Taungurungia gen. nov., from the Lower Devonian of Yea, central Victoria, Australia

This paper records a new genus Taungurungia, which is the first new taxon with emergences to be described from the Lower Devonian of Victoria. The fossil is preserved primarily as a compression and impression, and lacks internal anatomy. The fossil extends our knowledge of known variations within early land plants, with most characteristics, such as emergences and H- or K-branching, redolent of affinities with the zosterophylls. However, having a large ovate terminal sporangium, the fossil adds to taxa that in some cases have been provisonally allied to the zosterophylls with elongate sporangia; this further demonstrates the need for reassessment of the Zosterophyllopsida.

Lower Devonian Zosterophyllum-like plants from central Victoria, Australia, and their significance

Three specimens belonging to Zosterophyllaceae are described. Two of these possess bilateral symmetry and are the first to be described with this arrangement from the Lower Devonian of Victoria. One of these specimens is similar to Zosterophyllum fertile, and the other cf. Zosterophyllum sp. A. is unusual in possessing vascularised long stalks. The third specimen described cf. Zosterophyllum sp. B. from Ghin Ghin Road, near Yea possesses a small spike and has sporangia that appear vertically elliptical and similar to some South China taxa. All the specimens are significantly different to previous zosterophyll taxa described from Victoria.

Early land plants from the Lower Devonian of central Victoria, Australia, including a new species of Salopella

Early land plants with elongate sporangia held in the palaeobotanical archives of Museums Victoria were examined. The fossil plants are from Yea (?upper Silurian) and near Matlock (Lower Devonian) in central Victoria, and are of interest because they contribute to our understanding of the evolution of early land plants in a region in which research has been limited. Both Salopella australis and Salopella caespitosa were originally described over 30 years ago and this reinvestigation has resulted in the emending of the diagnosis of Salopella australis and the erection of a new morphotaxon Salopella laidae sp. nov. based primarily on differing branching architecture and sporangial morphology. Salopella laidae comes from Yea Formation and possesses regular isotomous branching over at least two orders of branching, terminating in elongate sporangia that are wider than their subtending axes, differing from S. australis, which possesses only one dichotomy emanating from at least two erect parallel parent axes with sporangia that are the same width as their subtending axes. A recently collected specimen of Salopella caespitosa was also examined and adds to our understanding of this taxon, which was previously only known from one specimen. Consideration is given to the possible sources of these early land plants based on other early land plants with a similar grade of organisation.

S- to I- to A-type magmatic cycles in granitic terranes are not globally recurring progressions. The cases of the Cape Granite Suite of Southern Africa and central Victoria in southeastern Australia

Recurring progression from S- to I- to A-type granites has been proposed for a subset of granitic rocks in eastern Australia. The wider applicability and the validity of this idea is explored using the Cape Granite Suite (CGS) of South Africa and the granitic and silicic volcanic rocks of central Victoria, in southeastern Australia. Within the CGS there is presently little justification for the notion that there is a clear temporal progression from early S-type, through I-type to late A-type magmatism. The I- and S-type rocks are certainly spatially separated. However, apart from a single slightly older pluton (the Hoedjiespunt Granite) there is no indication that the S- and I-type granites are temporally distinct. One dated A-type granitic sample and a syenite have poorly constrained dates that overlap with those of the youngest S-type granites. In central Victoria, the granitic magma types display neither a spatial separation nor a temporal progression from one type to another. All magma varieties are present together and were emplaced within a far narrower time window than in the CGS. Thus, a progression may or may not exist in a particular region, and the occurrence of such a progression does not hold true even in a part of southeastern Australia, which afforded the type example. Thus, the idea that, globally, there should be a progression from S- to I- to A-type magmatism is unjustified. The critical factor in determining the temporal relationship between granitic magmas of different types is probably the compositional structure of the deep crust in a particular region, a reflection of how the individual orogen was assembled. In turn, this must reflect significant differences in the tectonic settings.

An observation of Sugar Gliders evicting nesting White-throated Treecreepers from a nest box in central Victoria

This note describes the eviction of nesting White-throated Treecreepers Cormobates leucophaea from a nest box by a Sugar Glider Petaurus breviceps in central Victoria. Predation of the birds and eggs was not observed.

#MirandaMustGo: Contesting a settler colonial obsession with lost-in-the-bush myths through public and socially engaged art

In January 2017, settler Australian artist, Amy Spiers, launched a creative campaign to contest habitual associations at the site of Hanging Rock in Central Victoria with a white vanishing myth. Entitled #MirandaMustGo, the campaign’s objective was to provoke thought and unease about why the missing white schoolgirls of Joan Lindsay’s fictional novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, prompted more attention and feeling in the general public than the actual losses of lives, land and culture experienced by Indigenous people in the region as a consequence of rapid and violent colonial occupation. The campaign incited significant media attention, substantial public debate and some reconsideration of the stories told at Hanging Rock. In this article, Spiers will describe how she conceptualized the artwork/campaign as a propositional counter-memorial action that attempted to conceive ways in which non-Indigenous Australians can acknowledge, and take responsibility for, the denial of colonization’s impact on Indigenous people. She will do so by discussing the critical methodology that underpinned this socially engaged artwork and continue by analysing the public reception and dissensus the campaign provoked. She will conclude in presenting some thoughts about what #MirandaMustGo produced: a rupture of the public secret of Australia’s violent colonial past, a marked shift to the discourse concerning Hanging Rock and an ongoing, unresolved agitation stimulated by Picnic at Hanging Rock’s persistent reproducibility.