In the beginning

From 21 July 2001 to 10 February 2002, the Australian Museum will be presenting the exciting exhibition Catching... the harbour. This is a timely exhibition, following hard on the heels of National Reconciliation Week and renewed interest among Sydneysiders in Indigenous names that could be co-applied to many of Sydney's famous locations - all part of acknowledging that Europeans seized a continent that was well and truly occupied when they arrived.

From a biologist's point of view, this 'oversight' was doubly unfortunate. In the rush to introduce European land and water management strategies, the hard-won, millennial wisdom about sustainable harvesting of native resources both within and beyond the Harbour, were ignored. The invaders slashed, burned, pillaged and polluted Australia's resources, slowing only when these inexplicably began to vanish. We will probably never know how much biodiversity was lost from the land or from the Harbour through failure to pay attention to Indigenous wisdom.

With the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service recording 11,000 vessels arriving in Australia's ports every year from 600 overseas harbours, threats to Sydney Harbour's native biodiversity from creatures like the Northern Pacific Sea Star (Asterias amurensis) and Giant Fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii) are very real and constant. The Australian Museum's Dr Penny Berents and Dr Pat Hutchings, through Australian Museum Business Services, have recently been commissioned by the Sydney Ports Corporation to survey the commercial areas of the Harbour for these and other modern invaders.

Fortunately, despite losses, Sydney Harbour still teams with life. Surveys by Australian Museum staff including Brooke Carson-Ewart have estimated that there are at least 550 kinds of fish in the Harbour - greater diversity than in any other harbour in the world! Among the Harbour's more unusual inhabitants are Weedy Seadragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus), Eastern Blue Gropers (Achoerodus viridus, the State Fish of New South Wales), Pineapplefish (Cleidopus gloriamaris) with eye-sac lanterns filled with luminescent bacteria, shallow-water anglerfishes that have an inbuilt fishing rod with a worm-like lure, and the Old Wife (Enoplosus armatus) that grumbles and groans loudly when caught.

Catching... the harbour will introduce these and many other Harbour wonders and counters the common misconception that Sydney Harbour is an underwater wasteland. Although much biodiversity has been lost, it is never too late to embrace living Indigenous wisdom about environmental management - an approach that should have been adopted more than two centuries ago.

Professor Michael Archer
Director of The Australian Museum