Australian_Geographic_-_December_2015_AU_

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YOU R AG


126 Australian Geographic


Flight of fancy
by Nathan Barden

I stumbled across nest-
ing ospreys last winter
in a Brisbane suburb.
Being a photographer
and keen ornitholo-
gist I later returned
to investigate, and
photographed one
of them returning
to the nest with
a fi sh for lunch.


YOU R
PHOTOS

In our Lat/Long on St Arnaud (AG
127), we said the 1611 King James
Bible was the first to have num-
bered verses and be mass-pro-
duced. The Geneva Bible (pub-
lished 1560) was in fact the first,
and a 1608 edition is on display at
St Arnaud’s Bible museum.

POSTSCRIPT

Defenders of national parks fought for
many years to stop cattle grazing in
these areas. A horse trek might have
some claim to a macho historical
charm, but it is hardly supporting the
natural state of the environment. I
cannot take a dog on a leash for a
picnic, but a business can spend days
damaging tracks and reintroducing
feral weeds with many horses? There
always needs to be a balance between
protection and access. I don’t believe
there is a simple answer, or that one
aspect naturally has priority, so we
must keep discussing this dichotomy
from time to time.
JEREMY WOOD, BONYTHON, ACT


SING-SING
I was going through old colour slides
recently and found this one (below)
of a sing-sing in Inauaia, in the Mekeo
district of Papua New Guinea, in 1957,
and it reminded me of your feature
Cultural conservation (AG 120). I was
posted in the district as an agricultural
officer with my family, and lived in the
community. This was my second job in
PNG, having worked a few years on a
rubber and cacao plantation in the
northern district. I don’t know why
this sing-sing was held, but it’s clearly
an important event because six chiefs
were there, watching on in regal outfits.
HENK MULDER, STANTHORPE, QLD

ESTUARY LIFE
I wanted to share these impressions
from the boardwalk at Narooma, NSW.

A toadfish flutters round the whelks
Hoping to find one on its back;

A heron peers and pecks, and daintily extracts
A baby soldier crab,
Carefully tossing to ensure the legs go rightways
down.

A four-leaf mangrove sprouts
Where none had grown before.

Somewhere up there the mountaintops are
crumbling –
Down here a slow accretion nurtures small
delights
And quiet satisfaction.
LEITH DOUGLAS, DUFFY, ACT

History revisited.
Reader Henk Mulder took
this in central PNG in 1957.
Free download pdf