TRAVEL TUESDAY 570 - TUVALU

“Climate change is the greatest threat to our existence in our short history on this planet. Nobody’s going to buy their way out of its effects.” Mark Ruffalo

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us.

Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only. Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Tuvalu is an independent South Pacific island nation located roughly midway between Hawaii and Australia, widely known as one of the smallest and most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Spanning just 26 square kilometres of total land area across three reef islands and six coral atolls, it is the world's fourth-smallest sovereign state and houses a population of roughly 11,500 people.

Most of the nation sits a mere 2 to 4 metres above sea level, leaving it completely devoid of rivers or lakes. Fresh water is obtained exclusively through rain catchment systems and wells. Because of its low elevation, Tuvalu faces an existential threat from rising sea levels. Estimates suggest that flooding and storm surges could cost the nation upwards of US$34 million annually by 2050. The government has already formulated digital and physical preservation plans, alongside migration pathways, should the islands become entirely uninhabitable.

Tuvalu achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1978. It operates as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, recognising King Charles III as its head of state. In a landmark treaty ratified with Australia, the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union commits Australia to providing security and disaster relief. Crucially, it features a special mobility pathway granting up to 280 permanent resident visas annually for Tuvalu citizens to relocate to Australia as climate refugees.

Tuvalu has one of the smallest economies globally. It relies heavily on international development aid, fishing licences, remittances from seafarers working abroad, and the licensing of its lucrative .tv internet domain extension. The Australian Dollar (AUD) is the official legal tender alongside local Tuvaluan coins. The local population is primarily of Polynesian descent, speaking both Tuvaluan and English.

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VALE, JANE GOODALL

“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.” - William Inge

This week, the New What’s Up blog commemorates the life and death of Jane Goodall, a primatologist and anthropologist who dedicated her life to studying primates and advocating conservation and climate action. Here is my offering.

Talk to the Animals

To treat each living thing
As if your life depends on it
Is a hard task, and few of us
Try to live by such a rule
And hope to succeed.

Living, respecting nature,
Trying to leave this world
A better place than what you found,
Is a life-long commitment
And one peppered with failures.

To live your life in harmony
With what’s around you:
Trees, animals, lakes, streams,
Sea, fish, air and earth,
Is a momentous undertaking.

Yet, so many amongst us
Venture forth and dedicate
Their life to doing good,
Saving the bounty given us
With utmost care and stewardship.

Thank those angels on earth,
Who came and tried to save us:
Jane, David, Jacques, Ralph,
Chief Seattle, Theodore, Wangari,
Rachel, Chico, Margaret…

Talk to the animals and learn,
To do what comes naturally,
No waste, no undue harm,
No ravaging of earth’s resources,
A web of life, perpetuating life...

TRAVEL TUESDAY 481 - AJANTA CAVES, INDIA

“Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.” - The Buddha

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. Ajanta Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, the caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form.

The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the second century BCE and the second occurring from 400 to 650 CE, according to older accounts, or in a brief period of 460–480 CE according to later scholarship. The Ajanta Caves constitute ancient monasteries (Viharas) and worship-halls (Chaityas) of different Buddhist traditions carved into a 75-metre wall of rock.

The caves also present paintings depicting the past lives and rebirths of the Buddha, pictorial tales from Aryasura's Jatakamala, and rock-cut sculptures of Buddhist deities. Textual records suggest that these caves served as a monsoon retreat for monks, as well as a resting site for merchants and pilgrims in ancient India. While vivid colours and mural wall paintings were abundant in Indian history as evidenced by historical records, Caves 1, 2, 16 and 17 of Ajanta form the largest corpus of surviving ancient Indian wall-paintings.

Shown in the photo above is the interior of Ajanta chaitya hall, in Cave 26. The inscriptions include a vision statement and the aim to make: “A memorial on the mountain that will endure for as long as the moon and the sun continue to shine.” The sculptures in Cave 26 are elaborate and more intricate than those in other caves. It is among the last caves excavated, and an inscription suggests it was built in the late 5th or early 6th century.

