Latest news with #Robe
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Rare colour footage of extinct Australian animal seen again after 90 years
An extinct Australian animal can once again be seen bounding across a paddock after rare 16mm film was digitised by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) this week. Taken almost 90 years ago, the clip contains the only known colour footage of a living Toolache wallaby, a species relentlessly hunted to extinction. While the marsupials were once common, the film itself shows just one female fenced in a paddock. She was likely the last living representative of her species when the footage was shot in 1936. Bernard Cotton, from the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia, would have understood the animal's significance as he travelled to film her at Robe, a coastal town located more than 340km south of Adelaide. The trip was in October, just one month after the last-known Tasmanian tiger died at a zoo in Hobart. The film begins in black and white and ends in colour, showing a Toolache wallaby completing common behaviours like hopping, eating, and cleaning itself and ends with a snippet showing four rock wallabies for comparison. Three years later, this individual was dead, and her species was extinct. Related: Unseen photos of Tasmanian tigers spark hope more could be discovered Australia has the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world, and watching back the newly digitised footage in 2025, the Field Naturalist's current vice president, Peter Matejcic, said he felt 'saddened'. Not only did the Toolache wallaby lose habitat to the agriculture industry, it was both culled and shot for fun. A diary from the 1800s that was unearthed by the Field Naturalists indicates recreational hunting of native species was a common weekend pastime across Australia. 'Co-existing with native fauna is difficult given human priorities,' Matejcic lamented as he spoke with Yahoo News Australia. The film, Toolache Wallaby in 1936 by BC Cotton, is owned by the Field Naturalists and it has granted Yahoo News permission to obtain and use it for this article. A digital copy of the film has been held at the South Australian Museum for 20 years, but that version is entirely black and white. What's incredible about the newly digitised NFSA copy is that it contains 34 seconds of colour footage at the end. Few people alive today had likely seen the colour version until it was removed from a canister and digitised in June. In black and white, it can be hard for modern viewers to imagine what it was like to see a living animal that has since gone extinct. In 2021, the NFSA engaged experts in Paris to painstakingly colourise footage showing a Tasmanian tiger, but luckily, this wasn't required for the Toolache wallaby. As NFSA technicians stared at the canister, they were initially unsure of the film's condition. Its film services team lead Dave McGrouther explained older 16mm film is made from diacetate, a material that shrinks and warps over time. 'The reality of working with film is that it's all deteriorating. The controlled storage conditions we have slow that down to a great extent, but there are occasions where we come across a film and it simply can't be saved,' he told Yahoo News. The first five minutes of the Toolache wallaby film, which are in black and white, were in reasonably good condition. And while the colour section had deteriorated and turned a deep magenta in colour, it still helps viewers imagine what this fascinating creature was like to see in real life. Anyone visiting the South Australian Museum can see a taxidermy specimen on display, but watching one alive on film, moving through its environment, adds another dimension of excitement. Although Yahoo has colour-corrected two stills from the footage, NFSA opted to release the video without alteration because doing so could result in the loss of some detail. McGrouther is one of the world's most experienced film preservation experts. He's working on an NFSA initiative called Deadline 2025, which aims to digitally preserve sound and film from the Twentieth Century before it ages and degrades. This includes thousands of old newsreels from cities and regional towns that tell Australia's history. At current rates, it's estimated the team has at least 70 years worth of work ahead of them. 'Film is our cultural record, it's how we view ourselves, it's a visual record of what Australia looked like in this previous century,' McGrouther said. While film is an important way for Australians to visualise their history, written first-hand accounts are also powerful. In March 1945, months before the end of World War II, an article in the Field Naturalists journal reflected on the demise of the Toolache wallaby. It includes a historic description detailing when the species were in such great numbers they 'swarmed in the neighbourhood of Kingston', at the southern end of the state's famous Coorong wilderness. A separate account indicates visitors to Australia have always marvelled at its wildlife. A man who saw Toolache wallabies in the mid-1800s says, 'I never saw