Page last updated
29 June 2004

Our Adventures in Australia

For two weeks during July 2004, Dan Graf (Academy of Natural Sciences) and Kevin Cummings (Illinois Natural History Survey) travelled in Australia to attend the World Malacological Congress and examine specimens for the MUSSEL Project. This page is dedicated to some of the non-mollusk pictures were took.

We had two MUSSELp purposes for our visit to Australia: the triannual World Congress of Malacology was meeting in Perth, Western Australia and we wanted to look at specimens in the Australian Museum in Sydney. The Congress was held at the University of Western Australia and was a great success. In the picture to the left, KSC poses with a huge rubber tree on campus.

We did a little sight-seeing on our days off from the meeting in Perth. Here is DLG with his back to the Indian Ocean.

The picture to the right shows the thrombolites of Lake Clifton, about 100 km south of Perth in Yalgorup National Park. Thrombolites are like the famous stromatolites known from Shark Bay, Western Australia and, for us, they were about 9 hours of driving closer.

On our trip south to Lake Clifton and the Indian Ocean, we also got to enjoy the local wildlife, like kangaroos (left). Even while we were back in town, the indigenous fauna and flora were amazing. The colorful parrot show to the right was one of many we found on campus and near our hotel.