Review of
DREAMTIME TO DUST AUSTRALIA'S
FRAGILE ENVIRONMENT
An Exhibition at the Australian Museum, Sydney
Sandra Bowdler
This is on the whole an impressive and informative exhibition, with respect to
presenting us with some of the major changes in the Australian environment during
the Quaternary. It does however have a message, and not a very subtle one. I am not
sure however that it is, in the end, successfully conveyed. Where it does succeed is
in conveying dramatically the changes in the landscape, the flora and especially the
fauna which as Australian archaeologists we all now take for granted, perhaps in a
somewhat theoretical and unexcited way. The drama was, to me at least, welcome.
Before penetrating the exhibition proper, the visitor may watch an eight minute video
presentation. This whips through the last 200 or so million years, from Pangaea
through Gondwanaland, to the evolution of the Australian continent as we now know
it: climate, pre-European vegetation and mammals. The point is made that Australia
is a dry land subject to drought, and that animals like the red kangaroo have adapted
to this. The ice ages are foregrounded, especially the last 25,000 years. Sometime
before 50,000 BP: we are told, the 'third great wave' (of immigration?) occurred: first
we had the marsupials, then the rats, now the humans (perhaps I have not grasped
this quite accurately). Mungo, megafauna, firestick farming all get a guernsey. The
message here: Aborigines achieve an equilibrium, European settlers then arrive
bringing new forms of ecological stress. Some animals become extinct, but not as yet
on a scale with the extinctions of the ice age. We are assuaged with the knowledge
that there is a growing awareness of the fragility of our biosphere and there is the
possibility of entering a new age of equilibrium.
As we shall see, this encaptulates reasonably well what the exhibition itself is on about,
including what I take to be its conceptual and/or presentational flaw.
-
108 Dreamtime to Dust Review
Figure 1.
Alkon T l c h putting final touches to the giant python model on dkphy In the
exhibition. Photograph: Australian Museum
One enters the actual exhibition through a sort of notional tardis: a darkened booth
with thundery sound effects and flashing lights. (1 had to prevent myself from thinking
of this as a thunderbox, as Evelyn Waugh readers will appreciate.) One emerges
before a most impressive life-size diorama representative of Australia 200,000 years
ago (lacking at this stage any labels, and no sound track at least on the day I visited):
a diprotodon being chewed up by a Megalania, being watchedlignored by a very, very
big snake, an economy size spiny anteater and a Tasmanian devil. Round a corner, a
hornedturtle, a big kangaroo, a Thylacoleo, a large ratite, Sthenurus, and Palorchestes
go nonchalantly about their business. I make no particular mention of the plants, but
they are there.
One passesthrough another tardis into a diorama representativeof 20,000 years ago.
This time there is an audible and helpful sound track. We see mostly modern species,
with kangaroos fighting, a Thylacine, a diprotodont skull in a dried out mud hole and
Tasmanian devils. They are chewing over some bones around what looks like a small
abandoned fire place. The sound track tells us that Aboriginal people have now come
to Australia, that they have wrought changes to the land by their use of fire, possibly
bringing about extinctions (overkill implied somewhat). This presentation is subtle but
I think effective: the Aboriginal presence pervasive but not highly visible.
Through another tardis we go, to emerge in the present - or, at least, the recent past.
We see a bush clearing, the bush itself thickening away to the left, a timber house on
the right, a fence, a spade, sheep, a chained blue heeler (Bimbo, according to hislher
feeding bowl). Between the two are native animals, but also rabbits and foxes. A nice
tranquil rural scene, one might think.
Having passed through the three dioramas (200,000 Be 20,000 Be the present), one
perceives that there is a sort of central command module, with a raised floor and glass
windows permittinga panoramic view of the three dioramas. Here are also the labels.
There is then a final stage to the exhibition. Through Bicentennial banners, there is an
Australia-shapedflower-box then an Australia-shaped coffin (I stupidly forgot to note
howbhether Tasmania was represented here). The, as it were, moment of truth asks,
is Australia turning to dust? We have a chocolate wheel (as it used to be called, now
probably known as the wheel of fortune) which selects future choices: 'cosmic collision
- why w o r v ' , 'extinction of species: should we be custodian of all other species?',
'Nuclear War: NO NUKES NEVER! Remember Hiroshima and make your
commitment'. Did I say subtle? All subtlety is left in the last tardis. There are slides
of headlines, newspaper articles on the walls, a panel on the Greenhouse effect, Our
EndangeredEnvironment, quotes from Schumacher, Gandhi, J. Porritt (Who? Director
of Friends of the Earth, actually), UN World Conservation Strategy, Do you agree with
these goals? (Could you not?) 'Triumph of the lentilheads', muttered my companion.
