIAMENT HOUSEThe House turned 25 this year. Go behind the scenes

and meet the characters who keep it ticking over.

A LIFE IN THE WILDERNESSBob Brown recalls the Franklin River protests and looks

back over 30 years of the Tasmanian Wilderness WHA.

UP FRONT14 BIG PICTURE Unforgettable images

19 TOPOGRAPHICAL Iceberg anatomy

21 NATURE Tasmanian Wilderness controversy

23 SPACE The snowline in outer space

24 PROFILE The girl who changed a million light bulbs

29 NEW MARSUPIAL Queensland gains an antechinus

30 ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR Social networking for sharks

36 COMMENTARY Shooting in national parks

OUT BACK99 DESTINATIONS New Caledonia

108 LAT/LONG Japanese ties in Cowra, NSW

123 YOUR AG Mailbag; reader photos; ask an expert; Frank Povah

129 FROM THE FIELD Behind the scenes with the AG crew

130 REWIND A Melbourne magpie attacks

YOUR SOCIETY

See who won the 2013 Australian Geographic Society awards! p116

Mt Gould as seen from The Labyrinth, part of Cradle Mountain-

Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. Captured by wilderness

photographer Dennis Harding, this image features a deciduous

beech (Nothofagus gunnii) the states only native deciduous tree.

A Gondwanan relict, it creates brilliant flushes of autumnal colour.

ON THE COVER

6 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

ALE

X K

UM

AR

Subantarctic sel e. Tim Jarvis

(top row, centre) and the

Shackleton Epic team pose

before their expedition.

THE ART OF ILLUSTRATIONDelve into our illustration archive as we share the best of

more than 27 years of natural history-based artistry.

THE LIMITS OF SURVIVAL Tim Jarvis's epic expedition retraced the desperate 1916

Antarctic journey of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

38

52

64

76

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GALLERY: BEST SCIENCE PHOTOGRAPHY OF 2013 Vibrant liquid splashes and up-close

cicadas are among the top science

photographs of the year.

50 BUSH AND BEACH ESCAPES This state-by-state camping planner

highlights the best places in Australia

to pitch a tent.

GALLERY: 20 YEARS OF MARGARET RIVER The vineyards, valleys and beaches

of WAs Margaret River captured across

two decades.

BEST PANORAMA IMAGES OF 2013An international award for panorama

photography has named its

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8 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

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PAGE 69

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PAGE 74

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1983 Franklin River protests.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Introducing Chimu Collections Handpicked Experiences throughout Latin America

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IN SYDNEY, just a few days ago, friends and family of the Australian Geographic Society gathered to honour this years high achievers in adventure and conservation. The annual event, which this year was hosted by the indefatigable Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, is our opportunity to celebrate the values that lie at the heart of all of AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHICs areas of activity.

Dick Smith was on hand to reiterate the importance of maintaining a healthy spirit of adventure in response to our increasingly sedentary and risk-averse society. It was wonderful, therefore, to celebrate the achievements of three cou-rageous Aussies, each at dif erent stages of life. Ryan Campbell, the youngest aviator to y solo around the globe, stood shoulder to shoulder with experienced

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

polar explorer Tim Jarvis and veteran yachtsman Colin Putt.

As for our conservation heroes, foun-ders of Clean Up Australia Ian Kiernan and Kim McKay were much-deserved winners of the Lifetime of Conservation medallions. And our call out for nomina-tions in June brought Jean and Jim Thomas and Linh Do to our attention, ultimately garnering them the Conser-vationist and Young Conservationist of the Year awards, respectively. You can nd out what makes them all winners on pages 24, 8693 and 116117.

Also in this issue, last years Lifetime of Conservation award winner, Bob Brown, marks the 30th anniversary of the 1983 victory in the ght to stop the Gordon below Franklin dam and the World Heritage listing of the Tasmanian

Contributing editors: Joanna Egan and Karen McGhee More contributors: Ralph Alphonso, Michael Amendolia, Bill Bachman, Anne Bowman, Mike Braysher,

Ben Ey, Justin Gilligan, Jeff Goertzen, Ego Guiotto, Dennis Harding, Anne Hayes, Gary Cranitch, Phil Jarratt, Maisie Keep, Lindsey Leathart, Peter Meredith,

Alex Palmer, Simon Pynt, Mike Rossi, Ben Sanders, Dan Sheridan, Kevin Stead, Fred Watson.

Fiona MacDonaldis an award-winning

freelance journalist

who has written about

everything from quantum

physics and pets, to current affairs and

fashion. After deciding a research career

in zoology wasnt for her, Fiona studied

journalism and went on to work as an editor

at Cosmos and Madison. Fiona now balances

her time between editing the ScienceAlert

website, writing and trying to escape to

the beach.

Mark Watsonspecialises in adventure,

sport and nature

photography. Luckily for

Mark, his work has taken

him all over the world

from the Patagonian wilderness and the

jungles of PNG, to heli-skiing in New Zealand.

But a recent stop in New Caledonia marked a

career highlight: in his nal year at university,

Mark met photographer Simon Carter

(who was working on an AG feature about

peregrine falcons) and this sparked a desire in

Mark to one day shoot for AG.

Bob Brownis the former parliamentary

leader of the Australian

Greens party and a lifelong

advocate of conservation.

We rst featured Bob in

AG 3, in a story on the search for the

Tasmanian tiger. In 1989 his opinion piece,

Why Its Great to Be Green (AG 16), he

championed conservation and sustainability.

In 2012 Bob was given the AG Societys

Lifetime of Conservation award and his

inspiring acceptance speech elicited a

standing ovation from the packed room.

Contributors

wilderness that preceded it in 1982 (page 64). This story reminds us that although battles may be won along the way, the war to preserve what remains of our natural heritage goes on.

