Congratulations Professor Anya Reading!
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
Hunter Island, visited over millennia by Aboriginal people and settled in the nineteenth century by sealers and later by a succession of grazing lessees, has preserved in its vegetation pattern the effects of a long history of firing and clearing. The vegetation also reflects the substrate and topographic features of the island with a major dichotomy between the heaths and scrub on the highly acid quartzites that underlie most of the island, and woodlands and grasslands on the highly alkaline sands that are rafted onto its western part.
Eucalyptus viminalis occurs on alkaline sands on Hunter Island, in contrast to the absence of the species on calcareous coastal sands in the rest of its range in southeastern Australia. Heathlands make up 380/0 and scrub 37% of the island. Other vegetation types recorded are swamp forests, button grass moorland, exotic and native grasslands, Eucalyptus viminalis woodland, wetlands, mutton-bird rookery vegetation and lichen-fields.
The flora has strong affinities with the northwestern coast of the Tasmanian mainland and a weaker affinity with Three Hummock Island, which is a granite island rather than a quartzite one. A Bassian floristic element occurs on the alkaline substrates; however, it is not as strong as that in the island flora of eastern Bass Strait. The flora and vegetation have components that are significant for nature conservation such as remnant Eucalyptus viminalisstands on the sands. The species ofconservation significance include rare and threatened species: Pterostylis cucullata, Calochilus herbaceous, Cyrtostylis robusta, Parietaria debilis, Ranunculus amphitrichus and Cotula vulgaris var. australasica.
Royal Society of Tasmania, RST, Van Diemens Land, natural history, science, ecology, taxonomy, botany, zoology, geology, geography, papers & proceedings, Australia, UTAS Library
Published Papers
The Royal Society of Tasmania acknowledges, with deep respect, the traditional owners of this land, and the ongoing custodianship of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. The Society pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge that Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples have survived severe and unjust impacts resulting from invasion and dispossession of their Country. As an institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, the Royal Society of Tasmania recognises Aboriginal cultural knowledge and practices and seeks to respect and honour these traditions and the deep understanding they represent.
On 15 February 2021, the Royal Society of Tasmania offered a formal Apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
