August 4, 2017

New excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia, have provided evidence that humans first arrived there around 65,000 years ago. That date, based on sophisticated modern dating methods, pushes back the earliest physical evidence for human occupation in Australia by at least 15,000 years. The discovery is forcing scientists to reevaluate some common theories about the ancestors of today’s Aboriginal people of Australia.

The Madjedbebe rock shelter is the oldest-known site of human occupation in Australia. Credit: © Dominic O’Brien, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation

The chronology of the peopling of Australia has been the subject of scientific debate for decades. Archaeologists have found prehistoric Aboriginal sites mainly in southern Australia. These sites—which date from 30,000 to 40,000 years ago—include locations at the Swan River in Western Australia and at Lake Mungo, Lake Tandou, and Talyawalka Creek in New South Wales. After Aboriginal people arrived in northern Australia, it could have taken them several thousand years to travel across the continent and learn to live in new environments. Scientists have therefore concluded that human beings must have arrived in northern Australia well before 40,000 years ago, the dates of the earliest Aboriginal sites in the south. Most archaeologists believed people first arrived in northern Australia in a single migration that occurred at least 50,000 years ago.

Researcher Elspeth Hayes, left, discusses the sampling of stone tool residue with Mark Djandjomerr, center, and May Nango, right, of the Mirarr Clan, the traditional owners of Madjedbebe. Credit: © Vincent Lamberti, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation

Madjedbebe, a prehistoric rock shelter about 180 miles (300 kilometers) east of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory, was first investigated by archaeologists in the 1970’s. The scientists discovered hundreds of stone tools at the site and many pieces of red ocher, a soft mineral often used as a pigment (coloring agent). Determining the age of the site, however, proved difficult. Beginning in 2012, archaeologists obtained permission from local Aboriginals to reenter Madjedbebe. The archaeologists then recovered more stone tools and huge amounts of red ocher. The tools included advanced ground-edge stone axes, grindstones for processing seeds, finely made stone spearpoints, and flakes of shiny mica that may have been added to ocher like glitter.

This ancient ground-edge stone axe was recently recovered from Madjedbebe. Credit: © Chris Clarkson, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation

The scientists at Madjedbebe used a state-of-the-art dating technique called optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to date the stone tool-bearing sediments. This method determines how long sediments have been buried based on the amount of electrons given off by radioactive elements that become trapped in sediment crystals. The new tests determined the sediments were between 60,000 to 70,000 years old.

Although many archaeologists were excited about the new ancient dates for this site, other scientists raised questions that had not been considered before. In an earlier study, scientists analyzing genetic material from living Aboriginal people suggested that the first humans arrived about 50,000 years ago. The genetic data suggest that the people who inhabited Madjedbebe may have been part of an early migration that was overwhelmed by later arrivals. These later migrants, they argue, are the ancestors to today’s Aboriginal people of Australia, and the earlier arrivals may have died out.

April 13, 2017

For thousands of years, indigenous (native) people of Western Australia knew about giant ancient footprints along the shore of the Indian Ocean. But only recently have scientists learned about, and been able to study, the tracks, which were made by dinosaurs some 100 million years ago. A team of scientists led by Steven W. Salisbury of the University of Queensland studied the collection of fossilized footprints—which includes the largest ever discovered—for five years. Salisbury and his team recently published their findings as a memoir in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Richard Hunter, an elder of the Goolarabooloo community, lies alongside a massive sauropod track in the Walmadany area of Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia. Credit: © Steve Salisbury, University of Queensland

A fossil is the mark or remains of an organism that lived thousands or millions of years ago. Most people think of bones or shells when they hear the word fossil. But tracks, trails, and burrows left by ancient organisms are also extremely important in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life). These marks, called trace fossils, give paleontologists a rare glimpse into the lives of prehistoric animals. The scientists can use trace fossils to answer many questions about an animal’s behavior, such as how it moved or how many animals moved together at a time. Scientists cannot usually pair a trace fossil to an exact species (kind) of animal, but they can often determine broadly what type of animal left the mark.

The fossilized tracks in question are on the northern shores of Western Australia. About 130 million years ago, the region was a sandy floodplain covered with braided rivers. Braided rivers have numerous channels separated by small temporary islands. After the tracks were made, floods rapidly covered them in sediment, preserving them from destruction. Thousands of tracks are scattered over several dozen sites in the area, and about 150 are in excellent condition. The findings give scientists a valuable snapshot into life during the early Cretaceous Period in Australia.

