1984 revisited

Australia around 20,000 years ago Studies of pollen in lake sediments show that a fundamental shift from forests dominated by long living acacias started around 60,000 years ago. Increased carbon levels in these lake sediments indicate that more frequent fires brought about a shift from the fire sensitive Brigalow rainforests to fire loving plants. These are the very familiar eucalypts, shorter lived acacias, banksias, bursarias, Tree Violet and a diverse mix of grassland plants that all depend on regular burning for their long term survival. Burning and the decline of the megafauna changed Australia's soils forever from nutrient and humus rich to nutrient and humus depleted. This is because burning removes nitrogen, sulfur and humus from the nutrient cycle. Our nutrient starved soils then became more erodible, a problem that was added to by the shift from dense Brigalow forest to less dense and more open eucalypt woodlands.  As we see climate change significantly altered Australia...

At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They accepted allied terms that amounted to unconditional surrender. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. This first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them with no known grave. The allied nations chose this day and time for commemoration of their war dead. One of our famous ANZACS was Lance Corporal Albert Ja...