Time of Ngoonungi
The Time of Ngoonungi - Murrai'yunggory — cool, getting warmer (September-October) in the D'harawal calendar of Indigenous Weather Knowledge begins this week. This is the time of the gathering of the flying foxes. A magical time of the year when the flying foxes gather in the darkening skies over D'harawal Lands. They come in from the north-east, the north, the north-west and the west, and swirl over the Sydney area in a wonderful, sky-dancing display just after sunset, before setting off for the night-time feeding grounds to the south.
It is also a very important ceremonial time for the D'harawals, which begins with the appearance of the splashes of the bright red Miwa Gawaian (Telopea speciosissima - waratah) in the bushland.
Waratah (Telopea speciosissima) photo by Selena Griffith - Residents do not state where they have seen these glorious flowers as there are people who come to pick them and steal them for profit. Native plants are protected in New South Wales by the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act). Under the BC Act it is an offence to pick, possess, buy or sell native plants listed in the Act for commercial purposes without a licence.
Visit: A Bunch Of Wildflowers: Historical Spring September Songs
The D'harawal Country and language area extends from the southern shores of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to the northern shores of the Shoalhaven River, and from the eastern shores of the Wollondilly River system to the eastern seaboard.
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Aussie Back Yard Bird Count 2020
How to get involved
The Aussie Bird Count is a great way to connect with the birds in your backyard no matter where your backyard happens to be — a suburban backyard, a local park, a patch of forest, down by the beach, or the main street of town.
You can count as many times as you like over the week, we just ask that each count is completed over a 20-minute period. The data collected assists BirdLife Australia in understanding more about the birds that live where people live.
Register here: https://aussiebirdcount.org.au
Watch Out On The Pittwater Estuary Water Zones & Beaches: Seals Are About
Residents have filmed and photographed the seals living at Barrenjoey as far south as Rowland Reserve and over at Clareville beach in recent days and ask that people keep an eye out for them and ensure they are kept safe from boat strikes and dogs are kept off the beaches they're not supposed to be on.
Katandra Season 2020
Katandra Bushland Sanctuary on Lane Cove Rd Ingleside is now open every Sunday until October 25, 10am-4pm. Visitors to this lovely bushland have recently seen Powerful and Boobook Owls, Swamp Wallabies and Lyrebirds. Visitors, please make a small donation towards management of this Crown Land reserve. More details: http://www.katandra.org/home.htm
Several creeks flow down the escarpment - photo by Marita Macrae
Bushcare In Pittwater
Where we work Which day What time
Avalon
Angophora Reserve 3rd Sunday 8:30 - 11:30am
Avalon Dunes 1st Sunday 8:30 - 11:30am
Avalon Golf Course 2nd Wednesday 3 - 5:30pm
Careel Creek 4th Saturday 8:30 - 11:30am
Toongari Reserve 3rd Saturday 9 - 12noon (8 - 11am in summer)
Bangalley Headland 2nd Sunday 9 to 12noon
Bayview
Winnererremy Bay 4th Sunday 9 to 12noon
Bilgola
North Bilgola Beach 3rd Monday 9 - 12noon
Algona Reserve 1st Saturday 9 - 12noon
Plateau Park 1st Friday 8:30 - 11:30am
Church Point
Browns Bay Reserve 1st Tuesday 9 - 12noon
McCarrs Creek Reserve Contact Bushcare Officer To be confirmed
Clareville
Old Wharf Reserve 3rd Saturday 8 - 11am
Elanora
Kundibah Reserve 4th Sunday 8:30 - 11:30am
Mona Vale Mona Vale Beach Basin 1st Saturday 8 - 11am
Mona Vale Dunes 2nd Saturday +3rd Thursday 8:30 - 11:30am
Newport
Bungan Beach 4th Sunday 9 - 12noon
Crescent Reserve 3rd Sunday 9 - 12noon
North Newport Beach 4th Saturday 8:30 - 11:30am
Porter Reserve 2nd Saturday 8 - 11am
North Narrabeen
Irrawong Reserve 2nd Saturday 2 - 5pm
Palm Beach
North Palm Beach Dunes 3rd Saturday 9 - 12noon
Scotland Island
Catherine Park 2nd Sunday 10 - 12:30pm
Elizabeth Park 1st Saturday 9 - 12noon
Pathilda Reserve 3rd Saturday 9 - 12noon
Warriewood
Warriewood Wetlands 1st Sunday 8:30 - 11:30am
Whale Beach
Norma Park 1st Friday 9 - 12noon
Western Foreshores
Coopers Point, Elvina Bay 2nd Sunday 10 - 1pm
Rocky Point, Elvina Bay 1st Monday 9 - 12noon
Gardens And Environment Groups And Organisations In Pittwater
New Bag Limit For Cockle Collection From October 14
The NSW Government has responded to community concern about the sustainable management of a precious shared resource, and amended bag limits for cockles.
Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall today announced that bag limits would be reduced to 20 per person per day to ensure balance between managing cockle numbers into the future while still providing a sustainable catch for recreational fishers.
“This reduction in bag limits is a timely response to an issue that has caused concern along our coastal communities, particularly in the Illawarra,” Mr Marshall said.
“Cockles are a shared resource that are harvested recreationally, commercially and for customary purposes, so we have to ensure their sustainability.
“I asked the Recreational Fishing Advisory Committee to consider the current bag limit and advise me on its appropriateness as a matter of priority. It is based upon their recommendation that the procession limit has been reduced from 50 to 20.
“While over-collection is an issue that had to be addressed, today’s announcement is not about Government walking around with a big stick, but rather working with community to meet their expectations.”
Member for Kiama Gareth Ward welcomed today’s announcement, and said that the changes to cockle bag limits would come into effect from October 14.
“The reduction in bag limits is an important step towards responding to community concerns, and is just one measure the NSW Government has implemented to address the over-collection of cockles,” Mr Ward said.
“NSW DPI Fisheries officers already work closely with recreational fishers to ensure compliance as they patrol Lake Illawarra, and last month began Operation Stingray 2 to crack down on cockle poaching.
“Those caught breaking the rules still face substantial penalties, including $500 on-the-spot fines, $200 for not paying the fishing fee, or a maximum penalty of $22,000 and/or six-month imprisonment.”
Over the past five years, fisheries officers have seized more than 100,000 illegally taken cockles and marine invertebrates.
Information on legal fishing and marine invertebrate collecting is available through the free FishSmartNSW App.
Report suspected illegal fishing activity by calling 1800 043 536 or report online.
Water Research Laboratory Mushrooms!
Something unusual is growing at the UNSW Water Research Laboratory in Sydney (at Manly Vale). As part of the UNSW Green Impact 2020 initiative, the WRL Green Team recently won a grant to kick-off their ‘Gourmet mushrooms from coffee waste’ sustainability initiative.
The idea is simple: Instead of disposing of our used coffee grounds, they use them to grow edible gourmet mushrooms directly on the site. These are then sold to the WRL community for less than half the price of supermarkets. The earnings are then reinvested to sustain and grow the project.