We are excited to announce the pub-lication of a new book, The Art of Australian Geographic Illustration, with text by Alasdair McGregor. The book draws together the best of the illustrations that have been published in the journal since its launch. Its packed with a menagerie of mammals, birds, bugs and shes, and includes many technical illustrations rendered in fasci-nating detail. Im sure youll love poring over it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. See pages 7885 for a sneak peek and turn to page 26 to nd out how you can get your free copy when you take out or renew your subscription.

Awarding courage and dedication

TRENDSETTERS, PAGE 38 LOST WORLD, PAGE 100 A LIFETIME IN THE WILDERNESS, PAGE 64

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 13

BIG PICTUREPassengers were surely thinking of donning life jackets, faced as they were with 5m waves, when they rode this morning ferry from Sydneys Manly to

Circular Quay. The night before, on 16 August 2002, a low pressure system had created strong southerly winds in the Tasman Sea, driving the formation

of huge waves. Bundeena Wharf, on the southern outskirts of Sydney, collapsed, and many of the citys hundreds of daily ferry services were cancelled.

WAVES IN MOTION BY NICK MOIR

BIG PICTURELittle woodswallow chicks huddle in a nest at Mileura station, 100km from Meekatharra in mid-west Western Australia. During the AugustJanuary

breeding season, females lay three eggs in nests of plant material in tree hollows or on cliff ledges. The resulting young will leave their refuge when

barely able to fly and perch in nearby trees, waiting to be fed insects. Adult woodswallows are very sociable, often roosting in groups of 100 or more.

THREE OF A KIND BY SIMON PYNT

Art

am

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min

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Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 19

TOPOGRAPHICAL

GRAPHIC: MIKE ROSSI; SOURCES: NATIONAL SNOW AND ICE DATA

CENTER; POLA

RVIEW; INTERNATIONAL GLA

CIOLO

GICAL SOCIETY

BIGGEST ICEBERG

The largest iceberg ever reported

was sighted in the South Paci c Ocean

in 1956. The tabular berg covered about

31,000sq.km larger than Belgium.

Chill factorICEBERGS ARE NOT ONLY magni cent natural sculptures, but also great storytellers. Much can be discovered about an iceberg simply by observing its shape, size and colour. For those lucky enough to be journeying north or south for a polar summer sojourn, heres how to read the ice.

As all icebergs are descended from glaciers,

which are formed from snowfall, they all

contain fresh water. When snow falls in the

polar regions, it is compacted into ice and

slowly transported to the coast via an ice sheet

or a glacier. On average, 15,00040,000

icebergs are born each year, when ice calves

into the ocean from an ice shelf or a glacier.

1 FORMATION AND ORIGIN

2 SHAPE

4 COLOUR AND DENSITY 5 AGE

Tabular

Tabular icebergs have steep sides and a at top.

These icebergs commonly calve from Antarctic ice

shelves and can be massive. They are extremely

rare in the Arctic.

Non-tabular

These bergs come in many weird and wonderful

shapes. They are either directly calved from glaciers or

result from the break-up of larger tabular icebergs.

Ice shelves

An ice shelf is a thick platform of ice

that forms where a glacier or ice

sheet ows out onto the ocean

surface. In Antarctica, huge icebergs

calve after cracks and ssures have

been formed in the ice shelves by

rising and falling tides.

Glaciers

Glaciers that ow to the sea

produce spectacularly shaped

icebergs when they calve. The vast

majority of Arctic icebergs originate

from glaciers in western Greenland.

Named icebergs

Antarctic icebergs

longer than 19km are

assigned a letter and

running number by the

US National Ice Center.

The letter (A, B, C or D)

indicates the quadrant

where the iceberg is

rstsighted.

White Blue Green

Fewer air bubbles

makes ice more dense.

This ice is formed

under immense

pressure, usually at the

middle or bottom of a

glacier or ice shelf.

Fewer air bubbles

means light penetrates

more easily and ice

absorbs the red end of

the colour spectrum

and re ectsblue.

Less common ice

that is formed by

desalinated seawater

containing organic

matter that freezes to

the underside of an ice

shelf. Organic matter

absorbs some blue

light and shifts the

colour to green. It is

seen on icebergs that

have rolled over to

reveal their underside.

Generally, the rounder

and more deteriorated

an iceberg, the older it is.

Icebergs have been known

to survive up to 25 years in

frigid waters, but their life span

depends on size, water tempera-

ture and weather. Once they drift

into warmer latitudes, they melt

relatively quickly. Descendants of

enormous B-15, which calved

from the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000,

are still drifting in the Antarctic

Circumpolar Current, 13 years

on. Amazingly, the ice and air

trapped within an iceberg can be

up to 10,000 years old.

Blocky Wedge Dome

Arctic

Very large

>200m long, >75m high

Large

120200m long, 4575m high

Medium

60120m long, 1545m high

Bergy bit

515m long, 15m high

Growler

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TO

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NATURE

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 21

AUSTRALIAS World Heritage areas are having a tough time. In 2013 it was revealed that

the Great Barrier Reef had lost half its coral cover since the 1980s. Now, due to a series of port developments for coal and gas exports, it is hanging under the threat of ending up on the List of World Heritage in Danger (see AG 113), the precursor to World Heritage status being removed. It would be embarrassing for this to happen in one of the worlds wealthiest nations, one that holds under its guardianship perhaps the most famous natural World Heritage Area (WHA) on the planet.

