Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand - Introduction

Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, was the first European to make landfall in Australia and New Zealand during his two voyages in 1642 and 1644. Tasman’s efforts were considered failures by his employer, the Dutch East India Company, but Tasman’s limited exploration of the areas he discovered led other adventurers to join the quest in exploring the elusive Terra Australis, the southern continent. The British Admiralty commissioned James Cook to lead a journey of exploration aboard HMS Endeavour. The ship, a six-gun bark, departed England in 1768 with notable crew members representing scientific interests serving as supernumeraries; botanist Joseph Banks and astronomer Charles Green. Cook’s voyage provided extensive knowledge about Australia and New Zealand.  Abel Tasman and James Cook linked Australia and New Zealand together in a bond enduring to this day.

Emu - Australia

England used its American holdings as penal colonies; the state of Georgia was founded as such. Following the Revolutionary War, England had to find new horizons to set up its penal institutions. Australia suited those needs and inmates began arriving at Norfolk Island, Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania.

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Dromaius novaehollandiae - The emu can grow to heights of 2 meters. It is the largest bird in Australia and the second largest in the world; the ostrich is the largest. Females initiate courtship and once a bond has been established, the breeding pair will remain together for about five months. It is the male who constructs the nest and incubates the eggs; he will not eat or drink for almost eight weeks. The female will continue to add one egg to the nest every two or three days until the total count reaches approximately 11 eggs.

Kangaroo - Australia

Kangaroos belong to the Macropodidae family of animals and are endemic to Australia; one genus, the tree kangaroo, is found in Papua New Guinea. The name Macropodidae is in reference to the kangaroo’s large hind foot. The powerful hind quarters and long tail of a kangaroo provide it with the means to reach speeds of 70 km/h in quick bursts or to cruise along at 40 km/h for extended distances. The kangaroo is the largest animal dependent on hopping as a means of locomotion.

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The settlement of Australia occurred 40,000 to 70,000 years ago. The first arrivals may have used a combination of land and sea routes when making their way to Australia. Those arriving by sea probably came from Timor and those arriving by land came from New Guinea; Australia and New Guinea were once part of a larger continent called Sahul. The aboriginal people of Australia had a multi-generational passage through Asia during their migration from Africa, but they are not closely related to Asians.

Koala - New South Wales

The First Fleet, a collection of 11 ships, left England in May of 1787 and arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788. The fleet was made up of 2 Royal Navy escorts, 3 supply ships, and 6 convict transports carrying almost 800 prisoners. Botany Bay, the first European settlement in Australia, began as a penal colony.

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Phascolarctos cinereus - Koalas are endemic to the eastern regions of Australia; higher concentrations are found along the cooler coastal woodland areas. Northern populations tend to be smaller and lighter in color than those residing in the southern sections of the country. Koalas are nocturnal, spending about 4 hours each night foraging exclusively on eucalyptus leaves, a plant in the myrtle family. This low energy and protein deficient diet does not support an active lifestyle; to compensate, the sedentary koala sleeps for almost 20 hours each day. 

Platypus - Queensland

Fraser Island is separated from the Australian mainland by the 73 kilometer Great Sandy Strait. With an area of 1,840 square kilometers, it is the world’s largest sand island. Sand islands are primary made of sand and form when wind and ocean currents deposit sand from nearby river systems along the continental shelf.

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Ornithorhynchus anatinus - Along with four species of echidnas, the platypus is a monotreme. These unique mammals lay eggs instead of bearing live young, but they do nurse their offspring with milk and their bodies are covered in hair. The extant species of monotremes are indigenous to Australia and New Guinea. The male platypus is one of a few mammals capable of injecting venom into an aggressor when defending itself through an ankle spur located on the hind foot. The female also has the spurs, but it does not deliver venom.

Leafy Sea Dragon - South Australia

The Mannum-Adelaide pipeline was constructed from 1949 to 1955 for the purpose of delivering water from the Murray River to Adelaide. The Murray rises in the Australian Alps, an area sandwiched between New South Wales and Victoria. The Murray has a length of 2,500 kilometers and empties into South Australian’s Lake Alexandrina. 

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Phycoduras eques - The leafy sea dragon belongs to the syngnathidae family; seahorses, pipefish, and pipe horses. The leafy sea dragon is best known for the long skin filaments hanging off their head and body. The filaments resemble brown seaweed and provides the perfect camouflage for the seahorse as it feeds in the clumps of seaweed, a habitat the animal spends its entire life in. During reproduction, the female deposits about 200 eggs onto the male’s tail. The eggs are assembled into a brood patch and begin to hatch after 9 weeks.

Tasmanian Wolf - Tasmania

The Furneaux Group consists of a string of islands located in the Bass Strait, the waterway separating Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The group of 100 islands has a total land area of slightly more than 2,000 square kilometers; Flinders Island is the largest in size and population. Less than 1,000 people reside on the islands. 