anything so swift of foot as this species: It does not appear to hurry itself until the dogs have got pretty close'. When it became apparent that the Toolache wallaby was vanishing, less than a century after it was first described in 1846, efforts were made to preserve the species. But a plan to capture and breed the last survivors in the late 1920s was disastrous, because most were left exhausted, stressed, and quickly died. Secret hidden beneath Australia's 'most important' parcel of land Tourists almost kill 'world's oldest' creature 'Inconvenient truth' that's a growing threat to Australia's reputation At 72 years of age, Peter Matejcic from the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia has seen 'significant declines' in biodiversity across the country. In 2025, there are more than 2,000 species federally listed as threatened with extinction. Some are already likely extinct, but not enough time has passed without a sighting for this to be officially declared. Others are in such small numbers their genetics could be compromised, making recovery a challenge. History has shown that captivity is not the magic bullet for preventing extinction, as seen with the Tasmanian tiger and Tooloache wallaby. Matejcic wants to see increased focus in Australia on protecting natural spaces so that native animals can thrive in the wild. 'Once a species is confined to only zoo enclosures, survival of that species may be too late,' he warned. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Climate
- ABC News
King tides, wild winds destroy jetties, cause flooding on SA coast
King tides, rain and strong winds have battered South Australia's coast, destroying three historic jetties and flooding properties with seawater. Wind gusts of 91 kilometres per hour were recorded at Cape Jaffa yesterday and gust of 78kph were recorded at Robe. At Kingston South East on the Limestone Coast the tide and wind completely split the 161-year-old jetty in two. "We do understand part of it has certainly collapsed and it's detached from one end to the other," Kingston District Council chief executive Ian Hart said. "It's probably not salvageable for a repair. The tide, waves and wind also forced water up the Maria Creek and led to flooding in low-lying areas. Roads were closed and power was cut to the Rosetown area for safety reasons. Thirty-six homes are still without electricity. Tony Bryant's home is near the creek and said the flooding turned his home into "an island". "We live over the back of Maria Creek, which has burst its bank with the king tide and the wind surge and flooded all of Rosetown again," he said. Mr Hart said the flooding was significant. "People who lived in the area a lot longer than I have say they've never seen anything like it for 50 years or more," he said. The busy tourist town of Robe's jetty – already closed due to damage from a storm a month ago – was also split in two and one home was inundated as the Lake Butler Marina flooded. Robe District Council chief executive Nat Traeger said the jetty was estimated to be worth $250,000. "There's some long-time locals there that have said they've not seen the coast or the sea as violent as it has been," she said. Part of the esplanade road at Fox Beach was washed away when waves crashed through and over sand dunes. "We've done some emergency work late last night … but we are now in a situation where we have road and foreshore side by side," Ms Traeger said. "There is no stop-gap with a sand dune there at all, so that is going to be a major problem for us and that road will be closed indefinitely." To the north, Normanville's 157-year-old jetty was also destroyed. Kiosk owner Rhett Day said the wind and waves slowly tore the jetty apart over the course of about five hours. "Now, there's just a couple of pylons sitting out on their own with a couple of twisted and buckled hand rails," he said.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UPM Raflatac showcases impactful sustainability achievements in 2024 Climate Review
HELSINKI, June 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- UPM Raflatac is pleased to announce the publication of its 2024 Climate Review, highlighting the significant progress it has made as a global partner for sustainable material solutions. The Review showcases how UPM Raflatac and its partners are driving climate action in three focus areas: forests and land, emission reductions and products and services. Reducing the use of fossil fuels is the most important way to mitigate climate change and this remains a core focus for UPM Raflatac. In 2024, UPM Raflatac achieved a 55% reduction in its Scope 1 & 2 emission intensity compared to a 2015 baseline year. Notably, three of the company's factories, located in China, Malaysia and Finland, implemented renewable or CO2-free electricity contracts which cover the vast majority of their power usage. This development enabled significant progress towards a 65% reduction target by 2030. UPM Raflatac also continued its efforts to reduce its Scope 3 emission intensity related to raw materials and transportation. To reach a 30% reduction by 2030 compared to a 2018 