The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change

by Iain McCalman

  10. Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 161–62; S. Jones, Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise, London, Little, Brown, 2007, pp. 33–34.

  11. Murray, “Agassiz,” MCZ Bulletin.

  12. Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 167–69.

  13. Agassiz to Haeckel, December 11, 1875, Agassiz Papers, Archives of the Ernst Mayr Library, Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, bAg. 10.10.19; A. Agassiz to Alex Braun, June 6, 1876, Alex Agassiz Letterbooks, Archives of the Ernst Mayr Library, box 45 A, slides 275–78.

  14. Charles Darwin to Alexander Agassiz May 5, 1881, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ed. F. Darwin, 3 vols., London, Murray, 1887, vol. 3, pp. 183–84.

  15. Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 193–95; T. H. Huxley, “Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Realism” (1887) and “An Episcopal Trilogy” (1887), Essays: Science and Christian Tradition, New York, Appleton, 1896, pp. 59–159.

  16. See McCalman, Darwin’s Armada, pp. 78–81; Dobbs, Reef Madness, p. 199.

  17. A. G. Mayor, “Expedition Journal—Around the World: Agassiz Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef,” April 18, April 24–25, 1896 (no pagination), Alfred Goldsborough Mayor Papers, Syracuse University Library, Box 8.

  18. A. Agassiz, “A Visit to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia in the Steamer ‘Croydon,’ during April and May, 1896,” Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. 28, no. 4 (April 1898), pp. 103–104.

  19. Agassiz, “Visit to the Great Barrier Reef,” pp. 123, 143.

  20. Ibid., pp. 132–39; see also, Mayor, “Journal,” May 6, fos. 53–54.

  21. Ibid., p. 143.

  22. G. R. Agassiz, ed., Letters and Recollections of Alexander Agassiz: With a Sketch of His Life and Work, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1913, p. 316; Mayor, “Journal,” May 13–15, fos. 79–80.

  23. December 3, 1897, Agassiz, Letters and Recollections, p. 329; Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 217–20.

  24. Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 220–23; Agassiz to Murray, December 3, 1897, Letters and Recollections, pp. 328–29; Agassiz to Wolcot Gibbs, December 15, 1897, pp. 332–33.

  25. Agassiz to Wolcot Gibbs, December 15, 1987, pp. 344–379, 394; see also, Mayor, “Agassiz,” pp. 442–43.

  26. Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 6–7.

  27. T. C. Mendenhall, “Alfred Goldsborough Mayor,” Science, new series, vol. 56, no. 1442 (Aug. 18, 1922), pp. 198–99.

  28. For a description of Mayor, see C. B. Davenport, “Alfred Goldsborough Mayor,” Memoirs of the National Academy of Science, vol. 21 (1926), p. 3; for Mayor’s description of Agassiz as Bismarck, see Mayor, “Agassiz,” pp. 439–40, 427.

  29. R. S. Woodward, “Alfred Goldsborough Mayor,” Science, vol. 56, no. 1438 (July 21, 1922) p. 68; Mayor quoted in Davenport’s obituary article, “Alfred Goldsborough Mayor,” p. 4.

  30. Mayor, “Journal,” April 25, 1896, Dunk Island (no pagination).

  31. Ibid., May 3, 1896, Turtle Reef, fos. 35–37.

  32. L. D. Stephens and D. R. Calder, Seafaring Scientist: Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, Pioneer in Marine Biology, Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 2006, pp. 6, 12.

  33. Ibid., pp. 12–16.

  34. Mayor was much later, in 1915, to write a paper criticizing this idea, Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, p. 134. For a discussion of this theory from a modern expert, see S. Jones, Coral, p. 56.

  35. Mayor, “Agassiz,” p. 423; Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, pp. 41–42.

  36. P. J. Bowler, The Environmental Sciences, London, Fontana, 1992, pp. 306–10; Mayor, “Agassiz,” p. 427; Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, pp. 60–62.

  37. Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, p. 15.

  38. Davenport, “Mayor,” p. 2.

  39. Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, pp. 56–59.

  40. Quoted in Davenport, “Mayor,” p. 2.

  41. Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, p. 62.

