Australia’s Granite Wonderlands: Rock of Ages’ Intriguing Landscapes and Life

This book is a celebration of landscape and life, and is a visual feast with 137 colour photographs. Granite landforms have fascinated people the world over from the earliest of times. Australia’s Granite Wonderlands provides an engaging account of the history, biology, beauty and recreational potential of Australia’s granite landscapes.

Aborigines and European explorers, as well as gold-seekers, have relied on water-filled rock-holes for their survival. For the early European settlers in Western Australia and South Australia, granite outcrops were an important source of water in the parched outback. Despite the seemingly inhospitable nature of granite surfaces, they are home to an amazing variety of plants and animals - a theme extensively explored in this book.

In Australia, there is easy access to granite outcrops as many are located in national parks and other reserves, some just an hour from capital cities. How important is it to protect these granite ecosystems? Why are they so unusual as habitats for plants and animals? How do granite-dwelling organisms respond to lack of water?

Ian Bayly’s book addresses these questions in a revised account of the natural history of Australian granites. National park visitors, conservationists, nature-lovers, bushwalkers and tourists will all find this book absorbing. It will also serve as an invaluable resource for biologists and geologists.