Fern

• "GILM!"
• the song came about during a songwriting session in which a word was sought rhyming with film.
• But when his professor dad, a collector of magical oddities, brings a mysterious book of spells home, the tome could be instrumental to Geoff winning a seemingly impossible bet with Corinne.
• If you would like more information about author Brian Corley and GILM!, please contact [email protected] or visit https://brian-corley.com/ .

• First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people.
• On October 9 1873, George Augustus Frederick Dalrymple reclined in a boat on the glorious North Johnstone River in the coastal Wet Tropics.
• Dappled paths led to managed patches of open forest, groves of fruit trees, bananas and yams.
• First Nations groups such as Australia’s rainforest people had skilfully managed entire ecosystems over the long term, in what has been termed “ecology on steroids”.

Decoupling landscape from climate change

• The Pleistocene climate was cool and windy, with mega monsoons and long periods of diabolical drought.
• Here, in a magnificent cave system in Arnhem Land, people prepared a meal of native fruits and processed pandanus using an adaptable toolkit.
• This meal took place 65,000 years ago, when savannah stretched all the way to the island of New Guinea.

• The land was not a mindless resource but part of your family – and came with family obligations.
• Everyone, whether you were human, an animal, a plant, a river, fire, the sky or wind, was closely watched.

• The lagoon filled up, nestled in a landscape of moisture-loving shrubs and brushed by relatively cool fires.
• But then, the climate lurched to one of the long periods of horrendous drought instigated by an El Nino weather system.
• Through patch burning, they created a rich landscape of diverse habitat that sustained people and created niches for a wide range of species.

Extinction busters

• From before the last ice age, the ancestors of today’s Martu people would have witnessed great floods rushing down the Sturt Creek into an extensive lake system, Paruku (Lake Gregory).
• These lakes were ten times larger than today’s system, ringed by dunes covered in scrubby vegetation and flammable spinifex.
• Without cultural burning, it took mere years for fuel to build up and large wildfires to incinerate the landscape.

• Over the two decades of Martu absence, ten species of small mammal became locally extinct, including the rufous hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, bilby, mulgara and brushtail possum.
• What’s more, 14 mammals, three birds and two reptiles became threatened.
• We will need to relearn these ancient techniques of managing country on a broader scale to cope with the changes to come.

• Penny has recently published a book, Cloud Land, with Allen & Unwin based on the Thiaki restoration project.
• Barry Hunter is a Djabugay man and chair of Terrain NRM, a natural resources management group.

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• The opening match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Auckland was a historic moment for women’s sport in New Zealand – and not just because the Football Ferns upset highly-ranked Norway to win one-nil.
• The previously most-attended football game in New Zealand was between the All Whites and Peru in 2017.
• So the World Cup win by the Football Ferns signals an important milestone in New Zealanders’ relationship with the game – and women’s sport in general.

The long game

• Women’s football has a long history in New Zealand, dating back to the first decade of the 20th century.
• This growth might be attributed to the growing visibility of the women’s game globally.
• But efforts by NZF and regional sports organisations have also made the game more accessible and exciting to a wider range of girls and women.

Top down and bottom up

• We may also be seeing the fruits of significant government investment through the Sport NZ Women and Girls in Sport strategy.
• This long-term initiative has sought to improve opportunities for girls and women to participate in sport, active recreation and play – and to improve conditions for women as athletes and leaders.

Building the legacy

• In particular, the number of families with young children – girls and boys – who turned out to watch the Football Ferns dominate a former World Cup champion team suggests new generations will keep building the local game.
• The historic opening match will undoubtedly encourage New Zealanders to fill stadiums in Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin over the coming weeks.
• Read more:
  Will the Matildas and Football Ferns have a home ground advantage?