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Last Wednesday the environment program Understory on RTRfm radio interviewed WWF’s Southwest Australia Policy Officer Katherine Howard about a land clearing proposal at Perth Airport in Jandakot [1]. The Airport’s owner Jandakot Airport Holdings (JAH) is the second owner of a 50 year lease since privatisation a decade ago [2]. Their clearing proposal is detailed in Jandakot Airport Expansion – EPBC Reference 2009/4796 [3] and includes bushland home to three endangered species:

• Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, (Calyptorhynchus latirostris)
• Grand Spider Orchid (Caladenia huegelii)
• Glossy-leaved Hammer Orchid (Drakaea elastica)

While 40% of the proposed area is designated for a fourth runway and extension of the other runways, the other 96ha is earmarked for Jandakot City, a development which would be largest homewares complex in the southern hemisphere [1] (they must want to compete with the biggest ikea in the southern hemisphere that killed my fav swamp). WWF provide a simple breakdown of the areas proposed for clearing [4]. JAH have previously cleared 79ha of banksia woodland for a commercial precinct and there is dispute whether this was done with appropriate authority and permission. Currently 90% of this development is vacant [5].

The majestic Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo is a casualty of our excessive clearing of the Wheatbelt and Swan Coastal Plain, where Perth is situated [6]. The banksia woodland surrounding the Airport provides jarrah and marri roosting sites for Perth’s iconic black cockie and plentiful food from banksia and hakea [5]. Last year at the June meeting of the Northern Suburbs Branch of the Wildflower Society of Western Australia Eddy Wajon from the WA Native Orchid Study and Conservation Group (WANOSCG) talked about the work he and WANOSCG have been doing saving orchids when land is cleared or proposed to be cleared. One of these areas is Perth Airport, where the two declared rare flora orchid species grow [2].

JAH doesn’t allow access to their bushland, but some conservation groups have been able to wrestle a gander, Eddy Wajon being one of the lucky few as a representative of WANOSCG and the Friends of Ken Hurst Park. The Airport’s uncleared land is one of the largest areas of contiguous bushland in the region and is in very good to excellent condition, being recognised as regionally very significant through listing as a Bush Forever site [5].

JAH propose to manage:

• Ken Hurst Park to the north of the Airport,
• a conservation area of uncleared land within the Airport, and
• a revegetated sand mine

under a conservation management plan, with corridors between Ken Hurst Park and the conservation area on Airport land. JAH learnt of the importance of uncleared corridors connecting areas of bush from meetings with WANOSCG and the Friends of Ken Hurst Park [2]. Management of Ken Hurst Park by JAH is unlikely as the City of Melville, the owner Ken Hurst Park, has refused to enter into discussions with JAH regarding the matter [5].

A part of JAH’s proposal is to revegetate and manage for up to 10 years a former sand mine of 90ha to the north of the Airport which is almost devoid of vegetation. The land is owned or managed by the City of Canning and JAH have costed this venture at $7million, with no cost to the City, so Canning has given in-principle approval to JAH. The revegetation of 90ha of totally degraded land as an offset to clearing 167ha of bushland is inadequate (with an offset ratio of 4, at least 668ha would be required). Revegetation would take much longer than 10 years to reach the condition of the bushland surrounding the Airport and disturbances such as off-road vehicles which access the former sand mine could destroy young plants and animals as they return [5].

Although not included in the current land clearing proposal, Five Mile Swamp in the southern part of the Airport’s bushland includes habitat suitable for the critically endangered Western Swamp Tortoise (Pseudemydura umbrina) [7]. There are less than 50 mature individuals and loss of habitat through land clearing was and still is a critical cause of decline in numbers of Western Swamp Tortoises. Their long life and slow reproduction rates, combined with highly specialised habitat requirements, compound the problem [8]. In 1970 a single juvenile was found at Five Mile Swamp. This was the third remaining locality of Western Swamp Tortoises. No further evidence has been found indicating the presence of a population at Perth Airport, despite extensive surveying [7]. In 2000 a third population was established at Mogumber Nature Reserve and with only three current populations, suitable habitat should not be cleared because the tortoise could potentially be reintroduced in the future.

