Evolution in Action : Charles Darwin and Western Australia’s Biodiversity Hotspot
An exhibition in the Science Library Foyer
27/07/09 - 04/09/09
In 1831 at the age of 22 Charles Darwin began his voyage on the survey ship the HMS Beagle with a crew of 73 men. The purpose of the Beagle’s voyage was to survey and charter coasts. Sydney, Hobart and King George’s Sound were important international reference points for the recording of longitude observations. The Beagle visited these three areas of Australia where Darwin, as Captain Fitzroy’s naturalist companion, was able to collect local plants, animals and geological specimens. With the assistance of his cabin boy, Syms Coverington, Darwin meticulously recorded his observations as well as the date and place of each item.
On 6th March 1836 the Beagle arrived in King George’s Sound where they remained for eight days. Darwin explored the area and discovered a previously unknown species of native Australian rodent Ruttus fuscipes. However, his thoughts about Albany were not positive.
“Since leaving England I do not think we have visited any one place so very dull & uninteresting as K. George’s Sound.”
By 1836 Darwin had been away from home for 5 years. He was homesick and anxious to begin the work on his specimens that would eventually lead to the publication in 1859 of his great work On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection.
Biodiversity
In 1836 as Darwin sailed from King George’s Sound he couldn’t have imagined that the south-west of Western Australia would become recognized as one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots. In 1988 in order to identify conservation priorities and to therefore preserve biodiversity worldwide, Norman Myers, a British ecologist, first introduced the concept of biodiversity hotspots – areas rich in biodiversity and with a high number of endemic species. Species endemic to the 34 biodiversity hotspots around the world represent 50% of the world’s plant species and 42% of all terrestrial vertebrate species.
The Southwest Australia Hotspot is one of five Mediterranean-type ecosystems in the world and has a particularly high number of endemic species as a result of the isolation imposed by Australia’s central deserts.
