Australia’s Bunya Mountains and Alternate World Histories

Could the Bunya Mountains be the one place to turn your preconceptions of human nature on its head? *** I recently finished Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu’. It’s an accumulation of the abundant evidence that Australian Aboriginals practised what was, by any objection definition, agriculture – and on a large scale. It’s not just a… Continue reading Australia’s Bunya Mountains and Alternate World Histories

Miocene Rain and Fire Forests of Bannockburn

Miocene Nothofagus leaf and Allocasuarina fruits, New Zealand, Manuherikia Group, New Zealand

Canungra is the perfect place to stop for a snack on the drive up to O’Reilly’s/Lamington National Park in southeastern Queensland. On a weekend you can grab a latte and pie and sit outside a cafe, watching the biker crowd doing pretty much the same thing. From there you start winding your way up the… Continue reading Miocene Rain and Fire Forests of Bannockburn

Hoop Pine fossils – dry rainforest in New Zealand’s Miocene

Araucaria fossil shoot from Miocene Manuherikia Group of New Zealand.

In a little patch of shale, continually flaking onto the road near Bannockburn (central South Island, New Zealand), there are the unmistakable fossils like Australian ‘hoop pine’ shoots. Hoop pines are members of the tree family which includes ‘monkey puzzles’, ‘bunyas’ and the ‘Norfolk Island Pines’. The Latin name is Araucaria – New Zealand has none of… Continue reading Hoop Pine fossils – dry rainforest in New Zealand’s Miocene