OUR FLORA AAD ME A AS FOR ITS 
PRESERA ATIO A 
By NOEL LOTHIAN 
(Summary of Annual Address, July 17) 
Of the many subjects which are freely dis- 
cussed today, the question of the preservation 
of our natural vegetation is one which com- 
mands considerable attention. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that even the man in 
the street is now aware that some action 
should be taken to not only preserve our 
native plants per se , but because of the im- 
portant part such plants play in our national 
economy which is best understood by soil 
erosion. Therefore we should give some 
consideration to ways and means of preserv- 
ing our natural vegetation as it stands or. if 
this is not possible, then to the artificial 
preservation of living specimens by culti- 
vating such plants in our gardens. 
It is noteworthy that the first positive 
action to protect our flora was made by a 
member of this Section — Mr. A. F. Robin- 
in a paper on August 21, 1888. This com- 
mencement was made with regard to setting 
aside sanctuaries and reservations while the 
fate of the area now known as National Park 
was still in the balance. In 1881 it was pro- 
posed to sell this Government farm of 
approximately 2,000 acres situated near 
Belair, but fortunately Parliament passed an 
Act in 1883 prohibiting this; while it was 
not until 1891 that some of the early stal- 
warts of this Section whipped up public 
opinion and thus Parliament passed an Act 
forming the National Park. 
The next major reservation to be carried 
out was that on Kangaroo Island. By this 
time the Fauna and Flora Protection Com- 
mittee (of the Field Naturalist Section) was 
determined to have reserved a large portion 
of the west end of the Island. It was not 
until 1919, however, that an Act “to establish 
a reserve on Kangaroo Island” was passed. 
This is one of the few reserves in Australia 
which is entirely free of both rabbits and 
foxes. 
Mr. N. J. McGilp has very clearly stated in 
his outstanding article in the S.A. Natural- 
ist (Vol. 25 Nos. 2 to 4) 1950, the details 
concerning early work which was carried out 
to have these reserves established, the func- 
tions of the various bodies to control the 
reserves and, finally, a list of reserves and 
sanctuaries. These sanctuaries, all of which 
are declared under the Animal and Bird Pro- 
tection Act, are “under the control of the 
Department of Agriculture but there does not 
appear to be any protection of the flora of 
these sanctuaries.” Surely this is a most 
astounding position, for how can an area be 
a bird sanctuary if the natural vegetation 
has been removed? In many instances our 
native birds rely entirely on the native vege- 
tation, therefore while these reserves may 
protect the fauna they do nothing to protect 
the natural vegetation. 
Today there are three main bodies set up 
under various Acts to deal with the protection 
of the flora and fauna. Firstly, we have the 
Flora and Fauna Board of South Australia 
which apparently can deal only with Flinders 
Chase on Kangaroo Island. Then we have 
a Flora and Fauna Advisory Committee which 
is a body set up to give advice to the Govern- 
ment; thev have no financial backing and 
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