Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
supported by the fact that special open seasons were only declared in the newer
(and not the older) rice areas each year from 1953 to 1957 in response to complaints
by farmers (ibid.: 32; 'NPWS Wildlife Files', SRNSW). Nevertheless, in both
places, Frith found that while different ducks fed on rice at different stages in the
plants' growth, the damage was not extensive and overall that 'wild ducks are not
. . . a serious pest of rice crops' (1957a: 49). An exception was the wood duck,
which could graze down young rice plants if not scared off the bays; 'but', Frith
wrote, 'such conditions existed usually only in a neglected crop' (ibid.: 48). The
broader water landscapes of the MIA had also changed, including the creation of
irrigation drainage swamps, where water was directed to low-lying, ephemeral
wetlands, including Fivebough, Tuckerbill, and Barren Box swamps. These now
formed 'large permanent swamps' that Frith judged to be 'presumably . . . relatively
sterile' from the encroachment of watergrasses, which replaced the treed vegetation
as the water regime altered (ibid.: 41).
Another major aspect of Frith's work was linking the booms in duck populations
with floods. Floods occurred each year from 1950 to 1952, and in 1955, allowing
him to observe the birds' responses to these events (1957a: 36). The sheer numbers
of ducks in the region during wet years, he suggested, led to more complaints rather
than there being an increase in damage (ibid.: 48-49). While there was a general
understanding among biologists and farmers that ducks followed floods, Frith's
research on their responses to floods laid much of the groundwork for later research
on their nomadic behaviour ( SMH , 12 August 1939: 12; Tyndale-Biscoe et al .,
1995: 252).
Frith was very aware that his research would influence whether further special
open seasons would be declared. He argued that the belief 'that unlimited and
indiscriminate shooting in and around the irrigation areas would reduce the
population of ducks or drive the birds elsewhere' was unfounded, as many of the
species of ducks were highly mobile, and more ducks would appear from around
eastern Australia. He also argued that hunters who visited the area during the special
open seasons were more interested in 'securing ducks than protecting rice fields'.
This led them to seek out ducks that were not on rice bays and then scare them
onto the fields. Frith urged tighter controls on shooting and for hunters to be more
like patrol groups (Frith, 1957a: 49).
Frith's views about hunting shifted across his lifetime. His father had taught him
to shoot and he had hunted birds 'for the pot' since he was 8 years old. Later
statements by Frith suggest that as a young man he may also have engaged in game
hunting or treated subsistence hunting as a kind of sport (see below). Frith's father,
a 'bushman', was also a major influence on Frith's interest in natural history,
teaching him about plants and animals (Tyndale-Biscoe et al ., 1995: 247; Letter
from H. J. Frith to Lydia Cheuang, 4 January 1965, H. J. Frith Files, AAS). Frith's
ideas about hunting, and killing in general, changed during his service in Syria and
Egypt in World War II. Reflecting on this in 1965, Frith wrote that because of
these experiences,
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