Salisbury and his team identified several types of prints coming from ornithopods (plant-eating dinosaurs that could walk on two or four legs), sauropods (large plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks and tails), stegosaurs (relatives of Stegasaurus), and theropods (meat-eating dinosaurs) of different sizes. One of the tracks measures a whopping 5 ½ feet (1.7 meters) long. This print was made by the hind foot of a huge sauropod some 18 feet (5.5 meters) tall at the hip.

The indigenous people of the Western Australia coast had known of the tracks for thousands of years and had incorporated them into their belief system. In one story, the Dreamtime figure Marala, also known as the Emu Man, makes the three-toed footprints that today are believed to have been made by theropods. (The emu is an Australian bird that has three toes on each foot.) The Dreamtime is a fundamental spiritual concept that connects traditional beliefs and practices among the Aboriginal people of Australia.

In 2008, the state government of Western Australia—unaware of the ancient tracks—proposed that a natural gas processing facility be located near the site. Fearing that the tracks would be damaged or destroyed, the Aboriginal people contacted Salisbury to assess the tracks’ scientific importance. As word spread of the natural gas plant and the damage it could cause to the tracks, environmental groups, paleontologists, and local citizens campaigned for the area to be preserved. The company planning to build the processing plant eventually withdrew its application. Now the tracks, with their important connections to prehistory and the Dreamtime will remain protected.

March 16, 2017

March 16 marks the birthday of British navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and charted much of Australia’s coast in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Flinders was born in England on March 16, 1774. In 1794, he sailed to the British colony of New South Wales, Australia. While on the voyage, he met surgeon George Bass. The two men shared a passion for exploration, and after they arrived in Australia, they explored Botany Bay in a small rowboat called Tom Thumb.

Matthew Flinders, born on March 16, 1774, was a British navigator who explored much of Australia’s coastline. Credit: State Library of South Australia (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

During separate voyages, Bass and Flinders each came to suspect that Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) was an island; at the time, it was generally believed that it was joined to the Australian mainland. In late 1798 and early 1799, Bass and Flinders sailed completely around Van Diemen’s Land, proving their theory correct. At Flinders’s recommendation, the strait between Van Diemen’s Land and the Australian mainland was named Bass Strait in George Bass’s honor.

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George Bass and Matthew Flinders, two English naval officers, made several explorations along the Australian coast in the 1790’s. They sailed around Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), proving that it was an island. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In 1801, Flinders was tasked with exploring Australia’s southern coast to determine whether a strait separated eastern and western Australia. He reached Cape Leeuwin that December. He sailed eastward, exploring the coast. The expedition arrived in Sydney in May 1802. After refitting his ship, Flinders sailed north in July. He began to survey the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria but discovered that his ship was in a dangerously rotten condition. He decided to complete the journey around Australia’s coast as quickly as possible. He reached Sydney again in July 1803, and his voyage proved that a strait did not divide the Australian mainland.

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Matthew Flinders sailed around Australia from 1801 to 1803. He surveyed the southern coast, and he named Spencer Gulf, Kangaroo Island, and Encounter Bay. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In August 1803, Flinders left Australia to return to the United Kingdom. After a series of problems with his ship, he landed at Île de France, a French colony in the Indian Ocean that is now the country of Mauritius. France and the United Kingdom were at war at the time, and the governor of Île de France had Flinders imprisoned on the suspicion that he was a spy. He was finally freed in 1810 and he returned to the United Kingdom. He spent the last years of his life writing the book A Voyage to Terra Australis. Flinders died on July 19, 1814.

March 14, 2017

World Book continues its celebration of Women’s History Month with a look at Australian feminist (promoter of women’s rights) and campaigner for woman suffrage (voting rights) Vida Goldstein (VY duh GOHLD styn). Goldstein was instrumental in helping to win the right to vote for Australian women in 1902—the second country to grant women full voting rights after New Zealand (1893). In 1903, Goldstein became the first woman to be nominated for election to the Australian Parliament.

Vida Goldstein was an Australian feminist and campaigner for woman suffrage.
Credit: National Library of Australia

Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was born on April 13, 1869, in Portland, Victoria. Her parents were campaigners for social reform. The family moved to Melbourne in 1877. In 1886, Goldstein graduated from Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne.

Goldstein began her suffrage work by collecting signatures with her mother for the Women’s Suffrage Petition. The petition, signed by 30,000 women, was presented to the Parliament of Victoria in 1891. In 1899, Goldstein became an organizer for the United Council for Women’s Suffrage. From 1900 to 1905, she produced and edited the monthly feminist journal The Australian Woman’s Sphere.

The Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 granted all non-Aboriginal Australian women the right to vote on a national level. In 1903, Goldstein founded the Women’s Federal Political Association (later the Women’s Political Association) to educate women in political matters. She became the group’s president. In 1903, with the group’s support, Goldstein became the first woman in the British Empire to run for election to a national parliament. Although her campaign for a seat in the Senate was unsuccessful, she received nearly 51,500 votes. Goldstein ran unsuccessfully for the Australian federal Parliament four more times: in 1910 and 1917 for the Senate, and in 1913 and 1914 for the House of Representatives.

In 1909, Goldstein launched the journal, The Woman Voter. In 1911, she visited England at the invitation of the Women’s Social and Political Union and spoke to huge crowds on the suffragist cause.

With the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), Goldstein shifted her attention to the pacifist movement. A pacifist is a person who is opposed to war. She campaigned against the war and conscription (compulsory military service). Goldstein became chairperson of the Australian Peace Alliance. In 1915, she cofounded the Women’s Peace Army, which mobilized women against war. In 1919, Goldstein attended the Women’s Peace Conference in Zurich, Switzerland. Afterward, Goldstein took on a less prominent role and devoted much of her time to providing counseling services. She continued to write in favor of women’s rights and in opposition to war. She died on Aug. 15, 1949, in South Yarra, a suburb of Melbourne.

World Book articles:

• Australia, History of (The struggle for women’s rights)
• Australia, History of (Social reforms)
• Women’s movement

February 15, 2017

Last Saturday, on February 11, the Brisbane Bandits defeated the Melbourne Aces 3-1 to win the Australian Baseball League (ABL) Championship Series, the “down under” version of Major League Baseball’s World Series in the United States and Canada. The Bandits won the best-of-three series 2 games to 0 to claim their second-straight Claxton Shield as ABL champions. Brisbane shortstop (and native Brisbanite) Logan Wade batted .500 (4-8) in the short series to earn the Most Valuable Player award. The series was played at Melbourne Ballpark in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city. Brisbane won the series opener on Friday, 6-2.

Brisbane Bandits center fielder Tommy Milone slides safely into second base during his team’s 3-1 win over the Melbourne Aces at Melbourne Ballpark on Feb. 11, 2017, in Melbourne, Australia. The win made Brisbane champions of the Australian Baseball League for the second consecutive year. Credit: © SMP Images

The ABL, founded in 2010, is the reincarnation of a previous league of the same name that played from 1989 to 1999. Six teams compete in the ABL, playing 40 games over a season that runs from November through January during the Australian summer. In addition to the Brisbane and Melbourne ball clubs, the league includes the Adelaide Bite, Canberra Cavalry, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox. Sponsorship adds corporate names to each team as well—the Brisbane Bandits presented by WellDog and the JetCouriers Melbourne Aces, for example. The ABL is co-owned by Major League Baseball and the Australian Baseball Federation.

Many ABL players also play Minor League Baseball in North America, where the schedule runs opposite to the ABL season. ABL players also fill out the roster of the Australian National Baseball Team, which begins play in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March 2017. The WBC is a tournament among 16 national teams representing countries from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America.

Baseball first arrived in Australia with American gold miners in the 1850’s. The first official competition between Australian baseball clubs—Adelaide vs. Melbourne—took place in 1889. Since then, a number of different competitions, tournaments, and leagues have spread throughout the country. The Claxton Shield, the ABL’s championship trophy, is named for Norman Claxton (1877-1951), a famous Australian cricketer and baseball player. Claxton served as president of the South Australian Baseball League from 1913 to 1929, and he donated the trophy in 1934.

Several Australian baseball players have reached the big leagues in the United States, including current Oakland Athletics pitcher Liam Hendricks, former pitchers Grant Balfour and Graeme Lloyd, and catcher Dave Nilsson, whose 105 MLB home runs are the most by an Australian player. (Nilsson is now manager of the Brisbane Bandits.) Second baseman Joe Quinn, a native of Ipswich (near Brisbane) was the first Aussie big leaguer. From 1884 to 1901, he collected 1,800 hits (the most by an Australian) playing for such teams as the Boston Beaneaters (now the Atlanta Braves) and the St. Louis Maroons.

February 9, 2017

On January 30, Australian lawyer and judge Susan Kiefel became the first woman chief justice of the High Court of Australia. The High Court, similar to the Supreme Court of the United States, decides constitutional questions and serves as the ultimate court of appeal in Australia. Kiefel has served as a judge on the High Court since 2007.