There are also many WA Christmas trees (Nuytsia floribunda) in the bush surrounding the airport which you can see in all their orange glory if you catch a plane in December.

For all these reasons JAH should not be allowed to clear any of the 622ha of bushland surrounding the Airport, especially as more than half of their current proposal is for the company’s commercial gain, not aviation purposes. WWF’s proposal that the Federal Government permanently protect this nationally important bushland would be farsighted [4]. Right now JAH has the preliminary decision from the Department of the Environment for their comment and the final decision will be released on 3 February [9].

The public comment period has closed, but I’ve written a letter to Environment Minister Peter Garrett and attached a copy for anyone to amend and send your own letter before 3 February 2010. I sent my letter by snail mail and although email is quicker, I’ve heard snail mail makes more of an impact with politicians, although a greenie like Minister Garrett may not like the waste of paper (the paper I used does contain 50% recycled fibre*). So many proposals for clearing are received by the Federal Department of the Environment and on Understory Katherine Howard said it’s difficult to justify not clearing land zoned urban, but the bushland of Perth Airport is Commonwealth land, so it may have more of a chance of being saved [1]. Hopefully our endangered species and their beautiful bushland home will be preserved for future generations and the plan for more shops where we can waste more money buying more things we don’t need will be forestalled.

*Note: I thought I was buying 100% recycled paper from that big printer paper co, but I didn’t read the package carefully and got sucked in by the green coloured wrapper.

Photo credit

Grand Spider Orchid near Toodyay by Tom Carter, Mt Vernon Floragraphics

References

1. Understory (2010, 13 Jan) RTRfm Community Radio
2. Wajon, Eddy (2009) “The Role of the WA Native Orchid Study and Conservation Group (WANOSCG) in Orchid Conservation” Wildflower Society of Western Australia Northern Suburbs Branch Meeting, 23 Jun
3. Jandakot Airport Holdings (2009) Jandakot Airport Expansion – EPBC Reference 2009/4796
4. WWF Australia (2009) Permanent protection needed for Jandakot Airport bushland, 16 Dec
5. Wajon, Eddy (2009) WANOSCG Conservation: Jandakot Airport Proposals
6. Stojanovic, Dejan (2009) “Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo” Landscope vol.24, no.4, p.16-23
7. Commonwealth Department of the Environment (2007) Pseudemydura umbrina (Western Swamp Tortoise)
8. Burbidge & Kuchling (2007) “The Western Swamp Tortoise: 50 Years On” Landscope, vol.22, no.4, p.24-29
9. Stevens, Nicole (2009) “Countdown to land decision” Fremantle-Cockburn Gazette, 22 Dec

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The whole point of introducing an emissions trading scheme is to make sure that polluting industries phase out and are replaced with cleaner alternatives, renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes. [1]

While the Australian Federal opposition dithers on passing the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) legislation which would enable carbon trading, Australia’s weather gets hotter and hotter.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Annual Australian Climate Statement for 2009 noted last year was Australia’s second warmest year since high-quality records began in 1910 and the past decade was the warmest on record.

In Australia, each decade since the 1940s has been warmer than the preceding decade. In contrast, decadal temperature variations during the first few decades of Australia’s climate record do not display any specific trend. This suggests an apparent shift in Australia’s climate from one characterised by natural variability to one increasingly characterised by a trend to warmer temperatures.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) stated 2009 was the globe’s fifth warmest year on record.

Increasing global mean temperatures derived from instrumental measurements are consistent with other independent indicators of climate change, such as reductions in sea-ice and snow cover, and record high global sea levels.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says this means the opposition is wrong about climate change, thus they should pass the CPRS legislation. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott disagrees,

The Bureau is entitled to say what is happening with the weather, but that does not mean an emissions trading scheme is the best way to combat climate change. My argument is against the Government’s great big new tax. If we are going to tackle climate change, let’s take direct action, let’s not raise the price of ordinary daily life. That’s why I think the Government is dead wrong on this. [2]

While I’m not aware what direct action Abbott has in mind (I doubt even he knows) the CPRS is dismal in its potential to actually reduce carbon emissions. Last year I blogged about Guy Pearse’s Quarry Vision in which he outlined the reasons the current Federal Labor government, like its predecessor, is enthralled by

the deep pockets of the Australian carbon lobby. [3]

In the spring issue of Dissent magazine David Spratt discussed the flaws in the CPRS, including the specifics of the proposed legislation and also broader strategy.

