Albert Morris
Albert Morris was an acclaimed Australian botanist, landscaper, ecologist, conservationist and developer of arid-zone revegetation techniques that featured . Morris is particularly celebrated for his decisive role in the development of the Broken Hill regeneration area, a pioneering arid-zone natural regeneration project. The regeneration area project exhibited standards and principles characteristic of the contemporary environmental repair practice, ecological restoration. The work of Albert Morris, Margaret Morris and their restoration colleagues significantly influenced the development of New South Wales government soil erosion management policies in the 1940s.
First Nations communities
From time immemorial traditional owners, the Wilyakali people, cared for homelands that encompassed the extended Broken Hill and Barrier Ranges region, western New South Wales. They maintained relations with the Barkandji nation, of the Baaka. From ca.1830 onwards, pastoralists forcibly dispossessed the Barkandji and Wilyakali communities, seizing homelands along the Baaka and steadily extending their influence to more distant regions. As well as being dispossessed of their spiritually significant homelands, First Nations communities of western NSW were for many decades subjected to various hardships: material deprivation; widespread ill health and epidemics; racism; confinement to government reserves and denial of civil liberties. Dedicated government rectification of these injustices only commenced in the latter decades of the twentieth century. In 2015, the Wilyakali community and the Barkandji nation, after eighteen years of challenging and protracted legal proceedings, were successful in establishing their native title claim to traditional homelands along the Baaka and extensive areas of western NSW. Today, Australian First Nations communities assert that their homelands were never ceded to the Crown.Early life Morris
Albert was born in Bridgetown, South Australia, to parents Albert Joseph Morris and Emma Jane. Confronted by the economic depression that gripped South Australia in the late 1880s, Morris's father sought work in the new mines of far western NSW. He moved his family to Thackaringa, and then to nearby Broken Hill, to live. Broken Hill was to become Albert's permanent home.Early in life, Albert developed a keen interest in plants. Possibly a serious childhood injury to his foot, which prevented him from taking part in the bustle of childhood activity, contributed to his independence and self-containment, and to an increasing interest in botany. However, it is documented that his father, Joe Morris, was an "enthusiastic" botanist and young Albert was his "offsider", so this was a more likely source of his botanical interests, as well as innate talent and an interest in the subject. By the time he was undertaking technical school studies in metallurgy and assaying, Morris had developed a small garden and nursery, and contributed to the cost of his fees by selling plants that he had grown. Morris took up work with the Central Mine in Broken Hill, eventually becoming chief assayer for the company.
Albert Morris and Ellen Margaret Sayce were married on 13 April 1909. Margaret was a dressmaker, and developed extensive interests and skills in art, botany, conservation and journalism. She was a member of the Society of Friends,. Albert's formative years were spent as an Anglican, and "some years" after his marriage he converted to Quakerism. Albert and Margaret, with family assistance, built a cottage in Cornish Street, Railway Town, a western suburb of Broken Hill.
Broken Hill work
Erosion and early experiments 1900s
By ca.1900, the previously well vegetated homelands of the Wilyakali community had progressively been exploited by overstocking on pastoralist stations, and further devastated by introduced animals such as rabbits, foxes and feral goats. The mining industry and the impacts of people and their stock had resulted in the Broken Hill region being stripped of trees such as Acacia aneura Mulga, Eucalyptus camaldulensis River Red Gum, and soil binding shrubs and ground cover plants. Natural recovery from these detrimental impacts was inhibited by the arid climate, which featured low average rainfall of 250 millimetres or less per annum, long dry periods and high summer temperatures. Exposed to the regular westerly winds, previously well vegetated and stable soils had been transformed into soil-drifts; severe dust storms were common. By the 1920s, these degraded vegetation and soil conditions were regarded as the norm.As early as 1908, newspaper comments indicated that the sheet erosion around Broken Hill had already begun. Morris described the degraded landscape in these terms:
"The extending country stretched for miles without a vestige of any green thing and each stone or old tin had a streamer of sand tailing out from it. The fences were piled high with sand, inside and out and it looked as if the intended railway lines would just be buried every dusty day, which was every windy day".
