From the ARK - Arkaroola · are reminded of a very special man. ... The Slender Bell-fruit is a...

From the ARKFrom the ARK NEWSLETTER SIXTEEN SPRING 2012

ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY

IN THIS ISSUE

News From The Ark Thank You South Australia When the South Wind Blows Farewell La Niña

Plant Profile Bell-fruit Revolution

Too Precious to Mine The First Act

Conservation & Research Jumping Indeed!

Creature Feature CATastrophe

Geonote Geology You Can Drink

From the Arkhives Greenwood’s Arrow

Galactic Gossip In Transit

Product Information The Road Less Travelled

Ark Postcard Ark Up. It Gets Results! Images provided by Rebecca Clemas, Lorraine Edmunds, Scott Jennings, Ryan & Natalie McMillan, Paul O’Brien, Shane Walter; DEWNR (Map)

Written and produced by Lorraine Edmunds

As I look out over Arkaroola through a forest of two metre tall rock sida plants, the future looks exciting. We‘ve had three years of wonderful summer rains that have produced amazing recruitment and regeneration. The country has recovered from the long drought and is now ready for tougher times when they return. The battle for the protection, in perpetuity, of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is finally over. At last we can pursue our long-term plan to establish a Foundation to guide and develop Arkaroola as a centre of excellence in education, research and conservation. This is what our parents wanted for Arkaroola - protection of this unique part of the Flinders Ranges, the bit at the top end, the wild bit. AND ongoing support for research and science education. It has been a challenging few years but, as our new T-shirts declare, with your help WE DID IT!

Marg

NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA FROM THE ARK NEWSLETTER SIXTEEN SPRING 2012

Almost fifty years ago, Reg Sprigg asked South Australian Premier, Tom Playford, to purchase the Arkaroola pastoral lease and turn the property into a national park. The premier wasn’t interested, so Reg and Griselda purchased the lease themselves and created Arkaroola - Mount Painter Sanctuary. For more than forty years the property, known as the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary since 2002, has been managed for conservation and tourism by the Sprigg family. Finally, on 26 April 2012, after a six year campaign to secure long-term protection from mining, the Arkaroola Protection Act 2012 (SA) passed into law. Long–awaited and hard-fought-for, this Act signals a new beginning for Arkaroola. In this issue of From the Ark we will run our final Too Precious to Mine column, introduced in Issue Ten 2008. It will be replaced, in future issues, by expanded Conservation, Research & Education features. To join our mailing list just email us at [email protected]

A MESSAGE FROM MARG

NEWS FROM THE ARK


It took six years but finally it was time to raise our glasses to the people of South Australia and beyond, and say ’Thank You’. On May 26, Arkaroola held a reception in the foyer of the South Australian Museum (SAM) to formally thank everyone who had contributed to Arkaroola’s successful campaign to protect the sanctuary from mining. Among the guests were the Governor, His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC and Mrs Scarce, politicians (present and past), SAM staff including Director Dr Suzanne Miller, members of the Adnyamathanha community, supporters from The Wilderness Society, pastoralists, geologists, journalists and friends of Arkaroola. Marg Sprigg thanked the many people who had contributed, from grass roots supporters to people within government. She made special mention of Mike Rann, the former premier of South Australia, applauding his courageous decision to ban mining in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Marg also thanked exploration miner Marathon Resources for contributing to the successful outcome.


THANK YOU SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The Wilderness Society also hosted a THANKS event for the many supporters who campaigned for the protection of Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. About 300 people gathered at the Grace Emily Hotel on the evening of July 1 to celebrate a sweet victory. For a video clip of this event go to YouTube, enter The Wilderness Society/Arkaroola and scroll down to Arkaroola - protected forever!

NEWS FROM THE ARK


FROM THE ARK NEWSLETTER SIXTEEN SPRING 2012

That friend who triggers major regeneration events across inland Australia, has bid us farewell. According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, conditions are trending toward the return of El Niño, as the boom/bust pendulum swings. Arkaroola’s climate is largely shaped by oscillations in sea surface temperatures of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean. Warmer ocean temperatures produce drier than average conditions (El Niño), often triggering protracted dry spells and droughts. A cooling phase produces La Niña conditions, with cooler summer temperatures and increased rainfall, often resulting in major flooding over large areas of the continent. Three back-to-back, above average rainfall years, with exceptional summer/autumn rainfall, have triggered a spectacular recovery in the condition of Arkaroola’s vegetation. Widespread regeneration of many species, including several that are threatened, like Spidery Wattle below, has not occurred on this scale since the 1970s. Farewell La Niña! We know you will be back but it might be a long time between drinks!