The Ajanta Caves are threatened by a number of factors, including water damage, biological effects, and human activity. These factors have caused significant deterioration to the cave paintings and sculptures, and have compromised structural integrity of the caves.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 201 - WILSONS PROM, AUSTRALIA

“Wilderness is a necessity there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls.” - John Muir 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Wilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland and is located in the state of Victoria. South Point at 39°08′06″S 146°22′32″E is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence also the southernmost tip of mainland Australia. Located at nearby South East Point, (39°07′S 146°a25′E) is the Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse. Most of the peninsula is protected by the Wilsons Promontory National Park and the Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park.

The first European to see the promontory was George Bass in January 1798. He initially referred to it as “Furneaux's Land” in his diary, believing it to be what Captain Furneaux had previously seen. But on returning to Port Jackson and consulting Matthew Flinders he was convinced that the location was so different it could not be that land. Bass and Flinders recommended the name Wilsons Promontory to Governor Hunter, honouring Flinders’s friend from London Thomas Wilson. Little is known of Wilson except that he was a merchant engaged in trade with Australia.

The promontory has been a national park, to one degree or another, since 1898. Wilsons Promontory National Park, also known locally as “the Prom”, contains the largest coastal wilderness area in Victoria. The site was closed to the public during World War II, as it was used as a commando training ground. The only settlement within Wilsons Promontory is Tidal River which lies 30 kilometres south of the park boundary and is the focus for tourism and recreation. This park is managed by Parks Victoria.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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POETS UNITED - NEUTRALITY

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” - Dante Alighieri

The mid-week motif at Poets United this week is “Neutrality/Objectivity”. The challenge is to: “Create a new poem that explores one instance of neutrality or objectivity. Try NOT to be either neutral or objective.”

Here is mine:

The Sick Planet

No sense in sitting on the fence,

On this issue, nobody should be neutral.

The earth has need of us, now – 

There’s no time left to postpone decisions

That already should have been made.

No point in talking of superficial changes,

Shallow beautification is not the target;

Applying stop-gap measures, blindly

Will only cause problems to escalate.

Rebirth needs effort, pain and many sacrifices.

Let our inspiration be a new world

Rid of its poisons by audacious strategies.

Let the cathartic processes be drastic, let us renew,

Revive nature, rejuvenate the ailing planet,

Let’s give our children back their future.

ART SUNDAY - HUNDERTWASSER

“Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson

The eccentric and playfully self-advertising Viennese artist known as Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born as Friedrich Stowasser on 15 December 1928. He did not assume his nom d’artiste until 1949 (‘sto’ meaning ‘one hundred’ in Slavic languages and ‘Wasser”’ meaning ‘water’). Even in adolescence Stowasser brought home reports from school attesting to his “exceptional feeling for colour and form”.

After taking the examinations qualifying for university entrance, Hundertwasser spent three months at the Viennese Art Academy studying under Professor Robin Christian Andersen. Hundertwasser was, however, more indebted to the work of Egon Schiele and Walter Kampmann, which he saw at their exhibitions, than to the brief period of academic instruction.

Hundertwasser travelled extensively in Italy, where he met René Brô, whom he accompanied to Paris. Hundertwasser had thought of continuing formal training at the École des Beaux-Arts but spent only one day at that institution. Instead he found the numerous and adventurous trips he took to Morocco, Tunisia, Nepal, Tokyo and Siberia inspirational for the path he intended to follow. Taking Viennese Jugendstil as his point of departure, Hundertwasser developed an abstract, decorative, two-dimensional and vibrantly colourful, utterly distinctive style distinguished by ornamental spiral and labyrinth forms, circles, meanders and biomorphic shapes.

During the 1960s Friedensreich Hundertwasser was extremely successful, with a 1962 retrospective in the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale and a 1964 retrospective mounted by the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover. In addition, the first comprehensive catalogue of his œuvre was published.

Active in the ecological movement, Hundertwasser was committed to making life liveable in a humane environment that was close to nature. He furthered his aims by issuing manifestos and making provocative public appearances, for instance giving a speech in the nude (1968) in Vienna. Between 1968 and 1972 Hundertwasser re-hauled the old sailing vessel ‘San Giuseppe’ at docks in the Venice lagoon, rechristened it ‘Regentag’ [‘Rainy Day’], and going to see in it several times.

