ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY
From the ARK
NEWSLETTER NUMBER 5
2006 is shaping up to be another hot dry year, the eighth in a row for
Arkaroola. But with its suite of arid-adapted plants, its many sheltered
refuges, its lack of broadscale environmental weeds and its on-going
involvement in regional feral goat control, Arkaroola is better placed
than many other parts of the Flinders Ranges to endure the prolonged
dry. Whatever the weather, overhead the great southern sky still
dazzles at night. The breathtaking landscapes of Arkaroola Wilderness
Sanctuary still feed the souls of visitors and our stunning and diverse
earth history continues to capture their imagination. Hot and dry,
Arkaroola remains magnificent!
WINTER 2006
IN THIS ISSUE A Message from our Tour Guides
News From The Ark An ‘Office’ with a View Sundial Park Re‐imagined Plant Profile Rose of the Desert The winter 2006 issue of From The ARK. begins the newsletter’s
second year of circulation. Enjoy!
A MESSAGE FROM OUR TOUR GUIDES
From the Arkhives Red Ochre Pigment of Pilgrimage Creature Feature Termites Nature’s Great Recyclers Geonote Rocks with Cleavage! Conservation & Research A Gluttony of Goats Mal
Wayne
Marty
Ben
Galactic Gossip Planet in (Parenthesis) What a job ! Extreme four wheel driving, some of the greatest mountain scenery you could
find anywhere and a load of keen tourists. This is the Ridge Top Tour driver’s lot. Out most
days sharing a once in a lifetime, four and a half hour trip of education and excitement with
visitors to our award-winning wilderness sanctuary. As specially trained tour guides our
challenge is to bring Arkaroola to life for thousands of visitors each year. Each day is
special, each day is different. It’s tough but someone’s gotta do it!
Product Information Bats & Boobooks Ark Postcard Ochre Wall The Ridge Top Team
NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FROM THE ARK
NEWSLETTER FIVE WINTER 2006
Design, & Text Lorraine Edmunds Images provided by Lorraine Edmunds Feral goat image courtesy DEH AUSTRALIA
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ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY
NEWS FROM THE ARK
AN ‘OFFICE’ WITH A VIEW
SUNDIAL PARK RE-IMAGINED
The Wishing Well has gone. So too have several sundials,
the sandpit and the old tractor painted in the red, yellow and
blue of you know who! Sundial Park is having a make-over.
With an inexhaustible passion for knowledge, and a gift for
sharing it, Dr Reg Sprigg, the founder of Arkaroola Wilderness
Sanctuary, brought science to the people in novel ways. He
created a quirky assortment of sundials, and used plaster
friezes and the standing stones of Ark Henge to explain
aspects of earth history. During his legendary BBQ night
lectures, Reg demystified complex geological processes like
plate tectonics.
Arkaroola continues to be deeply committed to the celebration
and sharing of knowledge. Reg has left us but his legacy
remains. In our new vision for Sundial Park, the area will
become a geological garden, landscaped with different soils
and their respective suites of plants. Threatened species, local
endemics, and signature plants like Curly mallee, Balcanoona
wattle and Porcupine grass will be featured. A brochure listing
the plantings will be available for guests with an interest in
local flora. A wheelchair-friendly pathway will meander
between garden beds, set against the striking backdrop of Mt
Oliphant. Three of Reg’s sundials have been retained and will
be interpreted. A picnic shelter, a bushwalking information
shelter and seating will also be included in the new Sundial
Park.
The project is being jointly funded by the South Australian
Tourism Commission, through the Tourism Development
Fund, and Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Brenton Whellum
from ‘Nothin But Natives’ has been contracted to do the
landscaping and provide tubestock.
Fancy an ‘office’ like this one? Spectacular mountain
scenery out of every window, plenty of fresh air and great
opportunities to deliver a quality product to customers!
What would Reg think about all this, long term visitors to
Arkaroola might ask? Reg never stood still and was always
exploring new ideas. He would not want Arkaroola to remain
frozen in time. The canvas will be reworked but Reg’ s vision
continues to inspire and inform us.
With some of our guides moving on at the end of 2006,
Arkaroola will be looking for new tour guides next year. If you
have had 4WD and guiding experience, enjoy working with
people, have a genuine interest in natural and social history,
and like a challenge, why not consider joining the Arkaroola
team for 2007?
