Seven Emus is certainly a special place to visit, but it becomes even more special with insights on the landscape, flora and fauna from Frank Shadforth, the station owner. The Shadforth family are Garawa Aboriginal people from the Gulf Country and Frank shares some of his knowledge on Indigenous food plants, and culture, with visitors on his regular bush tours.
Frank joined me on a cool morning in late July to show me some of the flora and fauna of Seven Emus. We walked and drove around the station and Frank shared some of his knowledge on how local plants were used, for both food and medicine, and how Indigenous people once carefully managed the land. He demonstrated how a type of grass could be spun into super-strong fishing line – I tried to break it, and couldn’t. He took me to a grove of Sandalwood trees, whose leaves could be brewed into a form of tea, useful for treating a wide variety of pains and aches. He demonstrated how other leaves, from the Ironbark tree, when warmed, can be used as a form of analgesic.
Frank also told me the amazing story of how his father came to own Seven Emus station, raising the cash to buy the station outright through his skill and hard work as a cattle drover and horse trader, and also an amazing stroke of luck. Back in 1953, it was rare indeed for an Aboriginal man to be able to buy a pastoral lease outright.
As the current owner, Frank also shared his concerns about the challenges this delicate environment is facing, from a variety of threats.
There’s climate change, which means that things are out of kilter, with the regular cycle of the seasons disrupted. Plants are not flowering when they should, fruit is not being produced when it should, and the whole environment is suffering. This threat is further multiplied by feral pests, introduced by Europeans, which are having a disastrous impact on the land. Feral pigs are a curse, eating the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds (such as the beautiful Brolga), Turtles, Goannas and Bluetongue lizards, uprooting and destroying native plants and damaging delicate wetlands. Feral cats are a plague, laying waste to smaller marsupials (many already severely endangered), as well as lizards and birds. Introduced Cane Toads breed and have have tadpoles all year round, Frank says, with devastating impacts right up the food chain.
And sharing an insight that was really surprising to me, Frank points out that European Honey-Bees are one of the most damaging feral species of all, replacing native Bees and disrupting the natural pollination cycle. Frank’s views concur with that of some notable Australian environmental scientists, such as James B. Dorey from the University of Wollongong. Writing in The Conversation, Dorey states:
Contrary to popular opinion, in Australia, feral colonies of the invasive European honeybee (Apis mellifera) are not “wild”, threatened with extinction or “good” for the Australian environment. The truth is feral honeybees compete with native animals for food and habitat, disrupt native pollination systems and pose a serious biosecurity threat to our honey and pollination industries. (Dorey, J, The feral flying under the radar: why we need to rethink European honeybees)
Frank tells me that previously, the deep root systems of native grasses held the country together through the seasonal floods. Introduced species have pushed theses native grasses out, but the shallow roots of the foreign grasses cannot withstand the enormous pressures of Australian floods: as a result, precious topsoil is washed away. The land then becomes degraded, and weeds take hold. Frank points out these weeds with great distaste, noting that many came up with the Camels from Alice Springs and the desert.
Frank draws a circle on the ground to illustrate the cycle of the seasons and how the landscape was once managed. Key to this circle of life were native bees, flying foxes, and the Aboriginal people. The native bees and the flying foxes were the key to pollination, allowing the plants to flower and fruit as they should, while the aboriginal people were the gardeners, tending to the landscape, harvesting fruit and pruning, managing grasslands, ensuring pests were kept in check.
According to Frank, “Without each of these beings doing their part, the trees would not thrive, the fruits would not grow, and the balance of the land would be lost.“
Now, all is not as it should be: European honeybees have taken over from the native bees. The cycle of pollination has been broken. Flying foxes no longer swarm up the river to signal the arrival of a new season. And the Aboriginal people are gone.
What we need, Frank says, is people power. We need people back on the land to cull the feral pests and eliminate the weeds. The land needs to be nurtured and managed and cared for. It is more than about preserving the environment, according to Frank, more even than ecology, it is about getting back to a healthy economy, because without the land there is nothing.
Frank’s Shadforth’s bush tours can be booked at Seven Emus Station. Absolutely recommended.
