Understanding the resource of our landscapes

摘要

Australia is an ancient continent, worn down, vast, and varied; of wide horizons, rounded contours, and muted colours. It also houses amazing ancient treasures. As it drifted across the globe in prehistoric times, it was part of Pangaea (during whichtime life on earth began); then part of Gondwana, the great southern land, where 300 million years ago, this Australian land-mass was near the south pole and parts of it were covered by ice sheets.Vegetation at that time was made up of seed ferns and other fern-like flora in tundra-like conditions. As the climate began to warm, a more diverse flora evolved, including cycads, gingkos, some of our more recent conifers {Agathis, Araucaria, Podocarpus), ferns, seed ferns, and tree ferns. Warm and wet conditions prevailed as a consequence of the moisture-laden winds blowing in off theembayed sea. Everything was green and lush. Thus began the nutrient depletion of our soils (with all that rain, and with little vulcanisation thereafter for nutrient replenishment).