While we await the World Heritage Committees decision on the reef, it now appears that the Tasmanian Wilderness WHA could be at similar risk. In June 2013, the committee voted to add 1700sq.km to the existing 14,000sq.km protected area, which now covers 22 per cent of Tasmania (see page 64). The additions comprise many stunning strips of forest along the eastern and northern borders of the existing WHA, which grew to envelop areas including the eastern- and northern Great Western Tiers; Mount Field National Park; and the Huon, Styx, Upper Florentine, Picton and Counsel river valleys. The extension was well received by conservation workers and environmentalists who believed these areas were now protected in perpetuity. It seemed a fitting way to mark 30 years since the High Court decision that saved the Franklin River from damming in July 1983.

However, in the run-up to Septembers federal election, the Coalition said it did not agree with the extension, which had been formalised under the Labor government, and it would seek to have part of it delisted from the WHA if it was elected.

This has been reiterated since the election and was confirmed to AG by Richard Colbeck, Liberal senator for Tasmania and parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Agriculture. Will Hodgman, Tasmanias Liberal opposition leader, has said that if his party wins the state election in March 2014, theyll allow logging in parts of the extension that were previously state forest. Environmentalists say that this would be an unprecedented act of ecological vandalism.

About one-third of the newly added area is made up of pre-existing national parks and reserves that have pristine old growth woodlands and tall eucalypt forests that are of undisputed value. However, Mark Poynter of the Institute of Foresters of Australia has argued that, as the extension was not scientifically assessed for World Heritage values, it inappropriately included heavily disturbed former state forest areas. He also says that the area added in June was ushered in as a minor boundary modification. The World Heritage Committee accepts these small modifications without the independent scientific analysis of value and wilderness quality that it requires for larger areas. The June addition was allowed despite the fact

Wilderness warsCould the new federal Coalition government succeed in having the 2013 addition to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area revoked?

that minor boundary modifications typically constitute no more than a 10 per cent increase to the area of a WHA, and the new addition represented a 12 per cent increase.

The problem now for the Coalition is that it may not be legally permissible for recent additions to be removed. This has never been attempted in Australia and there is little experience of it internationally usually governments fight to have territory added to the World Heritage List, not removed. Even more worryingly, if logging was to occur in disputed areas, it might place the entire WHA under threat of going on the danger list.

Some argue that removing the new areas with the minor boundary modification rule is unlikely to succeed, as they protect the integrity of the overall WHA, but this remains to be seen. One legal option would be to renounce Australias support for the entire World Heritage Convention, but we have to hope the government will come to its senses and realise that this is a step too far.

JOHN PICKRELL is the editor of

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC. Follow him on

Twitter at: twitter.com/john_pickrell

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MENTION THE snowline and most peoples thoughts turn to mountains. Were

all familiar with alpine scenes showcasing stunning mountain peaks permanently shrouded in snow. But to an astronomer, snowline has another meaning one crucial to our understanding of how planetary systems form.

The accepted model for the formation of stars and their planets starts with a cloud of gas and smoke-like dust, which collapses under its own gravity. The gas is mostly hydrogen, and the heat of compression generated by the collapse eventually triggers nuclear fusion, which is the process by which stars shine. But the gas and dust also flatten out to form a swirling disc around the infant star, and its here that planets form.

In this protoplanetary disc, grains of dust stick together and form fluffy clumps, which themselves coagulate to form bigger objects, finally building into planets. But there is also residual gas in the disc and this is heated to a greater or lesser extent depending on its distance from the star. The further the gas is from the star, the colder it

is eventually being cold enough to freeze onto the dust grains, helping them to stick together.

Imagine, for example, that the gas disc contains water vapour. At a certain distance from the star, this will freeze to become ice crystals, creating a snowline. But protoplanetary discs also contain other molecules, such as carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide, all of which have different freezing points. Thus, each produces its own characteristic snowline at different distances from the star.

Recent observations made with a giant radio telescope known as ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array) have, for the first time, detected a snowline around a young star similar to the Sun. At a distance corresponding to Neptunes orbit, star TW Hydrae is surrounded by a ring of carbon-monoxide snow. Not only will that assist in the formation of planets, it may also play a part in creating the molecules that are essential to life.

FRED WATSON is astronomer-in-charge of

the Australian Astronomical Observatory.NASA

/JPL-C

ALTEC

H

Life beyond the snowlineFRED WATSON sheds light on the process thats surprisingly integral to planetary formation.

Is there a day in the year when,

by facing the Sun, we are

closest to facing the centre of

our galaxy?

Peter Semple, Cradoc, Tasmania

The galactic centre is near the

junction of constellations Scorpi-

us, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius and

the Sun passes some 6north of

it on about 16 December. Sadly, it

has no special name, but could be

described as the conjunction of

the Sun and the galactic centre.

If you have a space question for Fred,

email it to editorial@ausgeo.com.au

Fred answers your questions

NAKED EYE

Starting near Orions

saucepan asterism in the north-east

evening sky is the long constella-

tion of Eridanus the River. Follow

its meandering line of stars to the

south, where it ends at bright star

Achernar, or rivers end.

BINOCULARS

The Pleiades in Taurus

is an open star cluster low in the

north. The naked eye might glimpse

seven stars, the seven sisters,

but binoculars reveal a few dozen

members. The Japanese call it

Subaru and the cluster is depicted

in the car manufacturers badge.

SMALL TELESCOPE

Venus is prominent in the

evening sky; follow its changing

appearance. November opens

with it showing a half-moon phase

and, just before being lost in the

twilight, at Decembers end, it will

halve in size to a thin crescent.

Glenn Dawes is a co-author of

the yearbook, Astronomy Australia

2014 (Quasar Publishing).

x100

Glenn Daweslooking up

SPACE

x10

Infant Solar System.

An artists concept of

a brown dwarf star

ringed by a disc of

planet-building dust.

x1

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 23

Ive been fortunate enough to have the opportunities to do a lot of important things.