baseline, the company aims to focus further on value chain collaboration and product development. In 2024, 100% of UPM Raflatac's purchased paper materials were certified under a credible third-party forest certification scheme. This 2030 target was reached six years in advance by the end of 2023, a major achievement that demonstrates the company's sustainability leadership and ambition. Beyond certified papers, UPM Raflatac strives to achieve its 2030 goal of 100% traceability of other biobased materials, with progress in 2024 reaching 81%. As the demand for renewable solutions grows, so too does the need to ensure the sustainable origin of biobased raw materials. To help customers make more sustainable material choices, UPM Raflatac launched several new product and service innovations. These include the Carbon Action plastic films portfolio, designed to support the packaging value chain in reducing carbon footprint and enhancing recyclability. In a first for the labeling industry, UPM Raflatac also integrated product footprints directly into customer quotes. The footprints, generated by the externally validated LCA service, UPM Label Life, provide actionable data-driven insights to support purchasing decisions for customers. In addition, the UPM RafCycle™ recycling service received a certificate of validity from DEKRA for its CO2 impact assessments. This noteworthy achievement offers customers increased assurance for their contributions to label waste recycling. "Our decisive efforts have enabled strong and measurable progress on our 2030 climate commitments. Moving forward, we will increasingly concentrate on delivery towards our customers, investing in our LCA and Scope 3 services and in reducing the carbon footprint of our products. By collaborating with our partners and keeping our ambition to meet our climate goals, we can reduce impact at scale," states Robert Taylor, Director, Global Sustainability at UPM Raflatac. Click here to explore the full 2024 Climate Review. Click here to download images. For more information, please contact:Robert Taylor, Director, Global Sustainability, UPM Raflatac, +358 2 04162164 UPM, Media relationsMon-Fri 9:00-16:00 EESTtel. +358 40 588 3284media@ UPM Raflatac UPM Raflatac offers high-quality self-adhesive paper and film products including label materials, graphics solutions and removable self-adhesive products. We operate 14 factories and deliver our innovative and sustainable products through our global network of distribution terminals. We are one of UPM's growth businesses and employ around 3,200 people. Our sales reached almost EUR 1,6 billion (USD 1,7 billion) in 2024. Read more: Follow UPM Raflatac on LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram UPM UPM is a material solutions company, renewing products and entire value chains with an extensive portfolio of renewable fibres, advanced materials, decarbonization solutions, and communication papers. Our performance in sustainability has been recognized by third parties, including EcoVadis and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. We operate globally and employ approximately 15,800 people worldwide, with annual sales of approximately €10.3 billion. Our shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. UPM - we renew the everyday Read more: Follow us on LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | X | #UPM #materialsolutions #WeRenewTheEveryday This information was brought to you by Cision The following files are available for download: UPM Raflatac Climate Review 2024 PR image View original content: Sign in to access your portfolio
CNN
16-05-2025
- General
- CNN
19th century shipwreck discovered off Australian coast highlights gold rush history
(CNN) — Beneath the rough waters of South Australia's coast, marine archaeologists say they have discovered the lost Dutch merchant vessel Koning Willem de Tweede, which sank nearly 170 years ago. The wreck captures a tragic moment in maritime history during the 19th century Australian gold rushes. The 800-ton sailing ship was beginning its journey back to the Netherlands in June 1857 when a severe storm capsized the vessel near the port town of Robe, according to a news release by the Australian National Maritime Museum. Two-thirds of the crew drowned. Just days before, 400 Chinese migrants headed for gold mines in Victoria disembarked from the ship. The crew transported the laborers as a 'side hustle' for extra money, according to James Hunter, the museum's acting manager of maritime archaeology. The practice was a common but questionably legal voyage at the time, he said. While the captain lived to tell the tale and litigate his losses, the bodies of his crew members remain lost in the sand dunes of Long Beach. However, on March 10, after three years of searching for the site of the wreck, a team of divers supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Netherlands' Cultural Heritage Agency spotted what they say is the sunken vessel. 'There's always a little bit of luck in what we do,' said Hunter, who was the first diver to see the ship underwater. 