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NLA News - home April 2002 Volume XII Number 7
A small portion of the ANWC’s Ragless Egg Collection, donated in 1999 by Gordon Ragless

A small portion of the ANWC’s Ragless Egg Collection, donated in 1999 by Gordon Ragless
Courtesy CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Gungahlin Homestead, Canberra

 

The Australian National Wildlife Collection

Diana Giese visits historic Gungahlin Homestead, home to CSIRO’s Australian National Wildlife Collection

A big, floppy black bird, its head and legs folded back over its body, lies waiting for attention. It’s a Queensland cassowary, part of one of the country’s most unusual libraries, the Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC). A depository for scientific specimens of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, the ANWC is the national reference collection of the wildlife of Australia,. It is an outstanding storehouse of biological information, used by scientists all over the world, and valuable record of Australia’s wildlife for future generations.

The ANWC is part of the CSIRO’s larger biological collections. At the Black Mountain site are the Australian National Herbarium, shared between CSIRO Plant Industry and the Australian National Botanic Gardens. Also there is the Australian National Insect Collection, at CSIRO Entomology. In Hobart is the Australian National Fish Collection, held at CSIRO Marine Research.

The ANWC was set up in 1966, but in earlier years CSIRO scientists were already collecting to establish baseline information on Australian wildlife. In the early 1960s, specimens gathered included 100 hybrid magpies from Canberra, 200 Tasmanian Native- hens and 330 mammals collected from the upper Richmond–Clarence catchments in New South Wales. ‘This material stamped the character of ANWC collections: well-prepared specimens with full biological data, gathered by professionally-trained staff in the course of scientific research’ said Dr Richard Schodde, who was to become Curator-in-Charge.

Collection Manager Robert Palmer checks specimens of Australian bandicoots ANWC Fellow John Wombey introduces a science student to a leopard seal skull

Collection Manager Robert Palmer checks specimens of Australian bandicoots
Courtesy CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Gungahlin Homestead, Canberra

 

ANWC Fellow John Wombey introduces a science student to a leopard seal skull
Courtesy CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Gungahlin Homestead, Canberra

During the 1960s, under wildlife biologist and conservationist Dr Harry Frith, survey expeditions were organised to north Australia to gain knowledge of species diversity, distribution and abundance. Further teams were dispatched to the Sir Edward Pellew Islands, the McArthur River and Papua New Guinea.

Through the 1970s, there were more surveys, including one of Kosciusko National Park which found a thriving population of Mountain Pygmy Possums. Another survey of New South Wales’ Lake Cowal region remains the benchmark faunal reference for this waterfowl refuge.

In April 1976, the ANWC was gazetted by the Commonwealth government with the words: ‘The title now confirmed emphasises its status as a national heritage.’ Today its collections are regarded as a national scientific treasure. Most have been made during a series of biodiversity inventories designed to document the distribution and features of Australia’s wildlife, especially birds. Such surveys are fundamental to our understanding of this country’s biodiversity and the conservation of wildlife. They recently resulted in the publication of the first volume of the ANWC’s Directory of Australian Birds.

As with any library, networking is a feature of managing the collections. ‘We’re in contact with all the National Parks and Wildlife Services’ says Robert Palmer, Collection Manager. ANWC permits for scientific research are issued through the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), and the ANWC in turn provides the services with information gathered during its survey work. The NPWS can also be a source of valuable specimens; for instance, the cassowaries came through the  Queensland Service. They were casualties of human encroachment on their habitat: some had been run over, and others killed by dogs. The birds, seven of them, were stored temporarily in a freezer, then taken to Cairns and air-freighted to Sydney, where the ANWC picked them up, still frozen solid.

Specimens are prepared for the collections in different ways. While small birds and mammals are ‘skinned out’; their internal tissues removed, then stuffed with dacron fibre and sewn back up, larger birds and mammals, such as cassowaries or kangaroos, are reduced to a flat skin. In mammals, a skull provides useful identifying information, often from the teeth. After drying and fumigation, the skins are stored in climate-controlled vaults at 16 degrees. There are no windows to let in damaging ultra-violet rays, and the smell of naphthalene deters insects. ‘We’re in the business of preserving specimens for, hopefully, thousands of years’ says Robert Palmer.

Other animals are prepared as skeletons, or as ‘spirits’ so that their internal anatomy can be studied. The spirit collection lurks in alcohol in hundreds of glass containers. Most reptiles and amphibians are preserved as spirits, and birds and mammals can also be preserved in this way.

