Updated weed guide now covers all of northern Australia
THE Environment Centre of the Northern Territory has published Nick
Smith’s new book Weeds of the Wet/Dry Tropics of Australia: A
Field Guide. The book is a full-colour revised and expanded edition
of the previous publication Weeds of Natural Ecosystems: A field
guide to environmental weeds of the NT.
The book features detailed descriptions and photographs of more
than 80 weeds species found across northern Australia and outlines
the best control and eradication measures for these species. The
book also includes a section on potential weed threats.
Organisations that helped fund the book were the Natural Heritage
Trust, the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS), the
TS–CRC, Greening Australia, the World Wide Fund for Nature
and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The book retails at $19.95 (inc GST). A wholesale price of $16.50
per copy applies to orders of 10 or more copies. Available from the
Environment Centre of the NT. See below for web link and contact
links.
Birdlife traced on Top End island refuge
The Birds of Groote Eylandt represents the first scientific book
about the birds of the Top End. Written by NT scientist, Dr Richard
Noske, it is one of very few Australian books tracing the history
of ornithology of a region.
Groote Eylandt, Australia’s fourth largest island, is a
refuge for birds and other wildlife from introduced livestock,
predators and frequent fires that have so altered the natural
environment of the mainland.
The book describes the relative abundance, habitats, movements and
regional distribution of each of the 228 bird species that have
been reported on Groote Eylandt since 1920.
The vast majority of these birds occur widely across the Top End,
including the Darwin region.
As islands tend to support fewer species than the mainland, a
section in the book looks in some detail at which species of birds
are absent from the island (but present on the mainland) and why.
Publisher: Northern Territory University Press. Available from the
NTU Bookshop, see below for contact details.
For more information about the book, contact the author: Dr Richard
Noske.
Tropical plant guide
Betsy Jackes, Head of Tropical Plant Sciences at James Cook
University has published a new book on tropical plants. Plants of
the Tropics, Rainforest to Heath: An Identification Guide is an
extensive guide to rainforest and heathland plants of north
Queensland. Plants in the book are from the rainforests of Paluma
(north of Townsville) and Cairns and the heathlands west of Paluma.
Andi Cairns provides a guide to Bryophytes—mosses, liverworts
and hornworts of the rainforest.
Available from the James Cook University Bookshop, in both
Townsville and Cairns.