Young luminary. Linh Do,

22, has shown it doesnt

take much to effect

change across the world.

WHEN SHE was just 15, Linh Do had a light-bulb moment that would

brighten Australias future. It was 2006. Al Gores documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, had just been released and media attention to climate change issues was gathering momentum. Ideas about sustainability were occupying Linhs mind and the Melbourne schoolgirl grew ercely determined to do something positive for the environment. While taking part in a school leadership program, Linh came up with the bright idea to have every incandescent light bulb in the school changed to an energy-saving uorescent one.

At the time, Linh didnt realise the impact her campaign would have on Australian homes and workplaces. With the support of her local community, her Change a Million Light Bulbs project grew: Linhs neighbours and friends jumped on board and nearby schools followed suit. What really surprised me was that at my school, even though there were only about 1000 students, about 4000 lights were changed, says Linh. It seemed phenomenal that an average-sized school could have so many light bulbs, and it made me think that maybe changing 1 million wasnt going to be such a stretch.

Linh approached teachers and students throughout Melbourne and encouraged them to replicate her campaign. I did a lot of public speaking at dif erent schools and I spoke to community groups, local councils and small businesses, to try to get them to change their lights from incandescents to uorescents, she says. Amazingly, over the course of 18 months, a lot of people decided this was something worthwhile that they could do in their

community, too. More than 1 million light bulbs were changed.

As part of her campaign, Linh encouraged people who made the switch to send letters to their local member of parliament. As a result, in 2007, Australian legislation changed to limit the sale of incandescent bulbs. We were really lucky that [2007] was an election year, Linh says. We were introduced to Malcolm Turnbull and other people in the Howard government and it was through these meetings, and our letter-writing campaign, as well as with the help of some big NGOs, that Australia [was] the rst country... to phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs.

Linhs ambition to create more energy awareness travelled well beyond the grounds of her school. In fact, Linhs in uence has had a signi cant impact on lighting regulations right across the globe. After the success of Change a Million Light Bulbs, Linh spent two years working with the United Nations Environment Programme, encouraging other nations to adopt uorescent lighting policies. Today, 30 countries have phased-out the sale of incandescent bulbs. When I started, it wasnt about trying to change the world, says Linh. I just wanted to see whether I could make an immediate dif erence in my own community.

Now working as a community coordinator for the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), 22-year-old Linh continues to foster grassroots environmental change. The bright, well-spoken conservationist has promoted the importance of environmental advocacy as part of

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 25

The Climate Reality Project Australia the Australian arm of Al Gores climate change leadership program. In 2010, she co-founded OurSay, a social media group whose website connects ordinary Australians with political decision-makers and in uential people, such as business leaders and media personalities. She is also the editor-in-chief of The Verb, an international online

journal that provides in-depth coverage of topical social justice and environmental issues. Through her work at The Verb, she has led three international United Nations delegations of young

professionals, in South Africa, Brazil and Qatar.

Linh attributes much of her resourcefulness to her parents Vietnamese refugees who came to Australia in 1989. And, despite her impressive list of global accomplishments, she values her role at a community level most. None of the things Ive done would have been possible if others hadnt come on board as well, she says. One million light bulbs could never have been changed if people werent willing to do it in their own businesses, schools and homes.

Linhs passion for environmental sustainability is infectious. In each of the activities Ive done, Ive tried to empower other people, she says. Ive been fortunate enough to have the opportunities to do a lot of important things but what I always ask myself is, How can I make sure these opportunities dont just stop with me?

JOANNA EGAN

PROFILE R

ALP

H A

LPH

ON

SO

To see all the winners, go to page 116 or visit

www.australiangeographic.com.au/society

Lighting the wayBRIGHT IDEAS

Linh Dos ingenuity and energy led to her being named the 2013 Australian Geographic Society Young Conservationist of the Year.

,

AW

AR

D W

INNER

For Terms and Conditions, visit www.magshop.com.au/ag/m3117agg. *The book, The Art of Australian Geographic Illustration, is valued at $59.95 and is applicable to a paid 12 issue subscription for $114.95. Savings are based on a retail cover price of $14.95. If

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THIS GORGEOUS BOOK BOASTS 224 pages of beautiful images from many of Australias nest natural history artists. Enjoy the chance to see many

familiar scenes in a whole new light as they feature as artworks in their own right. The book is packed with depictions of Australias fauna and ora as rendered by the nest illustrators and features words from award winning writer and artist Alasdair McGregor. The illustrators art has been one of the cornerstones of Australian Geographic since Banjo the platypus graced the cover of the rst issue in 1986. Photo-realistic illustrations of native fauna appeared on each cover for the rst 83 issues. Inside the pages of Australian Geographic, illustration has been used to explain complex data, recreate scenes from our ancient past or simply to show us nature in all its detailed glory and continues to be a vital storytelling tool.

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ONSALENov 4

where inspiration lives Photograp

h b

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ab

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CHRISTMAS

Lone ranger. Antechinuses are

carnivorous marsupials. This

species is thought to live only

in Kroombit Tops, QLD.

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 2 9

NATURAL HISTORY

AFTER MORE THAN 20 years in a Queensland Museum drawer, an unusual, unidentified

specimen has become Australias newest mammal. The new species was confirmed in April 2013, after scientists captured living proof of the rat-sized creature at Kroombit Tops National Park, about 400km north-west of Brisbane.

It is the 12th-known member of the antechinus group, which are small carnivorous marsupials. As far as we know at present, it is limited to Kroombit Tops, says lead researcher Dr Andrew Baker, at Queensland University of Technology. If true, this would give it one of the smallest geographicdistributions of any Australian mammal.