'The sand had just uncovered just a little bit of that shipwreck so that we could see it and actually put our hand on it and say 'we've finally got it.'' The expedition team members say they are confident they've found the Koning Willem de Tweede based on its location, which matches historic accounts of the wreck, and the length of the metal pieces detected, which matches the vessel's documented length of 140 feet (43 meters). Pieces of a 19th century Chinese ceramic were also found in 2023 on the beach near the wreck site. 'Ships were important and expensive, so they were often well-documented,' said Patrick Morrison, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Western Australia who was not involved in the finding. 'So when material is found, it can be matched to accounts of the sinking and the ship's construction, like size, materials and fittings.' Now, the museum, which partnered with the Silentworld Foundation, South Australia's Department for Environment and Water, and Flinders University in Adelaide, will search for, recover and preserve artifacts from the wreckage that could reveal more details about 19th century shipbuilding, the crew and its passengers. Due to its long history as a global maritime trading mecca, Australia is a hot spot for shipwrecks, with an estimated 8,000 sunken ships and aircraft lying near its coasts. Some of the ships date to the 1700s, when colonization first began, according to the Australian government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The discovery of gold mines in Victoria sparked a migration of Chinese laborers in the 1850s, leading the Victorian government to levy a £10 tax, worth over $1,300 (£1,000) today, on every migrant who entered its port, according to the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre. To avoid this tax, agents in China would often pay for European merchant vessels to transport the migrants to other Australian ports, according to the National Museum of Australia. Upon arrival, the migrants were met with discriminatory treatment, and many were not successful in the mines, still owing a large portion of their earnings back to the agents. The Koning Willem de Tweede was meant to do trading between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies, a former colony that's now Indonesia. However, just before returning home, the crew picked up the Chinese migrants from Hong Kong and dropped them off at Robe, a community about 365 miles (400 kilometers) west of the main ports in Victoria, from which the migrants trekked overland to the gold mines, Hunter said. To this day, it's unclear from the police reports, crew accounts and court records whether this voyage was sanctioned by the ship's owner. What is clear, however, is the community of Robe's storied dedication to answering questions about the wreck and the lost crew members, he added. As massive waves battered the ship to pieces, an Indigenous Australian man on land attempted to swim a rope out to the ship to save the captain but just couldn't make it in the surge, Hunter recounted. 'So the captain wound a line around a little barrel, and he threw it into the water, and the townspeople who had gathered on the beach grabbed the line and pulled him through the surge and he survived.' If the bodies of the crew members are recovered, Hunter said the Robe community will likely create a proper burial place for them. 'Shipwrecks reveal Australia's long-standing maritime connections with the rest of the world, connections reflected in our towns and cities today,' Morrison said. 'I hear the team is planning to return. I'm sure each visit will reveal a new part of the story.' It's still too early to tell, but Hunter said most of the ship's hull structure appears to be intact beneath layers of sand. Using metal detectors and magnetometers, the team was able to locate large bits of steel and iron protruding from the seafloor that turned out to be parts of the frame and windlass, the machine used to reel in the anchor. Long planks of wood thought to be from the upper deck of the ship lie nearby, Hunter said. '(The hull) could teach us a lot about how these ships were built and how they were designed, because with that sort of information, there's not a lot of detail in the historical record,' Hunter said. Since the Koning Willem de Tweede sank hundreds of yards from the shore, the crew was not able to go back and recover their personal items, so it's possible the researchers could find coins, bottles, broken pottery, weapons and tools, according to Hunter. Items recovered from the shipwreck must be retrieved carefully so they don't immediately disintegrate upon reaching the surface, said Heather Berry, a maritime archaeological conservator for the Silentworld Foundation, in an email. 'As always, shipwrecks rarely occur in calm waters,' Berry said. 'The surge on the site is such that often you have to hold on to something sturdy to keep from being swept away, so we would need to ensure we don't accidentally grasp on to something fragile.' The recovered artifacts are placed into tubs full of seawater that are then gradually desalinated to reduce the corrosive effects of salt upon drying.