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Thylacinus cynocephalus - The Tasmanian wolf was already extinct on the Australian mainland when first observed and recorded in Tasmania by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1792. Although thylacine resembled a canid, it had one distinct feature, a marsupial pouch, to distinguish it from canids. The female pouch contained 4 teats and opened backwards; males had a scrotal pouch to protect the external reproductive organs. Thylacine, an apex predator, had muscular jaws with the capacity of opening to 80 degrees.   

Old Man Banksia - Victoria

HMS Lady Nelson was commissioned in 1799 as an armed survey vessel and was dispatched to explore the coastal regions of Australia. The ship, under the command of John Murray, entered an inland bay on the southern coast of Victoria in 1802. The bay was named Port Phillip and became the host site for the city of Melbourne.

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Banksia serrata - Referred to as old man banksia, Banksia serrata is one of about 1,600 species in the Proteaceae family; the macadamia tree is part of this family. Old man banksia grows along a narrow coastal band of Eastern Australia stretching from New South Wales to Tasmania. The trunk appears misshapen and gnarled. The wrinkled bark’s natural color is grey, but it is often black as a consequence of previous bush fires. The flower spikes are cylindrical, contain hundreds of flowers, grow to a height of about 10 centimeters, and are greyish-white in color. 

Australian Pelican - Western Australia

Western Australia is the largest state in Australia and the second largest sub-division in the world; Russia’s Sakha Republic is larger. The city of Perth, located on the southwestern coast of Western Australia, served as the administrative center for the Swan River Colony, a British settlement established by James Stirling in 1829.

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Pelecanus conspicillatus - Breeding season for the Australian pelican varies between the northern and southern coasts of Australia. Birds start breeding at 2 to 3 years of age. Large colonies of paired couples build shallow ground nests on islands or in sheltered areas near water. A nest can contain up to 4 eggs, but 2 are the usual number laid. The chicks hatch after an incubation period of about 33 days. Feeding is concentrated on the largest chick; the smaller ones are left to starve or become victims of siblicide, a behavior found primarily in birds.

Short-beaked Echidna - Australian Capital Territory

When Australia became an independent country in 1901, two opposing sides debated whether Sidney or Melbourne would serve as the national capital. A compromise was reached in 1908 calling for New South Wales to cede a tract of land, referred to as the Australian Capital Territory, for the construction of Canberra. 

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Tachyglossus aculeatus - The short-beaked echidna is one of four extant echidna species in the Monotremata Order and the only echidna found in Australia; the other three are native to New Guinea. The powerful front claws are used for breaking into ant and termite nests or to dig burrows. The flexible tongue can extend 18 centimeters from the snout and is covered with a sticky mucus to catch and hold ants or termites. When threatened, the echidna can escape by burrowing into the ground or rolling itself up into a ball of spines.

Long-legged Ant - Christmas Island

Christmas Island is located 1,550 kilometers to the northwest of the Australian mainland and was discovered by William Mynors in 1643. It was an important site for mining phosphate; a primary ingredient in the production of fertilizer. The island was administrated by the British Singapore Crown Colony until transferred to Australia in 1958.

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Anoplolepis gracilipes -  The long-legged ant is one of the most successful invasive animal species. Originating in East Africa, the ant has managed to spread to remote locations ranging from the Hawaiian Islands to Christmas Island. Ant dispersal typically occurs with queens taking nuptial flights, but the long-legged ant spreads through “budding,” a process where a mated queen leaves an existing colony with enough workers to set up a new colony. Budding is slower, but with the ability of hitching rides on human transportation, the ant has found success.

Shoreline Purslane - Cocos Islands

The Cocos Islands and Christmas Island are two properties making up the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. The Cocos Islands, also known as the Keeling Islands, have been administrated by Australia since 1955. The archipelago consists of two atolls with about 25 islands; only two of the islands are inhabited. 

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Sesuvium portulacastrum - Shoreline purslane is a perennial herb commonly found growing throughout the sandy shores of the world. It can thrive in nutrient poor soils and areas subjected to regular salt water flooding. Considered an invasive species in some regions, this plant serves as a soil stabilizer in areas void of other vegetation. The fleshy leaves, although salty, are edible and provide a rich source of vitamin C. The plant remains in bloom year round, but the five-petal flowers, light purple, pink, and white, are not large or conspicuous.

Big Mountain Palm - Lord Howe Island

The Tasman Sea, named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, is located between New Zealand and Australia. The sea has a surface area of about 2,300,000 square kilometers. Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island, both administrated by Australia, are the two primary midsea island groups in the Tasman Sea.

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Hedyscepe canterburyana - The big mountain palm, also known as the umbrella palm, is a slow growing tree native to Lord Howe Island. Wet mountain forests in altitudes ranging from 335 to 830 meters are the preferred settings. When mature, it stands at a height of about 10 meters and has a lifespan lasting from 40 to 150 years. The big mountain palm thrives in stony soil of basalt origin and keeps moist through the frequent showers falling from the semi-permanent low cloud cover. The fruit spikes contain bright red seeds and grows below the crownshaft.