All of our tour
products have
Advanced
Ecotourism
Accreditation.
For further information
Email Ray Thomas
[email protected]
NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FROM THE ARK
NEWSLETTER FIVE WINTER 2006
AUSTRALIA
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ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY
PLANT PROFILE
FROM THE ARKHIVES
THE ROSE OF THE DESERT
RED OCHRE
Pigment of Pilgrimage
Red Ochre occupies a visceral space in the human psyche.
Archaeologist Ernst Wreschner has written that “ a red thread” runs
through more than half a million years of human history. 300 000
year-old burial remains in France and the Czech Republic contain red
ochre. In Australia, red ochre has been found in 45 000 year-old graves
in Arnhem Land and at Lake Mungo. Red ochre continues to be used in
Africa today by tribal groups such as the Himba people of northern
Namibia.
The term ochre is used to describe a group of hydrated iron oxide
minerals. A very soft mineral, ochre can be crumbled between the
fingers, and is easily ground to a powder using a rock as a pestle. Ochre
outcrops are often banded, different colours produced by various
minerals like limonite, ilmenite, and haematite.
Cotton’s elegant cousin, Sturt’s Desert Rose, brings
a fragile beauty to the harsh landscapes of arid
Australia.
In the Australian interior where flowers are often
brilliantly coloured but small, the generous soft-mauve
hibiscus-like flowers of Sturt’s desert rose stop
travellers in their tracks. Gossypium sturtianum takes its
species name from the iconic inland explorer, Captain
Charles Sturt who was the first person to collect
specimens of the plant.
The Gossypiums belong to the Malvaceae or Mallow
family, which also includes Hibiscus plants. The
native Gossypiums are found in arid areas of Africa and
Mexico. Ten species also occur in Australia. There are
two sub-species of the desert rose, the common
Gossypium sturtianum var. sturtianum and G.
sturtianum var. nandewarense of eastern Australia. The
Mallows are often called the ‘fibre’ family because a
number of genera, including gossypiums, abutilons and
lavatera, produce useful plant fibres.
For Aboriginal people across Australia red ochre is the spilt blood of the
ancestral heroes. Traditionally red ochre had transforming powers. It
was a substance of healing, empowerment and renewal. When used on
the body or in painting, red ochre was thought to transfer some of the
original powers of the ancestral beings to their descendants.
There was universal demand for ochre across Australia. Prior to
occupation by a settler culture, a complex web of ancient trading routes
criss-crossed the continent. Some of the best ochre was sourced from
the Flinders Ranges. Aboriginal men made annual expeditions to the
Flinders Ranges to collect red ochre and exchange goods such as
spears, feathers, shields, shells and the narcotic pituri. Ancient trading
routes provided the template for the many tracks that underpin Outback
tourism today.
The Flinders Ranges red ochre had a unique silvery sheen and a greasy
texture. It was gathered up as a powder, mixed with water or urine and
shaped into large cakes or ‘gobs’ for transport. Thirty-two kilos of
precious cargo could be carried on the head, balanced on a circlet of
grass bound up with string made from human hair.
A distinctive feature of gossypiums is the presence of
small dark glands over most parts of the plant. The
glands contain gossypol, a substance that is toxic to
non-ruminant animals like kangaroos.
Australia’s native gossypiums are of great interest to
scientists who are trying to develop cultivars of
commercial cotton that are resistant to wilts, cotton boll
worms and other pests. By using genetic material
extracted from the more resistant natives, it may be
possible to reduce the scale of broad spectrum
insecticide use in the cotton industry.
The floral emblem of the Northern territory, Sturt’s
Desert Rose is a drought tolerant shrub used widely as
an ornamental in Australia. Loved by honeyeaters, and
with a very long flowering period, the rose of the desert is
a striking addition to any garden with good drainage.
Plants can be propagated from seed or cuttings and
have a life of about ten years.
The Ochre Wall, a striking ochre deposit, can
be found on the Paralana Hot Springs road
about eight kilometres from Arkaroola Village.
NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FROM THE ARK
NEWSLETTER FIVE WINTER 2006
AUSTRALIA
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ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY
CREATURE FEATURE
TERMITES
Nature’s Great Recyclers
GEONOTE
ROCKS WITH CLEAVAGE!
Forget the mining giant BHP Billiton. The humble and largely
invisible termite is the true mining monarch of Australia.
Shifting enormous volumes of organic material each year and
employing unimaginable millions of ‘workers’ in their subterranean
empires across the continent, the termite magnates rule arid
Australia.
Perhaps the most maligned of all insects in Australia, termites play
a critical role in the nutrient cycle in arid Australian ecosystems.
Termites are Nature’s great recyclers. They convert cellulose, a
very difficult material to digest, into a product that improves soil
fertility and provides for nutrient uptake by other plants and
animals. Few creatures can digest cellulose. Termites are
assisted by specialised organisms such as bacteria and protozoa
in their gut, that break down the woody cellulose into digestible
sugars. The cellulose busters are transferred between termites
during grooming sessions. (Even termites need some TLC!)
Often incorrectly called ‘white ants’, termites are not ants at all.
More closely related to cockroaches than ants, termites belong to
the order Isoptera with several different families represented. The
social insects, ants, bees and wasps, all belong to the order
Hymenoptera. Weighing in at about eight milligrams, and almost
transparent, termites do not have the slim waistlines of ants.
Soft-bodied and wingless, they dry out very quickly once removed
from the protective humidity of their hidden chambers.
Not all termites eat wood. In fact many species feed on grasses.
Throughout the Flinders Ranges, termites can be found in river red
gum, mallee and spinifex communities, and indeed even on
ground with very little vegetation cover, where they harvest the fine
sticks of desiccated annuals.
Like the social insects, the termite colony functions as a caste
system. A termite nymph’s destiny, as worker, soldier or future
monarch is probably determined by a hormonal process. Alates,
a small privileged caste of winged males and females, leave the
colony on humid evenings usually after rain, as a cloud of ‘flying
ants’. They drop their wings a short distance away, mate and
establish a new kingdom.
The architectural ambitions
of Flinders Ranges termites
are fairly modest. Most
species have low mounded
or subterranean nests.
Have you ever wondered why slate billiard tables are so
perfectly flat? Or why slate roofing tiles or pavers can be split
finely yet retain great strength? Believe it or not, it is all about
cleavage.
Laid down as sedimentary mudstones and shales, slates are
rocks that have been altered by heat and pressure during
periods of deep burial and subsequent mountain-building.
During the alteration process the minerals in the parent rock
are rearranged and the crystals align in a preferred direction
or plane. This is described as ‘slaty cleavage’. The result is a
rock that tends to split in one direction. The fracture plane is
the one with the least cohesion. Slates can be split into ever
smaller pieces, ultimately back to individual grains. Despite its
tendency to split, slate is a strong and durable rock and is
widely used in the building and landscaping industries.
A bit of advice: if you want to use the Internet to learn more about how slates
form, don’t Google ‘cleavage’. The results might not be what you expected.
Colourful slates from Arkaroola’s Welcome Pound
NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FROM THE ARK
NEWSLETTER FIVE WINTER 2006
AUSTRALIA
Page 4
ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY
GALACTIC GOSSIP
CONSERVATION & RESEARCH
A GLUTTONY OF GOATS
A rhumba of rattlesnakes, a coalition of cheetahs, a parliament of owls, a
leap of leopards. The collective nouns for groups of animals often evoke an
essential aspect of their behaviour. So what about a gluttony of goats?
Domestic goats were introduced to the Flinders Ranges in the 1850’s by
European settlers. Some animals from abandoned herds survived the great
drought of the 1860’s, establishing wild populations. In a largely predatorfree landscape, goats were able to build their herd sizes for more than a
century before any active management began.
Feral goats destroy natural vegetation and foul waterholes and springs. They
compete with native animals for food and shelter resources. The most
critical impacts occur during and immediately after droughts, when goats can
displace animals such as vulnerable yellow-footed rock wallabies from their
home ranges.
Feral goat numbers exploded in the northern Flinders Ranges following
record wet years in the early 1970’s. In response, Dr Reg Sprigg initiated
goat control on his Arkaroola property. A log book documenting culling
operations that spanned more than thirty years, provides a graphic picture of
the scale of infestation. Tens of thousands of goats were removed in three
decades, at a time when very little control was occurring on other properties.
