Wild Australasia Book

Foreword by Professor Tim Flannery Introduction

RAINFORESTS
Neil Nightingale

Although we tend to think of Australia as a land of deserts, pockets of luxuriant vegetation are found along the east coasts, from the tropical rainforests in the north to the more temperate forests of Tasmania in the south. They are at least 100 million years old and home to some of the most ancient plants on Earth, as well as more wildlife than any other habitat in Australia.

• 1.1 Tropical Rainforests
• 1.2 Cool Rainforests

DESERTS
Jeni Clevers

Two-thirds of Australia is semi-arid and its vast dry centre, once maligned and avoided because of its emptiness, is now seen by many as the soul of the country. Huge numbers of visitors flock to the Red Centre to experience Uluru, Australia's most famous icon. Nor are these areas barren of wildlife -- reptiles in particular love it here, including 10 of the world's deadliest snakes. And, to add to the outback's paradoxes, underneath one of the hottest and driest areas on the planet lies the unimaginable volume of water that makes up the Great Artesian Basin.

• 2.1 The Arid Continent
• 2.2 Red Centre
• 2.3 Water in the Desert

GUMTREE COUNTRY
Mary Summerill

The Australian bush is dominated by a single group of trees -- the eucalypt or gum trees -- and there are over 700 species of them, from the gnarled and stunted specimens that struggle for survival above the snow line to the breathtakingly tall mountain ash, the world's tallest flowering plants. Exquisitely adapted to the Australian climate, eucalypts are home to almost every familiar Australian animal, from kookaburras to possums, but inseparable in the imagination from that most endearing, if sleepy, resident of the Aussie bush, the koala.

• 3.1 Out Bush
• 3.2 The High Country
• 3.3 The Top End

OCEANS
Hugh Pearson

The northern part of Australia reaches into the tropics; to the south it faces Antarctica. The seas that surround it reflect this diversity, from the muddy waters in the north, with their ferocious tides, to the raging Southern Ocean, the wildest place on the planet. In between lie two of the world's most magnificent coral reefs, the world-famous Great Barrier Reef and the less famous but idyllic Ningaloo Reef. These seas are home to sharks and dugongs, sea horses and angelfish, as well as the hardest-working sea lions in the world.

• 4.1 Tropical Seas
• 4.2
  Temperate Waters
• 4.3 The Southern Ocean

ISLANDS
Neil Nightingale

From tropical paradise to fiery volcano or bleak windswept rock, the islands that surround Australia are as diverse as the country itself. Nearest is New Guinea, a volatile adolescent compared with the geologically stable Australia, and home to the magical birds of paradise. Further away and calmer is Lord Howe Island, a Pacific idyll where sooty terns and spectacular tropic birds breed. The oldest and strangest of all are New Caledonia, so named because it reminded Captain Cook of Scotland, and New Zealand, where the flightless kiwi behaves like a hedgehog and the world's slowest-breeding parrot may yet manage to survive.

• 5.1 Islands of Life
• 5.2 Pacific Jewels
• 5.3 New Zealand

NEW WORLDS
Mary Summerill

Australia's wildlife had thousands of generations in which to establish a rapport with the Aborigines before European settlers arrived and decided they wanted to make the country more like home. The introduction of European species such as the rabbit and the fox quickly upset the delicate natural balance and more recent introductions, such as the cane toad, have also got seriously out of hand. But in remote corners and offshore islands, species that were previously unknown or were thought extinct are still being discovered, and endangered species hang on to life.

• 6.1 Human Footsteps
• 6.2 Living with Wildlife
• 6.3 Last Refuges

Gazetteer Acknowledgements Bibliography Picture credits Index