Most of the other visitors seemed to brush through this lot without a second look, and
who could blame them? The dioramas are terrific, the heavy-handed message
presentation is drab, boring and a good display of overkill.
While the message might be worthwhile, not only is it overplayed, it also seems to me
to be undermined by what precedes it. Surely intelligent members of the public will
perceive just how vast 'natural' changes have been in the past 200,000 years, and
furthermore take note of the impact of Aborigines on the environment despite their
relatively small numbers and comparatively simple techndogy. Surely also it will be
borne in on some that notions of equilibrium are relative, to say the least. What is
missing is a dramatic representation of the scale of modem landscape impact in both
-
110 Dreamtime to Dust Review
geographical and chronological terms: perhaps a final diorama showing dust-bowl
conditions, rather than an idyllic golden summers pastoral as the final impacting
presentation.
Apart however from the failure of the exhibition to hit its ultimate target, it works very
well as a dramatic presentation of past environments. Furthermore,the accompanying
booklet (Dreamtime to Dust: Australia's Fragile Environment, compiled by R.A.L.
Osbornefor the Australian Museum) is a mine of further relevant information. It contains
concise accounts of the evolution of the continents, ice ages and sea level changes,
fossil sites, palynologyand details of all the animals in the dioramas. It flogs its message
in a more digestible form than the exhibition, and lists further reading and resources.
Overall, the exhibition plus the booklet are an excellent introduction to the changing
environment of QuarternaryAustralia, and, if one does feel a bit battered by the sermon
at the end, at least it is free.
Department of Archaeology
The University of Western Australia
Nedlands WA 6009
Shakespeare's venue
gains late reprieve
BRITAIN
the developers did not hreak tlicir
promise.
Meanwhile. arclineolopists
LONDON, hlonday: Devclopers granted an I Ith-hour repricve from tl~e.Muscumof I~uidonwcre
today to the remains of the Rose being allowed to act as custodi:~ns
Theatre. where Shakespcarc is of the land.
The company planned to prethought to have performed, after
an all-night protest vigil by Icad- serve the site underground for
posterity hy covcring i t will1
ing actors.
The property company lniry tonnes of sand and gravel and has
Merchant called a temporary truce said the work will cause "minimal
to allow more negotiations with damage" to the remains.
Lord Olivicr joined the protests
prot&en and archaeologirts. '
Protesters iincldding Damer last nigh^ In a messagc, he said: "l
Peggy Ashcroft and Ian McKellcn i realise that thc advent of so-&lled
withdrew from inside the pcrinie- progress rings the death knell on
ter fence at the site, by Southwark this. to us. magnificent filld. but it
Bridge in London.
seems to me terrible that o~ie's
The company had been sclicd- heritage can be swept under the
uled to begin preparations today concrete as though it had neber
for an office block due to be built existed. It is a vitally important
over the remains of the Elizabe- part of our theauical history."
than theatre. .described by b r d
Theatre.figures supporting the
Olivier as 'vitally important".,
campaign include usti tin.. Holf' R o t a t e n , who threatened to man.' Dame Judi Dench, Derek
.stand in front of bulldozen to halt Jacobi. Spike hlilligan. l b m Stopbuilding work remained outside pard, hlichael Cashman and John
the perime~erfence to make sure V/oodvine.
Prcrr Associalion
-'
The Sydney Morning Herald
16 May l988
(From B.M.)
Miracle site
ARCHAEOLOGISTS bef lieve they have identified
I the site where Jesus perj formed the miracle of the
loaves and fishes. Dr ,
/ Rami Arav of Haifa Uni- I
I versity said that Beth- :
saida, the third holiest I
Christian site in the !
Holy Land. was the place
where Jesus performed
l the loaves and fishes
miracle, cured a blind
man and walked on the
water. "We believe we
h a w settled the controvcrsy." he said, adding a major dig would
begin a t the site next
January.
!
I
--
Hobart Mercury
21 October 1988
(From R.J.)