Curator Terry Chesser examines some of the 40,000 bird specimens in the ANWC

Curator Terry Chesser examines some of the 40,000 bird specimens in the ANWC. The Collection covers regional populations of over 1000 Australian species
Courtesy CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Gungahlin Homestead, Canberra

 

The ANWC also has fine collections of birds’ eggs, some dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, and wildlife sound recordings from 1931 onwards. Egg collections can be a useful indication that a species lived in a particular area at a particular time—even if it no longer does. Some of these collections come to the ANWC as part of the Cultural Gifts program, their value written off the donor’s tax over five years. Donations of these and other specimens are welcomed.

The library of wildlife sounds, which includes over 25 000 songs and calls of birds, frogs, mammals and insects, is one of the largest and finest in the world. Early recordings of displaying lyrebirds were made with one of the first automated wildlife recording systems in Australia.

The more that is known about an ANWC specimen, the more valuable it becomes. Basic information includes the location of its collection, with latitude and longitude, a description of its habitat, the date it was collected, and by whom. ‘If the collector is a person who knows what they’re doing, they’ll also pay attention to soft part colours, because they change over time,’ says Palmer. Tissue samples are taken when a specimen comes in, and stored in a minus 80-degrees freezer. The ANWC’s Curator-in-Charge, Dr Terry Chesser, a molecular biologist, uses their DNA to study the biodiversity and evolution of Australia’s wildlife. ‘We have over 25 000 tissue samples collected since the mid-1980s. It’s a goldmine,’ says Palmer and library of yet-to-be discovered information that will serve conservation initiatives for centuries.’

The impact of its work extends far beyond the ANWC. The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000, for example, the bible for conservation, management and status of Australia’s threatened and endangered birds, made extensive use of the Directory of Australian Birds and the taxonomic expertise of ANWC staff. ANWC survey work in the Alligator Rivers region of northern Australia aided in the establishment of Kakadu National Park, and the ANWC has contributed to the establishment of a number of other parks and conservation areas.

Education is also an important part of conservation work. ANWC bird specimens are regularly used by CSIRO staff in talks to Landcare groups. The birds provide the appropriate hook for interest in revegetation, dryland salinity and other important issues. Drawing on their extensive knowledge of tropical wildlife, ANWC staff have also been involved in planning a new science education centre in Douglas Shire, Queensland. This will provide information on the uniqueness of the tropical environment, enabling students and others to better appreciate their visit to the Australian wet tropics.

The ANWC collections are open for use by scientists, artists, government officials, students and researchers worldwide. Artists and researchers working on the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, a multi-volume set prepared by Birds Australia, have been frequent users of the collections in recent years. They visit Canberra, or arrange loans through sister institutions, in Australia and overseas.

The day I visited the ANWC, a scientist from the Smithsonian Institution was reviewing the bone structure of small songbirds, the passerines. When she returns to the United States of America, she may request a loan. Specimens for loan are issued a health certificate, then sent off by registered post, often in two lots, the second sent only when the first has arrived safely.

Loans from the ANWC also go to museums for display. One of their two specimens of the Paradise Parrot has been lent to the National Museum of Australia, as part of its Extinction display. These parrots lived until the 1920s on Queensland’s rich Darling Downs. When pastoralists moved in, there were major alterations to their grassland habitat. These included excessive burning of grass, over-grazing of livestock, and infestation by prickly pear cactus. ‘Our specimens came out of a parlour cabinet in Toowoomba —all the birds stuffed and stuck on a branch,’ says Robert Palmer. Very little detail is known of them, but they’re still valuable because the species is extinct.

Overall, ANWC research helps us understand what once lived in Australia, what survives or is lost, and what we can still save if we try. In 1998, the ANWC Foundation was set up, to promote the collections and secure their future. It invites tax-deductible gifts to assist in the expansion of ecological knowledge and conservation.

The Australian National Wildlife Collection is open twice a year to the public, for organised tours during Science Week and Bird Week. For further information, contact the Curator-in-Charge, Australian National Wildlife Collection, GPO Box 284, Canberra ACT 2601

Diana Giese has written a series of articles for National Library of Australia News on CSIRO libraries. She has also interviewed scientists and others who comment on the work of CSIRO, including John Stocker, Russell Reichelt and Neville Wran, for the National Library’s Oral History Collection.

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