Both major political parties have bound themselves to the fossil fuel lobby and preserving a brown economy, so it is hard to imagine an effective carbon-pricing scheme that would close down the coal industry and provide the investment incentives to build a clean-energy economy being passed by parliament in the next period. [4]

Spratt wrote this before the leadership change of the Federal opposition caused by the legislation, but he was prescient in his views. While the politicians bicker, Spratt outlined approaches which could be effective in reducing carbon emissions:

• A gross feed-in tariff for renewable energy produced at all scales
• Mandatory renewable energy targets
• Energy efficiency targets
• Education and behavioural change programs

In California and Germany carbon emissions were reduced using such methods, without any recourse to carbon pricing or trading [4]. Spratt mentions two strategies which would be far more effective than the CPRS:

• Plan B: An Agenda for Immediate Action on Climate Change by a coalition of environment and climate organisations (Simon Butler provided a summary in Green Left Weekly)
• The Emerging Climate Consensus: Global Warming Policy in a Post-Environmental World by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger

It’s the greatest challenge we have ever faced, and requires innovation, careful planning and coordination. [4]

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References

1. Hepburn, John (2008) “Emissions trading jobs” Rooted blog, 12 October
2. ABC News (2010) Warmest decade proves Abbott ‘got it wrong’, 5 January
3. Pearse, Guy (2009) “Quarry Vision: Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom” Quarterly Essay, no.32, p.37
4. Spratt, David (2009) “Time for a Plan B on climate?” Dissent, no.30, p.34-39

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They are the variety Lactuca sativa ‘compostus’ ie they come up where I put down compost. I like one variety in particular and let it go to seed and add the whole plant, seeds and all, to the compost. My compost doesn’t get hot enough to kill seeds, so compost lettuce* grows in profusion. The lettuce is an actual variety, but I’m not sure of its name. It looks vaguely like ‘Bubbles’ in my vegie book [1]. The seeds aren’t hybrids and breed true so I concluded they have a pretty good genetic make-up for the conditions they encounter in my garden, thus they grow well. There have been other varieties growing from my compost in the past (eg. red oakleaf), but I didn’t like eating them and never let them go to seed. I probably should bring some genetic variety into the mix and there is one plant of another green variety that I was going to let go to seed, but it’s been taking a hammering from the sun and isn’t looking too happy. Also I have no red lettuce, so I need to get some seed of that.

Snails enjoy fields of lettuce, so I poisoned them with iron chelate bait (only harmful to slugs and snails, not dogs, cats, bob-tails or other critters). There’s still the occasional tiny snail or slug you have to pick out of the lettuce. I wonder if they don’t eat the poison cause it’s the same size as them. You also have to wash the lettuce thoroughly to dislodge any other critters and cut the chewed (or sun burnt) bits off leaves. Despite this (possible) added protein, it’s yummy lettuce. I initially didn’t have aphids on the lettuce – they were too busy on my everlasting daisies (which flowered beautifully despite the attacks), but I think they’ve moved onto the lettuce. Apart from decimating anything they come across, if you find leaves that aren’t too badly eaten, aphids aren’t dislodged by washing. You have to pick them off one at a time, or else pretend you don’t see them, which I have trouble doing. I have a recipe for a soap insecticide from Safer Pest Control for Australian Homes & Gardens [2], but haven’t got around to it making – stupid thesis :(

The ascendant tomatoes aren’t compost tomatoes* which pop up in their millions. I was pulling up any I found, but they’ve dropped off now. They grow from shop bought tomato seeds in the compost and the quality of progeny is too variable for my liking. I don’t quite understand how the number of compost tomatoes occurs. I eat the seeds of tomatoes I buy and I don’t put whole tomatoes in the compost. I know the occasional seed gets left on the chopping board, but how can occasional seeds lead to the astronomical numbers I pull up!?