In late 2012, PhD student Thomas

Mutton analysed the DNA of the museum specimen, which had been captured in 1992. Researchers had thought it a yellow-footed antechinus but when the sequence was compared with that of other antechinus species, the differences were striking. The genetics pointed to a new species, Andrew says. But they needed to prove it.

Queensland Parks officer Harry Hines helped capture two juveniles at Kroombit Tops in December 2012, the first antechinuses captured there since the museum specimen.

Thomas ran some genetics and showed all three Kroombit animals to be virtually identical, says Andrew. But the silver juveniles looked remarkably different from the yellow adult in the museums collection.

We wondered how these little silver beauties could grow into something that looked so utterly different, says Andrew. Other antechinuses do not change colour dramatically with age.

The next step required to solve the riddle was clear, says Andrew. We needed another adult antechinus from Kroombit. After setting more than 550 traps, Harry and Thomas captured an adult in April 2013, and testing confirmed it to be the same species. This new animal looked just like a larger version of the juveniles, says Andrew, who concluded that the ravages of time and an uncertain preservation history had their way with the original specimen.

Good geneticists can open up a whole new world of discovery and understanding that isnt possible unless were prepared to go deeper than the surface, says Steve Van Dyck, a curator at Queensland Museum.

He hopes the discovery will ensure the protection of Kroombit Tops. Even seasoned taxonomists who describe 200 new species of invertebrates every year look up from their microscopes when one new mammal is described, he says. Times are slowly changing for the better, but a new marsupial still carries more public empathy and conservation value than a bucketful of new isopods.

JOANNA EGAN

Australias new marsupial

Genetic analysis of a faded museum specimen has revealed a new species of antechinus that doesnt like to travel.

SPECIES DISCOVERY

Kroombit Tops NP

GA

RY

CR

AN

ITC

H/Q

UEE

NSL

AN

D M

USE

UM

SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR SHARKSResearchers are listening in underwater to better understand the interactions of an Australian predator.

Gotcha. PhD student Nathan Bass, left,

checks a Port Jackson sharks ID in Jervis

Bay, NSW. It was tracked and caught with

the help of volunteer Jessica Chen, right.

PORT JACKSON SHARKS

Story and photography Justin Gilligan

ANIMAL BEHAVIOURH

etero

dontu

s port

usj

ack

soni

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Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 33

THE SHARKS LIE motionless in gutters etched into the floor of the rocky reef. Some are

piled under overhangs, others rest in the open. Beneath a waving frond of kelp, an individual about 1m long raises its head. With a few beats of its tail it propels itself upwards to reveal a pencil-sized cylindrical device attached to its flank.

Quickly and purposefully, a diver fins forward to grab the shark, which, typical of its species, has a harness-like patterning on its back, a blunt head and spines on the leading edge of its two dorsal fins. He catches it by placing one hand on the back of its head and the other around the tail. It struggles and twists before it finally accepts defeat and allows the diver to guide it to the canoe 6m above.

This is the recapture we were after! yells Nathan Bass as he passes the shark to the team in the canoe. Nathan is a Macquarie University PhD candidate studying the social networks of Port Jackson sharks.

The team then gathers data; theyll keep the animal for 10 minutes. They measure its length and put it in a bag to hoist it on a field scale for weighing. On average, male Port Jacksons are 95cm in length and 6kg in weight; females typically measure 102cm and 14kg. A tissue sample is collected for DNA analysis and the sharks identification number is read from the orange tag on its tail she is a 110cm female. Finally, they remove the receiving device that drew Nathan to this shark and the fish is released

at the Dent Rock survey site, about 3.5km south-east of Huskisson, NSW.

The device a marvel of acoustic technology records and stores information about a sharks encounters with other sharks. When two acoustically tagged sharks come within a set distance of each other, their devices record the date, time and the other sharks ID. For Port Jackson sharks a relatively small and slow-moving species the distance is set at 4m, but its possible to increase the distance to suit larger or more mobile species. Four times the length of the shark is the rule of thumb for such studies, so a 12m whale shark would require a 48m recording distance.

We are trying to learn how the sharks interact, Nathan says. The social structure of a population is closely connected to their behaviour, ecology and evolution.

By combining the proximity data with other tried and tested acoustic technologies such as continuous acoustic tags together with receiving stations placed strategically around the survey sites Nathan aims to demonstrate that the sharks form social relationships and to find out why they do so.

ITS NATHANS second winter studying the sharks, which are endemic to southern Australia

and gather in NSW waters between June and September. His fieldwork is carried out at three study sites: Dent Rock, in Jervis Bay, on the NSW south coast; and two in Sydney, Bare Island in Botany Bay and Oak Park at Cronulla. Port Jackson sharks are very suitable for trialling the receivers: There are plenty of them, they are easy to handle and really hardy, Nathan says.

Working with the sharks is an amazing experience, says Jo Wiszniewski, who is Nathans co-supervisor and a researcher

The social structure is closely connected to their behaviour, ecology, and evolution.

Winter get-together.

During breeding season, Port

Jackson sharks congregate in

shallow water.Thanks for your help. Volunteer Marie-Claire

Demers releases a shark at Jervis Bay.

We hear you. The proximity recorder collects

data on interactions whenever two tagged

sharks are within 4m of each other.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

34 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

with Taronga Conservation Society Australia, based in Sydney. They all have different personalities, some come quietly to the surface, while others are feisty and whip around, she says.

Jo has studied dolphin social networks and brings some of that methodology to the shark study. But to document dolphin interaction, she used photo and tissue sample IDs.