WHEN THE SOUTH WIND BLOWS

NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA

Rainfall: the first 6 months January 54.2 mm February 184.6 mm March 66.0 mm April 0 May trace only June 33.3 mm

TOTAL : 338.1mm

When the wind blows from the south across Arkaroola, we are reminded of a very special man. Our neighbour and friend of several decades who fought with fire in his belly to protect Arkaroola from mining, Gilbert Couthard passed away on 12 June at his home in Copley. Born on Wertaloona Station, Gil never moved far from his ancestral country. He spent many years on neighbouring Balcanoona Station, first as a child and later as a ranger. During negotiations to dedicate Balcanoona Station as a national park (enacted in 1980), Gil was a vital link between his community and the South Australian Government. Many in his community were sceptical but for Gil this was an opportunity to protect country and teach the wider community about its significance for his people. Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park (VGRNP) later became one of South Australia’s first co-managed protected areas. A Senior Adnyamathanha Elder, Gil’s life and work were recognised in 2009 when he was awarded NAIDOC Elder of the Year. Gil had a close association with Arkaroola. His father Wally and brother Geoffrey both worked on Arkaroola. During the Arkaroola campaign, Gil’s authoritative words “there will be NO MINE at Mount Gee” kept our hopes alive when there was little else to cheer us. Just three weeks before he passed away, Gil was guest of honour at the formal opening of ‘Uncle Gil’s Walk’ at Balcanoona (VGRNP). Family, former work colleagues and Adnyamathanha community members shared a very special afternoon with a man whose story is the story of his people. When we pass Balcanoona we remember Gil, our neighbour and friend, pictured below with Linda, his life’s companion.

FAREWELL LA NIÑA




BELL-FRUIT REVOLUTION THE FIRST ACT

From the hills above Tillite Gorge, to the farthest reaches of Arkaroola at Parabaranna Hill, across Ridge Top country and south toward Arkaroola Village, they have established new stands. In the forty-four year life of the sanctuary we have never seen so many Slender Bell-fruit trees. Considered extinct in NSW where it has disappeared from the Pooncarie district in the last half century, Slender Bell-fruit (Codonocarpus pyramidalis) is listed as Endangered under the National Parks & Wildlife Act of SA (1972). It is rated Vulnerable under the Australian Government’s EPBC Act. The Slender Bell-fruit is a small tree of willowy appearance which grows to eight metres and generally occurs as small localised stands or as scattered individuals. Fast-growing but relatively short-lived, this species seems to suddenly ’pop up’ on the crests and slopes of low ridges and hills after a run of wet years. During droughts, many of the stands vanish, with just a handful of hardy individuals persisting in the landscape. Difficult to propagate, Slender Bell-fruit was thought to require fire to regenerate. “Slender Bell-fruit plants regenerate well after fire, which may be required for germination.” (Jessop & Toelken 1986). But with little wildfire across most of the sanctuary in recent decades, we believe there must be another trigger. The spectacular regeneration of several thousand Bell-fruit trees across the sanctuary suggests that infrequent La Niña events that deliver a run of wet summers, may be more critical to germination than altered fire regimes. Helicopter pilot, Paul O’Brien, has been our eye in the sky spotting stands across the sanctuary like the one below. Use a zoom setting of 200% to see the extent of this stand of Slender Bell-fruit trees above Tillite Gorge. Like other revolutions of recent times, this one will continue to hold our interest as we record its progress.

PLANT PROFILE TOO PRECIOUS TO MINE

The Arkaroola Protection Area is shaded in blue. It includes 82.6% of the Arkaroola Pastoral Lease, (defined by a black line), 8.5% of the Mount Freeling Pastoral Lease and the 700 hectare freehold block which contains Arkaroola Village. It does not include Arkaroola’s north-eastern ‘panhandle’ or a narrow strip of country along Arkaroola’s eastern boundary with Wooltana Station.