  42. Mayor, “Agassiz,” pp. 419–46.

  43. A. G. Mayor, “An Expedition to the Coral Reefs of the Torres Straits,” Popular Science Monthly, vol. 85 (September 1914), pp. 209–32.

  44. A. G. Mayor, “Ecology of the Murray Island Coral Reef,” Papers from the Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, vol. 9, no. 213 (1918), Washington, DC, pp. 4–8.

  45. Mayor, “Coral Reefs of the Torres Straits,” pp. 214–15; Dobbs, Reef Madness, p. 251.

  46. Mayor, “Ecology of the Murray Island Coral Reef,” p. 29.

  47. Mayor, “Coral Reefs of the Torres Straits,” pp. 212–13.

  48. Mayor, “Ecology of the Murray Island Coral Reef,” p. 28; Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, p. 109.

  49. Stephens and Calder, Seafaring Scientist, p. 144; Davenport, “Mayor,” p. 10.

  50. See S. Jones, Coral, pp. 36–39; Dobbs, Reef Madness, pp. 254–56.

  10. SYMBIOSIS: CAMBRIDGE DONS ON A CORAL CAY

  1. Daily Express, September 3, 1927; Evening News (London), September 3, 1927; Sunday Express, September 4, 1927; Sunday Mail, September 4, 1927; Westminster Gazette, September 13, 1927; Daily Chronicle, September 14, 1927.

  2. C. M. Yonge, A Year on The Great Barrier Reef: The Story of the Corals and the Greatest of Their Creations, London and New York, Putnam, 1930, p. 24. He mentioned having seen depictions of the Barrier Reef through Saville-Kent’s remarkable photographs.

  3. The Times, April 2, 1927; Westminster Independent, September 11, 1927; Westminster Gazette, September 13, 1927.

  4. M. J. Yonge, “Log of Outward Journey to Great Barrier Reef, 28 May 1928–4 July 1928,” Sir Maurice Yonge (1899–1986): Australian and New Zealand papers, National Library of Australia, mfm M2844–2846, p. 50 (my pagination).

  5. Sydney Morning Herald, July 5, 1928, p. 10.

  6. For Mel Ward, see Mel Ward Papers, Australian Museum, AMS 230, Box 12, folder 96, Sunday Times, September 18, 1927, “Theatrical Star as Scientist”; and People, January 17, 1951, “He Knows How to Bake a Snake,” pp. 26–29; M. Murray and J. Roach, “Whitley, Gilbert Percy (1903–1975),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, www.adb.anu.edu.au/biography/whitley-gilbert-percy-12022/text21563, accessed November 15, 2012; on Frank McNeill, information was provided to the author by the reference staff of the Australian Museum.

  7. Sun, July 6, 1928.

  8. H. C. Richards, “Problems of the Great Barrier Reef,” Queensland Geographical Journal, vol. 37 (1922), pp. 42–54; D. Hill, “The Great Barrier Reef Committee, 1922–82: The First Thirty Years,” Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1–4; Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 240–50.

  9. Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, p. 254.

  10. Ibid., p. 250.

  11. S. Elliott Napier, On the Barrier Reef [1928], Sydney and London, Angus and Robertson, 1939 reprint, pp. 1–8. For his tribute to Charles Hedley, see fn. p. 195.

  12. B. E. Brown, “The Legacy of Professor John Stanley Gardiner, FRS, to Reef Science,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, vol. 61 (May 22, 2007), pp. 207–16; quoted in Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, p. 244.

  13. Gardiner’s epistolary machinations can be seen in “Yonge Barrier Reef corres,” Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, and they are also splendidly analyzed in Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 252–58; see also B. Morton, “Charles Maurice Yonge,” Biographical Memoirs of the Royal Society, vol. 38 (1992), pp. 386–89.

  14. Brown, “Legacy of Gardiner,” pp. 207–17; G. Bidder to M. Yonge, July 8, 1927, “Yonge Barrier Reef corres,” Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, E 49.

  15. Charles Maurice Yonge Journal, “Great Barrier Reef Expedition, 1928–29,” Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, fo. 9 and M. J. Yonge Journal, Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, B.4, fo. 2.