Unlike last year I planted tomatoes earlier this spring – five tomato varieties from which I know exactly what to expect. Theoretically this would mean my crop would produce before it gets too hot, but after 3 days over 30°C in October and 7 in November I don’t know how this’ll go. I liked the Tommy Toes (cherry tomato variety) I grew last year and I’ve planted them again. My friend Anouska had too many seedlings of a Roma variety she’s breed for two seasons, and they were planted earlier than the others so had a head start. The other three types are from Diggers seed (a number of which are the free seed members get two times a year). One was a 5 colour selection (take note Mr & Mrs Shaddow) which included:

• Sugarlump
• Napoli Paste
• Red Greenwich
• Black Russian
• Yellow Peach
• Green Zebra
• Orange Jaune Flammee

The above and Amish Paste were past their used-by-date, but that didn’t stop seedlings emerging in profusion. I don’t like eating strange coloured tomatoes, so the 5 colour selection went to other garden homes (and because you can’t tell which they are before they fruit, they’re surprise tomatoes). The fifth is Martino Roma, which had the farthest away used-by-date. At first only three seedlings grew (when the germination rate is 96%), but then I disturbed the soil a bit when I removed one seedling and more came up. So I ended up with more than three Martino Roma seedlings and still have seeds for next summer.

Now the tomatoes are growing well in the garden beds and Anouska’s Roma are starting to fruit, although they’re still small. Before fruiting began I was meant to focus on bugs. Last summer I didn’t use my uncle’s suggestion of a spray of garlic and chilli to kill tomato grubs (Helicoverpa armigera), but I’d hoped to get the recipe and be using it by now. Maybe one day soon.

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*Note: compost lettuce, tomatoes, etc grow from my compost – I don’t remove them from the compost after they’ve rotted a bit, which my mum thought at first. My compost is not the best example of compost in action, because if you’re doing it “right” the 40-70ºC heat produced kills any seeds, but my garden and I don’t mind. My compost does get pretty hot though because when I find a half eaten rodent courtesy of Wicca the cat (or a whole one when he’s feeling especially generous) I bury it 30cm deep in the compost and there’s no smell or other evidence of it ever existing.

Gardening Books

1. 500 Popular Vegetables, Herbs, Fruit & Nuts for Australian Gardeners (1999) Milsons Point, NSW: Random House
2. Rogers, Paul (1999) Safer Pest Control for Australian Homes and Gardens (1986) Kenthurst, NSW: Kangaroo Press

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Fungi species often appear slightly different in different regions. [2]

In August I found some very unusual mushrooms growing in the pine bark mulch of my native garden. They had pointed caps which were intricately crenulated. I’ve had mushrooms with “ordinary” caps popping up in my lawn or vegie garden, but never something quite so alien-looking. The Perth Fungi Field Book came to the rescue and identified them as edible black morels (Morchella elata), not native to Australia, thus like the weed growing behind it, messing up my “native” garden. The name confused me at first because the morels in my garden weren’t black until they started dying, but after picking one to give to my brother to eat, it turned black inside the crenulations.

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan wrote about searching for black morels in a Californian pine forest the spring following a wildfire [3]. I thought my morels fruited in response to the fire a pine plantation receives prior to felling. Spores could have been caught in the bark and transferred to my garden when I put in the mulch. While the spores did arrive with the mulch, Morchella elata grows away from fires,

on non-burned soils, litter, and duff including non-burned islands in burned areas or on burned soils but then apparently no sooner than the second spring after an intense wildfire. [4]

The morel Michael Pollen searched for could have been Morchella tomentose (formerly Morchella atrotomentosa) which are

burn morels, fruiting the spring following a fire. [4]

As with many fungi, the taxonomy of the Morchellaceae family has not been worked out yet [4], so it’s all very confusing :)

My parent’s garden grows some interesting fungi too (above left). I tentatively IDed this as an Earthball (Scleroderma sp.). They burst like puffballs to release their spores and what’s left is a folded back star shape. This one never opened, just went squishy and rotted away so I’m not certain of my ID. The opened Earthball (above right) is on a bush track in Karnup. Earthballs are in the Sclerodermataceae family as are Dog Poo Fungi (Pisolithus sp.) which are common on winter walks at Star Swamp, and look exactly like dog poo.

