My warmest thanks and admiration also go to senior science editor Amanda Moon and the wonderful team at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, including Daniel Gerstle and Laird Gallagher. It is a pure pleasure to work with such clever, professional, and caring people. The marketing and advertising of books and media has become an increasingly complex and demanding process these days, and for expertly managing this side of things I also thank Jeff Seroy.
I owe so much to my longtime research assistant and adviser, Katherine Anderson, who has managed with her usual calm efficiency to give birth both to this book and to a gorgeous baby girl, Corisande.
The writing and research of The Reef has been pursued in tandem with filming and other forms of digital production, with the aim that these media should feed off and fertilize one another. This fusion has been made possible by the friendship and brilliance of Mike Bluett of Northern Dogs Television and Digital. Working with him and learning from him has been one of the most energizing experiences of my late academic career. Among other things he has convinced me that digital and written histories can, and must, learn to work together in a creative symbiosis.
Around us we also gathered a splendid team of digital experts and friends: Sam Wilson, film editor; James Stewart, sound engineer; Dean Miller, cameraman; and Andrew McCalman on video and stills, as well as Keren Moran and Noa Peer, Web creators extraordinaire of the Sydney digital company Spring in Alaska.
Our visits to Reef sites in order to film introduced us to a range of special individuals for whom working to protect the Reef and its peoples remains urgent, unfinished business. Here I would like particularly to mention Alberta Hornsby, a Guugu Yimithirr knowledge custodian of Hopevale and Cooktown, and a historian of great passion, sagacity, and balance. I am deeply in her debt. At Dunk Island we were inspired by the local knowledge of a longtime island inhabitant and nature lover, Susi Kirk, an inheritor of the mantle of Ted Banfield if ever there was one. At Lockhart River we were treated with extraordinary generosity: Paul Piva loaned us one of his four-wheel-drive vehicles and refused to take payment, while Wayne Butcher, the energetic mayor and community leader, provided us with a boat and his scarce gas supply, and then gave his Uutaalnganu-descended staff time off from work to talk with us about their ancestor Anco and the days when their community still lived in their Sandbeach country near Night Island.
An early visit to Rivendell, the home of coral scientists John “Charlie” Veron and Mary Stafford-Smith, introduced me to Charlie’s incredible life and work; and he later also entrusted me with a moving private memoir written for his children. This began a relationship that has given vital shape and purpose to my book, though he is not to blame for my mistakes. The Great Barrier Reef and our planet owe these two public-spirited scientists an incalculable debt.
If one is lucky universities can provide supportive and inspirational environments of a different kind. Friendships and informal conversations with colleagues at Sydney and other universities have been more sustaining than these scholars can know. Here I would particularly like to thank Shane White, Mike McDonnell, David Schlosberg, Alison Bashford, Mark McKenna, Jodi Frawley, Julia Horne, Duncan Ivison, Kirsten McKenzie, Jude Philp, Leah Lui-Chivezhe, Michael Davis, Clare Corbould, Ann Curthoys, John Docker, Barbara Caine, Leigh Boucher, Nicholas Thomas, Jim Chandler, John Barrell, Harriet Guest, Jon Mee, Libby Robin, and my special fount of science knowledge, Lachlan McCalman.
The actual funding to enable research for this book and its associated digital productions came through the generosity of the Australian Research Council, whose Linkage grant also brought me into collaboration with Michael Westaway of the Queensland Museum and with my old friends Michael Crayford and Nigel Erskine of the Australian National Maritime Museum. Crucially it also cemented a collaborative partnership with John Mullen, director of Silentworld Foundation, and his wife, Jackie, which has ripened into a warm friendship. John’s knowledge of and passion for early Australian maritime history, as well as for archaeological diving in sometimes perilous circumstances, and for collecting, preserving, and displaying vital objects of Australian heritage stands as a salutary example to historical and museum professionals everywhere.
As usual I have depended on the generosity and expertise of librarians and archivists for my intellectual infrastructure of manuscripts and illustrations. I would like to thank the Fisher Library, University of Sydney; the National Library of Australia; the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales; the Australian Museum, Sydney; the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; the Royal Historical Society of Queensland; the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland; the Fryer Library, University of Queensland; the James Cook University Library; the Griffith University Library; the Australian National Maritime Museum; the Archives of the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; the Australian Marine Conservation Society; the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland; and the Library of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville.
Finally I would like to acknowledge my intellectual debts to those historians on whose work I have depended. We all stand on the shoulders of our predecessors and none more so than me. The late James and Margarita Bowen are the great pioneers of Barrier Reef history, and I have followed in their wake. Bill Gammage’s extraordinary new book The Biggest Estate on Earth taught me to understand Indigenous ecologies in wholly new ways. Reading Stephanie Anderson’s wonderful translation and study of the life of Narcisse Pelletier—enriched by the anthropological expertise of Athol Chase—was how I came to know about Anco, the most fascinating Reef castaway of all. I thank Stephanie for her generosity in sharing her knowledge and insight with me.
