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The Place for a Village: How Nature Has Shaped the City of Melbourne [Book Review] PDF

2010·0.56 MB·English
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Book Reviews The Place for a Village: how nature has shaped the cityofMelbourne byGary Presland Publisher;Museum Victoria, Melbourne, 2009. 2ndedn, 265pages,paperback, colourillustrations. ISBN97S0980619027RRP$39.95 Gary Preslands book aims to reconstruct the naturalhistoryofthe Melbourneareaasitwas atthetimeofthearrival ofthefirstEuropeans. iinhita)staUnammpiinmrUinttgitnn«tarb«lAwhimMautnvsohfapMe<)dtI>kueurlwaeu.^a.pmeu.c'kh7ulmu* From those lost landscapes and ecosystems it 1 should bepossible to deduce howthe physical developmentofMelbourneanditssuburbswas influenced. It should also allow an interpreta- tionofaboriginallifeatthetime. The Place for a Village The thesis ofthebook can be seen as a series huwrtaiuuha?NhapedthecityofMeiKssme ofequations:underlyinggeologyleadstotopog- raphy and soils; topography plus climate influ- enceshydrology;topography(includingaspect) plussoilsand climateinfluencevegetation;veg- GaryPr«i*iui etation (as food and shelter) plus climate (sea- sonality) determines the fauna. This ecological model is further complicated by climate gradi- ents and feedback loops such as that ofplants andanimalsaffectingtheformationofsoils. Melbourne’s landscape contains four physio- graphic units; the Nillumbikterrain ofSilurian sediments,volcanic flows. Tertiarysandstones, ' > and Quaternary alluvial deposits. Geological 'll -rf' processes working on these formations give risetothetopographyasweknowit.The Dan- denong rangesareoutsideofthestudyareabut have a strong influence on climate and water- rainfall that has had the greatest influence on ways.Tliegeologicalfeaturesoftheledgeotba- Melbourne’sshape. salt which separated fresh waterfrom salt near Chapter 3 gives a masterly reconstruction where QueensStreet crossestheYarra, and the of streams and wetlands, tracing their routes basalt plains to the west ofthe city with their which now may be in underground drains or luxuriant cover ofnative grasses, were instru- diverted. Majoralterations, particularlyforthe mentalinattractingEuropeansettlementtothe Yarra,aredocumented. site. Soil types and a.spect have driven the way Theoriginalvegetation is reconstructed from thecityhasspread. historical information, remnant vegetation on- While wind, rainfall, humidity and baro- site, and regional vegetation associations. Ex- metric pressure were recorded from the earli- tensiveuseismadeoftheEcologicalVegetation est times, the science ofmeteorology only ar- Class nomenclature. Original plant communi- rived with George Neumayer in 1857. There tiesarededuced forthe major topographicter- is a strong rainfall gradient across Melbourne, rains; Silurian sediments.Tertiarysands.Basalt almost doubling from the basalt plains in the plains. Quaternary alluvium, wetlands and westto the higher countryin theeast, and it is 214 TheVictorian Naturalist BookReviews coastal areas. Plant lists for some ofthese are awarded the Community History Award for giveninappendices. 2009,anaccoladewelldeserved. Finally, in Chapter 5, all ofthe components A couple of small criticisms: I would have arebroughttogethertodescribetheanimallife found the large numbers easier to read ifthey with examples ofmammals, birds, fishes, rep- had not lost their commas, and faint captions tiles,amphibians,insectsandspiders. topicturesandquotationswerealmostillegible Nowwe have a reconstruction ofthe natural to myeyes. Typographicalerrors were present, historyofearlyMelbourne basedon itsabiotic butpleasinglyfew. Iamalittlesuspiciousofthe and biotic ecological components and their record ofBrush TurkeyAlectra lathami forthe myriad interactions. Part 2 uses this back- MerriCreek. ground to examine seven topics including the Buyorborrowacopyforitsmethodologyand lifestyle ofthe aboriginal people, why the city its conclusions; it is a valuable contribution to is located where it is, modification ofour riv- thesenseofplaceforthoselivingin Melbourne. ers, and the way the shape ofMelbourne has evolved. IanEndersby Sothatisthethrustofthebook. Itiswellpro- 56LookerRoad duced with numerous relevant coloured plates Montmorency,Victoria3094 ofmaps,scenes,vegetationandanimals. Itwas Invisible connections: whymigrating shorebirds need the Yellow Sea by van de Kam (Photographs), P Battley, B McCaffery, D Rogers, J J-S Hong, N Moores, J Yung-Ki, J Lewis and T Piersma Publisher: CSIROPublishing, Collingwood, 2010. 160pages,paperback; colourphotographs. ISBN9780643096592. RRP$49.95 This book has been inspired by the awesome authorswarnusthattimeisrunningouttosave feat ofshorebird migration, and by a deepen- migratoryshorebirds usingtheYellowSea,and ing concern over the loss of key migratory they describe the gradual raising ofawareness stopover sites. It is the product of a passion- among the peoples ofthe Flyway to the story ate group ofworld renowned scientists and a ofmigrationandthevalueofthe‘invisiblecon- worldrenownedphotographer,who havededi- nections’theyprovide. cated large portions oftheir professional lives Eight chaptersdescribethelifehistoryofmi- to documentingthewonderand demise ofthe gratory shorebirds, the habitats they use, the Yellow Sea, perhaps the most important link need for conservation action and some ofthe in the migratory pathway used by shorebirds, initiatives that have been invoked to help save known as the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. these birds. The content is as international as This book represents a major achievement in the birds it describes, ranging from the arid diplomacy and collaboration (forewords from coastsofAustralia to thearctictundras. Books Australia, China and South Korea), and seems such as this, written by a group ofconcerned clearly targeted at the general public, presum- scientists and conservationists, could fall into ably to inspire, educate and empower. Key thetrapofzealousadvocacyin whichthetruth among the threats to shorebird sites in the is melded to serve the desired outcome; how- Yellow Sea is reclamation, an ancient practice ever, theauthorshave keptiton solidscientific which has reachedan incredible and worrying ground.Cuttingedgeresearch ispresentedand scale, and which threatensa numberofspecies contextualisedinareader-friendlymannerthat and populations of migratory shorebirds. The is highly accessible to the average reader. It is Vol 127 (5) 2010 215

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.