AUSTRALIA 



Australia, with its nearly 3,000,000 square miles of territory and 

 its extraordinary fauna and flora, has offered some very interesting 

 problems to the economic entomologist. During the early part of the 

 last century when the extraordinary character of the animals and 

 plants inhabiting Australia began to be appreciated, many collections 

 of different kinds were made there and among them very many 

 insects were sent over to the British Museum and elsewhere, and 

 may thousands of species were described. 



With the introduction from the older countries of many crops, and 

 with the spread of agriculture, beginning seriously after the gold 

 excitements of the middle of the last century, farmers necessarily 

 began to turn their attention to crop pests. Strange things happened 

 in Australia with introduced forms. Wild horses, for example, in- 

 creased to such extent as to become a pest. The domestic rabbit did 

 the same. Plants introduced for ornamental purposes went wild and 

 multiplied in such a way as to become disastrous. Certain introduced 

 insects did the same. The different States, or colonies, with their 

 independent organizations, handled their own questions through their 

 own experts for many years. 



With the joining together of the States, however, in the Common- 

 wealth of Australia, with its newly constructed capital at Canberra 

 and its centralization of government which will rapidly spread out 

 into other than political directions, a sound plan has been devised for 

 agricultural research and a most competent entomologist, Dr. R. J. 

 Tillyard, has been appointed. He has a large and well trained staff and 

 admirable results are sure to come from this organization. 



The story of how applied entomology grew in the different States 

 is not a very long one, but it is far from devoid of interest. The 

 important questions of quarantine were, of course, handled indepen- 

 dently by the different States. As early as 1892 a plea for general 

 protection was published by Thompson, of Tasmania. His State had 

 already begun operating under partial protective legislation, the so- 

 called Codling Moth Act of 1887. This act was repealed the following- 

 year and replaced by the so-called Codling Moth Amendment Acts. 

 Finally, in 1898 the Tasmanian Government passed "An Act to 

 Prevent the Introduction into Tasmania of Diseases, Insect, Fungus, 

 and Other Pests Affecting Vegetation." The spread of the so-called 

 Queensland fruit-fly and of the San Jose scale were the principal 

 incentives. 



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