Preliminary results from the first year of the shark study suggest complex social behaviour and that individuals form stable bonds. During the breeding season, they have a limited home range and tend to group by size rather than gender. Much like some Saturday nights on the town, female sharks tend to interact with each other and avoid males, but males direct their attention towards females.

Nathan says this suggests the males are looking to breed and females are trying to avoid harassment.

The major aim of the first year was to test the receivers, which proved effective. A key potential of using this technology is to determine the connectivity between social structure, segregation and habitat use, which can ultimately contribute to their management, says Nathan. In general, theres a lack of knowledge about shark biology and behaviour.

Port Jacksons tend to forage at night when their prey sea urchins, molluscs, crustaceans and fish are active. Unlike other species, they can pump water into one gill slit and out through its other four and do not need to move to breathe. This allows them to lie on the sea bottom for a long time as they do at breeding time.

Although Port Jackson sharks are not targeted by commercial and recreational fishermen, they are a common bycatch. Theyre abundant and are least concern on the IUCN Red List, but habitat destruction and their habit of gathering in groups puts them at risk.

All shark species are susceptible to overfishing due to their slow growth, late maturity and few offspring. And sharks have a top-down influence on ecosystems, so overfishing can affect other species survival.

By understanding the formation of shark aggregations and shark society, well learn how to better manage shark populations and maintain healthy marine ecosystems, Nathan says. AG

Time for a

check-up.

Nathan (left, at left)

and Marie-Claire lift

a shark into a tank

data is collected

for a maximum of

10 minutes before

the shark is released

(below). Females lay a

spiral egg case (below

left) every 1014 days

during the breeding

season. Its shape and

softness helps the

mother wedge it in

a rock crevice where

it hardens.

To get involved in this study, email Nathan

Bass at nathan.bass@students.mq.edu.au

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

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36 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

of the pack. The area was quickly reinvaded by young dogs and rather than hunting as a pack for kangaroos and some stock, they took only the easiest prey. Stock losses were up to four times greater where baiting had taken place. Only wide-scale baiting of wild dogs was successful. Managing the damage caused by foxes and wild dogs has only ever been effective when undertaken with the help of all land managers, private and government.

There are rare cases where hunt-ing can be useful. For example, in South Australia, shooters were called in as part of a well-planned program to manage feral goats. Most were removed by mustering, followed by aerial culling and trapping at water points. It was only after this that hunters were permitted to shoot the few remaining goats. The type of hunting allowed in NSW is not like this; instead, it encourages hunters to shoot game opportunistically.

Allowing hunting in national parks should be debated on the pros and cons of hunting as a sport. Suggesting that hunters are a free resource forcontrolling pests simply confuses matters. It shifts the debate from the real issue, which is whether or not hunting will affect the way people use national parks and affect ecosystems.

But on this issue too, hunting in national parks is a bad idea. In addi-tion to disrupting pest management, its dangerous for park users when hunters are firing off volleys from rifles that have a range of several kilometres. I for one will be avoiding parks where hunting is permitted.

AS OF OCTOBER, recreational hunting has been permitted in NSW national parks. Initially,

12 parks were opened to licensed amateur hunters but sport shooting could soon be allowed in up to 75 national parks, nature reserves and state conservation areas. The NSW government says game hunt ers are allowed to be in these protected areas because recreational shooting helps park managers control feral pests.

I wasnt surprised when I heard, given the power of the Shooters and Fishers Party in NSWs upper house, but I was angry that recreational hunting was being dressed up as feral-animal control. Game hunting is not a means of managing pests and should not be perceived as such; its recreation.

I am not a hunter. I do not enjoy hunting. As a former pest manager and now a trainer of pest manag-ers, I understand that killing is often necessary. However, three decades of experience have taught me that effec-tive pest management requires careful planning. Its not about the ad hoc killing of feral animals such as pigs, dogs, cats, foxes, goats, and rabbits. You need a coordinated strategic plan based on a sound understanding of the biology and behaviour of these pests.

Pests are pests because of key characteristics: they are highly adapt-able and successful breeders they can quickly repopulate areas. Feral pigs, for example, can recover their original population within 18 months of a 50 per cent reduction. Females can breed at six months and their female offspring can have litters six months later. Pigs are fast breeders, but not as fast as rabbits; in an outside pen in Canberra, one pair of rabbits increased from two individuals to 184 within only 18 months. It is sober-

ing to remember that the majority of rabbits in Australia came from just 24released near Geelong in the 1850s.

Recreational hunters could kill a lot of pigs or rabbits but would have little impact on long-term numbers. More worrying is that hunting can severely disrupt well-planned pest manage-ment programs. Most pests, especially foxes, deer, wild dogs and pigs, become suspicious of any human activity if disturbed by hunters potentially a major problem for managers.

In many areas, pests are managed via coordinated landscape-scale pro-grams. These involve the cooperation of all land managers in a large geo-graphic area. This kind of approach is needed to control species that can eas-ily disperse over large distances. Such animals can quickly reinvade areas where controls have been in place. Foxes and wild dogs are examples; they can return to treated areas within days. In such cases, even small-scale coordinated killing can make matters worse. Introducing uncoordinated hunting could be devastating for effective management programs.

A program in western Queensland showed small-scale poisoning of wild dogs destroyed the social structure

DR MIKE BRAYSHER is a professorial

fellow in natural resource management at the

University of Canberra. He has helped develop

pest management plans Australia-wide.

COMMENTARY

ILLU

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38 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

Story by Fiona MacDonald

Photography by Ralph Alphonso

Illustrations by Ben Sanders

The futures of people around the world are being shaped by similar forces. We meet Aussies riding the crest of change.