The WRL Green Team was formed in 2019, to participate in a UNSW pilot program - Green Impact @ UNSW - a competition where staff and students take action to make their office and residential spaces more sustainable. By taking part in UNSW’s Green Impact Challenge the WRL team committed to making the UNSW Water Research Laboratory more sustainable; by promoting team awareness of sustainable work practices, we reduced our impact on the environment and limited wastage of many workplace resources.
The 2019 WRL Green Team led by Kristina Palmer and Grace Carlino had 20 members and won a Silver Award for the number and range of successful sustainability initiatives that were implemented within the WRL workplace during the Green Impact Challenge.
2019 WRL Green Team - Silver Award - WRL photo
Since undertaking Green Impact, WRL’s recycling exploded. Thanks to the WRL Green Teams’ efforts WRL now has systems in place to recycle bread clips, bottle tops, soft & hard plastics, bottles, cans, paper & cardboard, batteries, used mobile phones and toner cartridge collection. The Green Team also created a closed loop for on-site food scrap recycling, where food waste is composted and used to feed the onsite herb garden.
In 2020 Green Impact was back, but had to be adapted due to COVID-19 restrictions which allowed points for more sustainable actions while at home.
The WRL Green Team again agreed to take part in the 2020 Green Impact Challenge and won a small green project grant from UNSW to grow ‘gourmet mushrooms from coffee waste’ at WRL for the wider WRL community. The project, led by Kristina Palmer and Tino Heimhuber (Grace Carlino has stepped in while Kristina is on maternity leave) is still in its infancy, but has proven to be extremely successful.
Grace tending the mushrooms- WRL photo
So far they’ve been growing several kilos of Shitake, Oyster and Coral mushrooms from pre-made grow kits and their own coffee grounds - and they have sold out in a heartbeat. Needless to say that these freshly harvested mushrooms taste incredible. The WRL team are still learning every day and now it’s time to ramp up production to meet the growing demand of an excited WRL community, friends and family.
Great stuff!
NSW Valley A 'Natural Laboratory' To Test Carbon Sequestration Theory
October 12, 2020
Geoscientists at the University of Sydney have discovered a natural laboratory to test claims that the carbon captured during the erosion and weathering of common rocks could be a viable mitigation strategy against global warming.
That laboratory is the Tweed River valley in north-eastern New South Wales.
"When common rocks, known as olivine, chemically break down, they absorb carbon dioxide to form carbonates that can then be washed into the oceans," said lead author of the study, Kyle Manley, a student at the University of Irvine in California, who started the research while studying at Sydney.
"In that way, river valleys like the Tweed can act as carbon sinks."
The carbonates formed in this process later become the shells of marine animals and corals. Over millions of years, these remnants can form huge undersea carbonate structures. Occasionally they are pushed above sea level, such as the White Cliffs of Dover in England.
In order to combat global warming, some have proposed olivine weathering and its carbon capture could be harnessed to absorb millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
"But those ideas haven't really been tested at scale," said Mr Manley, who started the study while on undergraduate exchange at the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, completing it at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Research now published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Sciences, will allow scientists to test these claims in the Tweed catchment area, a 1326 square kilometre region, and in other regions that act as carbon sinks.
Co-author Dr Tristan Salles from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney said: "We ran seven scenarios up to 2100 and 2500 to see how much carbon might be absorbed in different climatic conditions.
"In all scenarios we estimate millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be absorbed -- but this is a drop in the ocean of the billions of tonnes a year of carbon pollution expected to be emitted over the coming decades and centuries."
The seven scenarios also describe a complex and interconnected interplay between weathering and sea-level rise that will see oceans encroach along the Tweed coast. However, in some areas, extensive weathering will deposit huge amounts of new sediment onto the coastal plain.
Dr Salles said: "Increased global temperatures are likely to see increased rainfall in this part of Australia, which will greatly accelerate the weathering process of olivine rocks.
"Our modelling shows that in some parts of the Tweed floodplain between 3.8 and 6.5 metres of sediment could be deposited. A counter-process will see coastal erosion from the encroaching ocean."
From their initial modelling of the Tweed catchment, the scientists estimate between 57 and 73 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year could be absorbed in olivine weathering by the end of this century. The United Nations mid-range estimate for carbon emissions at 2100 is about 70 billion tonnes a year, meaning a site like the Tweed catchment would absorb less than 0.1 percent of total carbon emissions.
The scientists used modelling data from the Australian government and the UN's International Panel on Climate Change and from extensive data on the Tweed River valley from Geoscience Australia and the Three Dimensional Great Barrier Reef project (3DGBR).
"Nobody is suggesting that carbon sequestration via olivine weathering will solve our problems," said co-author Professor Dietmar Müller. "But given that there are proposals to artificially enhance this weathering process to absorb carbon pollution, it is important we understand just how viable this could be."
The scientists say that their modelling will assist in the identification of other regions where climate change could create environments in which enhanced natural carbon sequestration might occur.
"What we did find is that the rate and magnitude of sea-level rise is the dominant control of where, when and how much sediment is deposited in such a region," Mr Manley said.
"Climate change will throw these river systems out of equilibrium, so there is still much work to do to understand how they will operate as natural carbon sinks."
Kyle Manley, T. Salles, R. D. Müller. Modelling the Dynamic Landscape Evolution of a Volcanic Coastal Environment Under Future Climate Trajectories. Frontiers in Earth Science, 2020; 8 DOI: 10.3389/feart.2020.550312
Plastics Threat To South Pacific Seabirds Confirmed
October 14, 2020
by Canterbury Museum
Plastic gathered from remote corners of the South Pacific Ocean, including nesting areas of New Zealand albatrosses, has confirmed the global threat of plastic pollution to seabirds. Published on 12 October in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, the study looks for patterns in the plastics seabirds from around the South Pacific ingest. It uses data gathered by Canterbury Museum Senior Curator Natural History Dr Paul Scofield and Wellington ornithologist Christopher Robertson in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Northern Royal Albatross nesting on Big Sister, north of Rekohu (Chatham Island)
"Plastic pollution is a major threat to seabird species, not just here in New Zealand but around the world," says Dr Scofield. "Knowing more about how seabirds interact with plastic might help us solve this problem in the future. At the moment, it's only getting worse."
Christopher Robertson, co-author of the study says, "One of the interesting takeaways from this study is that it shows you just how far plastic can travel in the ocean. Some of the areas where we collected the plastic are very remote. To me, that shows that this is a global issue; it's not something a single country can solve on its own."
"The samples provided by our colleagues from New Zealand allowed us to assess the patterns of seabird-plastic interactions on a larger scale, across the entire South Pacific Ocean," says the study's lead author, Valeria Hidalgo-Ruz from the Chilean Millenium Nucleus Centre of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands.
"The results confirm that even seabirds in one of the most remote areas of the world, the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) ecoregion, are strongly affected by this global problem, highlighting the need for urgent solutions."
In the late 1990s and 2000s, fieldworkers gathered thousands of pieces of plastic from albatross nesting sites on the Chatham Islands, Campbell Island and Taiaroa Head in Otago. The birds swallowed most of the plastic while foraging at sea and then regurgitated it at the nesting sites as they tried to feed their chicks.