The Arkaroola Protection Act 2012 (SA) was not only the first Act to be passed in 2012 by the South Australian Parliament. It is also Act One of a new story for Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. The passion and posturing of the last six years, of protest and debate, lobbying and lamenting, bad behaviour and flawed policy, posters and press releases, T-shirts and bumper stickers, street theatre and stereoscopic vision, has hopefully run its course. Excited by the passage of the Bill, we remain vigilant as the process of implementation begins. The Arkaroola Protected Area is a new conceptual model for the delivery of conservation in South Australia. It reflects a growing realisation by governments and the Australian community, that conservation across different land tenures is needed to protect and manage biodiversity at a regional and national scale. Private sector involvement in conservation management is not new. However, no other parcel of privately-managed land in South Australia has the level of protection now afforded the Arkaroola Protection Area. Over the coming months we will work with the South Australian Government and other groups with an interest in the Arkaroola Protection Area, including the Adnyamathanha community and the lessees of Mount Freeling Pastoral Lease, to develop a management plan for the Arkaroola Protection Area. Pest control, threatened species management and recovery programs are expensive to deliver. Arkaroola will continue to use its tourism enterprise to fund conservation as it has for more than forty years. But we are also exploring other options, including the creation of a Foundation to help provide the expertise and resources we will require into the future. Most of us always knew it. Others took some convincing. But finally we have agreement - Arkaroola IS Too Precious to Mine!



December 1967. “I’ve just bought you a Christmas present” announced

CONSERVATION & RESEARCH JUMPING INDEED!

It’s called Jumping Cholla for good reason. A fiercely-spined cylindrical cactus from south-western California, Jumping Cholla has leapt across the world’s biggest ocean, into and out of a garden setting at Arkaroola. And that’s not the end of it. Arkaroola’s Landcare Group believes the sanctuary’s resident ‘jumpers’, its’ euros and rock-wallabies, are helping to disperse this highly invasive cactus. Cylindropuntia prolifera, or Jumping Cholla (pronounced “choy-yah”), has invaded more than five square kilometres of steeply dipping hills around Arkaroola Village. Concerned about its spread, Arkaroola has been working with volunteers for a decade to try to control Jumping Cholla. Several different treatments have been tried including burning plants in situ, digging them up and burning in a pit, stem injecting with glyphosate, and releasing cochineal, a proven biocontrol for Devil’s Rope cactus, another invasive cylindrical cactus. In our experience, the only effective treatment has been foliar spraying using the herbicide Grazon. The Arkaroola Landcare Group was established in 2009 to contain Jumping Cholla and, over time, hopefully eradicate it from Arkaroola. With funding through the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Group, the cactus killers mapped and treated the infestation in an initial knockdown. Two follow-up treatments were then done in 2011 and 2012. The Arkaroola Landcare Group has found very dense patches of Jumping Cholla high in the rocks where Yellow-footed rock-wallabies live. The cacti also occur along ‘wallaby pads’, animal trackways that criss-cross the hillsides. As the slightest contact will dislodge branchlets, it is probable that wallabies and euros are transporting the cactus in their fur and on their feet. Jumping Cholla, increasing its range by hitching a ride on the world’s number one jumping genius, the Australian macropod. Trying to get the jump on that won’t be easy!

National Coordinator for the Weeds of National Significance/Opuntioid Group, Shauna Potter holds specimens of invasive Jumping Cholla collected at Arkaroola.

The Arkaroola Landcare Group ‘cactus killers’ kitted up and ready to start work.

Jumping Cholla plants sprayed with herbicide and marked with food dye.

What’s a WoNS?