My parents also had a massive rippling whitish-cream fungus growing at the base of a dead silky oak (Grevillea robusta). When the tree died most was felled, but 2m of trunk left. At first I thought this amazing fungus was Erupting Russula (Russula erumpens). Erupting was the perfect description for its growth, but the fungus seemed to be growing from the dead tree stump rather than stalks in the ground.

Other ID options were Fan Pax (Tapinella panuoides) or Southern Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus australis), but I think it’s more likely Hohenbuehelia bingarra. Other Hohenbuehelia sp. have the rippling growth of this fungus. My brother wondered if it was edible, but it wasn’t listed in Recognizing Edible Field Mushrooms [5], so I didn’t think he should try it.

Whatever it was, it’s second in line, after black morels, for strangest looking fungi I found this winter. It was growing under the metal sheeting that protects the woodpile from rain. I broke the fungus a little when I put the sheeting back, but then piled the firewood up to lift the sheet higher. When my parents and brother subsequently took wood from the pile they weren’t quite so careful and next time I saw it, it was squashed.

I had log seats on my front porch that get rained on and last winter they grew what I first thought were Scarlet Bracket Fungi (Pycnoporus coccineus). But bracket fungi don’t have gills and these ones did. Therefore I was slightly baffled. It could be Eucalypt Crepidotus (Crepidotus eucalyptorum). My friend made these seats and he may have used jarrah or another eucalyptus. They are parts of the trunk sliced into seat size and carved with a checkerboard pattern on top. The Crepidotus grew in the gaps between the squares. Before the rain began this year I realised a wet log seat sitting on a wet wooden porch probably isn’t a good idea if I don’t want a rotten porch. So the log seats moved to the paving out the back. They don’t get rained on as much out there and this winter fewer and smaller Crepidotus grew.

Last winter I also found “trumpet” fungi growing in a pot plant in my garden. My name didn’t stick, they were probably Bird’s Nest Fungi (Cyathus sp.), which had lost their peridioles, the “eggs in the nest,” before I found them. Drops of water fall on the peridioles and they shoot out like cannon balls [6]. This photo of Cyathus sp. taken last winter in Canberra still has its peridioles.

For years there’s been two bracket fungi, which may be Wood-layered Bracket Fungi (Phellinus robustus) growing on a Bald Island Marlock (Eucalyptus conferruminata) in my local park. Earlier this year someone broke off most of the larger one. I was worried that was the end of it, but the wound healed and it seems to be surviving well.

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References

1. Negus, Patricia (2006) The Magical World of Fungi North Fremantle, WA: Cape to Cape.
2. Bougher, Neale L. (2009) Fungi of the Perth Region and Beyond: A self-managed field book Perth, WA: Western Australian Naturalists’ Club.
3. Pollan, Michael (2006) The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals New York: Penguin.
4. Gibson, Ian (2009) Morels & False Morels of the Pacific Northwest: An Introduction South Vancouver Island, BC: Pacific Northwest Key Council.
5. Hoffmann, Bougher & Wood (2005) Recognizing Edible Field Mushrooms (Gardennote no.47) Perth, WA: Dept of Agriculture.
6. Lepp, Heino (2005) Birds Nest and Cannonball Fungi Canberra, ACT: Australian National Botanic Gardens.

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I like to blame Sheeba the dog for any problem in the garden. She’s the culprit when freshly dug holes are concerned, but I don’t think she’s quite mastered turning a tap. The culprit in this instance is my brain on thesis. Zoë S. drew an anatomically correct diagram of this phenomenon. As you can see the (red) area of brain left for accomplishing tasks like turning on and off taps at the correct time is very small, thus it’s amazing such a water crisis hasn’t happened before.

