By BEN CUBBY, ENVIRONMENT EDITORAugust 4, 2010 CONTAMINATED water from a coalmine is flowing into the Georges River, south of Sydney, at levels that are toxic to aquatic life, an independent water quality report has shown. A plume of saline water stretched along the river for 15 kilometres from the discharge point of an underground […]
The Macquarie Marshes – a vast, tangled sprawl of creeks and swamps between Nyngan and Walgett in the state’s northwest – has declined by about half since the 1960s because of the drought and the diversion of water for irrigation. … ”About 50 per cent of the wetland area is gone and more has been […]
By DEBRA JOPSONJuly 30, 2010 Peter Hammond cradles the tiny white eggs in his hand that could ruin his 2200-hectare sheep and cattle property near Lake Cowal when they hatch in spring. ”When you squash them, they create moisture, so you know that they’re actually alive, that there’s grasshoppers in them,” he said. Farmers are […]
Beyond Reasonable Drought is a Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House travelling exhibition in association with the MAP Group — Many Australian Photographers. It features images by some of Australia’s best photographers, documenting the impact of the drought on the land, people and psyche of rural and urban Australia. Beyond Reasonable Drought Technorati […]
A boat made from thousands of plastic bottles has sailed into Sydney Harbour, completing a four-month voyage that began in San Francisco. The boat, called the Plastiki, was built using 12,500 plastic bottles. Its 9,000 mile (15,000 km) voyage aimed to raise awareness of the dangers posed to the environment by plastic waste. Hundreds of […]
Ten aerial survey bands (each 30 km in width), every two degrees of latitude, crossing eastern Australia and providing estimates for up to 50 species of waterbirds in October each year (1983-2004). Letters identify seven particular wetlands: Styx River wetlands (A), Lake Hope (B), Paroo River overflow lakes (C), and Macquarie Marshes (D). Australia State […]
By John PlattJul 26, 2010 04:45 PM Where did the Australian dingo go? Once present throughout that country, the feared predator (Canis lupus dingo) in its current form is on its way to extinction as it is either killed or breeds and hybridizes with domesticated dogs. With the disappearance of the purebred dingo comes the […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comJuly 19, 2010 Kakadu National Park, one of the Australia’s “largest and best-resourced” protected areas, is experiencing a staggering decline in its small mammal population, according to a new study published in Wildlife Research. Spanning nearly 2 million hectares—larger than Fiji—the park lies in tropical northern Australia. “This decline is catastrophic,” John […]
Provided by Society for Experimental BiologyJuly 1, 2010 As global warming threatens many animal species with extinction, the cane toad is set to flourish with increasing temperature. This is a major cause for concern as the cane toad, once introduced to Australia as agricultural pest-control of the cane beetle, is an already highly invasive species […]
By Fayen Wong Thursday June 24, 2010 05:40:03 AM GMT PERTH, June 22 (Reuters) – Asia’s thermal coal imports are set to hit a record high next year, nearing 500 million tonnes, as economies in the region extend their recovery over the next 18 months, an official Australian forecast showed on Tuesday. Asian exporters, such […]