Between 2003 and 2004, the team also examined plastic from the stomachs of Sooty Shearwaters killed by fishing operations around the Chatham Rise and the southeast coast of the South Island.
The study compared these plastics with similar samples from other locations around the Pacific including coastal Chile and Rapa Nui. The researchers examined the types of plastic found along with their shape, colour and density.
Albatrosses are more likely to eat brightly-coloured plastic, in particular red, green and blue. The birds probably mistake these objects for prey. The study suggests the brightly-coloured fishing gear of commercial fishing operations around the Chatham Islands and in Chile could be the source of some of the plastic found at those nesting sites.
Plastics found in the stomachs of diving seabirds like the Sooty Shearwater were dominated by hard, white/grey and round plastic items. The researchers believe most of these objects are ingested accidentally when the birds eat fish or other prey that have consumed plastic.
The ingestion of marine plastics is a major issue for seabird conservation and will affect most seabird species by 2050, according to estimates.
This work was partially funded by the Department of Conservation's Conservation Science Levy and New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries.
Great Frigate Bird tangled in plastic, Desventuradas Islands, Chile. Credit: Diego Miranda
Plastics collected from albatross nesting sites on Big Sister in 2017. Credit: Mike Bell
Valeria Hidalgo‐Ruz, Guillermo Luna‐Jorquera, Marcus Eriksen, Hanna Frick, Diego Miranda‐Urbina, Matias Portflitt‐Toro, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, Christopher J.R. Robertson, R. Paul Scofield, Juan Serratosa, Cristián G. Suazo, Martin Thiel. Factors (type, colour, density, and shape) determining the removal of marine plastic debris by seabirds from the South Pacific Ocean: Is there a pattern? Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2020; DOI: 10.1002/aqc.3453
'Critical' Status For Billion-Dollar Regional Pumped Hydro Project
October 12, 2020
The billion-dollar Oven Mountain pumped hydro project has been declared Critical State Significant Infrastructure by the NSW Government, kick-starting the country’s largest Renewable Energy Zone and unlocking opportunities for 600 regional jobs.
Energy Minister Matt Kean said that pumped hydro was essential for the State’s energy future and works by pumping water up the hill when energy is cheap and letting it run down the hill when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
“The Australian Energy Market Operator says that NSW needs more than twice the energy storage of Snowy 2.0 again by the mid-2030s and projects like Oven Mountain can help us reach that goal,” Mr Kean said.
“It can take about 8 years to deliver massive pumped hydro projects and we need to get going now to create jobs and improve the reliability of the energy grid.”
Water Minister Melinda Pavey said the project would be an essential part of the local future water infrastructure.
“The project will include the construction of two reservoirs, tunnels and a new underground power station, creating jobs and critical water infrastructure with the potential to operate as a water source for firefighting and water security for Kempsey,” Mrs Pavey said.
“The infrastructure will enable water from the lower reservoir to be pumped into the upper reservoir using excess power from other renewable energy projects. It is then released to generate up to 600MW of hydro power during periods of peak demand.”
Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall said that regional NSW has some of the best pumped hydro resources in the world and coming out of the COVID-19 recession we should be using those resources to create jobs.
“Oven Mountain could inject more than $1 billion of investment into our region and create up to 600 new local jobs during construction alone,” Mr Marshall said.
“This project is the jewel in our region’s renewable energy crown and cements the New England as the renewable energy powerhouse of Australia.
“We’re already home to the two largest windfarms in NSW and the largest solar farm in Australia is about to start construction, so this project is the cherry on top of us!”
The proponent will now need to request assessment requirements for the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Once received, the EIS will go on exhibition for community feedback and detailed assessment by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment before a final decision is made.
Cameras Capture Parmas Pottering Post Fire In Gibraltar Range National Park
October 12, 2020
Cameras have captured potoroos and parma wallabies playing and parenting post fire in the hard-hit Gibraltar Range National Park, in a welcome sign of recovery.
National Parks and Wildlife Service Ranger Koen Dijkstra said the camera shots along with recent fauna surveys show the importance of refuge areas for fighting back after fire.
"The unprecedented fires across Gibraltar Range and Washpool National Parks devastated the landscape with only a few areas unscathed.
"Among the sites we saved around Mulligans Hut camping area and Gibraltar House were some of the prime habitats for long nosed potoroo and parma wallaby, so we were hopeful some of these species had survived.
"Now we have proof. Fauna surveys over winter, coupled with night camera vision show healthy parma wallabies and potoroos just doing their thing.
"We can see potoroos playing and parenting, including one cleaning a joey in the pouch.
"In another caught on camera moment a parma wallaby displays some very deft tool using skills to get to a lure, a mix of peanut butter, oats and honey locked under a cap used to attract wildlife to the camera.
"The fauna surveys showed numbers of species in the burnt areas were very low, but the unburnt patches are teeming with wildlife including the wallabies and potoroos as well as spotted-tailed quolls, greater gliders and Rufous scrub-bird.
"These animals will be the base from which to re-colonise the fire-impacted area and the success of recent extensive pest control work will be a crucial factor.
"It's particularly pleasing as both parma wallabies and long nosed potoroos are listed as vulnerable in NSW, with Gibraltar Range National Park a stronghold.
"In Gibraltar Range we were very lucky that we had good rain a few months after the fires and the vegetation is recovering fast.
"Many plant species impacted by fire such as the soft grevillea have seedlings emerging in large numbers. Re-sprouters like the glorious Gibraltar Range Waratah have grown back healthy and might even flower this year.
"Even though the burnt areas are recovering, walking into the refuge areas really soothes the soul and gives me hope our beautiful parks will return to their former glory.
"We are optimistic more surveys over summer will continue to reveal further signs of recovery," Mr Dijkstra.
After working around the clock fighting the fires, NPWS staff have worked very hard on pest and weed control as well as restoring visitor facilities.
With the exception of the "Washpool Walk" all visitor facilities and attractions in Gibraltar Range and Washpool national parks are open. For the latest updates check the website Washpool National Park.
Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma) Photo: Mark & Bernice O’Mahone
NSW Government Finalises Koala SEPP
October 7, 2020
The NSW Government has agreed on the details of the koala protection policy, which strikes a balance between safeguarding the future of our national icon while ensuring certainty for farmers.
Amendments to the State Environmental Planning Policy (Koala Habitat Protection) 2019 (Koala SEPP) and the Local Land Service Act 2013 were agreed to by ministers last night.
Acting Deputy Premier Paul Toole said the agreement is a balanced outcome that will protect koalas, protect their habitat and protect farmers’ property rights.
“The new agreement will separate land management and private native forestry from the SEPP so farmers can continue their farming operations without getting weighed down in green tape,” Mr Toole said
“Farmers face enough uncertainty with seasonal conditions and volatile markets - it is critical they have certainty around rules that apply to their farming practices as they bounce back from bushfires and drought.”
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes said that the NSW Government had been working over many months to strike a balance between protecting the koala and the rights of our farmers.
“I’m pleased to say we have hit the mark,” Mr Stokes said
“Last night’s resolution demonstrates that there are often important robust and passionate discussions as part of the decision-making process. The koala is an iconic Australian animal and saving it from extinction in the wild is the goal of this policy.”
