This book follows the epic voyages of Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace through the voyage of Continent Australia after it breaks away from Antarctica 50 million years ago — with its raft of Gondwanaland flora and fauna — and begins its journey north towards the equator.
The voyage of Joseph Banks on the
Endeavour, who with Daniel Solander became the first trained naturalists to
describe the unique flora and fauna of Continent Australia that had evolved
during its 30 million years of isolation.
The voyage of Charles Darwin on the
Beagle, who after his observations in South America and the Galapagos Islands,
sat on the banks of the Coxs River in New South Wales and tried to rationalise
his belief in the idea of biblical creation and understand the origin of
species.
The voyage of Alfred Russel Wallace, who
realised that the Lombok Strait in Indonesia represents the biogeographical
boundary between the fauna of Asia and those of Australasia. On the Asian side
are elephants, tigers, primates, and specific birds. On the Australasian side
are marsupials such as the possum-like cuscus and the Aru wallaby, as well as
birds specific to Australia such as white cockatoos, brush turkeys, and the
spectacular Birds of Paradise.
It was tectonic plate movement that brought
these disparate worlds together and it was Alfred Russel Wallace’s ‘Letter from
Ternate’ that forced Charles Darwin to finally publish his landmark work On the Origin of Species.
Follow the seminal historical journeys of these men to discover Where Australia Collides with Asia
