Publications
Shrubs and Trees of the Great Victoria Desert
With the help of grants from the SA Department for Environment and Heritage, Friends of the Great Victoria Desert published the field guide, Shrubs and Trees of the Great Victoria Desert, by Marlene Friebe and Bill Matheson, in 2005.
It describes 50 of the more common trees and shrubs in the area. Some, like the wonderful Marble Gum, Eucalyptus gonglyocarpa, are only found in the GVD area. Many others occur in other arid areas of Australia. The book has proved to be of great interest to outback travellers and is now in its second printing.
The book is available at good botanical bookshops throughout Australia. You can also get it at roadhouses in and around the GVD, including the great Ilkurlka Roadhouse on the Anne Beadell Highway (possibly the most remote roadhouse in the country). It can be purchased online from Westprint.
Shrubs and Trees of the Great Victoria Desert is distributed by our sales manager, Doug Smith, telephone: 08 8268 4625, email: dougsmith@picknowl.com.au
Recommended retail price: $10.00 (plus postage if ordering from Doug). Wholesale price: $6.00 per copy (plus postage) for booksellers ordering bulk copies.
Newsletter
We publish a Newsletter several times each year. Click here to download it (generally a 600 to 700 KB .pdf file).
Information Sheet
Our Information Sheet (500 KB .pdf file) provides brief information about the Friends to GVD travellers and prospective travellers. Please download and print it for your own use. It includes plant descriptions and GPS locations for our interpretative posts in the Mamungari Conservation Park. There is also a membership application form.
Ode to Shrubs and Trees of the GVD
The poetic tribute below was written when Shrubs and Trees of the Great Victoria Desert (STOG) was first published (2005, as Australians will be able to tell from the last verse - if you can remember who the two gentlemen in question are). The other acronyms refer to two useful plant identification books which we cart around the desert:
POOSA is Plants of Outback South Australia by Kutsche and Lay.
POILA is Plants of Inland Australia by Philip Moore.
POOSA and POILA and STOG
First there was POOSA by Kutsche and Lay,
Then there was POILA to flog,
But now there's a new book to carry all day -
So it's POOSA and POILA and STOG.
It's got most shrubs and trees from the old GVD,
It's a great little plant catalogue.
It fits in your pocket, this latest of three -
That is, POOSA and POILA and STOG.
When you're down in the dumps with the mumps and the grumps,
When you're lying in bed with a wog,
Just open a book and you won't feel so crook
Reading POOSA and POILA and STOG.
When Howard is cheatin' and Beazley is bleatin'
And you're feeling no more than a cog,
Forget the economy and learn your taxonomy
From POOSA and POILA and STOG.