So versatile and prolific was Hundertwasser that he also designed coins and stamps for Austria, Senegal and the UN from the 1970s. Moreover, Hunderwasser was the first European artist to have work carved by Japanese master carvers. In 1981 Hundertwasser was appointed head of the master classes for painting at the Viennese Art Academy. The famous Hundertwasser House in Vienna, begun in 1983, attests to Hunderwasser’s skill as an architect. The year before he died, Hundertwasser was working on a catalogue raisonné of his works and presented the Uelzen Station architectural project. Friedensreich Hundertwasser died on a cruise ship off New Zealand in 2000.

The painting above is “Columbus Landed in India”. Signed Friedensreich and numbered 687. Painted at La Picaudière, May 5 - Seeshaupt, May 25 - Venice, Giudecca, July 2 1969. Mixed media: Egg tempera, wax, oil and water colour on paper, primed with chalk and PV (polivenil); mounted on hemp with PV (polivenil) 81 x 111 cm. The painting was sold for 3,932,247 Swedish Kroner (≈$605,000 AUD) at auction. The painting shows the brilliant colours and intricate interlocking shapes characteristic of the artist, as well as the appearance of a spectral face often found in Hundertwasser’s works.

HYDROECONOMICS

“And the hooded clouds, like friars, Tell their beads in drops of rain.” - HenryWadsworth Longfellow

How wonderful it is to lie in bed and hear the sound of rain falling on the roof, listen to the gurgling of the water as it runs down the gutters and the sound of cars on the wet streets. One is grateful and the mind turns to places affected by drought, California for example. Australia is often affected by severe droughts and we sympathise with our cousins across the great ditch…

We live on a planet whose surface is largely water, with 71% of it covered by water. However, this water is largely unusable because of its high solute content. Water locked away as ice in the polar regions is fresh, but inaccessible.  Lakes and rivers are becoming increasingly polluted and climate change in many cases reduces their water capacity, with water levels decreasing. Rain falls torrentially in some parts of the world, causing floods and destruction, with little possibility of long-term storage and alarm bells are ringing in many temperate regions where rain is becoming scarcer and scarcer.

Desalination of seawater has been suggested as a possible way of ensuring a reliable, and potentially limitless, fresh water supply for our major urban centres, many of which are coastal. Desalination is already operating in some countries and is providing water, although at a cost! The Middle East Desalination Research Centre, which is located in Muscat (Sultanate of Oman), was conceived out of the Middle East Multilateral Peace Process as an international organisation, which is dedicated to research in desalination technology. As water resources in the region are already under stress and future population and economic growth will require an increased supply, the Centre will seek to bring together scientists, engineers, water policy-makers and water system operators in the Middle East/North Africa region to work on areas of research that will reduce the cost of desalination. The economy of the Middle East is tied to desalination of seawater and brackish ground water.

Another way that can be used to generate fresh water is based on the principle of condensing water from humid air. This technology is already in use in small scale and machines are available for use in the home to produce drinking water directly from the air. To scale up this process is another suggestion for resolving our fresh water supply problems. Cost-effectiveness is the real limiting factor in this process and unless one has access to a cheap, renewable supply of energy, the process becomes too expensive in order to be scaled up. The use of nuclear power to run desalination and condensation plants has various attendant difficulties and raises a host of concerns.

Other ways of ensuring reliable fresh water supplies for big urban centres have been proposed, including increasing use of recycled water from waste water, building larger reservoirs in water catchment areas, better utilisation of groundwater and aquifers and also building urban water supplies that are more water efficient and allow recycling of grey water in applications that would allow its safe use (flushing toilets, watering parks and gardens, some industrial uses).

In any case, increasing public awareness of climate change, water shortages, green-efficient solutions, recycling and cognisance of the importance of reducing waste will help in more effective use of our precious resources.

My word for this Thursday is a neologism that describes what will become an increasingly major issue around the world:
Hydroeconomics |ˈhīdrōˌekəˈnämiks| (noun, pl.)

The study of the physical, cultural, political, and financial aspects of human interaction with the water cycle. The study of hydroeconomics will attract more interest in the near future as human populations find it necessary to make more efficient use of our dwindling fresh water supplies.

