“This is the Giant Stinger tree – avoid it”. Work place health and safety now out of the way, I could then get on with introducing my students to Australia’s forests. *** In Queensland’s O’Reilly’s/Lamington Park I began my student classes with a walk down the road. There happened to be a convenient juvenile ‘Giant… Continue reading Did Queensland Rainforest Spread when Cultural Burning Stopped?
When New Zealand was a Burning Land
Broken River is a Hell of a place to get to. From Christchurch you need to head inland, driving along the road to Arthur’s Pass, the gateway to the West Coast. But then turn off and dog-leg back south along a narrow road beside, and sometimes actually along the railway line. There are 17 gates.… Continue reading When New Zealand was a Burning Land
Australia’s Black Thursday Fires 1851 – how big and why?
Have you noticed? Despite Australia’s on-going fire disaster, there are no shortage of reports telling us to … relax – it’s nothing new, and that it’s the fault of not enough hazard-reduction burning. And certainly, it’s nothing to do with global warming, which by increasing temperature, has exacerbated what would already be an extreme drought.… Continue reading Australia’s Black Thursday Fires 1851 – how big and why?
Limestones, Climate Change and Scepticism
What happens when a seal swallows a lump of limestone? *** The broad theme of my back-packing trip last year was to move around the northern rim of the Mediterranean (and visit a few of its islands along the way). During much of that trip, limestone was in my face. I trekked over it in… Continue reading Limestones, Climate Change and Scepticism
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Three Kinds of Volcanic Ash around the Jurassic Fossil Forests of Curio Bay
New Zealand’s Doggerland
Do we have a submerged ‘Doggerland‘ in New Zealand? In 1950 a boat, the HMNZS ‘Lachlan’ dredged a sample of “lignite” from the bottom of Toitoi (or Toetoe) Bay, at the far south end of New Zealand’s South Island, from a depth of nine fathoms (the general view shown in the featured image. See below… Continue reading New Zealand’s Doggerland
A Nail up the Nose, and another take on Monotheism
You’d have to really dislike someone to bash a nail up their nose. The day before Wanaka’s Alchemy Cafe closed because of the flooding, I was sitting there, watching a doco on YouTube: ‘A Troubled Island – The Minotaur’s Island’, about ancient Crete. I generally avoid archaeology videos because they normally seem desperate to gravitate… Continue reading A Nail up the Nose, and another take on Monotheism
Sudden Stratospheric Warming Closed my Cafe
The weather around Wanaka, and the broader Otago Lakes area of New Zealand has gone slightly biblical. New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) (tweeted on December 4th “It’s only the 4th, but about a month’s worth of rain has already fallen this December in Queenstown (78 mm) and Wanaka (77 mm)”.… Continue reading Sudden Stratospheric Warming Closed my Cafe
Searching for Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey
So where the heck is Smyrna? I’d heard a little about the awful days of 1922, but despite having made a few trips to Turkey, I’d never noticed Smyrna on a map. It wasn’t until I read Giles Milton’s book: ‘Paradise Lost: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance’, that I finally got wise. Smyrna… Continue reading Searching for Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey
Nominated: Content Catnip award for Most Interesting Blog on WordPress!
Last week I checked my email, to find that I had been nominated for the Content Catnip award for Most Interesting Blog on WordPress. That was a nice start to the day – thanks a lot! Content Catnip describes itself as “a quirky internet wunderkammer written by an Intergalactic Space Maori named Content Catnip, although… Continue reading Nominated: Content Catnip award for Most Interesting Blog on WordPress!