Australia is exceptionally rich in parrots. Why? Many Australian plants have hard, woody seed capsules because of adaptation to seasonal aridity, low nutrient soils and wildfire. Parrots can be seen as flying nutcrackers. Australia does not, however, have any woodpeckers. Why? Well, read the essay.

George Seddon is well-known as an environmentalist and academic. Western Australian readers will remember in particular his Sense of Place (1972). He is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Studies in Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia and Emeritus Professor in Environmental Science at the University of Melbourne.

Seddon’s approach to landscape combines pluralism with empiricism. As a literary interpreter, he is always prepared to concede that there is another meaning to be got out of an object, as a scientist he is replete with observational detail. The combination of these approaches, which bring together the interests of his professional academic life, results in generously humanistic ethic based on the hard-work of observation and analysis.