TRENDSETTERS

VIRTUALLY HERE 41

GREAT EXPECTATIONS 42

MORE FROM LESS 45

FOREVER YOUNG 46

THE SILK HIGHWAY 49

GOING, GOING, GONE 50

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 39

THINGS ARENT THE same as they once were. Social media, climate change, pop-ulation growth, smartphones you dont need a scientist to tell you the times are

a-changing. But knowing where were headed next is a tad cloudier.

Throughout history, industries and empires have tried earnestly to anticipate threats, directions and appetites, but these predictions have often involved quackery, mysticism and guesswork, and some have resulted in costly misjudgements.

We are increasingly turning to science to reduce uncertainty about our prospects, and this has led to a new eld of research. Future casting aims to help society businesses, governments and individuals prepare for change by projecting the future. Dr Stefan Hajkowicz, the leader of CSIROs Futures division in Brisbane, Queensland, admits theres still a little imagination involved, but says there is a lot of research that can make predictions more accurate.

His team surveys sectors, such as sport, farming, fashion and media, and looks to other indicators, including the job market and spending habits, to identify small-scale trends. By considering these

together, and discussing them with international experts in each eld, the researchers get an idea of the common factors driving trends around the world.

Stefans group has identi ed six global mega-trends major changes in environmental, social and economic conditions that are already underway, and which the experts predict will permanently shift the focus of our society within the next 20 years. The changes wont just af ect one demographic or country; driven by technological advances, population growth and the rising expectations of the worlds growing middle class, theyre major upheavals that will be felt around the globe.

We talked to Australians who have capitalised on these shifts through forward thinking and innovative harnessing of technologies. These people have been able to bring about economic, social and environ-mental bene ts simultaneously.

These megatrends will impact the way we live and how were able to function in society, says Stefan. It will be gradual at rst but, if we jump 10 years into the future, things will look massively dif erent. AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC found six inspiring people who are right on trend.

40 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

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least 12% of employees can bene t from this optionn.

FACEBOOK USERS 800 MILLION

SKYPE USERS 521 MILLION

TWITTER USERS 380 MILLION

POPO ULATION OF CHINA 1.3 BILLION

POPULATION OF USA 312 MILLION

POPULAU TION OF INDONESIA 251 MILLION

THE USERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SITES NOW DWARF THE POPULATIONS OF MANY NATIONS:

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between 1996 and 2011 after failing to change its business and incorporate online and digital technologies.

Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 41

IN A CRAMPED TRACTOR cab in Victoria, just after the sun has risen enough to shake of the pre-dawn grey, a 63-year-old station manager is tweeting about the heavy rain overnight. In

NSW, a fourth-generation cattleman sympathises as he checks his fences; its been a tough winter.

From her home in Ayr, in northern Queensland, Alison Fairleigh follows the interaction with interest. She has been working towards this online community since 2008, when the suicides of three men from her community derailed her teaching career.

Alison now works with the Mental Illness Fel-lowship North Queensland and is a co-founder of Rural Mental Health, which teaches farmers about social media and uses blogs, Twitter and Facebook to increase awareness of mental illness and counsel-ling options. When the people who need help live hundreds of kilometres from their closest neighbour, technology is extremely useful.

Many farmers are living below the poverty line, Alison says. They cant af ord the petrol to go into town or talk to anyone about it, and all this com-pounding stress leads to mental health problems and thoughts of suicide. But, with a little motiva-tion from Alison, many farmers have formed online support groups, sharing their experiences and even turning to e-counselling. Theyre having the exact same conversation they would be having over the back of the ute, but now its online, Alison says.

Professor Gerard Goggin, of the University of Sydney, is an expert on how digital technologies will change our lives. He says such online communities are just one way well use the internet to connect, do busi-ness and seek help. In 2012, 37 per cent of the worlds population used the internet frequently, a more than vefold increase since 2000. As this grows, people will spend more of their time in this virtual world. No longer limited by geographic location, well be able to tailor our news, friends and hobbies to suit us.

Technologies are being woven into the texture of peoples everyday lives, Gerard explains. What I predict happening is this real blend of online and of ine. I dont think people will separate virtual and real life as much as they did a decade ago.

And instead of being brought together by proximity, he says, people will use shared interests to form neigh-bourhoods online just as Alisons farmers have.

Theyve really found their tribe, people who understand them and what theyre going through, Alison says. The trend has changed her life and she believes rural people worldwide will adopt it. For me thats what connectivity is all about, she says. It doesnt matter who you are, how poor you are or where you come from. On the internet everyone is empowered and everyone has a voice.

Well be more reliant on the virtual world to form communities, share

news and do business with like-minded people around the globe.

VIRTUALLY HERE

Sweet success. Sugar cane is harvested on the Ayr, QLD,

farm of Jim and Jan Jones. Jan plans to start a support network

for rural families after attending Alison Fairleighs workshops.

Rural connection. Alison is helping to improve the mental

health of Australians in remote areas through social media.

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42 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

SIMON GRIFFITHS IS ONE of those people always looking for more. The co-founder of not-for-profit bar Shebeen and loo paper

manufacturer Who Gives a Crap has made a career out of high expectations.

Although Simon loved his work in the corpo-rate world after university, he hated its emphasis on money. So he took sabbaticals and volunteered with NGOs. Eager to use his business acumen, he brain-stormed consumer-friendly products that could raise money for people in need. As a result, in 2012 Who Gives a Crap was born a recycled toilet paper, half the pro ts of which go to installing waste manage-ment facilities in the third world.

Around the same time, Simons co-founder in another business, Zanna McComish, returned from Africa. She had been sitting on a beach in Tanzania on a broken chair drinking a warm beer and it was the best beer shed ever tasted, explains Simon. It doesnt really make sense because, who likes warm beer? But there was something about that feeling of being there. She posed the question of whether we could re-create this kind of experience in Melbourne, where theres a thriving hospitality environment, and also use the pro ts to generate support for projects in the countries we get the products from.

