A Personal Note

This project was the work of a team. Of that team, one of us, Dean Graetz, did all the writing. Therefore, the style and motivation that shaped this electronic document largely reflect the interests and passions of one person, me, the writer of the words you read.

I conceived and ran with this project. I did so because I believed the issue of landcover disturbance to be important; not just to the continuing loss of biodiversity but also to climate change and the issue closest to my heart, sustainable landuse.

How this nation addresses these three issues over the next few years will be determined by society through the normal processes of political representation and debate.

As a scientist employed to contribute through research to the well-being of all Australians, I can contribute in a small way to this process of change through the conduct of research such as we report here. My role is to inform the debate by undertaking this type of research and disseminating its findings as widely as I can to all who are interested.

As an ecological patriot with wide experience of Australia both from on the ground and the view from space, I can try to persuade all who read what I write that the long term well-being of the land is important to all Australians, no matter where they live or what they do. My colleagues and I began this process with two publications several years ago; see Graetz et al (1992) and Wilson et al (1993).

As an individual I can share with you the endless delight and enjoyment that I derive from the Australian environment. I am interested in and experience pleasure from any part of my country, but most especially from the bush, the outback. The desire to share these experiences and to conserve the source for all future Australians is my personal motivation.

Poetry is the most succinct way to communicate emotions. Consider this poem about a very common tree in eastern Australia, the poplar or bimble box (Eucalyptus populnea)

BIMBLE BOX (an Australian eucalypt)

The girl with English eyes said, 'Cautious tree,
Leaves waxed and edge-on to the sun'
She saw the sky part-broken by the limbs
And felt the shade was dappled sunlight.

Look to the ground - see cracks that tear the roots.
Read of earthquakes and know the treachery
Of a seeming solid that will gape and swallow.
These cracks are a slow shrinkage. They do not close.
Thrust down an arm and feel the dryness. Drop
A pebble, hear it rattle fifteen feet.
What would your English tree transpire but life -
Its umbrella of flat leaves searing?

This tree will live. Most surface roots will die
Torn by the crazed earth or exposed.
Desperate then the tree will reject its leaves
And dry earth receive them unaware
Of this pretence at mulching much too late.
Deep down the roots will prod in clay for sap
To support the few stiff leaves the tree retained.
This tree will live and when it rains
There'll be no burst of growth above the ground.
The healed earth will be laced with unseen roots.
There'll be an immeasurable swelling of the trunk
And a handful of new leaves edgewise to the sun

Eric C. Rolls

I have long admired this poem (used with kind permission of Eric Rolls). With a clarity I envy, it expresses observations of the living characteristics of a common rural gum tree. The poet's interpretation of the behaviour of this tree through the seasons, obviously based on patient observation, is scientifically sound. I know of no better description of the adaptation of a native tree to the unpredictable Australian environment.

The irony is that no matter how well adapted to the infertile soils and harsh climate bimble box may be, fine tuned by evolution over tens of thousands of years, this tree together with many other tree species has suffered its greatest decline in the past century as the direct result of clearing by European man for farming. And Eric Rolls is a farmer.

We cannot live without agriculture. We will not survive without transforming our environment to suit the well-being of human species. That is not the question. The question is about balance: how much do we change and how much do we use in other ways; how much is changed now for the short term benefit of individuals compared with that which is left for the collective benefit of society in the long term?

The future of the biodiversity of Australia will be determined by the Australians that inhabit this landcover type, the built environment of our cities. Through strong feedbacks, the condition of the continent far away from the cities will determine the well-being of the urban Australia.

This situation offers both opportunities and threats.