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Reviews |
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Green Guide - Dangerous Creatures of Australia Key Guide: Australian Reptiles and Amphibians The Wollemi Pine — the incredible discovery of a living fossil from the age of the dinosaurs |
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The introduction also explains
why injuries from dangerous animals are rare, what sort of injuries animals
inflict and what precautions we can take.
Dangerous Creatures of Australia is then broken up into four sections: large land animals, small land animals, large water animals and small water animals. Each section provides information about specific animals, how they can injure and what to do in case of an injury. There are many interesting anecdotes and dozens of colour photographs.
The book ends with a very useful First Aid Checklist which details what to do in case of envenomation, poisoning, infection, electrocution, rashes, bruising, punctures and lacerations. Descriptions of types of animals which cause each injury are clearly provided and backed up with photos.
The Guide will be a useful book for people who need a small, handy informative guide about recognising, understanding, preventing and if necessary treating injury from the fascinating creatures of Australia which can cause serious injury.
Michelle Johnston
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Key
Guide: Australian Reptiles and Amphibians
Leonard Cronin Envirobook, 2002 rrp $35.00 You’re in the bush. You spot a skink on a log. Eager to identify it, you whip out your reptile book. It’s illustrated with great photos but you find that none offers a precise match with the creature on the log in front of you. You keep flipping through the pages…you look up for a final check. The skink has gone. That’s why a skilfully created drawing or painting can be an infinitely more useful tool for field identification. And that’s where the Key Guide to Australian Reptiles and Amphibians scores high marks. This sixth volume in a series that started with Wildflowers in 1986, contains 198 illustrations specially created by four professional wildlife illustrators. Two of the artists commissioned by Cronin to illustrate the book were Marion Westacott and Barbara Duckworth who run courses in botanical illustration at the Royal Botanic Gardens. “A photogaph can’t eliminate the detail; you get the full picture, the full grayscale. An illustrator can leave things out, emphasise particular things”, Barbara Duckworth said of her craft. Nevertheless she believes that the two genres should complement each other when it comes to illuminating nature. The concept of the Key Guides came to Cronin after he arrived in Australia from England in the 1970s. A biology graduate, he had worked as a journalist and natural history writer before emigrating. Getting to know Australia’s plants and animals was a journey of discovery, Leonard said, “but I found a lack of books on them, especially something that a lay person could understand. That set me on the path of these identification guides. It was a way of satisfying my own needs as much as anything.” Excerpts
from review by Peter Meredith |
The
Wollemi Pine — the incredible discovery of a living fossil from the age
of the dinosaurs
James Woodford
The Text Publishing Company,2000
rrp $19.95
In 1994, exploring a remote canyon in the Wollemi wilderness about 100 kilometres from Sydney, a bushwalker named David Noble stumbled onto a cluster of majestic trees with weird, bubbly bark.
He had discovered a living fossil, a tree believed to have become extinct millions of years ago, the botanical equivalent of a breathing dinosaur.
The Wollemi Pine is (Sydney Morning Herald Environment writer) James Woodford's first book —and it is a great read. The story follows the discovery of the Wollemi Pine, the stories of researchers associated with it, and explains the significance of this amazing discovery.
A very well written book with loads
of photos and maps, I particularly enjoyed reading about the individuals associated
with the Wollemi Pine, many of whom are people well known to NPA and other NSW
conservation groups.
Michelle Johnston
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