The NSW Government has agreed the following in order to reverse the decline of the State’s koala population:
- Retaining the 123 tree species that have been scientifically proven to be critical to koala survival, as habitat and feed source
- Refining the definition of ‘core koala habitat’, meaning it must be either a highly suitable habitat and koalas are present, or highly suitable habitat and there is a verified record of koalas
- Decoupling the Private Native Forestry and the Land Management Codes within the Local Land Services Act 2013 from the Koala SEPP on the basis robust protections already exist;
- Strengthening landholder rights when a local council creates a Koala Plan of Management by extending minimum exhibition timeframes, introducing clear dispute pathways for landholders and ensuring they can access ecologists or use their own to appeal or object to what a council has put forward;
- Removing the pink Development Application Map in favour of returning to an on-the-ground survey method; and,
- Refining the blue Site Investigation Map and making it available to local councils.
The final Koala SEPP will be taken to the Executive Council for approval by the Governor as soon as possible and Guidelines will be published on Friday, 16 October. The NSW Government will introduce amendments into the Parliament to the Local Land Services Act 2013 this year.
Australian Academy Fellows Say It’s Time To Establish An Independent Biodiversity Agency In Australia
October 14, 2020
With Australia failing to halt species decline and our biodiversity management systems broken, now is the time to establish a new independent agency to manage our nation’s biodiversity data, according to Australia’s leading scientists.
The recommendation by the Australian Academy of Science is part of a brief that has been sent to all Australian MPs and senators ahead of debate, expected in the Senate in November, on the Australian Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill 2020.
The government is arguing that the legislation forms part of phase one of Professor Graeme Samuel’s proposal for reform, with the amendments described as the first tranche of reforms associated with the legislative review of the EPBC Act.
Australian Academy of Science Fellow, Professor Craig Moritz, said the Academy welcomes the interim findings of the Samuel review.
“The Academy holds that all the recommended elements—National Environmental Standards, scientific evidence through high-quality data and analysis tools, and robust and independent assurance systems—are essential to ensure that devolved decision-making retains the confidence of the Australian people,” Professor Moritz said.
“The Samuels report is a comprehensive program for reform and should be pursued systematically and in full. In this context, parliamentary scrutiny to understand the implications of the Bill and the government’s plan for the implementation of the Samuel report is desirable.”
The brief by the Academy states that the governance, accessibility, evaluation and monitoring of Australia’s biodiversity information and data is broken.
“The Academy considers this is an unacceptable situation, one that is not tolerated in other domains such as weather information, biosecurity, health and welfare,” Professor Moritz said.
“The Academy is of the view that it is time to establish a new national biodiversity information system led by an independent agency.
“Such an agency would independently observe, analyse, forecast and warn on the state and trends of Australia’s biodiversity in the way that the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) provides information on Australia’s weather and climate.
“It would need to have a legislative mandate, curate data, work with states and be empowered to enforce national environmental data standards.
“All decisions made under the EPBC Act require scientific evidence backed by reliable data. A transparent, accountable evidence base calls for data to be collected according to common requirements and standards, interpreted and reported, and for that information to be publicly available.
“There is currently no such multi-scale approach, nationally, to creating a data-focused evidence base for transparent and accountable EPBC decisions,” Professor Moritz said.
A key recommendation of Professor Samuel’s interim report is the establishment of a national environmental data custodian, or a biodiversity information agency.
The three elements of reform proposed by the Academy are:
- establishing a national environmental analysis body (a ‘Biodiversity BOM’)
- implementing national data standards
- developing nationally consistent transparency of evidence.
The cave-dwelling tree frog, Litoria cavernicola. Photo: David Clode, Unsplash.
'Devastating': The Morrison government cuts uni funding for environment courses by almost 30%
There has been much attention on how the Morrison government’s university funding reforms will increase the cost of humanities degrees. But another devastating change has passed almost unnoticed: a 29% cut to funding to environmental studies courses. This is one of the largest funding cuts to any university course.
Universities will receive almost A$10,000 less funding per year for each student undertaking environmental studies. The cut will undoubtedly lead to fewer students and lower-quality learning experiences.
Environmental studies encompasses the biological and earth sciences, as well as management and planning. Graduates go on to work as government policy officers, and managers in fields including water resources, the environment, urban planning and climate change adaption.
We are senior members of the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, with more than 80 years of collective experience in various environmental fields. At a time of unprecedented pressures on our environment, expertise in these fields is clearly needed more than ever.
Clear-Felling Environmental Expertise
The government’s Job-ready Graduates package applies to future students from 2021. It will cut the student contribution for environmental studies from A$9,698 to A$7,700 a year, and reduce the Commonwealth contribution from A$24,446 to A$16,500 per year. The move has been widely questioned.
We welcome any reduced fees for students. However the government contribution was not raised to cover the shortfall, so overall, the changes represent a cut of A$9,944 per year per student – a 29% decrease on current levels.
Currently, environmental studies funding is spent on specialised facilities such as labs equipped with cutting-edge technologies and field centres to support both teaching and research. It’s also spent on supporting students to gain practical and industry experience. This ensures world-class graduates skilled in the latest techniques and technologies.
More than 5,000 Australian students are currently enrolled in undergraduate environmental studies courses. While current students will not be affected by the changes, the enrolment number may drop in future due to fewer places being offered.
The funding cuts may also lower the quality of experiences offered to students or require cross-subsidisation. Some universities may also deem environmental studies courses unviable, and close them, while prioritising higher revenue-generating courses.
The change may also likely to lead to fewer staff, with specialist expertise in areas such as geospatial science, water chemistry and fire management. This will lead to smaller teaching teams with less expertise, who will in turn face increased teaching loads and less time for quality research.
Until now, Australia has been a world leader in training the next generation of environmental managers and scientists. Thirty of our universities have recently been rated as producing research in environmental science significantly above world standard. And environmental science at four Australian universities – Australian National University, University of Melbourne, UNSW and University of Sydney – was recently ranked in the top 50 worldwide.
Without adequate funding, this global standing is threatened.
The Bigger Picture
Fewer and less well-trained environmental studies students will inevitably have a knock-on effect in sectors and industries that need quality graduates with specialist environmental knowledge, such as:
local, state and federal government, to ensure developments are sustainable and broadly benefit communities
agriculture, to address threats as diverse as water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, better retention of nitrogen fertilisers in soils and adaptation to climate change
mining, for advice on site planning and restoration to ensure minimal environmental harm during and after the mine’s operation
water management in rivers and wetlands, to respond to climate change and higher demand from growing populations.
What’s more, environmental studies courses – either as double degrees or core courses – are often part of other degrees such as law, journalism, teacher education, and engineering. This provides these professions with a critical understanding of the environment and sustainable management.
We Need Environmental Experts
Australia’s recent, brutal experience with bushfires and drought shows just how badly we need world-class environmental expertise. As climate change grows ever worse, these experts will be critical in steering us through these challenges.
What’s more, the COVID-19 pandemic – linked to land clearing and more human-wildlife interaction – shows just what can happen under poor environmental management.