  16. C. Barrett, “Science in Shirt Sleeves,” Adelaide Register, August 14, 1928, p. 9. For example, he stressed the potential importance of the collecting work to be done by the Australian Museum scientists, and trumpeted the existing geological achievements of Richards and his colleagues in ha
ving demonstrated the applicability of Darwin’s theory of subsidence to the Reef’s origins.

  17. Yonge, A Year on the Reef, p. 97.

  18. C. Barrett, “Scientists in Wonderland,” Adelaide Register, August 1, 1928, p. 9; “On a Coral Isle: Peering at Barrier Reef Secrets,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 2, 1928, p. 10; “On a Coral Isle: Scientific Research,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 8, 1928, p. 14; “Science in Shirt Sleeves,” p. 9.

  19. Barrett, “Scientists in Wonderland,” p. 9; “Peering,” p. 10.

  20. Yonge, A Year on the Reef, pp. viii, 102.

  21. Barrett, “Peering,” p. 10.

  22. Barrett, “Pastures of the Sea,” Burnie Advocate, August 29, 1928, p. II.

  23. Barrett, “Scientific Research,” p. 14.

  24. Barrett, “On a Coral Isle: Barrier Reef Theories,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 20, 1928, p. 15.

  25. Barrett, “On a Coral Isle: Barrier Reef Fish and Snakes,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 1928, p. 13; “Barrier Reef Theories,” p. 15.

  26. Charles Barrett also published a longer version of his articles, with substantial illustrations, “The Great Barrier Reef and Its Isles: The Wonder and Mystery of Australia’s World-Famous Geographical Feature,” National Geographic Magazine, vol. 58 (1930), pp. 354–84.

  27. C. M. Yonge Journal, Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, Oct. 9, 1928, fo. 55; Yonge, A Year on the Reef, p. 36.

  28. Yonge, A Year on the Reef, pp. 28–30; Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, p. 259.

  29. Brown, “Legacy of Gardiner,” pp. 207–17.

  30. Yonge, A Year on the Reef, pp. 58–59, 109.

  31. See the delightful discussion in Jones, Coral, pp. 95–102; Yonge, A Year on the Reef, pp. 109–10.

  32. Yonge, A Year on the Reef, p. 111.

  33. The work of Tom Goreau, Von Holt and Von Holt, and Muscatine and Cernchiari was especially influential in this revision: see, Brown, “Legacy of Gardiner,” pp. 215–17; Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, p. 282.

  34. Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, p. 282; Jones, Coral, pp. 104–105.

  35. Jones, Coral, p. 105.

  36. R. Love and N. Grasset, “Women Scientists and the Great Barrier Reef: A Historical Perspective,” Search, vol. 15 (October–November, 1984), pp. 285–86; Sir F. Russell, “Sheina Macalister Marshall, 20 April 1896–7 April 1977,” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 24 (1978), pp. 368–89.

  37. C. M. Yonge Journal, Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, June 4, 1929, fo. 122; M. J. Yonge Journal, Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, July 10, 1828, pp. 57–60 (my pagination).

  38. See, for example, Sydney Morning Herald, August 8, 1929, p. 10; August 30, 1929, p. 10; C. M. Yonge, Great Barrier Reef Expedition, Log of Trip to Torres Straits, April–May 1929, July 10, 1828, Sir Maurice Yonge Papers, fos. 1–28; Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 278–79.

  39. Yonge, A Year on the Reef, p. 203.

  40. Ibid., p. 146.

  41. E. M. Embury, The Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Shakespeare Head Press, 1933, p. 19; Anon., “The Embury Story,” Embury scientific and holiday expeditions on the Great Barrier Reef, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, MSS PXA 642/185, pp. 1–2.

  42. Napier, On the Barrier Reef, passim; E. F. Pollock, Expeditions to Great Barrier Reef Islands Off the Queensland Coast, Strathfield, New South Wales, E. F. Pollock, n.d.; Arch Embury to Marion Mahon, March 1981, Embury scientific and holiday expeditions, 187, p. 2; “Members of Lindeman Island Great Barrier Reef Expedition,” Whitsunday Passage, Queensland, December 17, 1928–January 19, 1929, Newcastle, Embury scientific and holiday expeditions, 182; Anon., “The Embury Story,” p. 3.