A day ago there was about 1200L in the tank, now there’s 300L. The bean seeds that I bemoaned were taking so long to pop up; all have now thanks to the generous soaking. I wondered if 900L would be enough for their whole life, but I have a feeling it doesn’t work like that. The tomato seedlings I just planted in the very sunny other vegie bed got none of this soaking, which they needed – stupid weeping hose. Why do you do everything wrong!?

Last year my rainwater tank was installed at about this time. I didn’t think I’d have a tank of water til winter this year, but the unusual spring downpours filled it before summer. It would be nice if the same huge amount of rain fell this November, but I’m not counting on it. No more rainwater to drink this summer :(

And cause it hasn’t rained the pond really needs a bucket or two of non-chlorinated water right now – stupid rain, stupid hose, stupid thesis!

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long grass in need of mowing

daisies flowering after mowing the verge

grey butcherbird visiting the garden last year

Ms Butcher in the neighbour’s palm

while Mr Butcher looks the other way

grey butcherbird catching the sunset on the electricity line

On Saturday while catching some sun in the garden a red wattlebird (Anthochaera carnunculata) landed in the not so tall tuart. He hopped from branch to branch, then was dive-bombed by the butcherbird. I thought at first the attacker was another wattlebird cause that’s the kind of thing they do, but the butcherbird flew to the electricity line in triumph and I could see his colouring. Obviously my garden is not for sharing. The day after, on Sunday I was sitting with Sheeba in the shade of the tuart, it gives some nice shade despite being not so tall, and a red wattlebird landed on the birdbath a metre away. He could see us nearby, but he was happy to take a few sips of water and then fly off. It was pretty hot (26°C), so we weren’t going to scare him away from his drink.

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In July rain fell on only 16 days, half a month of no rain when July is Perth’s wettest month. I can’t believe I had to water some of my garden!? It was from the rainwater tank so it’s been replaced since then, but one morning I spent too long watering, missed my bus and had to wait half an hour for the next one. Despite so many fine days we still received 149.6mm of rain, only slightly below July’s average rainfall of 152.9mm. In June we received 20mm above the average, so for the two months rainfall was higher than average.

The past week the rain fell in earnest, with high winds to make for real winter weather. At 9:30 yesterday morning there was quite a bit of cloud cover over Perth, the southwest and the wheatbelt, which has been dumping the downpours on us. Today there were lots of sun showers and fine periods. When I was a kid my family called a sun shower a Monkey’s Picnic. I thought this was what everyone called them. It was only a few years ago that I discovered my family are the only people in the universe who call them that, but I still say Monkey’s Picnic whenever it rains when the sun’s shining.

JR the weatherman chats on RTRfm on Thursday mornings and in the middle of the 11 day summer interlude he said the record for a dry spell in winter was 28 days in 1902. That year had Perth’s warmest and driest August on record. We didn’t quite make the record this year and Perth is far from having rainfall deficiencies this winter, although other places are not faring so well.

For the 24-month period from August 2007 to July 2009, serious to severe rainfall deficiencies remain evident across much of southeast Australia and parts of central Australia. These regions experienced some average to above average rainfall during the final months of both 2007 and 2008, as well as through the most recent autumn. However, most months through the period were drier than the long-term mean, especially during the growing seasons. Both 2007 and 2008 were classified as positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) years, which is likely to have contributed partly to the low winter and spring rainfall recorded across parts of southern Australia during both these years.

The news isn’t so good for very long term rainfall patterns in the southwest of WA and other areas.

Very long-term rainfall deficiencies outside of the drought periods discussed above persist across parts of southern and eastern Australia. Most notably, rainfall has been below average across much of southwest and southeast Australia since 1997, while the Murray-Darling Basin has experienced below average rainfall since 2002.

