NATURE’S BOUNTY EXHIBITION @ IN THE WILD
Welcome to your digital catalogue for the Nature’s Bounty Exhibition. You will find a small number alongside each framed image or collection in the gallery, which corresponds to the information below.
“All living things are interconnected; depending on one another to survive. The butterflies that pollinate our beautiful plants, the creatures that turn over our soils.”
NATURE’S BOUNTY - CONNECTION
1. BUTTERFLIES & MOTHS
These images pay homage to Maurge Jowett - the first President of the Flora and Fauna Society on Norfolk Island. During the 1970s and 80s, she and her husband Freddie collected insects for world-renowned entomologist, Jeremy Holloway, of the Natural History Museum in London. These illustrations feature two fairly common species on Norfolk; the Meadow Argus and Emerald Moth - Agathia jowettorum - which was named in Maurge and Freddie’s honour.
2. THE ART OF COLLECTING
With a new generation of research scientists turning their attention to the biota of Norfolk, we remain hopeful that new discoveries - rather than reports of new extinctions - will continue to carry the day. Certainly James Tweed, who made the study of our invertebrates the focus of his recent PhD, seems to think so! He estimates that of the 1300 + species represented here on Norfolk, some 300 of those that are yet to be formally described, are likely to be recognised as endemics.
This old collection - possibly from the mid 1900s - includes a mix of endemic, native and self-introduced butterflies and moths.
3. ENDEMIC FLORA
L to R: The flowers from our endemic Phillip Island Hibiscus, Screw Palm and Popwood were first drawn in 1792 by John Doody. He was a convicted felon, in servitude to Captain William Paterson, who assumed command of the military detachment on Norfolk in November 1791. Paterson hoped to use Doody’s paintings to illustrate what would have been the very first book celebrating Norfolk’s natural bounty. But sadly his plans were nipped in the proverbial bud.
4. THE ‘DEVIL’ IN THE DETAIL
When the HMS Investigator circumnavigated Australia, Ferdinand Bauer - arguably the greatest natural history artist of all time - commanded an even greater salary than the ship's highly esteemed botanist, Robert Brown. Some historians suggest he may have been paid more than the captain, Matthew Flinders!
On a “side trip” to Norfolk, Bauer completed a daunting portfolio of pencil sketches of our flora and fauna, meticulously recording the colours of each specimen using a unique code of 999 numbers and various symbols. My illustration appropriates his inspirational sketch of the Devil’s Guts Vine in flower - just one of the many species he collected on Norfolk that were new to science at the time.
5. HONOURING IDA McCOMISH
Ida McComish was a naturalist who spent time on Norfolk during the early 1920s. Together with her husband James, she collected endemic botanical specimens for several well-known Herbariums and Natural History Museums overseas. In 1928 she produced her first hand-made album, showcasing the unique flora and fungi of Norfolk. This drawing appropriates a page from that album (which features a female specimen of a mangrove plant, locally known as the Melky Tree) together with my own drawing of the male flower of the same species, which grows in coastal regions throughout the Indo-West Pacific.
6. FUNGI & LICHEN COLLECTION
Lichens are partial to Norfolk’s clean air, and our soils are a haven for fungi - the unsung heroes of our natural world. Long overlooked by researchers, fungi are shaping up to be the new frontier for biodiversity scientists. In terms of species diversity, they are one of the most prolific groups of living things on the planet; second only to invertebrates.
7. POLLINATION & CONSERVATION
Butterflies do an amazing job, pollinating our precious plants. And while most of the flora featured in this gallery is doing well, the Broad-Leafed Meryta (second from left) owes its continued presence in our landscape to human intervention.
A survey in 1988 determined there were only 33 individual Meryta plants left on Norfolk. This dire situation motivated Norfolk Island National Park staff, local land-owners and volunteers to come together to save the species from extinction. Male and female plants (which were too isolated to reproduce naturally) were carefully monitored and pollinated by hand. The species is still on the critically endangered list, but has definitely bounced back from the brink. Proving just how powerful community-based conservation action can be.
Other species featured in this collection are: (L to R) the Australian Painted Lady on an Alyssum, White Oak flowers, Broad Leaf Meryta, and the endemic Norfolk Island Swallowtail feeding on a Phillip Island Hibiscus.
