12 Australian Geographic
BEST YET
I am a retired cultural historian
who enjoys every issue of Australian
Geographic, since the first issue.
However, I must say the latest edition
(AG 151) is by far the best issue,
as far as I am concerned. Lots of
WOW stuff! So much so that I
purchased an extra copy so I could
share with an American cultural
historian. Well done on all the articles
but especially Honeysuckle Creek,
The End of the climb, Generation of
change, Old town, new prospects and
Taking the Eyre.
A great edition. Well done.
DR GEORGE J. TOEPFER, MT STUART, TAS
YOUR SAY September. October 2019
My mate Bill Edwards and I drove a
split-screen VW Kombi to Port
Hedland in 1968. Here is a photo of
Bill topping up the tank while
parked in the centre of Highway
One somewhere near Broome.
No need to pull over, there were
very few vehicles before the
highway was tarred.
My recollection is that boabs
were fewer, and more solitary.
I was surprised when I revisited the
north-west a couple of years ago
to see the proliferation of boabs.
There must have been a change
favouring their survival. Might it
be an alteration of burning-offpractices, of cattle raising
(cattle are said to enjoy the
foliage), rainfall patterns, or some
other factor? Your photo of the
boab thicket captures it all – the
old-man boab that we might have
seen in 1968 and an expanding
cluster of younger trees. Will the
traveller of 2068 see small forests?
Here is another aspect for
Emeritus Professor Jack Pettigrew
and Prof. David Baum to explore.
Richard Gorrell, Killara, NSWFeatured Letter
FINE WRITING
As a subscriber since issue AG1 last
century, the article in AG 151 on Uluru
compiled and written by Sam Duncan
struck me as one of the finest feature
articles to appear for many years. Maybe
I’m a little biased because a number of
years ago I visited Uluru and was totally
overcome by its majesty. I walked
around it one day and again a few days
later (about 10km) each time. To me it
has a special spiritual significance and I
can understand the locals wishing to
end climbing. Because Uluru is posi-
tioned virtually in the country’s centre
it’s like its cherished heart.
MATTHEW HOGAN, HURSTVILLE GROVE, NSWSend letters, including an address
and phone number, to editorial@
ausgeo.com.au or to Australian
Geographic, GPO Box 4088,
Sydney NSW 2001. Letters will be
edited for length and clarity.MAILBAG
WELCOMES
FEEDBACKILL- DEFINED MOMENTS
I have every edition of AG, which I
just love reading. My dad gave me
a subscription about a year after he
started his charter subscription so I
had to buy the first few issues later
to complete my collection.
Everything seems so well researched
and presented that it is a joy to read
and learn about something new.
However, when I looked at the 150th
edition poster, some errors jumped out
at me. The first was “Australia’s first
car”, which was actually the Tarrant,
way before the Holden. The second
was the fact that there where four
members of The Beatles, hence their
nickname the Fab Four. Lastly, under
the newspaper headline KERR
SACKS WHITLAM, Gough is not in
the illustration. Thanks for a fantastic
publication. May it continue forever.
STUART SYMONDS, MAIDEN GULLY, VICED: We take your point about the car,
Stuart, and we thank you for bringing it to
our attention, but we can certainly spot
Gough Whitlam on there, and a quick look
back into history reminds us that Ringo
Starr was too sick to fly to Australia with
his fab comrades in 1964. Thanks for your
eagle eye and we hope you enjoyed poring
over the poster.EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Oh my goodness, I am so mad at you
guys right now. I just settled in to
FINALLY read my July–August issue
(AG 151) and you DARE to suggest
on page 22 that the southern myotis
and spotted tree frog aren’t pretty!
They’re ADORABLE! And that
eastern curlew? How longer do you
need those legs and how more doe-y
those eyes? So pretty! The little lizard
I’d go utterly gaga over if I met one,
and, since I’m a macrophotographer,
the algae to me is stunning.
You lot have nutty high standards.
On a serious note, thank you for
bringing to public attention these lessWRITE TO US!
Send us a great
letter about AG or
a relevant topic for
the chance to be
our featured letter
and win an
BOAB MYSTERY AG T-shirt.Postscript
Sadly, Jack Pettigrew was killed in
a car accident in May.