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Book reviews

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Korea by Michael Pembroke
Book reviews

Korea by Michael Pembroke

ByGeoff 15 February 201810 July 2021

This is a very good read and should be a compulsory read in order to understand our times. Michael Pembroke…

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Home Fire
Book reviews

Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie

ByGeoff 31 January 201810 July 2021

This is an excellent book. Extremely well written. Kamila Shamsie tackles a difficult subject with a very light touch. We…

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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: by Arundhati Roy
Book reviews | caste system | India | Kashmir | religion

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: by Arundhati Roy

ByGeoff 3 January 201810 July 2021

This is an extremely good book. Arundhati Roy is furious about two main topics that she has woven together into…

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Love In A Cold Climate
Book reviews

Love In a Cold Climate

ByGeoff 18 July 201611 July 2021

Love In a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford This is a funny book. Laugh out Loud at times. Set about…

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Californian
Book reviews

The Midnight Watch

ByGeoff 12 July 201611 July 2021

The Midnight Watch by David Dyer An OK read. A fictional work that tells the story of the California, the…

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The Test of Courage: Michel Thomas by Christopher Robbins
Book reviews

The Test of Courage: Michel Thomas by Christopher Robbins

ByGeoff 12 July 201611 July 2021

I have been a fan of Michel Thomas since I found his exceptionally good language courses. I’ve learnt my French…

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All The Light We Cannot See
Book reviews

All The Light We Cannot See

ByGeoff 8 June 201611 July 2021

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. A very good book. Set in Paris, Saint Malo, Germany and…

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Place of Greater Safety
Book reviews

Place of Greater Safety

ByGeoff 8 May 201611 July 2021

‘A Place of Greater Safety’ by Hilary Mantel (who we know for Wolf Hall & Bring up the Bodies). This…

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Shield Shrimp

When it rains across Australia’s vast inland region, temporary pools crop up all over the arid ground, giving life to a strange desert crustacean known as the shield shrimp (Triops australiensis).

Named after the formidable carapace that shields its head and upper body, T. australiensis can grow up to 7.6 cm long, and it uses its long, segmented tail and mass of 60 or so legs to propel itself through shallow water.

It also breathes through these legs – its sub-class Branchiopoda means ‘gill-legged’ – and in the females these legs bear ovisacs for carrying their tiny eggs.

Several pix in the Photo Gallery and a movie.

Acacia peuce

A rare and endangered plant. The tree grows up to 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. It has a distinctive habit more similar to a sheoak or a conifer.

Although speculated to have been widespread across central Australia during wetter climates 400,000 years ago, the population is now mostly restricted to three sites, separated by the encroaching Simpson Desert. In the Northern Territory, the species is restricted to the Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve which is surrounded by a pastoral lease, Andado Station. The other two sites are near Boulia and Birdsville in Queensland. The tree is found in open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.

 

Owen Springs Reserve on Hugh River

Owen Springs was a station on the Hugh River. The Hugh River flows into the Finke (when it actually flows). Both cut through the Western MacDonnell Ranges. The image above shows Owen Springs Reserve as a dot at lower right. The river it is next to is the Hugh. Hermannsburg, our next town, is near middle left edge. Hermannsburg is almost on the Finke River. You can see both Hugh and Finke Rivers cutting through sections of MacDonnell Ranges.

Palm Valley

Palm Valley is within the Finke Gorge National Park southwest of Alice Springs. Palm Valley has a smallish population of Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae). The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The average rainfall for Palm Valley is just 200 mm per year. Small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools allow the unique flora and fauna (desert fish, shield shrimps tadpoles and frogs) to survive.

It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. It is now thought that aboriginal people brought the palms to here from Mataranka.

Mound Springs

Mound Springs occur around the Western edge of the Great Artesian Basin and represent a natural discharge of Artesian water that was captured many hundreds of kilometers away from rain falling along the Great Dividing Range and New Guinea. This article provides details. Dalhousie is an excellent example of a mound spring.

Great Artesian Basin map Great Artesian Basin diagram

 

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