LAUSR

After reading just the first couple of chapters of this book, I was left with a profound sadness – these chapters describe the physical environment of the bay and its human history. McPhee’s comprehensive research provides vignettes of a bay and its rivers once characterised by lush sub-tropical stands of riparian vegetation, clear waters and clean sands. Within its first few pages, McPhee objectively describes the influence of European settlement of the Moreton Bay region, which from its earliest history, has had profound, pervasive and without exception deleterious effects on every aspect of the bay and its tributary rivers. And this is the true value of this book – it provides an essential historical perspective for today’s students, researchers and managers. The logic of intertwining history and ecology is so compelling, you’re left wondering why it’s not more generally adopted. At 195 pages, in A5 format and (disappointingly) all black and white illustrations, Environmental History and Ecology of Moreton Bay provides a series of well-written, concise and logically presented historical and ecological summaries: