7.9
The first Australian scientists classified their environment In this topic, you will learn that:
• Australia is the second driest continent in the world and the driest inhabited continent • despite the harsh climate, Australia is home to hundreds of different organisms • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were the first to identify and access the organisms that are unique to Australia.
The Australian environment
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When Europeans first visited Uluru and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) in the 1870s, they were confronted with a harsh landscape. Their initial aim was to find a route for the overland telegraph line from Adelaide to the Top End and to set up pastures for sheep and cattle grazing. They soon decided that the region was unsuitable and left. However, the traditional owners of the land, the Anangu people, had lived on this land for thousands of years and understood it well. The Anangu people classified their environment to help them navigate and manage country. They use the following names:
> Puli: rocky areas, gorges, stony slopes; animals come to this area to find shelter and water > Puti: open woodland; after the rains, this area has an abundance of grass, which the kangaroos eat, and honey ants build their nests in this area > Pila: spinifex plains, low areas between dunes; this is the best place to gather seeds to eat. Reptiles are particularly suited to the Puli environment. The thorny devil (Ngiyari, pronounced 'Nee-ah-ree'), like all reptiles, uses the environment to regulate its temperature. When it wants to become active, it lies in the Sun; but, when it is too hot outside, it hides in a burrow until the heat has passed.
Figure 1 Puti habitat
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Figure 2 Pila habitat
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD SCIENCE 7: VICTORIAN CURRICULUM No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means.