High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel. Credit: High Court of Australia

Susan Mary Kiefel was born on Jan. 17, 1954, in Cairns, in the northern Australian state of Queensland. In 1969, she dropped out of high school. Over the next few years, she completed her secondary schooling at night while working full time as a legal secretary. She then studied law at night while continuing to work during the day. In 1975, she became a barrister (lawyer who has the right to argue cases in higher courts) of the Supreme Court of Queensland, the highest court in the state.

In 1985, Kiefel earned a master of laws degree from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. In 1987, she was appointed queen’s counsel. A queen’s counsel is a distinguished barrister who serves as legal adviser to the British Crown.

From 1993 to 1994, Kiefel was a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. In 1994, she was appointed to serve as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, a position she held until 2007. The Federal Court of Australia hears cases involving trade practices; bankruptcy; industrial disputes; and administrative law, which is the field of law that centers on the operations of government agencies. From 2004 to 2007, Kiefel also served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the South Pacific Ocean. In 2007, she was appointed to serve as a judge on the High Court of Australia. In 2011, she was made a Companion in the Order of Australia. The Order of Australia is an award for service to the country or to humanity.

February 1, 2017

In December 2016, an exhibition of the works of Australia’s greatest Impressionist painters opened at the National Gallery, an art museum in London, England. The museum, home to a broad collection of paintings by mostly European artists, is showing 41 works by such Australian artists as Tom Roberts (1865–1931), Arthur Streeton (1867–1943), Charles Conder (1868–1909), and John Russell (1858–1930). “Australia’s Impressionists,” in collaboration with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, runs through the last Sunday of March 2017.

Tom Roberts’ Bourke Street West catches a bright glimpse of 1880′s Melbourne, Australia’s fastest-growing and largest city at the time. Credit: Allegro con brio, Bourke Street West (1885-6), oil on canvas by Tom Roberts; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the National Library of Australia

Much of the exhibit concentrates on the works of Charles Conder, Tom Roberts, and Arthur Streeton. These artists formed the backbone of the Heidelberg School, a group of painters who worked on the tree-covered hills overlooking the Yarra River in what is now the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg. The group, later known as the Australian Impressionists, flourished from 1886 to about 1900. During that time, the group developed a distinctly Australian landscape style showcasing the continent’s light-filled outback and seacoasts as well as the sun-baked streets of Melbourne and Sydney.

The vibrant paintings of Sydney’s John Russell, who lived in France for much of his life, get an exhibit section to themselves. His works reveal the colorful influences of such contemporary European artists as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. Russell’s paintings often portray the landscapes and rocky shorelines of Belle-Île, an island off the coast of Brittany. Russell’s paintings received little attention during his life and for many years after his death. Interest in “Australia’s lost Impressionist” first emerged in the 1960′s.

Taken as a whole, “Australia’s Impressionists” depicts an emerging sense of artistic and national identity as the Australian colonies neared federation on New Year’s Day 1901. The exhibit was inspired by the 2015 loan of Streeton’s Blue Pacific, the first painting by an Australian artist to be displayed at the National Gallery.

January 31, 2017

Australia’s rare ruby seadragon has recently been seen alive for the first time. Because of rough sea conditions, a team of researchers had just one day to find the elusive “monster” off the coast of southern Australia. The ruby seadragon lives in waters too deep for human divers, so the team used a remote-controlled submersible (undersea vessel) to scour the murky sea bottom. After several attempts, on the team’s last try, the submersible’s camera finally captured the first images of a living ruby seadragon.

Marine researchers captured images of the rare ruby seadragon hovering above the sea floor off the coast of Australia. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego

The story sounds like science fiction, but it actually happened. Marine biologists (scientists who study ocean life) Greg W. Rouse and Josefin Stiller from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California and Nerida G. Wilson from the Western Australian Museum captured video footage of the fish last year. They published their findings January 12 in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records.

The ruby seadragon was recently identified as a new species different from leafy and weedy seadragons. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego

Seadragon is the common name for several kinds of fish similar to seahorses. Like seahorses, seadragons have a long snout and skin covered in bony plates. But seadragons generally grow larger than seahorses, and they have flatter bodies fringed with unusual skin flaps. The two most well-known species (kinds) are the weedy (or common) seadragon and the leafy (or Glauert’s) seadragon. Both species typically live in reefs or among seaweed off southern Australia. The creatures take on the appearance of seaweed, enabling them to hide from predators (hunting animals). Despite their fearsome name, seadragons are fragile and delicate, no danger to humans, and grow to only about 18 inches (45 centimeters) in length.