POETS UNITED - SUSTAINABILITY

“We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we resent a life we’ve created ourselves? Who’s to blame, who’s to credit but us? Who can change it, anytime we wish, but us?” - Richard Bach

Poets United has set a midweek motif that centres on “sustainability”. Is there a poet out there in this world who is not sensitive to this topic? I know that personally, it concerns me greatly. Here is my poem:

The Extraterrestrial

I come to you in peace,

My star so far away,

A pinpoint of light

In your night sky.

I come to your distant world

And find myself in paradise.

I’ve travelled long and far,

Away from the dry deserts

Of my homeland –

An arid planet, red and barren

Where water’s most precious

And wars are fought over a single well.

Your blue-green world

Hanging in space

Like a gemstone, beckoned,

And I came, succumbing

To its gentle insistence

Like a lover’s gaze.

I come to you in peace,

And seek only repose,

The luxury of drinking my fill,

Eating the lush vegetation

With my wide open eyes,

Never sated by the verdant green.

Your oceans brimming with life

Remind me of our distant past –

As our history writes –

When we too inhabited such a world:

Blue-green, drenched, bedewed,

Immersed in crystal waters.

Your forests, drinking the rain

That falls so regularly,

Are priceless beyond compare.

The flowers costlier than jewels bright –

What use to us are our diamonds,

Common as pebbles on my world?

And yet I see vast deserts, here,

I see the rainforests cut, extinction,

Your oceans polluted, animals dying.

The signs are here that you too

Have set a course that will make

Your earth a world like mine.

I come to you in peace,

And seek only a brief respite.

I bring a message from Hell

To your blue-green Eden:

Time runs short, destruction’s close
Unless you become wise, soon…

POETS UNITED - WEEDS

“If you spend time alone in the wilderness, you get very attuned to living things.” - George Dyson

Poets United this week is devoted to the topic of "weeds". This is a topic that I have a very soft spot for, as I believe that all plants wild or cultivated, hybrid or common, garden-sown or wilderness-grown have a place in our life and can all contribute positively to our existence.

Many of the so-called “weeds” are useful and valuable plants in their own right – we have just lost the knowledge, experience and sagacity to use them appropriately. See my previous blog post on this topic here.

My poem this week:


The Weed

Behold the orchid, a precious hybrid,

Resplendent in its baroque beauty

Dazzling in its polychrome coloration,

Rare, charming and elegant,

A most perfect flower…

My own floret, humble,

Insignificant by comparison

Most likely to be trodden on,

As it will often pass unnoticed,

Or treated with contempt, if seen.

The rose, pure bred and sleek,

A proud, fragrant blood-red bloom

Rising tall from glistening green leaves,

The epitome of refined grace,

Admired and desired.

My leaves a dusty green,

And my habit recumbent;

My smell oddly singular:

To a few pleasing, perhaps,

To others mildly unpleasant.

Look at the lily, wan and lofty,

In the greenhouse raised

And cosseted lovingly

By nurseryman’s tender,

Unending ministrations…

My own existence haphazard,

Yet hardy, tenacious in waste places;

I grow and self-seed and persist –

For those who get to know me,

I am a plant most useful, indispensable.

LITERARY TUESDAY - WATERSHIP DOWN

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” - W. Edwards Deming

Australia has had a perennial problem with rabbits ever since these exotic animals were introduced to our country by Englishman Thomas Austin in October 1859 on his property, Barwon Park (near Winchelsea in Victoria) for hunting. While he was a resident in England Austin dedicated many of his weekends to rabbit shooting. Upon arriving in Australia, which had no native rabbit population, Austin asked his nephew in England to send him 24 grey rabbits, five hares, 72 partridges and some sparrows so that he could continue his hobby in Australia by creating a local population of the species.

Rabbits are extremely prolific breeders, and spread rapidly across the southern parts of the continent. Australia had ideal conditions for a rabbit population explosion, reaching plague proportions in the early 20th century and devastating the local terrain, competing effectively with local species and causing widespread crop damage. That said, it is not surprising that most Australians do not regard rabbits with a great deal of sympathy.