  43. Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, p. 285.

  44. Anon., “The Embury Story,” p. 3; F. A. McNeill, Newscutting Books, Australian Museum, AN90/72, Book I, Island of Desire,” July 1, 1932; Sun, April 24, 1932; Brisbane Courier, May 16, 1932; “Arch Helped Pioneer Tourism on the Barrier Reef,” Weekend Feature, n.d.; “Rare Coral Looted,” Sun, January 31, 1932; Book 2, “Sydney Scientists and Tourists,” Telegraph, December 6, 1932; “Scientific Party’s Plan,” Sun December 1, 1932; Brisbane Telegraph, December 22, 1932; Herald, February 23, 1933; “The Barrier Reef Should Be Better Protected,” Sun, February 21, 1933; Frank McNeill, “The Story of Coral,” Bank Notes, October 1932; Embury, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 72, 77, 83.

  45. F. A. McNeill, “Newscutting Books,” Book 1, “Lionel G. Wigmore Describes, Mysteries of the Great Barrier Reef,” Sunday Sun and Guardian.

  11. WAR: A POET, A FORESTER, AND AN ARTIST JOIN FORCES

  1. John Busst to Judith Wright, September 2, 1967, John Busst Collection, [JBC] James Cook University, JBC/Corr/13.

  2. P. Clare, The Struggle for the Great Barrier Reef, London, Collins, 1971, pp. 88–92.

  3. J. Wright, The Coral Battleground, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1996, p. 4.

  4. Clare, Struggle, pp. 94–97.

  5. J. Busst to L. W. Webb, October 9 [1967], JBC/Corr/13.

  6. Clare, Struggle, pp. 97–98.

  7. Ibid., pp. 99–104.

  8. See N. Monkman, From Queensland to the Barrier Reef, New York, Doubleday and Co., 1958; and Quest of the Curly Tailed Horses, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1962; Clare, Struggle, pp. 55–74.

  9. R. Carson, The Sea, London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1964, containing The Sea Around Us, Under the Sea-Wind, The Edge of the Sea; R. Carson, Silent Spring, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

  10. “Queensland Littoral Society,” Wildlife, no. 7 (June 1967).

  11. Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 319–21.

  12. Wright, Coral Battlefield, p. 24; J. Busst to the Advocate, n.d. (c. April 1967), JBC/PRS/8.

  13. V. Brady, South of My Days: A Biography of Judith Wright, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1998, pp. 21–27, 189–91; P. Clarke and M. McKinney, With Love and Fury: Selected Letters of Judith Wright, Canberra, National Library of Australia, 2006, p. xi.

  14. Brady, South of My Days, pp. 112–13, 191.

  15. Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Historical Papers. Catalyst for Action: Formation of a Conservation Society, Monograph 1, July 2006, www.wildlife.org.au, accessed November 8, 2012. For the influence of McKinney, Walker, and MacArthur, see Brady, South of My Days, pp. 11–27, 170–86; Emma Dortins, “The Lives of Stories: Making Histories of Aboriginal-Settler Friendship,” pp. 204–50.

  16. Wright, Coral Battleground, p. 1.

  17. J. Wright, “The Builders,” Collected Poems, 1942–85, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1994, p. 45.

  18. J. Wright to Kathleen MacArthur, November 20, 1962; Clarke and McKinney, With Love and Fury, pp. 147–48; Wright, Coral Battleground, p. 3.

  19. G. Tracey, “Len Webb: Pioneer in Ecology of the Rainforests of Australia,” Australian Science Magazine, vol. 4 (1988), p. 66.

  20. Ibid., pp. 66–67.

  21. I. Frazer, “Conservation and Farming in Northern Queensland, 1861–1970,” MA (research), James Cook University, pp. 163–64, eprints.jcu.au/78, accessed August 5, 2012.

