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Tim M. Berra

A Natural History of Australia Hardcover – July 1, 1999

by Tim M. Berra (Author)

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A Natural History of Australia is for anyone interested in this long-isolated continent. It presents the many wonders of Australia, including geography, geology, the Aborigines, the Great Barrier Reef, invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. It also covers the history, life style, and language of Australia. From rock art to giant earthworms, this book is a well-written and beautifully illustrated narrative.

Key Features
* Contains color illustrations, diagrams, and photographs throughout
* Covers the geological history of Australia as well as the biological history
* Reviews Aboriginal cultures
* Demonstrates the complexity of the Great Barrier Reef
* Includes valuable appendices for the traveler covering political, social, economic, idiomatic, and practical matters

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Univ of New South Wales
Publication date

July 1, 1999
ISBN-10

0868404721
ISBN-13

978-0868404721
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Univ of New South Wales (July 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0868404721
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0868404721
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.47 pounds

Best Sellers Rank: #9,445,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,649 in Australia & New Zealand History
- #18,704 in Zoology (Books)
- #21,798 in Ecology (Books)

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Academic traveler

An "unfocussed" Natural History of Australia.

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 1999

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The natural history of Australia is described in a light and accessible style in this book by respected naturalist Tim Berra. He attempts in the early chapters to describe the geologic history of this now arid continent and later relate it to the animals and plants found in Australia. However, the book falls short by trying to do way too much in too short a space. The author resorts to a literary form of cherry picking and loses his systematic thread as he deals with the diversity of flora and fauna. An example is the chapter entitled "Some Interesting Invertebrates". The Great Barrier Reef is especially poorly dealt with as it is treated as a series of, mainly vertebrate, photo-ops and largely ignores the intricacies of the ecosystem.
The appendices degenerate into a short overview of modern Australian culture and as such are out of place in what is supposedly a book on biology.

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Burkey

Like an extra long research paper by a C student

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 1999

A few years ago I spent nearly a year travelling around Australia, and returned curious about some of the strange things I had seen there. I asked for this book for my birthday because of the good reviews it had received on Amazon.com. However, when I finally got it none of my biggest questions were addressed. Previously, most of my knowledge of these subjects came from reading the little natural history bits in my Lonely Planet Guide or by watching certain T.V. documentaries. I wanted a source of information that went beyond these and revealed some of the underlying explanations and science involved. I wanted to know the origins of some of the famous landforms such as the Bungle Bungle or Ayer's Rock. I'd also wanted to know what shaped the dry interior. I heard it was the bottom of a sea at one time. What the book does talk about in the geology section is the split up of Gondwana in multi-paged depth, and gives no more special attention to Australia than other continents. None of my questions were addressed, and the facts listed were not interesting to me. In the section on animals the author gave no real overview on their origins, and just listed a number of the most popular species and gave a little characterization of each. In many parts of the book I found that my tourist's range of knowledge actually included some things the author didn't mention, such as how aboriginal burning shaped the ecology. Also, it often seemed that the author did not thoroughly know his subject matter, but was just quoting from one of his sources. Eventually I began to loose confidence that this book was written by an expert on the natural history of Australia and more by a publication-hopeful writer (this is my opinion based on his bio)who compiled an incomplete list of facts from numerous sources, some of which were pertinent, others more randomly picked. The book read like one giant research paper where the student sits down with a stack of books on his subject and quotes pieces verbatim from all of them. It also reads like an almanac. That said, this book does list a thousand things previously unknown to me, just not exactly the things I was after.