Norfolk Kaka - Norfolk Island

The Norfolk Archipelago consists of three islands located in the northern section of the Tasman Sea; Nepean Island, Phillip Island, and Norfolk Island. Great Britain transferred the territory to Australian control in 1914. Captain James Cook landed on Norfolk in 1774 and named the island in honor of Mary Howard, the Duchess of Norfolk.

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Nestor productus - The Norfolk kaka was native to Norfolk and Phillip Islands, but fell into extinction during the early 19th century; the last bird held in captivity died in 1851. The genus Nestor contains 2 extant species; the Kea, Nestor notabilis, native to New Zealand’s South Island and the New Zealand kaka, Nestor meridionalis, native to the north and south islands of New Zealand. The two extinct species from the genus Nestor are the Chatham kaka, Nestor chathamensis, once native to the Chatham Island Archipelago and the Norfolk kaka.

Australian Bustard - Northern Territory

On HMS Beagle’s third voyage, 1837-1843, she was dispatched to fully explore the coast of Australia. During a survey of the northern area, Captain John Wickham sailed into a natural harbor and named the site “Darwin” in  honor of his former shipmate Charles Darwin. The two men had sailed together on the Beagle’s second voyage.

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Ardeotis australis - Australian bustards are large birds. A typical adult male stands 1.2 meters tall, has a wingspan of 2.3 meters, and weighs 6 kilograms. Bustards are capable of flight, but will only take to the air as a last resort to escape danger. Flightless juveniles will stand motionless and rely on their camouflage to evade potential threats. Primarily a terrestrial bird, bustards can be seen slowly walking through open fields searching for food. Their diet relies heavily on plant material, but it does include insects and smaller mammals, reptiles, and other birds.

Little Gooseberry Tree - Torres Strait Islands

There are about 270 small islands in the Torres Strait, a small passage separating the York Peninsula of the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea. Most of the islands are controlled by the state of Queensland, but a handful, those closest to the New Guinea coast, are administrated by the government of Papua New Guinea.

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Buchanania arborescens - The little gooseberry tree is endemic to the gallery forests of Northern Australia and Southeast Asia in altitudes no higher than 450 meters. A gallery forest is a corridor of trees growing along rivers or wetlands. The tree grows to a height of about 20 meters and produces a fruit 8 to 10 millimeters in diameter, a popular food source for birds and other animals. The flowers are cream to yellowish white and are exceptionally fragrant. The little gooseberry tree is in the Anacardiaceae family; this family includes mangos and pistachios.

Indigenous People of Australia

The term “aborigine” is often used as a broad definition when referring to the indigenous people of Australia. The word encompasses all the original inhabitants of the Australian landmass and surrounding islands, but does not acknowledge any specific group.  When the Europeans arrived in Australia, they found over 250 different languages being spoken by almost as many distinct groups of people. Pitjantjatjara is still one of the most widely spoken native languages in Australia. The Pitjantjatjara people had settled in Australia’s central desert, an area stretching from Uluru in the north to Nullarbor Plain in the south. The scientific community is beginning to form a consensus in their evaluation of the pre-colonial history of Australia. Evidence strongly suggests the first inhabitants of the Australian continent arrived from Africa 65,000 to 75,000 years ago and used Southeast Asia as a land bridge.

Palm Trees of Australia

Arecaceae is an order of perennial plants commonly referred to as palms. This order contains climbers, shrubs, and trees. There are about 2,600 species classified into 180 genera within the Arecaceae order. Most palms are endemic to the dry deserts or wet rain forests throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Palm leaves, known as fronds, are either palmately, fan-leafed or pinnately, feather-leafed. The cabbage-tree palm, Livistona australis, grows to heights of 25 meters. It is found in the moist forests or swampy wetlands throughout the coastal regions of New South Wales. The foxtail palm, Wodyetia bifurcata, is endemic to Queensland’s Cape Melville area. It is listed by the IUCN as a rare palm. The carpentaria palm, Carpentaria acuminata, is a fast grower and reaches heights of  20 meters. It can be found in the tropical regions of Northern Australia. 

Geckos of Australia

Geckos, lizards, anoles, salamanders, and newts are often confused. Geckos and anoles are lizards in the Squamata order of reptiles, the largest reptilian order. This order also includes chameleons. Salamanders and newts are in the Urodela order of the Amphibia class.

The Squamata order contains about 6,000 species. Geckos have the most species within this order. about 1,500. The 7 families of geckos are contained in the infraorder Gekkota.

Most geckos lack eyelids and rely on licking their eyeballs with their tongue to keep them moist and clean. Geckos are the only lizard able to vocalize; they use sound to communicate with potential mates and use hissing noises to deter threats. Most have the ability to “lose” they tail as a self-defense ploy in distracting predators. Geckos have excellent eyesight for forging at night; they are nocturnal feeders. 

Geckos shed their skin on a regular basis; juveniles shed more often than adults. The skin is not wasted, it is eaten by the animal. Adhesive toe pads are found on most geckos and assist in keeping a grip on slippery surface areas.

Depicted are the common knob-tailed gecko, Nephrurus levis, the marbled velvet gecko, Oedura marmorata and the wood gecko, Diplodactylus vittatus.