Having said this, I am now going to talk about a book that has rabbits as its heroes and one of the enemies of the population described in the book is myxomatosis, the terrible viral disease that was introduced into Australia to curtail the rabbit population. The book is Richard Adams’ “Watership Down”. You may think that I am talking about a children’s book all about fluffy bunnies running around being cute, à-la-Beatrix Potter. However, this is very much a book that has a definite message and is directed as much towards adults as well as children, having several levels on which it can be engaged.

The rabbit is an animal well-beloved of children and many adults in Europe, and the English countryside in which the novel is set provides a perfect foil for this story. Adams in an interview once, described how he created rabbit stories to entertain his children, and from these stories, his novel was born. The author was a civil servant with the British Department of the Environment, and he was greatly interested in nature and concerned about environmental issues. These concerns are strongly apparent in the book, which tells the story of a group of rabbits who are forced from their home by a real estate development.

Adams wrote the novel unaware of the conventions of length, age range, level of difficulty and acceptable subject matter in the genre of juvenile publishing at that time. It was rejected by publishing houses seven times – the world of children’s book publishing was not prepared for a book of such originality and unconventional plot. It was first published by the small publishing firm of Rex Collings, who admired the manuscript because it did not fit the formula. Although only published in a first edition of 2,500 in 1972, it was initially hailed as a children’s classic and progressed to large sales.

When the book was published in the USA, it became an adult and world-wide bestseller, selling over a million copies in record time. In 1985 Penguin Books declared it second in their list of all time bestsellers with sales figures of 5 million, second only to “Animal Farm”, but ahead of “The Canterbury Tales” and “The Odyssey”. It transformed the way people regarded rabbits (“cuddly bunnies”), by presenting them as heroic warriors who fought savagely for dominance, and who were described with a degree of biological realism unheard of in children’s fiction. The animals defaecated (“passed hraka”), sought mates and conceived young. Even the rabbit equivalent of a miscarriage, the reabsorption of young, is described in the book.

In the 1970s there were violent riots and protests in the UK when myxomatosis, an almost always fatal and painful disease, was introduced to the English countryside to cull the number of rabbits, which farmers said were a pest to their crops. The disease is particularly inhumane as it causes an agonising blindness and dissolves parts of the brain and other organs and causes all manner of secondary effects, including pneumonia. All future re-introductions were banned when some of the ‘exterminators’ were killed by animal rights activists whilst trying to infest a rabbit warren. The book’s environmental concerns and sympathy for animal rights found a fertile ground in people’s growing “green consciousness”.

Adams went to write more books, “Shardik”, “The Plague Dogs”, “The Girl in a Swing”, “Maia” and “Traveller”, which have been major bestsellers in spite of hostile criticism by literary reviewers. “Watership Down” has continued to be a big favourite with the public, and in 2003, the BBC held a public vote for the top 100 books of all time, with “Watership Down” coming in the top 30. It is worth reading and it is a book that is quite memorable as an analogy of our human society, in the way that Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is, in a way.

The book was made into an animated feature film by Martin Rosen in 1978 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078480/).

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY - 2012

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous.” – Aristotle

Today is World Environment Day, which is an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. World Environment Day activities rightly take place all year round, but the climax is on the 5^th of June every year, involving people all around the world. The celebration of World Environment Day began in 1972 and since then has grown to become the one of the main ways that the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

Through World Environment Day, the UN Environment Programme is able to personalise environmental issues and enable everyone to realise not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development. This day is also a day for people from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations.

Everyone can become involved in celebrating World Environment Day: Organise a clean-up in your home, workplace, neighbourhood or community; stop using plastic bags and get your community to do the same; plant a tree or better yet organise a collective tree planting effort; walk to work or use public transport instead of driving; start a recycling drive; reduce your carbon footprint; grow your own vegetables and fruit; use solar power and other renewable energy sources; conserve water, and lots more. Your local council can provide you with a host of other idea around green living, conservation and sustainability.

The 2012 theme for World Environment Day is Green Economy, into which everyone can contribute, not just politicians and economists. A Green Economy is one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. It can be thought of as an economy, which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.

A Green Economy is one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These investments need to be catalysed and supported by targeted special government budget-driven initiatives, legal and policy reforms and regulatory changes. Citizens can also contribute to this by lobbying politicians, joining action groups and supporting industries that prescribe to Green Economy ideals.