Australia is uniquely vulnerable to climate change, and in 2019, recorded its worst-ever environmental conditions. These university funding cuts affect the people with the answers to our pressing environmental problems – they are a blow to the future of all Australians.
Read more: A major scorecard gives the health of Australia's environment less than 1 out of 10 
Dianne Gleeson, Professor, Science, University of Canberra; Ian Clark, Associate professor, University of South Australia, and Stuart Parsons, Professor, Queensland University of Technology
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Can a mining state be pro-heritage? Vital steps to avoid another Juukan Gorge
The destruction of 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge sites in the Pilbara has created great distress for their traditional owners, seismic shockwaves for heritage professionals and appalled the general public.
The fallout for Rio Tinto has been profound as has the groundswell of criticism of Western Australia’s outdated heritage laws. A path forward must ensure a pivotal role for Indigenous communities and secure Keeping Places for heritage items. More broadly, we need more Indigenous places added to the National Heritage List, ensuring them the highest form of heritage protection.
In a state heavily dependent on mining, the model for this could follow the successful seven-year heritage collaboration I have been part of on-country with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) and Rio Tinto in the Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga).
As Director of the Centre for Rock Art Research and Management at the University of Western Australia, I am funded to undertake research supported by Rio Tinto’s conservation agreement with the Commonwealth.
This Rio Tinto funding enables research documenting the significant scientific and community values of the archipelago, feeding into the management of this estate by MAC, who represent the local coastal Pilbara groups. It also resources Indigenous rangers and trains undergraduate students.
The Murujuga conservation agreements, made between the Commonwealth and both Rio Tinto and Woodside, were negotiated when the archipelago’s one million-plus engravings and stone features were added to Australia’s National Heritage List in 2007.
Read more: Explainer: why the rock art of Murujuga deserves World Heritage status
Murujuga is one of only seven Indigenous rock art places on the National Heritage List. There are 118 listings in total in Australia (only 20 of them Indigenous). Murujuga is the only listed Indigenous site here with a conservation agreement requiring industry to fund heritage protection.
Rio Tinto does not have a similar agreement with the traditional owners of Juukan Gorge, the Puutu Kunti Kurruma Pinikuru (PKKP) peoples — nor do any of the other Pilbara resource extraction companies with their host native title communities. These mining tenements are managed by a range of royalty agreements, which recognise native title rights but are flexible and require transparency.
Despite working closely with Rio Tinto, I have been dismayed by the Juukan incident and the fault lines it has revealed in Rio Tinto’s historically significant investment in heritage management and agreement-making with Aboriginal people.
PKKP this week expressed their distress at the company’s behavior. Clearly, there is much for Rio Tinto to improve. But similarly, the regulation process is seriously flawed.
Read more: Rio Tinto just blasted away an ancient Aboriginal site. Here’s why that was allowed
Conserving Aboriginal Heritage
Many of the changes in the WA Government’s new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill 2020 are welcome: in particular, the recognition of native title, allowing “stop work orders” if an Indigenous community says mining work was begun without their permission, and increased penalties for damaging heritage.
But Aboriginal groups, including many in the Kimberley and south-west WA, fear the onus for this regulatory process will be passed onto them and — despite being the appropriate people to manage their own heritage — they will not be adequately resourced to do so.
The number of heritage sites likely to be at risk in the future will number in the thousands, given the current footprint of mining is a mere 1% of the planned expansion over the next century. A new paradigm is needed in managing heritage. There needs to be a process of identifying regionally significant landscapes and earmarking them for conservation before future development footprints are determined.
And there need to be more conservation agreements like the Murujuga one, with industry-funding heritage and conservation rather than just mining clearance work.
In the Pilbara, for instance, there are three national parks, Karajini, Millstream-Chichester and Murujuga, where mining cannot occur. But more are needed in other native title areas. They need to be resourced so Aboriginal heritage rangers can manage them, with appropriate facilities for tourists.
Mining compliance surveys, which “manage harm” to heritage are a significant economy for many Aboriginal communities.
But a number of Pilbara Aboriginal Corporations, including Wintawari Gurama, with whom I have developed a rock art research project, don’t want to just participate in the mining economy, which is tantamount to destroying their heritage.
They want to train local rangers, and document, record and manage their own heritage estates, enabling elders and young people to earn a living on country.
This approach is equally required in places like the Kimberley, where fracking could be the next resources “boom”.
Aboriginal Communities Need Keeping Places.
Across the Pilbara, items such as the 7,000 heritage items salvaged from Juukan Gorge, are being housed in locked shipping containers. Secure air-conditioned Keeping Places are an urgent requirement.
These, too, could be funded by industry, becoming the focus of heritage tourism and ranger training, and hosting collaborative research on heritage, biodiversity and conservation.
Murujuga, which has been added to the World Heritage Tentative List, has a tourism management plan. A Living Knowledge Centre is planned, and additional interpretation facilities.
The state government and industry stakeholders are funding the Murujuga Rock Art Strategy, which will monitor and assess emissions from nearby industry. There are, however, concerning plans to introduce new industry in the adjacent Burrup Industrial Estate. This is an issue, too, for the federal government, which has ultimate oversight of heritage on the national list.
In WA, the state government asserts that heritage can co-exist with industry. But this will only be possible if the state recognises heritage is non-renewable — just like the mineral wealth of this country.
Jo McDonald, Director, Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, University of Western Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Shorebird Identification Booklet
The Migratory Shorebird Program has just released the third edition of its hugely popular Shorebird Identification Booklet. The team has thoroughly revised and updated this pocket-sized companion for all shorebird counters and interested birders, with lots of useful information on our most common shorebirds, key identification features, sighting distribution maps and short articles on some of BirdLife’s shorebird activities.
The booklet can be downloaded here in PDF file format: http://www.birdlife.org.au/documents/Shorebird_ID_Booklet_V3.pdf
Paper copies can be ordered as well, see http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/shorebirds-2020/counter-resources for details.
Download BirdLife Australia's children’s education kit to help them learn more about our wading birdlife
Shorebirds are a group of wading birds that can be found feeding on swamps, tidal mudflats, estuaries, beaches and open country. For many people, shorebirds are just those brown birds feeding a long way out on the mud but they are actually a remarkably diverse collection of birds including stilts, sandpipers, snipe, curlews, godwits, plovers and oystercatchers. Each species is superbly adapted to suit its preferred habitat. The Red-necked Stint is as small as a sparrow, with relatively short legs and bill that it pecks food from the surface of the mud with, whereas the Eastern Curlew is over two feet long with a exceptionally long legs and a massively curved beak that it thrusts deep down into the mud to pull out crabs, worms and other creatures hidden below the surface.
Some shorebirds are fairly drab in plumage, especially when they are visiting Australia in their non-breeding season, but when they migrate to their Arctic nesting grounds, they develop a vibrant flush of bright colours to attract a mate. We have 37 types of shorebirds that annually migrate to Australia on some of the most lengthy and arduous journeys in the animal kingdom, but there are also 18 shorebirds that call Australia home all year round.