CNN
16-05-2025
- General
- CNN
19th century shipwreck discovered off Australian coast highlights gold rush history
(CNN) — Beneath the rough waters of South Australia's coast, marine archaeologists say they have discovered the lost Dutch merchant vessel Koning Willem de Tweede, which sank nearly 170 years ago. The wreck captures a tragic moment in maritime history during the 19th century Australian gold rushes. The 800-ton sailing ship was beginning its journey back to the Netherlands in June 1857 when a severe storm capsized the vessel near the port town of Robe, according to a news release by the Australian National Maritime Museum. Two-thirds of the crew drowned. Just days before, 400 Chinese migrants headed for gold mines in Victoria disembarked from the ship. The crew transported the laborers as a 'side hustle' for extra money, according to James Hunter, the museum's acting manager of maritime archaeology. The practice was a common but questionably legal voyage at the time, he said. While the captain lived to tell the tale and litigate his losses, the bodies of his crew members remain lost in the sand dunes of Long Beach. However, on March 10, after three years of searching for the site of the wreck, a team of divers supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Netherlands' Cultural Heritage Agency spotted what they say is the sunken vessel. 'There's always a little bit of luck in what we do,' said Hunter, who was the first diver to see the ship underwater. 'The sand had just uncovered just a little bit of that shipwreck so that we could see it and actually put our hand on it and say 'we've finally got it.'' The expedition team members say they are confident they've found the Koning Willem de Tweede based on its location, which matches historic accounts of the wreck, and the length of the metal pieces detected, which matches the vessel's documented length of 140 feet (43 meters). Pieces of a 19th century Chinese ceramic were also found in 2023 on the beach near the wreck site. 'Ships were important and expensive, so they were often well-documented,' said Patrick Morrison, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Western Australia who was not involved in the finding. 'So when material is found, it can be matched to accounts of the sinking and the ship's construction, like size, materials and fittings.' Now, the museum, which partnered with the Silentworld Foundation, South Australia's Department for Environment and Water, and Flinders University in Adelaide, will search for, recover and preserve artifacts from the wreckage that could reveal more details about 19th century shipbuilding, the crew and its passengers. Due to its long history as a global maritime trading mecca, Australia is a hot spot for shipwrecks, with an estimated 8,000 sunken ships and aircraft lying near its coasts. Some of the ships date to the 1700s, when colonization first began, according to the Australian government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The discovery of gold mines in Victoria sparked a migration of Chinese laborers in the 1850s, leading the Victorian government to levy a £10 tax, worth over $1,300 (£1,000) today, on every migrant who entered its port, according to the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre. To avoid this tax, agents in China would often pay for European merchant vessels to transport the migrants to other Australian ports, according to the National Museum of Australia. Upon arrival, the migrants were met with discriminatory treatment, and many were not successful in the mines, still owing a large portion of their earnings back to the agents. The Koning Willem de Tweede was meant to do trading between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies, a former colony that's now Indonesia. However, just before returning home, the crew picked up the Chinese migrants from Hong Kong and dropped them off at Robe, a community about 365 miles (400 kilometers) west of the main ports in Victoria, from which the migrants trekked overland to the gold mines, Hunter said. To this day, it's unclear from the police reports, crew accounts and court records whether this voyage was sanctioned by the ship's owner. What is clear, however, is the community of Robe's storied dedication to answering questions about the wreck and the lost crew members, he added. As massive waves battered the ship to pieces, an Indigenous Australian man on land attempted to swim a rope out to the ship to save the captain but just couldn't make it in the surge, Hunter recounted. 'So the captain wound a line around a little barrel, and he threw it into the water, and the townspeople who had gathered on the beach grabbed the line and pulled him through the surge and he survived.' If the bodies of the crew members are recovered, Hunter said the Robe community will likely create a proper burial place for them. 'Shipwrecks reveal Australia's long-standing maritime connections with the rest of the world, connections reflected in our towns and cities today,' Morrison said. 'I hear the team is planning to return. I'm sure each visit will reveal a new part of the story.' It's still too early to tell, but Hunter said most of the ship's hull structure appears to be intact beneath layers of sand. Using metal detectors and magnetometers, the team was able to locate large bits of steel and iron protruding from the seafloor that turned out to be parts of the frame and windlass, the machine used to reel in the anchor. Long planks of wood thought to be from the upper deck of the ship lie nearby, Hunter said. '(The hull) could teach us a lot about how these ships were built and how they were designed, because with that sort of information, there's not a lot of detail in the historical record,' Hunter said. Since the Koning Willem de Tweede sank hundreds of yards from the shore, the crew was not able to go back and recover their personal items, so it's possible the researchers could find coins, bottles, broken pottery, weapons and tools, according to Hunter. Items recovered from the shipwreck must be retrieved carefully so they don't immediately disintegrate upon reaching the surface, said Heather Berry, a maritime archaeological conservator for the Silentworld Foundation, in an email. 'As always, shipwrecks rarely occur in calm waters,' Berry said. 'The surge on the site is such that often you have to hold on to something sturdy to keep from being swept away, so we would need to ensure we don't accidentally grasp on to something fragile.' The recovered artifacts are placed into tubs full of seawater that are then gradually desalinated to reduce the corrosive effects of salt upon drying.