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The solution was a hedge of woolly bushes, not against the windows, but against the back fence a couple of metres from the house. Although I should have done this five years ago, a hedge is now growing to shade my wall of windows. It’s not quite hedge-like at the moment, more a row of foot high plants, but in a few years it’ll be up to 4m high and in need of regular pruning into the hedgely shape I desire.

There is a problem with woolly bushes – their shallow root systems. My friends at Nuts about Natives have a planting of Albany woolly bushes which are all about 4m high and last winter one was uprooted in a high wind. It didn’t cause any damage because it landed among its neighbours. In the last weekend of June this winter the very high winds caused a lot of damage in Perth. The gusts of up to 72km/h uprooted two of a neighbour’s pencil pines which knocked down part of his fence. I hope this doesn’t happen with any of the woolly bushes as my new hedge grows. During the winds of that weekend my tuart was severely buffeted but the flexibility of its young trunk meant it survived without damage. As it grows taller it’s more likely to lose branches and cause damage, but I hope this won’t happen. The tuarts and other gum trees (particularly illyarrie) in the park where I walk Sheeba the dog lost a few branches that weekend.

There are two options for a woolly bush hedge: the Albany woolly bush (Adenanthos sericeus) or Adenanthos cygnorum endemic to Perth. Both grow to 4m, but the Albany woolly bush is more widely available from nurseries. It’s easier to propagate and looks “prettier.” They both have insignificant flowers, but the orange flowers of the Albany woolly bush are more noticeable. I wanted the Perth woolly bush to keep with my aim of a garden of mostly plants endemic to Perth and I got them from Lullfitz Nursery in Wanneroo.

My back area is paved and my dad and I removed a strip of paving against the back fence for the new garden. During the excavation I dug up a tiny plastic doll and she has taken up residence in a woolly bush. While the woolly bushes are small I’ve planted everlasting daisies (Rhodanthe chlorocephala ssp. rosea), Rottnest Island daisies (Trachymene coerulea) and Swan River daisies (Brachyscome iberidifolia) to fill the spaces with spring and summer colour. They’re annuals and self seed, so they’ll return every spring, but when the woolly bushes get to a certain height they’ll crowd them out. Snails and caterpillars find everlastings particularly tasty, so I’ve been killing them* left, right and centre. A couple of years ago I planted snakebush (Hemiandra pungens) further down the fence. Bobtail lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) love the flowers of snakebush, which I hope will entice them into my garden. Bobtails live in the empty block two doors down** and perhaps this summer they’ll visit my garden for some tasty treats of snakebush flowers and snails.

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Notes

* I use iron chelate (EDTA complex) snail bait and Bt for caterpillars which aren’t harmful to other critters.

** I hope this block never gets developed. Apart from bobtails and assorted dumped rubbish, it has the brick fireplace of the house, when the rest was demolished, and a beautiful (and huge) stinkwood (Jacksonia sternbergiana).

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Indigenous Australians arrived in Australia 50,000 years ago and dingos were thought to have arrived with them [2], but it’s now believed they arrived more recently with Asian seafarers [4]. In 1983 the oldest dingo fossil was an almost complete skeleton aged about 3,000 years [1], although more recent fossil and archaeological evidence dates their arrival around 3,500 years ago [2] (improved carbon dating techniques and new fossil finds lead to amendments in the date of arrival).

Dingos never got to Tasmania because they arrived later than 14,000 years, when Bass Strait formed [1]. The lack of competition from dingos in Tasmania led to survival of thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii), but not on the mainland. European settlers proceeded to kill all the thylacines* [5] and almost all Tasmania’s Indigenous Australians [6]. Tasmanian devils are currently in danger of extinction due to facial tumour disease [7].

I love dogs, so of course I love dingos. I also love wolves (Canis lupus), but I know a wolf in Australia would be so wrong and cause enormous havoc. Along with the first Indigenous Australians, dingos wrought enormous change on the flora, fauna and landscape of Australia – a very different Australia to one we know. Both people and dingos contributed to these changes, but other factors such as Ice Ages may have also played a part. Since European settlers arrived 200 years ago we’ve probably done more damage.