What all our shorebirds have in common—be they large or small, seasoned traveller or homebody, brightly coloured or in muted tones—is that each species needs adequate safe areas where they can successfully feed and breed.
The National Shorebird Monitoring Program is managed and supported by BirdLife Australia.
This project is supported by Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority and Hunter Local Land Services through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program. Funding from Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and Port Phillip Bay Fund is acknowledged.
The National Shorebird Monitoring Program is made possible with the help of over 1,600 volunteers working in coastal and inland habitats all over Australia.
The National Shorebird Monitoring program (started as the Shorebirds 2020 project initiated to re-invigorate monitoring around Australia) is raising awareness of how incredible shorebirds are, and actively engaging the community to participate in gathering information needed to conserve shorebirds.
In the short term, the destruction of tidal ecosystems will need to be stopped, and our program is designed to strengthen the case for protecting these important habitats.
In the long term, there will be a need to mitigate against the likely effects of climate change on a species that travels across the entire range of latitudes where impacts are likely.
The identification and protection of critical areas for shorebirds will need to continue in order to guard against the potential threats associated with habitats in close proximity to nearly half the human population.
Here in Australia, the place where these birds grow up and spend most of their lives, continued monitoring is necessary to inform the best management practice to maintain shorebird populations.
BirdLife Australia believe that we can help secure a brighter future for these remarkable birds by educating stakeholders, gathering information on how and why shorebird populations are changing, and working to grow the community of people who care about shorebirds.
To find out more visit: http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/shorebirds-2020/shorebirds-2020-program
Surfing NSW Launches New Creative Kids Program
Tuesday 13 October 2020
Surfing NSW is pleased to announce the launch of the Surfing NSW Creative Kids program.
The program is a new six-week course where participants will learn the basics of surf photography, filming and content creation as well as tips to build a portfolio and get their work seen.
The program will develop a creative skillset for high-school-aged participants through a series of online modules.
All classes are covered by the $100 Creative Kids voucher (available to download from Service NSW). In addition, all participants will receive a prize pack from our sponsors Havaianas, discounts on equipment from AquaTech as well as money-can’t-buy experiences with some of the most renowned photographers and filmers in surfing.
Over the course of the program, Surfing NSW will aim to provide all students with skills that they will be able to grow and use to best capture their love of the ocean and showcase each of their unique perspectives.
Surfing NSW CEO Luke Madden is elated to get the Surfing NSW Creative Kids program up-and-running.
“The Surfing NSW Creative Kids program is an initiative that I’m extremely passionate about and I believe that budding photographers and hobbyists will be able to learn a lot about how they can create decent imagery and film pieces.”
The first module in the Surfing NSW Creative Kids is ready to be watched right now and modules continue to drop every week over the next six weeks.
Participants can join any time and are free to binge-watch all six episodes at their convenience.
For more information on the Surfing NSW Creative Kids please check out surfingnswcreativekids.com or email creativekids@surfingnsw.com.au
The Surfing NSW Creative Kids program is supported by Havaianas, AquaTech, Australian Skin Cancer Clinics, Service NSW and Surfing NSW.
Photo: Ethan Smith / Surfing NSW
Avalon Bilgola Amateur Swimming Club 2020/2021 Season
Aussie Back Yard Bird Count 2020
How to get involved
The Aussie Bird Count is a great way to connect with the birds in your backyard no matter where your backyard happens to be — a suburban backyard, a local park, a patch of forest, down by the beach, or the main street of town.
You can count as many times as you like over the week, we just ask that each count is completed over a 20-minute period. The data collected assists BirdLife Australia in understanding more about the birds that live where people live.
Register here: https://aussiebirdcount.org.au
Asia Pacific organisers are delighted to announce the 2021 season format and a raft of changes to simplify the competition and bring gender equity to the league.
For next year’s schedule of racing on supplied RS21 keelboats there will be two divisions only – Open and Youth (under 22) and all teams must be 50/50 female and male, with a maximum four crew per boat.
Asia Pacific League director Mark Turnbull says, “For our third season we will implement gender parity based on our own views plus World Sailing’s findings and recommendations from their Women in Sailing Strategic View conducted in 2019. We see teams of two male and two females representing their clubs as the way forward, which will again deliver great racing and simply make for better events.”
The 2021 circuit will include two qualifying regattas - Southern and Northern - at great venues with dates and details plus the Notice of Race available shortly. Qualifiers will culminate in a new ‘Finals Week’ concept on Sydney Harbour, from April 13-17, 2021 at a location where the public can spectate and engage with the sailors. “This fulfils the international league’s goal to host grandstand-style high-rotation races close to shore, making the sport more accessible,” Turnbull says.
Geelong, home of the Festival of Sails’ sailing extravaganza over the Australia Day long weekend, will host the opening qualifier in January 2021 for southern clubs, from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
The Northern Qualifier, on Sydney Harbour in March will be open to entries from the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Dates for the Southern and Northern Qualifier will be confirmed shortly via https://sailing-championsleague.asia/ and the league’s social media channels.
2020 SCL Northern Qualifier start off Woolwich - photo by Beau Outteridge
In the 2021 April school holidays, Sydney Harbour will be the spectacular backdrop for the SAILING Champions League: Asia Pacific Finals Week. The Youth Final (U22), to be held on April 13-14, will lead into the ultimate Open Final at the same venue across April 15-17. This format allows the U22 teams to compete in the Open Final.
The top eight qualifying Australian crews from both the Southern and Northern Qualifier (U22 and Open) will meet up with eight invited clubs from Asia and the Pacific at Finals Week, to determine the Asia Pacific U22 and Open champions. From these Asia Pacific Finals the top Australian, top Asian and top Pacific teams in U22, Women’s and Open qualify to represent their club at the 2021 SAILING Champions League: World Finals in Europe.
Turnbull adds, “While we eagerly await the start of our summer sailing season and the 2021 league events, I encourage people to tune in live to the 2020 SAILING Champions League - Final in Europe, between October 15-18. Details at sailing-championsleague.com.
“Due to coronavirus and the cancellation of most of this year’s Asia Pacific events, sadly we aren’t represented among the Final line-up, and miss out on the chance to defend the region’s 2019 win at St Moritz, thanks to a brilliant effort by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s team. We are optimistic the 2021 SAILING Champions League: Asia Pacific season can proceed as scheduled and we will be back on the world stage next year,” said Turnbull.
“Standby for 2021 event locations, dates and Notices of Race, but in the meantime start thinking about your team of four and encourage your club to get behind the concept of ‘rock-up and race’, club versus club competition on new one design keelboats.”
For you or your club to be a part of the SAILING Champions League: Asia Pacific register your interest directly by contacting mark@nationalsailingleague.com.au.
Northern Qualifier video wrap-up thanks to Beau Outteridge.
By Lisa Ratcliff
Friday essay: crafting a link to deep time from ancient river red gum
With a mischievous smile, Damien Wright gives the exhibit an unceremonious kick. The enormous, curved slab of river red gum rocks back and forth on the gallery floor, casting a wavering shadow over the “Do Not Touch” sign at its base.