Leafy and and weedy seadragon species have been known to inhabit the southern shores of Australia for some time, but some specimens had baffled scientists for many years. A few bright red seadragons with no leafy appendages were collected by trawling (collecting fish with funnel shaped nets) or found washed up on beaches. Because all these creatures were dead, scientists assumed they were leafy or weedy seadragons that had been damaged by the trawls or had decayed before they were collected. In 2015, however, the same team of Rouse, Stiller, and Wilson analyzed samples of these “damaged” specimens’ DNA and discovered that they were in fact a new species: the ruby seadragon, Phyllopteryx dewysea. No one had seen a living ruby seadragon, however, so the team set out to find one.

Leafy and weedy seadragons live in seaweed forests at depths accessible to skin divers. The ruby seadragon, however, lives in deeper water, more than 160 feet (50 meters) below the surface. At that depth, its coloration, while brilliant on land, actually acts as camouflage. In deep water, red wavelengths of light are absorbed, allowing the ruby seadragon to blend in with the drab sponges that populate the seafloor. Now that a live ruby seadragon has been spotted, the race is on to determine its range and how its habitat can be protected.

January 26, 2017

Today, January 26, Australia celebrates Australia Day, an annual national holiday honoring the country’s past, present, and future. The date commemorates the day in 1788 that Arthur Phillip raised a British flag at Sydney Cove. Phillip was captain of the First Fleet, a group of 11 ships that carried convicts to the penal (prison) colony of New South Wales. Phillip also served as the colony’s first governor. The arrival of the First Fleet resulted in the first permanent European settlement in Australia.

Australia Day, a national holiday in Australia, is celebrated each year on January 26. Credit: © Shutterstock

January 26 was first proclaimed an annual public holiday in New South Wales in 1838. Other colonies (and, later, states) began to observe the holiday in the following years. The state of Victoria introduced the name Australia Day in 1931.

Australia Day is the country’s largest annual community celebration. It is marked by concerts, parades, flag raisings, and fireworks displays. Each year on the eve of the holiday, the National Australia Day Council announces the Australian of the Year Awards. These awards honor Australians who have made inspiring contributions to their communities. This year, the top honor of Australian of the Year went to stem cell researcher Alan Mackay-Sim, whose work has led to new treatments for spinal injuries.

Professor and biomedical scientist Alan Mackay-Sim accepts his Australian of the Year Award on Jan. 25, 2017. Credit: © Sean Davey, Australian of The Year Awards

Australia Day is also a day of controversy. Many of Australia’s indigenous people view the arrival of the British settlers as a devastating turning point for their ancestors and their culture. Many of Australia’s native people refer to Australia Day as Invasion Day or Survival Day. Organizers of some Australia Day festivities have worked to include Australia’s indigenous peoples in the celebration. Today, Australia Day is meant to encourage all Australians to celebrate their country.

January 10, 2017

Last week, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) released its annual climate statement, and it was filled with bad news. Extreme weather lashed Australia throughout 2016, harming fragile landscapes and ecosystems both on land and in the sea. The BOM blamed the damaging weather extremes on climate change as well as an unusually strong El Niño, a periodic variation in ocean currents and temperatures that can affect climate throughout the world.

This photo taken on Feb. 12, 2016, shows the charred remains of rare alpine flora after bush fires raged through the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Credit: Rob Blakers (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

The BOM listed a number of weather events that devastated parts of Australia in 2016. The cities of Darwin and Sydney saw their hottest years on record, while hot and dry conditions and large numbers of lightning strikes led to raging bushfires in Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. Fires destroyed much of the unique alpine flora—including rare, 1,000-year-old cushion plants and King Billy pine trees—found in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The seas around Australia also reached record high temperatures, causing unprecedented bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and other coral systems. Around Tasmania, hot sea temperatures damaged fragile kelp forests as well as the abalone, oyster, and salmon populations.

This photo of Uluru, also known Ayers Rock, shows its typically hot and dry environment. Heavy rains in late 2016 caused waterfalls to cascade down the sides of the giant sandstone formation. Credit: © Steve Vidler, SuperStock

Australia’s extreme weather in 2016 included both drought and heavy rains that caused unprecedented flooding. The areas around Darwin and Brisbane saw significantly less rainfall during the year, while heavier than usual rains soaked Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, and Sydney. In central Australia, dangerous flash floods took out roads, washed away cars, and forced the evacuations of several communities. At Christmastime, record rains and floods forced the closure of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru itself, a giant sandstone formation among sand dune plains, was awash with waterfalls.

The BOM climate statement warned that such extreme weather events will become more common, even become normal, as global warming continues to reshape Earth’s climate.