Oh, and perhaps the least you could do today is hug a tree!

MOVIE MONDAY - THE HUNTER

“Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men.” - Gifford Pinchot

We watched a slow, brooding but nevertheless quite engaging Australian film at the weekend. It was the 2011 Daniel Nettheim film “The Hunter” starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Frances O’Connor and Morgana Davies. The film was based on the novel by Julia Leigh, with a screenplay by Alice Addison and Wain Fimeri. The film is set in Tasmania and the gorgeous scenic beauty of this Australian island is captured wonderfully by the cinematographer Robert Humphreys. The film has a central theme that is very much a controversial one in Tasmania – that of environmental concerns competing with security of jobs and the livelihood of many a local, who depend on logging to make a living.

Firstly a bit of background information, as central to the movie’s plot is an extinct Australian animal known as the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus). This animal was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is known as a “tiger” because of its striped back. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it is thought to have become extinct in the first half of the 20^th century. It was the last extant member of its family, Thylacinidae, although several related species have been found in the fossil record dating back to the early Miocene. The Tasmanian Tiger had become extremely rare or extinct on the Australian mainland before European settlement of the continent, but it survived on the island of Tasmania along with several other endemic species, including the Tasmanian devil (still common).

Intensive hunting of the Tasmanian Tiger encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributing factors may have been disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat. Despite its official classification as extinct, sightings are still reported, though none are proven. Like the tigers and wolves of the Northern Hemisphere, the thylacine was an apex predator. Its closest living relative is thought to be either the Tasmanian devil or the numbat. The thylacine was one of only two marsupials to have a pouch in both sexes (the other being the water opossum). The male thylacine had a pouch that acted as a protective sheath, covering the male’s external reproductive organs while he ran through thick brush. It has been described as a formidable predator because of its ability to survive and hunt prey in extremely sparsely populated areas.

In the movie, Willem Dafoe plays Martin David, an elite hunter who is secretly hired to locate the last Tasmanian Tiger (in this film, recently sighted in the wilds of Tasmania). He is under instructions to obtain genetic samples for a military biopharmaceutical company and then destroy all traces of this last surviving member of the species. The object is for the company to be the only producer of a potent biological toxin that the tiger is reputed to produce and which will be used in biological warfare. When he arrives in Tasmania, Martin discovers his lodgings are rather basic and not quite what he had expected (the lack of electricity especially and the dirty bathroom cause him a great deal of annoyance). He is to board at the home of a widow, Lucy Armstrong (Frances O’Connor), whose husband, Jarrah, an outspoken environmentalist with many enemies, went missing a few months before. Lucy has sunken into depression aided by liberally administered medication and when Martin arrives, the only signs of life are Lucy’s two inquisitive kids, Sass (Morgana Davies) and Bike (Finn Woodlock) who take an immediate liking to Martin. The hunter soon runs into serious problems, kicked off by a confrontation with loggers who view him as “greenie”, seeing how his alias identity is that of University professor researching Tasmanian devils.

The movie has gorgeous cinematography of some really beautiful countryside; that alone is worth seeing the film for. Dafoe at the core of the action gives a great performance acting with his facial expressions and gestures for the greater part of the film when he is tracking the Tiger all alone in the wilderness. He was very well supported by the remainder of the cast, with Sam Neill playing a duplicitous local and Sullivan Stapleton an aggressive logger. However top honours go to the two young kids who carry the film together with Dafoe. The young girl, Sass, played by Morgana Davies is quite endearing and amazing in her acting, while the silent, psychologically disturbed young boy, Bike, played by Finn Woodlock almost counterpoints Martin’s character, explaining their mutual sympathy.

The film has a lot of plot holes and there are serious issues with the science behind it. Some of the characters are a little shallow and not well developed, but most of these problems with the film surface in retrospect. While one is watching the movie, one is drawn in and despite its slow pace, it does build up to a great climax. It is a dark and brooding movie that makes an environmental statement and examines the role of humans in the natural world. It is quite entertaining also, so they are good enough reasons to watch it, weaknesses notwithstanding…