Table of contents for Issue 157, Jan-Feb 2017 in Wild

A critical piece of literature – given its insights into the history of the Byzantine Empire of the 12th Century, as well as the life of her father, the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos – Anna Komnene’s musings, like all good writing, draw relevance when thinking about our world today. The quote above is written in reference to old myths, in which the immense pressures suffered by a given person may, by some magical mechanism, turn them into stone, a tree, or some other less animate object. Komnene makes comment specifically about the nature of grief and loss, which can make anyone feel small. For many like Komnene, these emotions are reserved for human tragedy – the loss of a loved one, for example. For the naturalist, such as a bushwalker…

The Nature Conservancy Australia’s annual photo competition winners were announced in December, with 13 shutterbugs sharing in $5,000 worth of prizes. The third year the competition has been run saw an unprecedented 16,120 entries submitted between the dates of 26th of September and the 4th of November 2016. Each was judged by a panel of previous winners and photography experts. Categories weren’t restricted to purely nature-based compositions, yet even the ‘urban’ category winners demonstrated the raw power and beauty of nature. Ultimately it was Mark Seabury’s image of a breaching humpback whale that impressed the judges most. The shot he dubbed, ‘Eye Spy’ after the particular behaviour he managed to capture. “I’ve been photographing whales for the last 10 years and am fascinated about understanding their behaviours and curiosity when…

Having spent many years honing my craft as an amateur photographer, I only recently decided to take the plunge and go ‘pro’. I never expected it to be an easy career choice, but so far it’s been a fulfilling one. Trying to summarise the story inevitably makes it sound like the decision was made relatively quickly, but in fact it was a long time in the making. After all, I spent the majority of my adulthood searching out and photographing the remote, natural places that I find so inspiring to capture. Having grown up in suburban London, I found myself quickly evolving into something of a globetrotter, and this penchant for travel has fed into a passion for photography. It was on a trip to Everest in 2002 that I…

Many years ago I took a photo of a grass tree. Nothing special, just a quick shot of a single specimen growing from a cliff. It was the first of my pictures I can remember liking. A tree sprouting out of bare rock seemed quirky and fun. Yet the photo hinted at more. Over time this simple snap of ochre stone and punkish spiked-up leaves began to mark my sense of the place. An improbable plant somehow summed up an entire labyrinth of gorges. The pic was taken on an early walk in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges NP in the northern sweep of the Flinders Ranges. Not certain which trip exactly and I’m pretty sure the original Kodachrome 64 slide went missing during a house move, but the mental image is…

Now a prominent figure in local outdoor adventure circles, Di Westaway now looks back over her lifetime and sees a significant portion of it as time spent indoors. But that isn’t to say she wasn’t active during her youth, and spending the majority of her time inside had its own benefits. “I was a gymnast as a kid,” Di says. “It was probably a good thing for my skin because I wasn’t at the beach all the time like some of my friends.” That may have been the extent of the benefits for Di who, at the age of 40, found herself in a bad place emotionally. As a working mother, she realised she now had a mental health issue to contend with. “I think I knew instinctively that there…

While modern technology allows us to access the wilderness in more ways, it may be that in some ways we have lost the necessity, or maybe even the desire, to read the landscape. As a botanist and a bushwalker, I find that plants are important in helping me orientate myself in a landscape. This is not a new idea; indeed, it has been used for a very long time. Indigenous people were the ultimate readers of the landscape because in order to survive they needed to know where to go, what to eat and where to find it at what time of year. They had a very long time to learn which plants could be used for food, tools and shelter. Traditional pathways were often defined by features of the…

The hitch pictured is one of my favourites and is one I use regularly; its simplicity is matched only by its versatility. The only aspect of it that is not so simple is the nomenclature, it is known by many different names throughout the world, the names people use for it tend to be more indicative of their background than that of the hitches. So what is it? Well the names for it used in different languages point to a common theme: • Italian – MB (Mezzo Barcaiolo) • German – HMS (Halbmastwurfsicherung) • French – Demi cabestan Those with a languages background will likely notice a commonality within the names, that being the mention of ‘half’ and also a ‘nautical theme’, the names are a shortening and essentially mean…

INTRODUCTION One of the more ubiquitous of biting insects, mosquitos have been the scourge of nearly all humans throughout time. The can be found on almost every landmass bar Antarctica and a few subpolar islands, such as Iceland. Due to the fact that the females are parasitic and tend to feast on the blood of vertebrates, they also have a tendency to becoming a vector for disease. In recent times, the Zika virus has gained plenty of attention in the press for its prevalence in Brazil in the lead up to the 2016 Olympic Games, but they’re also notable for spreading malaria, yellow fever, West Nile virus and dengue fever, with a variety of diseases found in different places around the world. In Australia, there are some 5,000 reported cases…

