New podcast series goes behind the scenes of research into Australia’s natural and cultural history
The seven-episode series includes interviews with seven CABAH researchers, a centre based at UOW.
April 7, 2021
A new podcast series by two pun-loving scientists will take listeners behind the scenes of some of the world’s most advanced research into the natural and cultural history of Australia and its nearest neighbours.
Supplementary Information is co-hosted by researchers (Twitter:), a geologist at UOW, and archaeological scientist (Twitter:) from the Australian National 精东传媒.
The seven-episode series includes interviews with seven CABAH researchers, a centre based at UOW that brings together more than 130 researchers from universities and partner organisations across Australia and overseas and has more than 80 research projects underway.
In Supplementary Information (Twitter:), the centre鈥檚 first podcast series, Dr Jankowski and Dr Long cover everything from Indigenous fire management in Tasmania and ecosystem management with wild animals in the Bass Strait Islands to island hopping possums and the evolution of the dingo.
鈥淥ur goal is to share knowledge and experiences of some of CABAH鈥檚 researchers who are helping reveal Australia鈥檚 epic story. We want our listeners to finish each episode having learned at least one new thing about Australia鈥檚 natural and cultural history,鈥 Dr Jankowski said.
鈥淓ach episode teases out the stories and experiences of the researchers that are rarely captured in academic papers.鈥
Dr Jankowski, whose own research is looking at landscape change and the archaeological record in the Willandra Lakes, NSW, decided to start a podcast in 2020 when opportunities to do fieldwork were limited.
鈥淭here鈥檚 some amazing work being done across CABAH and I thought it would be worth speaking to a few people about their research but concentrate on the stories and personal experiences that aren鈥檛 usually captured in academic papers.鈥
Dr Kelsie Long, who uses fish remains and shells to build up long term records of climate and lake level change, said each episode is a deep dive into the past 130,000 years and will help people understand some of the research that鈥檚 uncovering Australia鈥檚 past.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been great to be able to talk to some really amazing researchers and spread the word about how their work is helping us piece together our understanding of Australia鈥檚 past.鈥
Episode 1 of the podcast - The Dogma of Dingoes - features , Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute at the Australian Museum, who reduces some of the mystery around the dingo, walking listeners through the evolution of dogs from wolves and the arrival of dingoes in Australia.
In episode 2, ecologist, ornithologist and PhD candidate talks about roadkill, ravens, currawongs and the pros and cons of trophic rewilding, a form of ecosystem management where top-level predators are reintroduced to rebalance an ecosystem like that found in the Bass Strait Islands.
In episode 3, PhD candidate , a Senior Conservator at Grimwade Conservation Services in the Faculty of Arts, Melbourne 精东传媒, speaks about the careful reconstruction of a thousand-year-old pot excavated from an archaeological site in Caution Bay, Papua New Guinea.
Dr Jankowski and Dr Long speak to in episode 4. Dr Lambrides is a postdoctoral researcher at James Cook 精东传媒 (Cairns Campus), about her work pulling together the data on fish remains excavated from archaeological sites along the QLD coast since the 1950s.
, a Wiradjuri man who works as a palaeoecologist in the School of Geography at the 精东传媒 of Melbourne, features in episode 5 and speaks about the long-term interactions between humans, climate, disturbance and vegetation in the Surry Hills region of Tasmania, and Australia more broadly.
In episode 6, PhD candidate at ANU explains the journey of pollen grains 鈥 from ancient plants to mud at the bottoms of lakes to the microscope slides examined by palynologists to reveal what plants were present in a landscape thousands of years ago.
In the final episode for the series, listeners will hear from the ANU鈥檚 , who tells the story of the cuscus 鈥 a small possum found in northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and various islands across southeast Asia that was brought to the islands by humans thousands of years ago.
Supplementary Information will be available via , , and .