NATURALISING AUSTRALIAN TREES IN SOUTH AFRICA - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 210

continue to be important economically, especially for residents in KwaZulu-Natal,
Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
The very experiments that foresters used to successfully select species of
Australian trees may hold the key to reversing the growth of these same trees or to
identifying less invasive and thirsty species to grow in plantations. Ecologists who
study the dynamics of biological invasion now draw upon the results of this climatic
and experimental research to locate former arboreta and to assess the invasiveness
of different species. There is still a vast amount of information on the history and
growth potentials of individual species that can be gleaned from previous forestry
research that has not been analysed. Future research from these sources has the
potential to overturn common assumptions, reinforce current models and provide
examples to develop new theories. We should remain open to what such a research
programme might find. For now, what is clear is that the proliferation of Australian
trees across South Africa did not happen by accident: foresters purposely studied,
selected and planted exotics that successfully grew in South Africa. The results of
their research are visible to anyone traversing the country today.
Notes
1 National Archives South Africa Pietermaritzburg [NASA-PMB], Colonial Secretary's
Office [CSO], 1181, file 935; University of Cape Town Archives [UCT], Fourcade
Bequest, BC 246, MSS C5, D.E. Hutchins to Henry Fourcade, 10 July 1890. In 1888,
the Natal Government asked for and received information about the Cape's system of
forestry. The Cape Colony sent the forester Henry Fourcade to Natal to report on their
forests, but he decided not to stay and work as a forester there.
2 For a list of plants, see the papers of R. W. Adlam, UCT, R. W. Adlam, BC 815. Adlam
moved to the Transvaal and served as the first curator of Joubert Park in Johannesburg
from 1893 to 1903, helping to lay the foundation of a public garden in the city after the
Transvaal's annexation in 1902. For Natal's wattle industry, see Witt (2005: 100-106).
Ambiguity will always surround the introduction of many species into southern Africa
because of the lack of accurate records and classifications.
3 See National Archives of South Africa Cape Town [NASA-CT], Department of
Agriculture [AGR], 722, F719: Ernest Hutchins to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, 9
July 1896; Under-Secretary for Agriculture, Cape Colony, to Under-Secretary for Mines
and Agriculture, New South Wales, 6 August 1897. Also see Frawley (2010), 'Joseph
Maiden'.
4 NASA-CT, AGR 722, F719: Joseph Maiden to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, 3
November 1896; Under-Secretary for Agriculture to Agent General for the Cape of
Good Hope, 7 June 1905.
5 NASA-CT, AGR 722, F719, Maiden to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, 3 November
1896.
6 NASA-CT, AGR 722, F719, Maiden to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, 13 August
1897.
7 For the topics Hutchins ordered which discussed Australian meteorology and botany, see
documents in NASACT, AGR 723, F791.
8 NASA-CT, AGR 723: B559/6, Hutchins to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, 13
December 1897; A27, Under-Secretary of Agriculture to Hutchins, 8 January 1898;
B19/6/98, Hutchins to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, 20 January 1898 (quotation in
latter). He also promoted this view publicly; see Hutchins (1905: 521).
9 See UCT, Fourcade Bequest, BC 246, C7, C. B. McNaughton to Henry Fourcade, 9
December 1909.