Granite landforms have fascinated people the world over from the earliest of times. This book provides an engaging account of the history, biology, beauty and recreational potential of Australian granite landscapes. For national park visitors, conservationalists, nature-lovers, bushwalkers, biologists and geologists.
Granite landforms have fascinated people the world over from the earliest of times. This book provides an engaging account of the history, biology, beauty and recreational potential of Australian granite landscapes. For national park visitors, conservationalists, nature-lovers, bushwalkers, biologists and geologists.
In June 1952, Len Beadell was called to a secret meeting in Salisbury, South Australia, and informed of the decision to explode an atomic bomb in Australia. He was set the task of finding an appropriate site. After exploring country to the west of Coober Pedy, he found an unnamed claypan (later called Emu) which the military approved as being suitable. It was close to the Emu Claypan that atomic bombs (Totem 1 and 2) were exploded on 15 and 27 October 1953. Even before the first of these two bombs was exploded, Beadell was asked to find a second site closer to the Trans Australian Railway. This second site was ominously called Maralinga (Aboriginal for thunder), and it was here that between 27 September 1956 and 9 October 1957 seven atomic bombs were exploded.In November 1955, after the experience of surveying and constructing the Emu and Maralinga sites and their associated access roads, Beadell headed a group that became known as the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party. Despite their relatively slender resources, this group was responsible for the construction of a remarkable system of roads through remote, mainly desert country to the west of the Stuart Highway. The first part of the Gunbarrel Highway, from Victory Downs station (close to the Stuart Highway) to Giles, was built between November 1955 and March 1956, and the second section from Giles to Carnegie Homestead was completed in November 1958. Other roads constructed were the Mount Davies Road (1956 & 1957), Sandy Blight Junction Road (1960), Gary Junction Road (1960 & 1963), Anne Beadell Highway (mostly 1961 & 1962), Voles Hill-Cook Road (1961), Connie Sue Highway (1962), Gary Highway (1963), Callawa Track (1963) and Tallawana Track (1963). The work of the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party came to an end when they reached the ruins of old Tallawana Homestead on 6 November 1963. Over a period of almost exactly eight years, this gallant group had constructed about 6,000 kilometres of roads. This book describes the extraordinary adventures and difficulties faced by Len Beadell and his group. Beadell showed remarkable courage and resourcefulness during his long and arduous solo reconnaissance trips. It was on one of these that he came very close to losing his life in March 1958.
This book is a celebration of landscape and life, and is a visual feast with 137 colour photographs. Granite landforms have fascinated people the world over from the earliest of times. Australia's Granite Wonderlands provides an engaging account of the history, biology, beauty and recreational potential of Australia's granite landscapes. Aborigines and European explorers, as well as gold-seekers, have relied on water-filled rock-holes for their survival. For the early European settlers in Western Australia and South Australia, granite outcrops were an important source of water in the parched outback. Despite the seemingly inhospitable nature of granite surfaces, they are home to an amazing variety of plants and animals - a theme extensively explored in this book. In Australia, there is easy access to granite outcrops as many are located in national parks and other reserves, some just an hour from capital cities. How important is it to protect these granite ecosystems? Why are they so unusual as habitats for plants and animals? How do granite-dwelling organisms respond to lack of water? Ian Bayly's book addresses these questions in a revised account of the natural history of Australian granites. National park visitors, conservationists, nature-lovers, bushwalkers and tourists will all find this book absorbing. It will also serve as an invaluable resource for biologists and geologists.
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