Australia has more than 3000 non-native naturalised plants. Many are weeds. With so many it’s just not possible to control them all. Since 1999, Federal, State and Territory Governments have been working together to control Australia’s priority ‘Weeds of National Significance’ (WoNS). Twenty species were originally identified with a further twelve added in April 2012. The Opuntioid group which includes Jumping Cholla, are among the new WoNS. WoNS has been described as “a proactive attempt to strategically manage priority weeds that pose future threats to primary industries, land management, human or animal welfare, biodiversity and conservation values.” WoNS website



Cats stepped onto Australian soil long before the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay. When they jumped ship off Macassan fishing boats or rafted to shore among the flotsam and jetsam of Dutch shipwrecks, the first cats to arrive in Australia found a pantry of continental dimensions. As more cats arrived after 1788, colonising Felis catus was to have a catastrophic impact on Australian wildlife. Cats have ‘done well’ in Australia. They have claimed sovereignty over all habitats but the wettest rainforests, and are threatened by few native predators. Cats have caused extinctions of ground-dwelling birds and small mammals on offshore islands. They are implicated, with the European Fox, in the extinctions of many small terrestrial mammals on mainland Australia. Their impacts have been especially severe in drier inland areas where many creatures are ’lightweights’- within what ecologists call the critical weight range of 30 to 5500 grams, the prey size preferred by cats. In the late 1800s, cats were deliberately released on some properties as part of a strategy to control rabbits. On 18 July 1892, The Advertiser ran an ad: “ Wanted, 1000 young cats, delivered at Wirrialpa Station.” Half a crown would be paid for each cat on delivery to Blinman. 500 cats had already been released on the property, managers claiming that “no damage is done by the cats, which confine their attention solely to the unfortunate rabbits.” Conservation managers don’t have much to work with in their cat control toolkit. Over the past two decades, baiting has dramatically reduced the numbers of foxes in many districts around Australia. But baits have little appeal for cats attracted to moving prey. The removal of one top predator can also create opportunities for another. In areas where fox numbers are low or absent, cats often fill the predator vacuum. With access to a well-stocked bush pantry, courtesy of La Niña, feral cat populations have probably increased in recent years. If local sightings are any indication, we can expect our cat traps to be working overtime at Arkaroola Village in the months to come.

CREATURE FEATURE


GEONOTE

GEOLOGY YOU CAN DRINK CATASTROPHE Potable water is scarce in inland Australia. In the arid ranges, geology and topography team up with climate to create storages that sustain life in all but the most severe of droughts. But water quality is extremely variable and some resources are more critical than others. Given his interest in all things it is no surprise that Reg Sprigg closely monitored Arkaroola’s surface waters to understand their ecological value. Reg Sprigg described the gorges along Arkaroola Creek as “ a major life support system for a whole region.” Here, a string of waterholes, for which the Adnyamathanha people have creation stories, provide permanent water for wildlife. The only other natural waters on Arkaroola are seeps and springs associated with geological faults and hard rock crush zones. By monitoring creek flows and water salinities, Reg was able to demonstrate that water quality in individual creeks and waterholes was highly variable. Water quality in streams (which persist as underflows in creek gravels and sands long after surface flows cease following heavy rainfall events), reflects the rock types that are present in local headwaters. Reg’s data showed that the best quality water came from the granites of Arkaroola’s Ridge Top country. The salinity values of water sourced from the granites varied little between droughts. But waterholes that were fed by creeks with drainages off ‘limey’ calcareous and magnesite-rich rocks became so saline that they could no longer support rock-wallabies, euros and other wildlife during extreme droughts. Informed by his data, Reg had 70 km² of Arkaroola added to the Register of the National Estate in 1981 to provide critical habitat for the Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby, then in serious decline across its historic range. This area which Reg named ‘Arkaroola Gorge’ is in fact a series of gorges containing a string of permanent waterholes. Several, like Echo Camp Waterhole pictured below, are fed by waters discharged from Arkaroola’s central granite country. This is a critical conservation area that provides a lifeline for Arkaroola’s wildlife, no place for mineral explorers with a thirst for water!