Likewise I could not have written about early Australian marine and maritime history without the writings of Alan Frost and John Gascoigne; about James Cook and Joseph Banks without the great texts of J. C. Beaglehole; about Eliza Fraser without Kay Schaffer and Jim Davidson; about Barbara Thompson without Ray Warren’s research and D. R. Moore’s marvelous transcripts and anthropological analyses; about William Saville-Kent without the research of A. J. Harrison, Kate Summerscale, and Noreen Kyle; and about Alex Agassiz and Alfred Mayor without the prior works of D. Dobbs, L. D. Stephens, and D. R. Calder. Phoebe Ford located, copied, and provided me with valuable documents from the Busst papers; and Emma Dortins allowed me to quote from her recent PhD thesis, which contains important original information on the castaway James Morrill.
My grasp of the science and ecology of coral reefs and corals—such as it is—would have been far worse without Charlie Veron’s brilliant A Reef in Time, and the sparkling wit and erudition of the University College London geneticist and science writer Steve Jones. And nobody can write about northern Australian Aboriginal history without immersing themselves in the writings of Henry Reynolds, or hope to understand the early history and culture of the Torres Strait without the work of Jeremy Beckett. My thanks to you all.
INDEX
The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
“GBR” refers to the Great Barrier Reef.
Aberdeen
Aborigines: agriculture by; alleged cannibalism of; art by; Banfield and; contemporary; conversion of; Cook and; displacement of; Europeans adopted by; Europeans aided by; Europeans captured by; Europeans in conflict with; Europeans’ friendships with; Europeans’ impressions of; Europeans passing as; Europeans’ reconciliation with; Flinders and; food and; Fraser and; GBR and; genocide of; history and; Jukes and; as laborers for Europeans; rights to land and sea of; shelters of; slander of; stewardship of nature by; Torres Strait Islanders and; trade and; water collection by; Wright on; see also indigenous peoples; Torres Strait Islanders; specific clans
Abridge
Abrolhos Reefs
Aburda
<
br /> ACF (Australian Conservation Foundation)
acidification
Acropora
Actiniaria
Adams, James
Adolphus Island
adoption, of Europeans by indigenous people
“Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, The”
Advocate
Agassiz, Alex; background of; character of; Darwin and; father of; in GBR; legacy of; Mayor and; successor of; theory of; wealth of; wife of
Agassiz, Cecile
Agassiz, Louis
Age of the Anthropocene
agriculture
AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science)
Albany Passage
alcohol
Alcyonaria
Alfred Hospital
algae; symbiosis with coral
Allan, Joyce
Allen, John
Allen, W. H.
America
Amglo, see Pelletier, Narcisse
Ampol
Anco, see Pelletier, Narcisse
Anderson, Stephanie
Andrews, Ernest
anemones
Anglican mission
Animals and Bird Act of 1921
animals: eating of, see fishing; hunting; diversity of, see biodiversity; see also specific animals
anthropology, race and; see also Aborigines; indigenous peoples; Torres Strait Islanders
aquariums
Ararat
Argyll, Duke of
Arnold, Matthew
arrow worms
art; science and; see also artists aboard ships; photography
artificial cultivation: of oysters; of pearls
artists aboard ships
artists’ colonies
astraea
Atarrka
Attenborough, David
Aureed Island
Australia; centennials of; circumnavigation of; England’s claiming of; fabrications about; GBR’s ownership and; naming of; questioning history of; zoology in
Australian bee-eater
Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time
Australian Imperial Force
Australian Institute of Marine Science
Australian Museum
Australian Seashores (Bennett et al.)
Australian, The
Authentic and Faithful History of the Mysterious Murder of Maria Marten (Curtis)
Back, Ken
Badtjala
Badu Island
Badu people
Bage, Freda
Baily
Baki
Balfour Fellowship
Ballantyne, R. M.
Bama
Bandjin clan
Banfield, Bertha Golding passim; background of; health of; philosophy of
Banfield, Edmund James “Ted”; Aborigines and; background of; as beachcomber; books by; Dunk Island settled by; first Dunk Island visit by; health of; as imperialist; inspiration for; land owned by; legacy of; money and; newspaper career of; in Townsville
Banfield, Eliza
Banfield, Harry
Banfield, Jabez Walter
Banks, Joseph passim; coral and; Flinders and; foraging by
Barker College
Barrett, Charles
Barrier Reef lagoons
barrier reefs, naming of; see also reef formation; reefs
Barrow, John
Bath
Battery Point
Batt Reef
Bauer, Ferdinand
Baxter, John
Bayley, William
beachcombers
Beagle (ship)
Beaglehole, J. C.
