One of the beauties of modern archaeological technique is the ability to analyse ancient battle, or massacre sites, in a forensic way. …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
Was there a Forest before Central Otago’s Kowhai Forest?
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleWhen humans arrived in New Zealand, a bit over 700 years ago (Wilmshurst et al., 2008; Jacomb et al., 2014), it seems …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
Dunedin’s Saddlebacks/Tieke and Yellowheads/Mopua
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleAmateur field observations of species can be priceless. A local Dunedin man (Peter Thomson, 1823-1879), using the pen-name ‘Pakeha’, wrote several accounts …
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Green Island Bush is a prime example of a large patch of New Zealand indigenous forest that was essentially annihilated in the …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
The Lost Ecosystem of the Leith Swamp Forest, Dunedin
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleOne part of Dunedin is different from the rest…. The Dunedin area is an old volcano. It’s formed mostly from the molten, …
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Autobiography & Travel
Ten Years Trapped in Mongolia – Time to get Mo Munshi home to Australia
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleIn 2007, I started work in Mongolia as a geologist with the company, Gobi Coal and Energy Limited. The Chairman was Mohammed …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleHow old is the oldest cultural feature on Aotearoa-New Zealand? Imagine being around when the only way to get anywhere was to …
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Today is the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On that day, pandemonium struck. People fled with a …
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Autobiography & Travel
Ukraine: War and Wonders – The Dnipro – Ukraine’s ‘National River’
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleRivers, big rivers. They can be political borders – think of the Rhine – when it marked the ‘civilised’ Roman Empire to …
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When a forest is dead, but somehow still there – either as bleached stumps, and felled, and possibly burnt trunks, I call …