  22. Tracey, “Len Webb,” pp. 66–70; Frazer, “Conservation and Farming,” pp. 165–66; Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Historical Papers, Heart and Mind: WPSQ Finding Directions in the 60s, Monograph 2, May 2008, www.wildlife.org.au, accessed November 8, 2012; “John Geoffrey Tracey, The Field Botanist,” in G. Borschmann, The People’s Forest: A Living History of the Australian Bush, Blackheath, NSW, People’s Forest Press, 1999, pp. 219–20.

  23. Frazer, “Conservation and Farming,” p. 163; see also Busst’s retrospective reflections in J. Busst to Len Webb, July 22, 1968, JBC/Corr/6.

  24. B. Roland, The Eye of the Beholder, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1984, pp. 14, 30, 44, 172–73.

  25. Clare, Struggle, p. 89; Roland, Eye of the Beholder, p. 244.

  26. Frazer, “Conservation and Farming,” p. 161; Len Webb to Ali and John Busst, November 8, 1966, JBC/Corr/3.

  27. Frazer, “Conservation and Farming,” pp. 152–53; Clare, Struggle, pp. 89–90.<
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  28. Wright, Coral Battlefield, p. 188; Frazer, “Conservation and Farming,” pp. 169–70; Barry Wain, “The Bingal Bay Bastard,” Nation (May 1, 1971), p. 14.

  29. John Busst to Len Webb, November 12 [1966/7?], JBC/Corr/3; Wright, Coral Battleground, pp. 13, 188–89. This point is also well made in Phoebe Ford’s excellent History IV Hons thesis, “Consilience: Saving the Great Barrier Reef, 1962–1975,” which I was privileged to supervise.

  30. L. Webb, “Notes for an Address to the Students at Kendron Teachers College,” Wildlife, no. 7 (June, 1967); WPSQ Historical Papers, Heart and Mind, p. 2.

  31. J. Wright, Because I Was Invited, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1975, pp. 189–94.

  32. Clare, Struggle, pp. 10–11; Wright, Coral Battlefield, p. 23.

  33. See Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 318–21; W. J. Lines, Patriots: Defending Australia’s Natural Heritage, St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 2006, pp. 146–47; Brady, South of My Days, pp. 242–44, 255–59.

  34. Wright, Coral Battleground, pp. 17–18.

  35. Clare, Struggle, pp. 114–15; Bowen, Great Barrier Reef, pp. 321–23.

  36. J. Busst to Barry Wain, August 3, 1968, JBC/Corr/8; Wright, Coral Battleground, p. 34; Lines, Patriots, pp. 78–80; Wright, Coral Battleground, pp. 20, 65.

  37. Tracey, “Len Webb,” p. 68.

  38. L. Webb and J. W. T. Williams, “Synecology—Cinderella Finds Her Coach,” New Scientist, no. 59 (July 26, 1973), pp. 195–96.

  39. See draft letter of J. Busst to President Lyndon Johnson, February 12, 1968, JBC/Corr/18; J. Busst to J. G. Gorton, March 17, 1969, JBC/Corr/9; November 18, 1969, JBC/Corr/12; March 18, 1971, JBC/Corr/12; J. Busst to Gough Whitlam, August 26, 1968, JBC/Corr/16; January 13, 1969, JBC/Corr/7; June 26, 1969, JBC/Corr/9.

  40. Wright, Collected Poems, pp. 287–88.

  41. Brady, South of My Days, p. 235.

  42. Wright, “Education and Environmental Crisis”; Because I Was Invited, pp. 220–21.

  43. Wright, Coral Battlefield, p. 103; Brady, South of My Days, p. 239.

  44. Judith Wright, “The Quiet Crisis of Our Time,” Outlook, no. 3 (June, 1969), pp. 3–5; Wright, Coral Battlefield, p. 186; Judith Wright, “The Role of Public Opinion in Conservation,” in The Last of Lands: Conservation in Australia, eds. L. J. Webb, D. Whitelock, J. Le Gay Brereton, Milton, Queensland, Jacaranda, 1969, pp. 43–51; Wright, “Science, Value and Meaning,” Because I Was Invited, pp. 196–202.