310



Sydney Porter—Notes from Australia



been out to shoot Duck, in the close season by the way, and had failed

to get any—r so we just shot some ‘ Major Mitchell’s ’ ” (Leadbeater’s

Cockatoos). I asked why. “ Well, we had to shoot something and they

make a rotten noise anyway That is the spirit everywhere in


the Australian bush. Kill it because it’s alive. Of the disgusting

kangaroo hunts, when these wretched animals are chased down at

night by motors and when exhausted are held down by dogs released

from the cars and bludgeoned to death by the “ sportsmen ” I can

still hardly believe that it was Britishers who stooped to such utter

brutality. A wild bird or animal is, to most of the people in the back

blocks, just something to be killed.


Then there are the Italian settlers who are now being allowed in

owing to the Catholic bias of the chief members of the Government.

These people, as in their own country, kill every small bird for food,

and in the districts where they are settled it is almost impossible to

see any kind of bird.


There are also bush fires. There are very few parts of the indigenous

bush or forest that have not seen the fire through it at some time or

other during the “ white ” settlement of the country. Every month

vast areas of forest land are burnt, sometimes inadvertently, often

deliberately. These fires destroy a great number of nesting and also

ground birds as well as destroying the food of the birds in the way of

insects or fruit or seeds. Another important factor in the diminution

of bird fife is erosion, which is only in its initial stages yet but in a few

more years will be a very serious problem in Australia. Owing to over-

grazing by sheep and the senseless cutting down and burning of the

scrub, vast areas are eroding and turning into barren wastes ; enormous

shallow lagoons, once the home of teeming millions of waterfowl, now

look like miniature Saharas. As the vegetation is eaten down by the

sheep, the soil is left uncovered and is thus unable to retain its moisture ;

consequently it dries up, winds whip the baked soil into dust storms,

which in time choke up and destroy the remaining vegetation. In

this way grasses, shrubs, and trees are prevented from re-seeding

themselves. Even in places where the vegetation does manage to re-seed

it is quickly eaten off: by the sheep. It is tragic to see vast areas of dying

vegetation slowly turning to what in a another generation will be utter