For the past thirteen years, the Department for Environment and Heritage
(DEH) has delivered a strategic feral goat management program across
protected areas in the Flinders Ranges. But feral goats do not recognise
property boundaries. For effective long term control, the migration of
animals back and forth between properties must be managed at a district
level. With Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funding, the program was
extended in the late 1990’s and was offered to neighbouring properties. A
pioneering advocate of the need for regional feral goat control, Arkaroola
welcomed the opportunity to participate and has remained one of the
program’s staunchest supporters. Today goat numbers in the northern
Flinders Ranges are much lower than they were fifteen years ago.
Climate change may bring added stresses to native plant and animal
communities in the Flinders Ranges. If native species are to have the best
chance of adapting and surviving into the future, a low feral goat population
must be maintained across the region.
PLANET IN (PARENTHESIS)
One of nine or one of multitudes, in which cosmic
community does Pluto reside?
Known for 75 years as the ninth planet of our solar
system, Pluto has recently been reclassified as Minor
Planet 134340. The controversial decision made by
the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has
triggered intense debate among astronomers.
Derived from ancient mythology, Pluto was the
Roman God of the Underworld. Charon, Pluto’s
satellite, was a mythical Greek character who ferried
the dead across the River Styx to Hades. A union
forged in a far-flung realm of perpetual darkness, the
metaphor for Pluto and Charon is powerful. Dwarf
planet and moon, the two may have once been a
single celestial body, bowled over and fragmented by
a past cosmic blow.
The only ‘wandering’ planet, Pluto has a steeply
inclined and highly elliptical orbit and rotates in the
opposite direction from most other planets. Their
faces locked in an eternal gaze, Pluto and Charon
rotate at the same pace, a process known as
synchronous rotation. (The synchronous orbits of
earth’s artificial satellites deliver us our modern
communications systems).
Smaller than all the other planets and seven of the
moons in our solar system, Pluto is the only ’planet’
not to have been visited by a spacecraft. The Hubble
Space telescope has captured images of the dwarf
planet’s largest features, but no detailed images of
Pluto exist. Launched in January 2006, the spacecraft
New Horizons should reach Pluto in 2015. It will map
and photograph Pluto and Charon at close range.
The composition of Pluto is thought to be a mixture of
70% rock and 30% ice. Little is known about its
atmosphere. But as it is probably a mix of nitrogen,
carbon monoxide and methane, it is unlikely that
Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince will leave
asteroid B612 for the dwarf planet 134340.
Large feral goat herds are now the exception rather than the rule
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry published in 1943 is a
compulsory read for adults and children.
NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FROM THE ARK
NEWSLETTER FIVE WINTER 20056
AUSTRALIA
Page 5
ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY
PRODUCT INFORMATION
FROM THE ARK POSTCARD
IF YOU LIKE THE LOOK OF OUR POSTCARD
OPPOSITE THEN BATS & BOOBOOKS IS
DEFINITELY FOR YOU.
On your next visit to Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
join one of our experienced guides and head out at
dusk to one of Arkaroola’s permanent waterholes.
Watch as yellow-footed rock wallabies and euros come
down to drink in the early evening light. Over a
wonderful antipasto platter and a glass of bubbly, listen
and watch for bats as they leave their roosting sites to
feed on insects. Using special bat detector boxes, our
guides track the ultrasonic sound signatures made by
different bat species. On your way back to the village
listen for the evocative ‘mopoke’ call of southern
boobook owls as they leave their hollows in the River
red gums to hunt.
Treat yourself to an evening that you will never forget.
Price:
Duration :
Availability:
$55 per person or $150 per family (2A + 2C)
3 hours
On demand
BATS AND BOOBOOKS
Bolla Bollana Waterhole and Spring at Dusk
October 2006
Arkaroola Guide John Wolf leading a Bats & Boobooks Tour at dusk
To join our mailing list just email us at [email protected]
For a print-friendly download visit our website at www.arkaroola.com.au
NORTHERN FLINDERS RANGES SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FROM THE ARK
NEWSLETTER FIVE WINTER 2006
AUSTRALIA
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