A couple of anxious visitors shuffle over to investigate as Damien tells me how he made this wobbling wooden bowl, and why he chooses to work with the hardest, most challenging timbers.
The river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) once grew on the banks of the Murray River. Damien discovered the thick slab in a miller’s yard in Wodonga, where it had lain exposed to the elements for years, slowly warping in the heat. What others had dismissed as damaged wood, Damien saw as creative possibility: he relished the opportunity to work with wood that had been “cooked, cured and crazed by the sun”.
In his workshop in Northcote, Melbourne, he worked to accentuate the warp in the wood by curving the edges of the slab, creating a long, bowing channel, almost three metres in length and over a metre wide. Like all his work, this object is an argument he has made with his hands.
The rough, red, cracking grain of the wood runs lengthways across the piece, like gullies and rivulets spreading across a parched, burnt land. Damien encourages this comparison with his title, which is a pointed commentary on the mistreatment of the waterways on which the tree grew.
“It’s called Food Bowl”, he tells me. And then, gesturing to a knot in the centre, “It drains in the middle”.
For Damien, wood is a way of thinking about place and time — even deep time. A river red gum may grow for anywhere between 400 and 1,000 years before it falls. And as it decomposes over centuries it becomes a home for new life. Murray cod lay their eggs in drowned red gums.
To work with wood is to think beyond a human lifespan. When you look at something like the Murray-Darling system from the perspective of a grand old red gum, you see the fragility and inter-connectedness of the waterway, and how rapidly it has degraded with recent human interventions.
“And if you have that conversation about deep time in this country”, says Damien, “you have to talk about Indigenous people and this continent as an occupied and cultural space, not just a physical place”.
Read more: Friday essay: when did Australia’s human history begin?
River red gums were a part of Australia’s environment long before people arrived here. They grew beside the Murray River when it was a wide, cold, fast-flowing stream; they witnessed its transformation in the late Pleistocene into a narrow, sinuous, seasonal river; and they have remained, over the past 13,000 years, as the water has slowed and warmed, forming swamps, low sand dunes and small lakes along the channel, and seasonal wetlands in the wider riverine plain.
These mighty trees have also been absorbed into the social and cultural worlds of Indigenous Australians. Their roots have been dug and hollowed out to create bowls, their bark cut to craft canoes, and their limbs burned to warm camps and cook food. In recent millennia, they presided over the most densely populated areas of the continent.
Read more: The ring trees of Victoria's Watti Watti people are an extraordinary part of our heritage
Damien tells me how he seeks to evoke this deep history through his craft as he shows me two of his other pieces: a striking lantern (Black Lighthouse) he made in collaboration with Yolngu craftsman Bonhula Yunupingu, which glows like a fire through thin, black wood; and an elegant reading chair and angular side table called Ned — a riff on Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly helmet, which it closely resembles.
Each piece of furniture has been made from red gum in a stage preliminary to fossilisation. The wood is black and almost as hard as stone. It is known as ancient red gum.
While other native timbers enable Damien to explore relationships with the Australian environment, the ancient red gum opens a conversation about deep time on this continent.
Geomorphologist Jim Bowler was the first to identify the material as red gum; he used radiocarbon dating to place its age at about 8,000 or perhaps 10,000 years old. Later I call him and, over the phone, he sketches out the wood’s journey from the banks of the Murray River to the workshops of inquisitive artisans like Damien.
The tree would have seeded after the end of the last ice age, at a time when sea levels were rising and the climate was warming.
The rapid snowmelt in the Victorian Alps caused the mountains to shed huge amounts of gravel, which was then swept into the Murray River. As red gums fell into an ancient channel they were covered by this new gravel, which sealed them in the riverbank.
Preserved from decay by the acidity of the water, the entombed wood slowly absorbed enormous amounts of iron and silica. This oxidising and ebonising process is what makes it black through to the centre and hard, much harder than other red gum.
Articulating A Future
Jim first became aware of the red gum when he received some samples at the Melbourne Museum in 1990. The damp and fibrous wood had been unearthed in a quarry on Yorta Yorta land in Wodonga, where it was regarded as a nuisance by those more interested in the gravel around it.
Jim and his wife Joan Bowler recognised the significance of the timber and were eager to see it preserved and used. They helped arrange for the director of the museum to provide “authentications” for woodworkers to make it into furniture, and Joan and her friend Annetine Forell travelled the country over the following two decades, drawing the remarkable material to the attention of millers and craftspeople.
The late Kelvin Barton, a miller, woodworker and seventh-generation farmer, became a crucial intermediary. He collected the ancient red gum in Wodonga, reducing its water content in his ersatz kiln to turn it into workable timber. This was how Damien, a long-term friend and collaborator, came to encounter the ancient red gum — indeed it was in Kelvin’s yard that he found the much younger slab that became Food Bowl.
Damien uses the ancient red gum to articulate his vision for Australia. He sees craftsmanship as a language: a practice that is refined over time to communicate knowledge, beauty and ideas.
He considers his furniture — in its functionality as well as its elegance — as an embodiment of this philosophy. Objects tell stories. They become part of our everyday lives and express everyday futures:
My argument is that to take a material that is ten thousand years old and to articulate that in a beautiful and passionate way and to make that a relevant thing to our lives or to peoples’ lives is a way of articulating a future for this continent. It’s a way of understanding our place in time. It’s a way of dealing with people. It’s a way of projecting forward.
Joan Bowler shares this vision for the ancient timber. In 2008, her company Australian Ancient Redgum donated a six-metre “Fossil Tree” to the Children’s Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, so that “children can sit under this ancient tree and look up through the hollowed out centre and dream of what was and what might be”.
Trees that were seeded after the end of the last ice age, that survived the ruptures of invasion and industry, have reemerged to offer a deep-time perspective of the continent.
It is a scale that reveals the long-term costs of short-term exploitation, and renders processes like the degradation of the Murray-Darling river system into sudden events.
Ancient red gum also invites a longer view of Australian history. And in the hands of Joan and Damien, it calls for the acknowledgement of cultures and histories that for so long have gone unrecognised.
This is an extract from Living with the Anthropocene, Love, Loss and Hope in the Face of Environmental Crisis, edited by Cameron Muir, Kirsten Wehner & Jenny Newell (New South Books).
Billy Griffiths, Lecturer, Deakin University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
How toy pianos went from child's play into classical concert halls
A child’s toy may seem like an unlikely candidate for the classical concert hall. Around the world, however, thousands of musicians gather every year for festivals, conferences and concerts dedicated to the toy piano.
Exploring its sound, range, and playing technique, these composers and performers congregate to talk about latest developments in toy piano music and perform new pieces.
Along with many festivals in the US and Germany, Italy and Korea have both held their first toy piano festival in recent years.
Pop artists such as Bruno Mars and groups such as Coldplay have brought a larger audience to what was once considered a niche and experimental use of the instrument. Search “toy piano” or “tiny piano” on Twitter or Facebook and you’ll find countless posts featuring performers and composers using or discussing the instrument.
Read more: Jamming with your toddler: how music trumps reading for childhood development
Serious Music With A Playful Spin
Toy pianos, despite being designed and marketed to children and families, have been used for decades to write everything from concertos to pop songs.