The idea led to Shebeen, a ramshackle laneway bar in Melbournes CBD, lled with patrons keen to drink exotic booze and nance third-world develop-ment projects. Simon says both companies couldnt have succeeded ve years ago, but now consumers are increasingly engaged in a products back story. Instead of just buying a beer, they also want to do good.

Mark McCrindle, a social demographer based in Sydney, believes Simon has picked up on a trend driven by the internet a wish to get more bang for our buck. What was yesterdays optional is now todays standard, he says. And it will change our spending and day-to-day activities. Instead of buying instant cof ee, we now patronise a cafe that sells organic, fair-trade beans and promotes the story of its cof ee growers. Shopping holidays may be replaced with more immersive experiences, such as volunteering.

Research shows people are expecting more personalisation and value from their products while

paying less, and that includes things like having it made sustainably or being fair trade. Companies are going to have to provide more, says Mark.

Although it puts pressure on retailers, Simon hopes the trend will lead to more ethical and envi-ronmentally friendly consumerism and he believes its created a new revenue stream for charities.

Were now focusing on making our products better, more accessible and more ef cient so that we can raise even more money for projects in the developing world, he says.

The social and environmental impacts of the products we buy and the

experiences associated with them will play a greater role in our choices.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Augmented reality. Simon Grif ths is a social entrepre-

neur, and the founder of Shebeen and Who Gives a Crap.

Drinking with purpose. Shebeen is a Melbourne

laneway bar where the pro ts support projects in develop-

ing-world nations, such as Laos, Cambodia and Namibia.

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Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 43

1.6 MILLIONvolunteer tourists a year; the industry is worth up to $2.6 billion worldwide.

There are

In the past 10 years, monthly turnover has

slowed for all Australian retail sectors, except

cafes, restaurants and takeaway outlets,

which saw it grow from $28.7 million to

$31.3 million.

of consumers feel brands that create unique and personalised content are

more interested in building a relationship with them.

businesses in Australia and NZ are now

licensed to trade in certi ed fair-trade products a15% increase

from 2009.There will be about 1.6 billion eco-inspired trips taken by 2020.

Cocoa and chocolate fair-trade purchases in Australia increased from $5.5 million in 2009 to $87 million in 2010.

44 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

Australian water consumption is forecast to rise 76%

Each year were losing 120,000SQ.KM of farmland due to degradation and over-cultivation.

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years of oil left and 109

years of coal. But the

global demand for oil is

predicted to increase by

18% by 2035.

Based on current

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TO SEE Ralph Alphonso talking

about his green design, download

the viewa app and use your

smartphone to scan this page.

to meet demand by

2050.

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Nov e m b e r D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3 45

ON A 4 X 5M PLOT down an East Melbourne laneway, AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC photographer Ralph Alphonso is attempt-

ing to build a liveable apartment on a leftover slab of land. I was going to build a garage or an extra room but I live here by myself and I thought, Do I really need this space? he explains from his current living room, which has twice the oor area of his soon-to-be-built home.

When he looked for examples of carbon-neu-tral buildings for inspiration, he struggled to nd one locally that looked at the whole picture including where products originated from and lifestyle. I found it frustrating. A lot of architects were talking about what could be done, but I wanted to actually do it. Waiting for someone else to go rst isnt my thing, he says, with a smile.

Putting his money on the line, Ralph decided to try to create a carbon-neutral property using commercially available technologies and a design aesthetic that would encourage people to get by with less space and fewer resources. To that end, he is blog-ging about his project so other people can learn from it, even if he fails to reach all his targets.

Ralph says hes doing it out of necessity. The writ-ing is on the wall as far as the fact were going to run out of fossil fuels goes. The change needs to be made in our generation or were doomed, he says. You can create an eco-village 100km out of Melbourne thats sustainable but their food has to get there and people still have to come and go. We just dont have enough land to sustain the whole population of the world that way.

Professor Ian Lowe, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, says that the Earth has a theoretical threshold of 7 billion people, but global population is predicted to hit 10 billion by 2050. The projections suggest that within a few decades we will be really feeling the ef ects of dwindling oil reserves and food shortages, he says.

Prices are set to soar, and wars over resources will be commonplace. The trick is to learn to get by on less now, rather than being forced to do it later, argues Ian, who hopes this looming threat will drive

innovation of the kind Ralph champions, while we still have time to choose it.

And given how slow government and industry has been to address the problem, it will be up to individ-uals to become more ef cient. Ralph says making his ef ort has been a breeze and he hopes others will think that. People will believe they can do it too, thats the ultimate goal, he says. Everybody just needs to do a little bit for us to be able to move forward.

The Earth is fast running out of water, land, oil and minerals. If we dont adapt to

living on less, prices will skyrocket, people will starve and con icts will fester.

MORE FROM LESS

Small but perfectly formed. Photographer Ralph

Alphonso (who captured the images for this story) is creating

an innovative city apartment with a tiny footprint.

Sustainable blueprint. Squeezed onto a surprisingly

small plot, Ralphs house will be carbon neutral with a small

footprint, but also beautifully designed.

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46 Au s t r a l i a n G e o g r a p h i c

PEOPLE WORLDWIDE are living and stay-ing active longer. Its a great public health achievement, but it has also created a generation of cultural refugees pushed out

of the workforce before they are ready. Marilyn King, a volunteer and advocate, has started not-for-pro t Willing Older Workers (W.O.W!) to help people over 50 who are struggling to nd work.

The charity started out of necessity. After being made redundant at 61, her husband Howard strug-gled to nd work, despite 40 years as a mechanical t