It was extremely pleasing to me, dear Mr. Woodward, to receive your communication1 of what has been done by the West Australian Government in securing the perpetuity of the flora and fauna of the vast Western Australian territory.2 I wrote direct in appreciation to the Hon. Sir John Forrest about the measures adopted, as I pleaded personally here for this subject both with His Excellency Sir William Robinson and Sir John Forrest, and conveyed also my views in writing;3 but I am particularly glad, as one of the most extensive personal investigators of the Australian flora, on which again directly or indirectly its fauna depends, that so large, and so hilly, and therefore naturally so secure an area, is set apart for this enlightened purpose.4 But I pointed out to your distinguished Premier that it provides only for the flora of the most south-western part of your large territory. The tropical latitudes are not much in danger of any of its organisms becoming extinct, as the vegetation extends quite across to Queensland in most particulars, but the largely peculiar vegetation of the sandplains towards the lower Murchison River and the prevailing endemic vegetation on the eastern slope of the hills towards York will still require reservation also, unless the costly, laborious, and precarious process is adopted, to transplant from these regions the very numerous species of plants not occurring in the area already reserved. Western Australia in its extra-tropic regions has a more endemic flora than any other of the Australian colonies, hence the need there for these timely reservations before their pristine vegetable features get defaced or quite obliterated, are more urgent in Western Australia than elsewhere on the Australian continent.
Letter not found.
Woodward was a prime mover in the creation of a flora and fauna reserve of 64,000 ha in 1894 at South Dandalup on the Darling Escarpment, but this was later incorporated into a State Forest, with priority for management for timber extraction (Historical encyclopedia of Western Australia, pp. 622, 381).
Letters not found. Robinson was in Melbourne at the end of June and early July (West Australian, 27 June 1894, p. 5); Forrest was in Melbourne in early 1893 (Leader, 11 February 1893, p. 23).
In 1896 M was evidently intending to purchase land adjacent to the reserve; see M to L. Smith, 12 September 1896.
Letter not found. The text given here is from Western mail (Perth), 14 July 1894, p. 29 (B94.07.02). It is introduced by 'Mr. Bernard H. Woodward, Curator of the Geological Museum, has received the following letter from Baron Ferd. von Mueller, with regard to the National Park of 160,000 acres recently reserved by the Commissioner of Crown Lands:—'.
Please cite as “FVM-94-07-00b,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on