Australian Geographic — May-June 2017

TALL ORDER

Your issue with the tallest trees (AG

136) is delightful. Is any consideration

being given to making the photo of

the tallest tree available for framing and

hanging? I have just the spot on my

lounge room wall!

We have several tree photos. One is

of the famous grass tree in the Flinders

Ranges, which is so precious (the tree,

not the photos) that the information

centre won’t tell anyone where it is.

Another is a Eucalyptus camaldulensis

just inside Rawnsley Park Station, also

in the Flinders. I would dearly love to

add your tall tree. Please consider

making it available.

MARGARET WILLIAMS, MITCHAM, VIC

Steven Pearce says:

The poster is available for $15 + postage

online via our Tree Projects website. We’ll

also have posters available at our Canberra

and Sydney shows. Please see details on our

website: http://www.thetreeprojects.com/shop

OUT OF THE WAY

In AG 136, on the Your Say page,

we were interested to read Graham

Beneke’s letter about Lappa Junction,

south-west of Cairns. In June 2016

we were travelling with a group from

YOUR SAY

May

.

June 2017

MODERN-DAY EXPLORER

The article on Dirk Hartog Island

(AG 134) stirred fond memories

for me. The following is an entry

from the log of the captain of

RAN Corvette HMAS Pirie: “16th

January 1945 at 1145hrs Pirie

dropped anchor in Turtle Bay.”

I was a serving member of

Pirie’s crew. We had sailed north

from Fremantle in exercises with

US submarines USS Bashaw and

USS Pampanito. At the end of the

exercises we entered Shark Bay

and anchored as above. That

afternoon a party of us rowed

our whaleboat ashore on Dirk

Hartog Island. In my primary

school days in Sydney I had

learnt about the Dutch naviga-

tor’s exploits and particularly

about Hartog’s landing on the

island and leaving an inscribed

plate nailed to a post. Of course,

there was no post or plate

anywhere on this sandy, scrubby

shore, but it was enough to have

rowed ashore from a ship as

Hartog had likely done, and stood

where he had driven in his post. I

still cherish the memory. Subse-

quently, in 1992, I came upon a

facsimile of Hartog’s plate in the

Fremantle Maritime Museum. It

was another special moment.

RON VICKRESS, GUYRA, NSW

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HMAS Pirie^ leaving
Whyalla, SA, in 1946.

Cairns on our way to Chillagoe

when our driver/guide stopped at

Lappa (which we had never heard of

until then).

The tin shed is now a little museum

with the railway siding nearby. An old

house with a modern car parked out

front was the only other building there

• maybe a caretaker residence?
  Enclosed are some photos [below].
  We always enjoy reading the magazine.
  RON AND CAROLE PRITCHARD,
  IPSWICH, QLD

FLIGHT MODE

Beautiful brood (AG 134), in responding

to “Why lay eggs?” states, “Birds must

be very lightweight to fly. Growing off-

spring in utero is weighty, affecting a

14 Australian Geographic

PHOTO CREDITS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: WIKIMEDIA; RON AND CAROLINE PRITCHARD

POSTSCRIPT

On page 27 of the March–April 2017

(AG 137) edition of AUSTRALIAN

GEOGRAPHIC, we erroneously stated

that since the introduction of

antivenom in 1956 there had been

no known deaths from envenomation

by a coastal taipan. According to the

National Coronial Information System,

there have been two recorded deaths

over the past 16 years.

mother’s ability to defend a nest and

collect food.” While that is true, I don’t

think it explains the question. All

animals apart from mammals lay eggs.

All animals tend nests and their young

• some insects, arachnids, fish, reptiles
  and birds – expending time and energy.
  Birds are descended from dinosaurs,
  which laid eggs, but did not fly. The
  evolution of mammals allowed tending
  of the developing young to occur
  within the mother’s body, freeing her
  from this inefficient use of her time
  and energy. So the laying of eggs is an
  earlier stage of evolutionary reproduc-
  tion, which continues because it is a
  successful strategy, although superseded
  by mammalian reproduction methods.
  ALAN MOSKWA, MAGILL, SA

In Lappa Junction is

an old railway station-

cum-pub that now

serves as a museum.