What does this photo tell you? There are 3 pieces of evidence that tell an INCREDIBLE history. Read on to find the answers...
I
recently visited a station in the northern Murchison region of WA, and
was shown an interesting section of river by the farmer Tim, where just
near the dry riverbed, the remnants of a historical homestead and wool
shed stood. It was amazing to see how remote this would have been for
the white settlers who first dwelled here. Thinking back 150 years was
difficult... but not as difficult as thinking back thousands of years.
My good friend Jeff then pointed out some important features of this landscape.
Firstly,
some thorough searching along a section of riverbank revealed the area
was covered with Aboriginal artefacts - mostly stone tools and
spearheads. This indicated it was probably a well-used campsite by
indigenous people who had lived here for thousands of years. And soon we
noticed why.
Apart
from the water source provided by the seasonal creek, a serious of
mounds every hundred metres or so along the creekline told us there was
once an abundant food source here. Native marsupials called Boodies
(Burrowing Bettongs Bettongia lesueur)
are small, hopping animals that live communally in ‘mounds’ or warrens.
A mound is a serious of burrows dug in the same area, which connect in a
complex underground warren. The mound is formed as the soil excavated
from each burrow accumulates. In the above photo, a Boodie mound is
visible and takes up about three-quarters of the photo, from the left
hand side across.
So,
why are are the Boodies gone? The above photo also tells this story.
Firstly, it has a car track on the right, which cuts through the right
hand quarter of the mound: white people arrived. They brought many
changes to the landscape including altered fire regimes, hunting, and
feral animals like cats, foxes, goats and rabbits. Secondly, it has a
stock trail which cuts right through the mound: cattle. These herbivores
were the most significant ‘ecosystem engineers’ that Westerners
introduced to the arid Murchison. Cattle eat and trample native plants
and remove significant amounts of vegetation, opening up the land
enormously so that native mammals like Boodies loose vital sheltering
habitat. While they have the warrens to hide in during the daytime, they
still need dense cover to protect them at night while foraging. Any
predators in the area, whether native or feral, kill them easily.
Together with the pressure of competition for food from rabbits (which
also invaded their warrens), the Boodies lost the battle.
And now they are gone from the Australian mainland.
Extinction is forever. Once these animals disappear, that’s it, they don’t come back. The thing is, Boodies aren’t totally extinct (yet).
They are locally
extinct from over 95% of the area that they once thrived in. And I
believe that not enough is made about LOCAL extinction, that is, the
total disappearance of an animal from a particular area. Can you imagine
if lions or elephants disappeared from almost all of Africa? Or if the
Sistine Chapel or Sydney Harbour Bridge were almost completely knocked
over?
Boodies
are still found on four islands, and in a few fenced mainland
enclosures managed by Conservation groups. These populations can be
restored to much of the landscape with the right planning and
management. Now here’s where I am going to get a bit controversial. I
stopped eating beef a year ago because I believe that cows are bad for
Australian landscapes and their native fauna. If Westerners didn’t bring
cows to the Murchison, much of the vegetation could still be intact,
and Boodies may still be widespread. I would sooner eat Boodies, if they
could be farmed in a sustainable way, for several reasons: they can
live on the land with minimal impact, and their presence does not cause
mass extinctions of other natives like cows do. Also, if we ate Boodie,
then a few more people might know about them.
Knowing
about both the natural and cultural history of the area you live in is
the most important thing you can do, in my opinion. I’m not saying we
should all eat Boodies, or that what I mention here is any sort of
solution to a problem. But my point is that we should all know about and
understand the history of our land. True Conservation is about finding
ways in which we can learn from past mistakes, and use natural resources
in a way that makes them renewable for years to come.
