Throwim Way Leg by Tim Flannery

Throwim Way Leg
(Text, 1998)

If you are fascinated by the amazing wild life of New Guinea then this book is a real treasure. Scientist Tim Flannery spent many years travelling to New Guinea to undertake field research into the mammals there and has cobbled together a fascinating collection of anecdotes and accounts of his travels and work in the beautiful and often treacherous mountains of this large tropical island.

The Dingiso, a ground-living tree
 kangaroo discovered by  Flannery in
1994. Source: T. Flannery

   Flannery's descriptions of the landscape are evocative. It was easy to imagine the colourful frogs in the moss, the misty cold mountain tops and the fierce flooded waterways.
   A set of colour plates in the centre of the book shows some of the people he worked with, the stunning terrain and a few of the creatures he encountered.
   I loved this book and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in ecology or travel writing. For those interested in traditional lifestyles Throwim Way Leg tells of many customs of the Mountain people, how their way of life is changing due to Western influence and how this in turn impacts upon wildlife conservation.

Among the Islands by Tim Flannery

I've been waiting for months for this book to come out, chiefly because it is about two things I find fascinating: the Pacific Islands and biology. Tim Flannery is a scientist and author who has written extensively on prehistoric Australia, mammals of Australia and New Guinea, Climate change and Australian explorers. Among the Islands follows his work as a young field scientist gathering specimens and data in the islands of Melanesia. 

Among the Islands (2011, Text Publishing)

   He travels to islands in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Caledonia searching for bats, rats, wallabies and possums. I was amazed to read that Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands was once home to three large rats, one as big as a cat even. I remember well the rats that lived in my house in Guadalcanal, gnawing through the walls and electrical cabling almost every night. I was pretty sure they were only regular sized rats. I think I would have totally freaked if they were as big as cats!

A cuscus from Woodlark Island in
PNG. Source: Tim Flannery.

   I was really thrilled to see he had also been to Makira, (another island where I lived for a while), looking for bats.  There are certainly lots of them there! (Each October night I remember the fruit bats squealed in the mango tree outside my bedroom.)  Among the Islands is filled with funny stories of Flannery's travels. Flannery manages to present unfamiliar island customs to the Western reader with sensitivity and understanding. Apart from his muddling east and west in one paragraph about Guadalcanal, I felt totally at home with his descriptions of the Solomon Islands.
   If you are interested in zoology this book is a treasure, and for our Pacific Island friends, this book gives a good account of some of your disappearing wildlife. Maybe this is a good one for a Christmas stocking!