French composer Yann Tiersen used one prominently in his score to the 2001 film Amélie to represent the title character’s inner child.
Neil Diamond’s song, Shilo, is one of the earliest pop songs to feature toy piano (you can hear it in the bridge at about the 2:28 mark here).
And John Cage’s 1940s suite for toy piano, where he took all the seriousness of writing for the piano and put a playful spin on it, came at a crucial moment in the mid-20th century; hard borders of the musical arts, which reached a limit of seriousness in the 1920s and 1930s, had started to break down.
This mixing of traditional “high music” with artefacts that might be considered juvenile, populist, naff, or domestic, was becoming more common — and more exciting.
Play And Experimentation
Toy pianos typically have a range of 12-36 keys, roughly one quarter the range of a full piano (though there are smaller and larger examples, too).
These acoustic instruments are made from a wood or plastic frame. They produce a bell-like sound when a small hammer hits a tube or flat piece of metal inside.
Unlike a typical piano, toy pianos are rarely tuned to perfection and can sound a bit off to the ear but many can’t help but be charmed by their tiny size, variety of colours and quirky inconsistent plonking.
With its history and connection to ideas of childhood, this instrument is commonly used to musically convey a sense of innocence and nostalgia.
Traditionally, art music composition can be very prescriptive and confined. The traditional conservatorium or university composition class teaches the rules of writing — what you can and cannot do with an instrument — but something about the toy piano invites play and experimentation.
Every Toy Piano Is Different
Unlike many instruments used for composing, the toy piano is not standardised around the world.
There are dozens of makers who use different techniques and different materials giving every toy piano a unique sound, range, and register. This makes writing music for the piano a bit random — but for many of us, therein lies the fun.
If you write a piece of music for the toy piano and if a performer in another part of the world has enough keys on their instrument, they can play your piece in their own special way. It’s like a singer using their own unique voice to cover a song.
The composer gives up some control, which contrasts sharply with romantic and and modernist-era ideas that positioned the composer as a genius whose works should never be altered.
Many composers end up collecting toy pianos, which gives them a variety of sounds to play with. Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin became known as the toy piano lady at a Sydney toy store after buying eight in a row. I’m up to a modest five and am resisting buying my sixth.
Toy piano specialists are becoming more common as performers and composers in demand.
Italian specialist Antonietta Loffredo has performed several times in Australia and released many recordings with the Australian art music label Wirripang. You can hear her recordings of works by Australian composers on Spotify here.
Margaret Leng Tan, a toy instrument virtuoso with many commissions and dedications to her name, was due to perform with toy piano at the Sydney Opera House this year but the concert was postponed due to COVID-19.
As Margaret Leng Tan herself puts it:
I remain wholeheartedly intrigued by the toy piano’s magical overtones, hypnotic charm, and not least, its off-key poignancy. In the words of author John David Morley, “Sound combed from the keys of a stairway ascending faintly into sleep”. My composer-friends were similarly beguiled and driven to frenzied heights of creativity by this modest little instrument.
Escaping A Rigid World
Artists are always looking for new ways to challenge and surprise audiences. What is and isn’t accepted on the concert stage is constantly shifting and the rise of the toy piano suggests that we are ready to welcome new sounds and new instruments into the relatively closed world of classical music.
To many composers, the toy piano offers more than a symbolic representation of childhood — it provides an exciting escape from the strict and rigid world of formal contemporary art music.
Read more: From the First Fleet to Changi, Australia's pianos have a long history 
Paul Smith, Senior Lecturer in Music, University of New England
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Hidden women of history: Kyniska, the first female Olympian
Kyniska (or Cyniska), a Spartan princess, was the daughter of King Archidamus II and sister to King Agesilaus.
She owned a sizable estate where she bred, raised and trained horses, and in 396 BCE, when she was probably between 40 and 50 years old, she became the first woman to participate in the Olympic Games.
Spartan culture believed stronger children come from parents who were both strong, an unusual concept in Ancient Greek society. Spartan authorities encouraged women to train both mind and body.
Unlike Athens and the other Greek city-states where girls were hidden from the public and learned only domestic skills, Sparta held races and trials of strength for girls as well as boys.
Kyniska’s childhood would have been full of athletic training: running, jumping, throwing the discus and javelin, perhaps even wrestling.
Spartan girls married later, allowing more years in education. Aristocratic girls such as Kyniska learned poetry and also trained to dance and sing competitively, so she may have even been literate.
Kyniska had wealth and status – but it was her ambition that made her a legend.
This ambition drove her to compete in the four-horse chariot race, or tethrippon, at the Olympics in 396 and 392 BCE.
Her chariot team won both times.
No Women Allowed
This feat was especially impressive because women could not even step foot on the sacred grounds of the Olympic Sanctuary during the festival. Married women were forbidden on penalty of death from even attending as spectators.
To compete, Kyniska cleverly exploited loopholes.
In sports like wrestling or javelin, the victors individually competed on the field. In the chariot race, the winners were the horse owners, not the riders – who were almost always slaves. Much like with the modern Kentucky Derby or Melbourne Cup, the victors are the horse and its owner, not the rider.
Kyniska didn’t have to drive the chariot to win.
In fact, chariot team owners did not even have to be physically present at Olympia during the games. Kyniska could enter her chariot team in the race without ever stepping foot on the forbidden sacred grounds.
But Kyniska’s role was not secret. News of an Olympic victory was carried by fast messengers to the victor’s home city, where preparations to celebrate their return were begun at once. News that a woman had won an Olympic contest would have spread quickly.
What motivated a Spartan royal to break through the difficult glass ceiling of male-dominated Olympic competition and culture? The scant sources we have offer different opinions.
The Greek writer Pausanias said Kyniska had personal ambitions to win at Olympia, but Xenephon and the philosopher Plutarch credit her brother, King Agesilaus, for pressuring her to compete.
The answer may involve a bit of both.
Her Legacy
Many ancient Greek women won Olympic victories after Kyniska, but none were as famous as she.
Kyniska erected at least two life-size bronze statues of herself at Olympia. The inscription on a remaining fragment of her marble statue base reads:
Kings of Sparta were my fathers and brothers. I, Kyniska, victorious at the chariot race with her swift-footed horses, erected this statue. I claim that I am the only woman in all Greece who won this crown.
Kyniska relished her fame. Agesilaus may have been the catalyst, but Kyniska herself probably decided to compete – at least the second time.
Other women would go on to compete in the chariot races, and by the 1st century CE women were competing directly against men in foot racing events – and winning.
The fact Kyniska didn’t physically compete has caused history to discount her achievements, but this argument marginalises her larger accomplishment. Amid enormous cultural barriers, Kyniska broke gender norms and glass ceilings.
By boldly and proudly celebrating her trailblazing victories with commemorative statues, she transmitted this message to women across the Greek world.
Fuelled by Spartan pride, Kyniska’s accomplishment to be the first woman to compete, and win, in the male-only Olympics is a startling and memorable achievement that deserves a prominent place in Olympic lore.
Todd E. Caissie, PhD Candidate in Art History and Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies. Lecturer, Rutgers University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.