| Janet Abbott, from the Underwater Research Group (URG), recounts some of her diving experiences. Janet grew up inland in England in a small village 25 miles from the sea. The only time she saw the sea was on annual holidays to the seaside. She was never given swimming lessons and learnt by herself using an old inner tube from a car tyre. She emigrated to Australia in 1980. Diving never entered her thoughts until 1997 when a friend of a friend invited her on a holiday, with diving being a large component of it. Not being a very good swimmer she took herself to the local swimming pool every day for a month to practice the 200m swim necessary to pass the Open Water diving qualification. Successfully completing the Open Water and Advance courses at the end of 1997 before going on the tropical holiday in early 1998. |
Winter breeding frogs: Not all Australian frogs breed during the warmer months, and Arthur White looks at the the advantages for two Sydney species that will only breed in winter. It’s hard to imagine that there could be any advantages for a cold-blooded animal like a frog to lay its eggs only in winter when food is less plentiful and the cold slows the development of tadpoles. However two species of frogs local to the Sydney region behave in this way and their populations are doing well. These are the Jervis Bay Tree Frog and Hazwell’s Froglet which is a ground dweller.