FROM THE ARKHIVES GALACTIC GOSSIP



GREENWOOD’S ARROW

At the junction of Arkaroola and Radium Creeks, a large arrow and the numbers ’98’ can be found on high ground above the main creek channel. Recently, Shane Walter and friends visited Arkaroola to restore this historic marker. Shane shares its story below. WB Greenwood was a pastoralist, drover and sometime miner. He was also an inveterate fossicker; any spare time was spent prospecting deep in the hills of the Mt Painter region. In 1898, Greenwood worked as a part-time government prospector. He established a camp near the junction of Arkaroola Creek and what is now known as Radium Creek. Greenwood named the site Echo Camp. To this day a good “cooee” will echo several times between the cliffs. To mark the direction he took when prospecting from Echo Camp, Green-wood formed a Government ‘broad arrow’ and the numbers ‘98’ from white quartz fragments collected from the creek. Using this route in 1910 to access Mt Gee and Mt Painter, WB Greenwood and his son ‘Smiler’ discovered a bright green copper-uranium mineral. This was later identified as torbenite by the then Reader of Mineralogy at Adelaide University, Douglas Mawson. The Greenwoods’ discovery was the first of a number of brightly coloured secondary uranium minerals to be discovered in the area, minerals previously unknown in the southern hemisphere. Many of the best specimens found their way into Adelaide’s School of Mines, and university and museum collections around the world. In 1972, a party from Sacred Heart College led by Brother Columbanus, erected a monument adjacent to Greenwood’s arrow, to honour the early prospectors. Nearby is the tomb-stone of WB Greenwood Jnr and his wife Elva, who, along with his elder brother ‘Smiler’ Greenwood, pioneered the Arkaroola Station in the 30s and 40s. Over the years visitors to the site added rocks to the original arrow and the numbers ‘98’ were altered to ‘1898’. Based on early photographs and descriptions, this significant monument to early prospecting in the region has now been restored as closely as possible to its original form.

For many, and probably most of us, theoretical physics defies comprehension. Though we may share a sense of collective wonder about its recent discovery, the notion that the Higgs particle does not spin and what that means for our understand-ing of dark matter, probably leaves most of us ‘in the dark’. But the familiar planets, especially that most luminous star that farewells the day or heralds the dawn, speak to us whether we are cosmologists or councillors, physicists or physiotherapists. On June 6 we were witnesses to a second Transit of Venus in an eight-year pairing that occurs every century or so. Wikipedia tells us that “Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable celestial phenomena.” Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun in a pattern that is repeated every 243 years; paired transits, eight years apart, occur at 121.5 and 105.5 year intervals. It will be a long wait until the next transit in 2117. First observed in 1639, the Transit of Venus is a recurring astronomical event that links people across Time - Kepler, Halley, James Cook, and in 2012, Steven van Roode and the global community. All have made observations that help us to ‘roadmap’ our solar system. It was Halley, of comet fame, who came up with a method for determining the distance from the Earth to the Sun, using relative distances plotted from different geographical locations during transit events. Capturing the exact timing of the four contacts was critical - the first and last ’touches’ at the edge of the Sun, the arrival of Venus inside the solar disk, and her imminent departure from it. With more than a century separating them, huge technological advances are made between each paired transit event. The planispheres and mural quadrants of Halley’s days have given way to powerful space-based and terrestrial telescopes in observatories around our planet. During the latest event, ‘transit watchers’ were able to contribute data using a Smart-phone App developed by Steven van Roode. The Venus Transit Phone App allowed people across the globe to register contact times. How the global community will observe and document the 2117 Transit of Venus can scarcely be imagined!

IN TRANSIT

Venus appears as a tiny dark spot in a photograph taken by Paul O’Brien using a telescope in Arkaroola’s Dodwell Observatory.



PRODUCT INFORMATION


FROM THE ARK POSTCARD

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED Most of us might never get on one or in one in a lifetime. Imagine if you could combine them in one experience! This is just what Flinders & Beyond Camel Treks and Helivista Pty Ltd are offering visitors to Arkaroola. Every Wednesday, from April to October, visitors can take the road less travelled on an overnight ‘camels and chopper’ package available from Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Guests are transferred by road from Arkaroola Village to the camel camp on Wooltana Station, near Arkaroola’s southern boundary. After meeting the camels, guests spend the day trekking and riding, before settling down to a campfire dinner beneath a dazzling night sky. After a night under the stars and a hearty cooked breakfast, guests return to the village by helicopter, flying over the dramatic landscapes of southern Arkaroola. Interested in everything that hops, crawls, slithers, and flies, experienced guide and cameleer Ryan McMillan and ecologist Natalie McMillan will make every minute of the trek memorable and mesmerising. Cost: $550 per person with minimum of 2 people.

For more information go to: www flindersandbeyondcameltreks.com

ARK UP. It gets results!

From the ARK - Arkaroola · are reminded of a very special man. ... The Slender Bell-fruit is a...

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