I am absolutely privileged to have a humble shack at the end of a dirt track on an island in Bass Strait. The island is a naturally contained natural ecosystem with inputs and outputs, and it is a social ecosystem or series of ecosystems with flows in and out.

The bones can be seen

On a scale of the about 1000 square kilometres and 1600 or so people the functioning of the local social and natural ecosystems can be seen. The bones are apparent under the flesh. There is little ‘fat’. Being able to begin to see how the world works is one of the special pleasures of being on an island. The island is welcoming of people with skills as there is an awareness that there is often only one or two of many things. There are no panel beaters on the island, though when there were more people on the island back in the day there were once seven, so I have been told.

The painter

On the little Piper Chieftain that shuttles in and out, we were waiting at the island airport for the unloading to finish so we could disembark and I filled the time by chatting to my neighbour
‘Are you a farmer?’ [A fair guess on an island mostly cleared for stock.]
‘No I am a painter.’ [I looked surprised as we had been looking for a painter and not found one.’]
He smiled, ‘I used to say that to people when asked what I did that I was the best painter on the island, as I am the only painter on the island.’

Niche

The island is a social ecosystem with gaps or niches to be filled Often one person will fill multiple niches: say, plumber, bus driver, tank maker and farmer, or farmer and Landcare co-ordinator. I wonder if the same is true naturally. There are introduced species on the island. Pheasants (which echoes English aristocratic estates gone wild and the melaleuca trimmed on the roadsides echoes hedgerows), peakcocks (which give a delightful Alice in Wonderland quality to the island), and wild turkeys (i think of ‘Laura Plain And Simple’ or ‘Little House on the Prairie’ – a bit of Americana). Love all three of them. They make the island magical. Are they filling unoccupied niches, perhaps niches created by the conversion of much of the island into pasture? Were there gaps they moved into fill or did those gaps evolve to be filled over time? Can animals like a person fill mutltiple niches?

Cats are arguable the apex predator. So effective as to be wiping out chunks of the native population.

What would happen if we re-introduced quolls? Would those ground nesting pheasants, turkeys and peacocks shrink in population? What other ground nesting birds would be affected? Or a cats already providing that predatory pressure?

Deer

Deer are lurking. Released from a now defunct deer farm, a farm in my opinion mistakenly approved by council. The deer populations is slowly building and some point it will explode but there won’t be the appetite to respond until it is too late and the population has exploded. That is human nature