This article was taken from the spring Gecko 2008 issue 37

Was it the Bradley sisters or Albert and Margaret Morris? The answer depends on your definition of bush regeneration.

If your definition of bush regeneration focuses on regenerating weed infested bushland, you would say that Joan and Eileen Bradley were the pioneers of bush regeneration in NSW. This is the view put by Robin Buchanan who is the author of the key text on the subject (Buchanan 1989, p 6). In 1971 Joan Bradley published Bush Regeneration in which she outlined the method developed with her sister, which was that controlled weeding without replanting was the best method to bring back the bush. These methods were developed over many years of trial and error, from the early 1960s. An earlier 1967 publication by both sisters demonstrates the development of their techniques.

The travelling Powerhouse Museum’s exhibition Greening the Silver City , claimed that Albert Morris and the Barrier Field Naturalists were the pioneers of bush regeneration in Australia. About 20 Blue Mountains Bushcare volunteers and staff attended the opening of the exhibition at Mt Tomah in May.

Whilst the exhibition itself did not present any detailed evidence of the Morris bush regeneration techniques, it did provoke much discussion. Barbara Briggs of the Royal Botanic Gardens tracked down a paper which was evidence of the bush regeneration approach taken at Broken Hill (Pidgeon, I.M. & Ashby E 1940)

This paper by two Botanists from the University of Sydney, Ilma Pidgeon and Eric Ashby was presented to the Linnean Society in 1940 on the regeneration occurring in Broken Hill as a result of the work of Albert and Margaret Morris. It is a statistical analysis of the regeneration following protection from grazing, and verifies that areas were deliberately fenced to exclude rabbits and grazing stock in order to allow native plants to regenerate.

A paper written by Margaret Morris describes the situation in Broken Hill as that of a cleared landscape, with serious soil erosion as the result of timber cutting then heavy grazing by rabbits, goats and stock (Morris, 1939). She outlines the history of Albert’s ideas and their implementation, including the extensive planting, and says that “ the greatest thing of all was that the fencing of the blocks demonstrated what Albert Morris had maintained, namely, that with protection from stock the country would ‘come back’”.

The Australian Association of Bush Regenerators (AABR) defines Bush Regeneration as “the practice of restoring bushland by focusing on the reinstating and reinforcing of the systems ongoing natural regeneration processes.”

In conclusion, are they not all founders? – the Morris for cleared landscape regeneration and the Bradleys for weed infested bushland regeneration.
It is interesting to note that they all relied heavily on planting when they started their work, and later advocated natural regeneration as the best approach.

References
Bradley Joan (1971) Bush Regeneration

Buchanan, Robin 1989 Bush Regeneration; Recovering Australian Landscapes TAFE NSW Sydney, Australia

Morris, M (1939) Plant Regeneration in the Broken Hill District Australian Journal of Science ii, p43-48, 1939.

Pidgeon, I.M. & Ashby E (1940)  Studies in applied ecology. A statistical analysis of regeneration following protection from grazing. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 65: 123-143.