bêche-de-mer
Bedarra Island
bee-eaters
bees
Belidi
Bell, Hugh
Bendigo
Bennett, Elizabeth
Bennett, Isobel “Issie”
Berlin
Bernard, Henry
Bicton
Big Shadow (boat)
Bindal clan
Bingil Bay
biodiversity; of coral; of reefs; regional
birds: Dunk Island sanctuary for; on Hayman; hunting for; oil spills and
Birri-Gubba language
Bjelke-Peterson, Joh
Blackman, Barbara
Blackwood, Francis
Blake, Chris
bleaching, of corals
Bligh, William
Blue Lagoon, The (Stacpoole)
Bluett, Mike
Boardman, Bill
body modification
bommies
Bongaree
Booby Island
boomerangs
boree
Boroto
Botany Bay
Bounty (ship)
Bournemouth Natural Science Society
Bowen
Bowen, George
Bowen, James
Bowen, Margarita
Boydang Island
Bramble
Brammo Bay passim; naming of
Breaksea Spit
Brierly, Oswald; background of; drawings by; interviews by; language and; post-Rattlesnake life of
Brisbane
Brisbane Courier
bristle worms
British-Aboriginal resource wars; see also Aborigines: Europeans in conflict with; Aborigines: rights to land and sea of
British Admiralty
British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Empire: Australia claimed for; trade in; see also Aborigines: displacement of
British India and Australian Steam Navigation Company
British Museum
British Reef Committee
Broad Sound
Broca, Paul
Brocken
Brockett, William
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences
Brown, Charles
Brown, Robert
brown-winged tern
Buchanan, Gwynneth
Bungaree
bungwa root
Bunker Island
Burdekin river region
Burdon-Jones, Cyril
Burke, Edmund
Burstall, Tim
Busst, Alison “Ali”
Busst, John passim; background of; Ellison Reef and; friendship with Webb and Wright of; marine park and; petroleum industry and; trade unions and;
Bustard Bay
Butcher, Wayne
butterflies
button industry
By Land and Sea I Leave Ephemeral Spirit (Foley)
Cairncross Islets
Cairns Argus
Cambridge expedition; Aboriginal servants for; background to; boat party of; cost of; difficulties of; equipment for; gender and; physiological group of; publications of; publicity for; shore party of; symbiosis and
Cambridge Gulf
Cambridge Review
Camm, Ronald
Campbell, W. D.
cannibalism, alleged
Cape Cleveland
Cape Direction
Cape Flattery
Cape Grafton
Cape Grenville
Cape Keppel
Cape Pallarenda
Cape Sidmouth
Cape Tribulation
Cape Upstart
Cape York
Capricornia group
carbonate rock
carbon dioxide
Cardwell
Carisbrook Castle (ship)
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Carr, William
Carson, Rachel
Cary, Liz
Cave of Falling Stars
Cave of Swiftlets
cays, formation of
Central Indo-Pacific
Challenger (ship)
Charles Eaton (ship); public response to
Charlie
Chase, Athol
China
China Navigation Company
; Chisholm, Alec
chromolithography
Church of England
clams, giant
Clare, Patricia
Clarke, Dodd
climate change: effects on reefs of; fatalism toward; reef formation and
Clipperton Atoll
Clump Point
Cnidaria
Cocos atolls
Coffs Harbor
Colahan, Colin
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Collaroy
Collins, Mrs.
colonialism: tactics of; see also under Aborigines; British Empire
Colonial Office
commensalism, see symbiosis
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
communalism
community ecology
computer modeling
Confessions of a Beachcomber, The (Banfield); publication of
Congress of Entomology
Congress of the Australian Advancement of Science
Connolly family
“Conservation as a Concept” (Wright)
conservationists; ecology and; Ellison Reef campaign of; extinction and; public opinion of; stewardship ethic of; successes of; tourism and
Coobee Cotanyou
Cook Islands
Cook, James; Aborigines and; background of; dilemma of; Flinders’ rivalry with; ignorance of; mapping by; marooning of; mission of; popularization of; reef navigated by; reenactment of voyage of
Cook’s Look
Cooktown
Coonanglebah
cooperation
Coote, Gillian
copepods
Coral Battlefield (Wright)
Coral Geographic
Coral Island, The (Ballantyne)
coral islands, see corals; islands; specific islands
Corallian Sea
coralline limestone
Coral Reef Symposium
corals: age of; algae and; Banfield on; beauty of; bleaching of; continua of; Darwin on; death of; deep drilling of; diversity of; energy for; Flinders on; growth rates of; Jukes on; living; photography of; polyps of; reef building by, see reef formation; Saville-Kent on; scientific priorities for study of; sediment and; spawning by; taxonomy of; temperature and; tropical; Veron on; see also reefs
Coral Sea
Corals in Space and Time (Veron)
Corals of the World (Veron)
Coral Triangle
Corder, William
Cornell University
Corralis, Joseph
Country Party
Courier, The
The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change Page 38