Dingos occur throughout Australia, except Tasmania, although many populations include hybrid wild dogs.

Pure dingoes are common in northern, northwestern and central regions, rare in southern and north-eastern regions, and probably extinct in the south-eastern and south-western regions. [3]

There are two strains of dingo: the alpine type which is short, stocky and more fluffy, and the tropical or arid type. The larger populations of pure wild dingos in the  northern, northwestern and central regions are of the tropical or arid type. They have long legs for speed and are leaner for endurance over the vast distances they roam. They can also go without water for much longer.

While pure dingos are genetically different to domestic dogs, breeding with wild or domestic dogs produces viable offspring. Dingos are listed as a vulnerable species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The biggest threat to the species is hybridization with dogs, contributing to the loss of the pure dingo strain [3]. The Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre says,

Purity is doomed in the wild, unless a safe reserve can be found for them which is free of hybrid wild dogs.

Dingos have always been considered a pest by famers due to attacks on sheep and young cattle [4]. They are killed for this reason and the longest fence in the world (8,500 km) was built from SA to Qld in an attempt to keep dingos from grazing lands in south eastern Australia [1]. I knew a horse breeder who had a dingo cross. She was a beautiful dog, but could escape from anywhere. Due to the neighbouring farmer threatening to shoot her the next time he saw her, she wore a horse bit attached to her collar to slow her down, so she would be less likely to wander near his sheep and rifle.

Many native animals can be privately owned (from captive breeding) with a permit from the State government. In WA this does not cover pure dingos, private ownership is not allowed. The Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre in Victoria breeds pure dingos from their colony which represents an unbroken genetic line from the neolithic canid that first crossed the domestic threshold (the DNA is tested by the UNSW). People in Victoria, NSW, NT** or the ACT can buy a dingo pup from the Sanctuary, but this entails a lot more commitment than getting a mutt from the pound or buying a pure bred domestic dog.

Dingos need their bonded humans, other pets and familiar surroundings for their lifetime. They cannot be successfully boarded out, or re-homed. Your commitment must therefore be seriously considered, and for the life of your dingo which may well be 18 years.

An easier way to have your own is to Sponsor a Dingo from the Sanctuary or make a Donation to the Australian Dingo Foundation. The Foundation is committed to ensuring conservation of the pure dingo through the Sanctuary and ongoing research. You can also donate through the WA Dingo Association.

=^.^=

Notes

* Rounsevell contends it may not have been only hunting which led to the thylacine’s extinction. An epidemic at the turn of the 20th century decimated the population of Tasmanian devils, and quolls on the mainland, and may have contributed to the thylacine’s extinction [5].

** The Sanctuary consists mostly of the alpine type (of which there are less in the wild), but dingos in the NT are of the tropical type. The Sanctuary’s breeding program keeps the two strains separate.

Credits

Reflections of a Dingo at Johnston Lakes, Goldfields, WA by Alan Carmichael. Thank you to Alan for explaining the differences between the alpine and arid dingos. I assumed arid and tropical dingos are the same strain, but if I got this wrong, it’s not Alan’s fault :P

Thank you to Dimitrije Nikic for telling me about the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre in Victoria. He has some amazing photos of his dingo mates at the Sanctuary.

References

1. Newsome, A.E. (1983) “Dingo” in Strahan (Ed.) The Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. pp.483-485
2. Garrish, Amelia (2005) Dingo Canis lupus dingo in Introduced Species Summary Project. New York: Columbia University
3. Corbett, L.K. (2008) Canis lupus ssp. dingo. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.1. <http://www.iucnredlist.org/&gt; Downloaded 2 August 2009.
4. Thomson, Peter (2008) Dingo Farmnote 133/2000. WA Department of Agriculture.
5. Rounsevell, D.E. (1983) “Thylacine” in Strahan (Ed.) The Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. pp.81-83
6. Onsman, Andrys (2004) “Truganini’s Funeral” Island Magazine no.96, p.39-52
7. Tasmanian Dept of Primary Industries and Water (2009) Devil Facial Tumour Disease

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