Western Australia :The Artesian Range, The Land that Time Forgot

The land that time forgot


Sunday Night
29 July, 2012
Reporter: Alex Cullen
Producer: Mick O'Donnell


The Artesian Range in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia has been dubbed a ‘land that time forgot’. Its hidden valleys and canyons have remained virtually untouched by modern civilisation, leaving a haven for some of the most fragile of our country’s small mammals.


It’s perhaps the only place in Australia where not one species of mammal has gone extinct since European settlement.


There’s been a catastrophic decline in small mammals across northern Australia in recent decades.


According to independent studies, even in the showcase Kakadu National Park small mammal populations have declined by more than 75% in the last 15 years. Now, the same threat faces the Artesian Range, until now a last-stand refuge for rare creatures like the Golden Bandicoot and Northern Quoll, which have disappeared from Kakadu.


Reporter Alex Cullen travelled to the remote Range with the small, passionate band of conservationists from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy who are helping these animals stave off extinction. Controlled burns, wildlife tagging and monitoring of feral cats are all part of the strategy to keep these vulnerable populations thriving.

AWC chief scientist Dr Sarah Legge showed Cullen the contents of one feral cat’s stomach - seven native animals from one night’s catch. With an approximate two million feral cats loose in Northern Australia, this equates to 14 million native animals killed by feral cats every single night.

The cats often use wildfires as a hunting tool, stalking the outskirts of a fire and pouncing upon native animals as they emerge from the flames. But Legge, AWC chief executive Atticus Fleming and their team are outsmarting the feral animals, using a painstaking system of controlled burns early in the dry season. The small, scattered fires they create leave plenty of cover for the native creatures to evade marauding cats.

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy manages the lost world of the Artesian Range. Click to help or visit AWC’s extraordinary refuges.

Into Oblivion: The key report on the shocking decline of our native mammals in Northern Australia

Where to see the threatened small mammals of the north

Andrew Bolt:The Bolt Report July 29 2012

More from Bolt on the appalling state of Australia's Labor / Green Loon, Socialist, Union GetUp funded minority "Co Party" Government.

2

Previous interview with former Fairfax Radio 2ue host Michael Smith who was dismissed by the network for  speaking on air about Julia Gillard's former paramour and Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson.

I Come From a Land Down Under

The famous Men At Work classic hit song that was the anthem for Alan Bonds Australia 2 successful bid for the 1983 America's Cup, now adopted in this really good Telstra sponsored  commercial supporting the Australian Olympic Team London 2012.

Well Done Telstra.

Give me this any day over that stupid bloody
 "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi,Oi "

Russell Mark refutes Eddie McGuire's "soft porn" smear against wife Lauryn Mark

Controversy becoming too much for Olympic shooter Lauryn Mark

Paul Kent in London
The Daily Telegraph
July 24, 201212:00AM

LAURYN Mark, frustrated and running out of time, broke down after her first practice shoot in London.

It came just hours after she read Eddie McGuire's column accusing her of indulging in "soft porn".

McGuire also criticised husband Russell Mark over his fight with Shooting Australia after he was denied permission to room with his wife during the Games.

Then too many missed shots on the range to top it off, and it all unravelled.

"I'm sorry," a weeping Lauryn said. "Can we do this in 10 minutes?"

She barely got the words out.

Russell Mark refutes McGuire's "soft porn" allegation.

Ten minutes later she was back, apologising, and saying her frustration was the result of the looming Olympic deadline and poor form.

"You can do all the hard work and when things don't go according to plan you start panicking a bit," she said.

She was also dealing with McGuire's comments after she appeared in a bikini spread in this month's Zoo Magazine.

"I wasn't exactly impressed with the article," she said.

"I consider him a person that I have always thought a lot of and I respect his opinion and, probably, most of the Australian public feels the same.

"To have him write and article that didn't depict us in a positive light is a little bit hurtful. I just hope he understands that we do dedicate ourselves a lot to our sport and because we have an opinion or talk about our sport we're not bad people."

Russell Mark is keen to distance himself from the controversy - "I lost that battle, didn't I," he quipped - but also expressed his disappointment with McGuire's comments.

"I'm a bit disappointed in Eddie," he said.

"I really feel sorry for Lauryn. He called her a soft actress or something, that's bit of a low blow."

McGuire wrote: "(Russell Mark's) American-born Olympian wife, Lauryn, posed for the Zoo Magazine in what sounds like a soft-porn photo shoot."

Mark said he was disappointed his argument pointing out gay couples were not prevented from rooming together, yet married couple were, was portrayed as an attack on gay people.

Diver Matthew Mitcham, reigning gold medallist in the 10m platform dive, is Australia's only openly gay Olympic athlete.

"I was very sad that whole issue got thrown up as an anti-gay comment," he said.

"I spoke to Matty Mitcham. I like Matty, because I didn't want him to get the wrong idea.

"It was a gender-based argument, it's not so much that there's many couples here who are gay athletes.

"I didn't mean to offend."

Mark tried to overturn the Australian Olympic Committee's refusal to allow him to room with his wife after they were told rooms were being divided along gender lines.

It also emerged yesterday that after so much damaging debate, Mark's roommate Michael Diamond is yet to arrive in the village, due in next week.

Asked if that allowed Lauryn to stay in his room, Mark laughed and replied: "Michael gets here on the 31st."

Which, it was pointed out, left plenty of nights for Lauryn to stay in his room.

"Michael gets here on the 31st," he laughed again.

I like McGuire but what a low stupid thing to say about Lauryn Mark, I hope she can sue the Arse Clown from here to breakfast time.

If your Gay it's OK if your a Heterosexual Married Couple there is no room at the Olympic Village Inn

Cruel and Unusual Punishment inflicted upon Australian Olympian by the Australian Olympic Committee