Ryan wins a set of MSR Talus TR-2 walking poles valued at $319.95. These aluminium walking poles were reviewed in Wild 154. With an effective length of 105-130cm, they collapse down to 73cm and weigh in at just under 300g. BUSHWALKING PHILOSOPHY Bushwalking has been an integral part of my life ever since I was born. It’s been a family passion for as long as I can remember. Even before I could walk, my parents carried me in a hybrid babycarrier-come-backpack, which I’d sit in like a king and enjoy the view, napping and snacking sporadically throughout the day as my parents laboured away. Naturally, I protested when I was made to get down from my pedestal and walk for myself. But gradually, I progressed from being carried everywhere to…

Many people go away over Christmas or later in the summer months for long periods of time. But just because you’re used to training in a gym doesn’t mean you need a gym to train. Working out in the outdoors can be great fun and you can put together challenging, wild workouts with all the natural tools you find in your surrounding environment. As humans, we all have the same seven basic primal movement patterns. These are: ‘push’, ‘twist’, ‘pull’, gait’ (crawl, walk and run), ‘bend’, ‘squat’ and ‘lunge’. For the purposes of this column we’ll also add ‘balance’ and ‘throwing’. Working on and improving ourselves in all of these natural actions is a sure fire way to maintain general health. These patterns are learned in the above order. That…

Since the domestication of the chicken, people have been nourishing themselves with eggs. They are perhaps one of the most undervalued, useful and versatile raw foods available, not to mention their health benefits. But on a bushwalk their convenience is limited, they crack and spill easily and when opened and carried in a watertight container their life is short. When I found dried egg powder to be easily obtainable from one of the large supermarket chains, I was quietly excited – previously it was an ingredient I had only used in commercial kitchens, but now I noted it was to be easily found for home use. Although the base ingredients of the following two recipes are similar, these two dishes have very different flavours TAGINE OMELETTE WITH TOMATOES Serves 2…

Deon Gilbert has been searching for endangered female Baw Baw frogs (Philoria frosti) for the past six years as part of Melbourne Zoo’s breeding program. In October 2016, Gilbert finally managed to capture a mature female for the first time, increasing the chances of the program’s success and of the species’ sustainable future. He has since gone on to find a further 10 females to add to the collection. Wild recently spoke with the threatened species expert to discover more about this strange species of frog. Deon, what led you to working with endangered frogs at Melbourne Zoo? I’ve spent my entire career (18+ years) working with reptiles and amphibians in various zoos in Queensland and now for Zoos Victoria. As a kid, I was always fascinated with reptiles, spending…

Tasmania’s giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi) are vulnerable to extinction because people eat them. While they are protecting from fishing these days, I am reliably informed that they remain delicious. On a bigger scale, mud and chemicals washed down from mining operations over the last two centuries have eliminated the crayfish from some of the northern Tasmanian streams which are their habitat. These days, silt from logging operations covers riverbed pebbles and leaves juvenile crays nowhere to hide from the trout, blackfish and platypuses that eat them. In the Tarkine wilderness, the Frankland River still runs clear amber, coloured only by the tannins from the high buttongrass plains where the river arises. By this beautiful stream crayfish expert Todd Walsh easily caught two fine, large specimens to show the small…

We’ve brought way too much gear, food and water. As we lay it all out for our four-day paddle on Western Victoria’s Lower Glenelg River, each of us stares wide-eyed wondering how we’re going to fit it all into three canoes and the single sea kayak I’ve hired in Winnap, 75 kilometres upstream from where the river flows into Bass Strait near the South Australian border. I’d given strict instructions to our crew of six adults and one seven-year-old to minimise their clothing, then drawn up a roster of meals that each party could prepare ahead of time, with suggestions for the sort of snacks and drinks they might like to bring. To their credit, they’ve adhered to those instructions accurately. There are, however, two notable exceptions. The first is…

1 Atom LT Hoody $329.99 Lightweight insulated jacket designed for a trim fit and maximum mobility. Compressible for easy storage, this Arc’teryx hoody is designed for a broad range of cold weather activities. www.arcteryx.com 2 CampStove $269.95 This portable power solution from BioLite weighs 935g. It’s desighed to burn natural fuels to generate up to 5.5kW of energy while also boiling water. Includes light, USB cord and stuff sack. seatosummitdistribution.com.au 3 Tasmanian Mushrooms Sliced $7.95 300g of Tassie mushrooms dried down to 25g, equating to roughly 4 serves per packet. No refrigeration required – they’ll store for 2 years without spoiling. camperspantry.com.au 4 Specter Compression Cube Set $64.99 These backs have a specialised compression zip to assist in controlling volume in packed luggage. Lightweight storage solutions mean you don’t need…