Albert and Margaret Morris were concerned about the detrimental impacts that wind erosion was inflicting on the amenity of their fellow citizens in Broken Hill, as houses, gardens, roads and public facilities were often smothered in sand. Albert lamented the loss of indigenous fauna species brought about by the destruction of their natural habitat, and the breakdown of local natural ecosystems and their beauty. He looked for ways to manage these issues.
Several failures at establishing a barrier to the wind blown sand deposits in his exposed garden inspired Morris to search for plants that could be grown in the prevailing tough arid conditions, and which would control erosion by binding the exposed soils. He and Margaret began to acquire expertise with botanical taxonomy and systematics, and by the mid 1920s Albert was corresponding with other Australian botanists. He established a home nursery, purchasing adjoining land and expanding his garden.
Barrier Field Naturalists Club 1920
In 1920, along with Margaret Morris and , a local doctor and also a prominent Australian ornithologist and natural scientist, Albert helped establish the Broken Hill based Barrier Field Naturalists Club, serving as its secretary until his death in 1939. Margaret also served on the executive of the club. Members were interested in natural sciences such as botany and geology, and also history, conducting regular field trips and lecture series. Albert and Margaret were prominent members, participating in field trips to the country around Broken Hill, studying and collecting specimens of the indigenous flora and observing the local ecosystems.As well as Margaret's diverse contributions, it is important to note that throughout the 1920s and 1930s Albert's botanical, conservation, tree plantation and regeneration work were strongly stimulated and supported by the many talented members of the Field Naturalists Club, people such as Dr. William MacGillivray, his son Dr. Ian MacGillivray, Edmund Dow, Maurice Mawby and many others. Morris became widely recognised for his botanical expertise, urban tree plantation work, his propagation and contributions of plants to residents and civic bodies in Broken Hill, and for his firm belief in the possibility of revegetating the barren city landscapes.
The influence of Professor T G Osborn 1920s
University of Adelaide botanist and plant ecologist had been concerned about the degradation of South Australia's arid-zone flora, and the resultant wind erosion, since approximately 1920. At the university's Koonamore research facility, Yunta, he studied the capacity of the flora to naturally regenerate under stock exclosure conditions. Osborn concluded that overstocking on pastoral stations was the primary cause of the vegetation degradation, and that natural regeneration of the flora was possible. He advised pastoralists to carefully manage station stocking levels, and to preserve the indigenous vegetation.South Australian pastoralists heeded Osborn's research work and advice. From approximately 1930, pastoralists developed "'flora reserves", which were fenced areas that excluded stock and allowed natural regeneration of the indigenous flora. The largest known flora reserve was approximately four hectares. Other pastoralists undertook furrowing projects, a practice that facilitated the natural regeneration of the flora. Many of these projects were highly successful, and degraded, wind eroded soil-drifts and scalds were revegetated and stabilised.
Albert Morris was certainly aware of Professor Osborn's Koonamore research work by 1928, as the research was well publicised and Morris had engaged in botanical correspondence with Osborn. Quite possibly Morris visited the Koonamore research facility, as it was located only approximately 250 kilometres from Broken Hill. The restoration work of South Australian pastoralists also received some newspaper publicity, so it is quite possible that Morris's thinking on the restoration of degraded indigenous flora was influenced by the stock exclosure and natural regeneration research and projects conducted in South Australia.
Botany, conservation, restoration 1930s
Morris achieved national and international recognition as an expert on arid-zone Australian flora, and corresponded with many prominent Australian botanists. He, with Margaret, made a collection of about 8000 plant specimens, the bulk of which were donated to the Waite Institute in South Australia in 1944. This collection is now predominantly held by the State Herbarium of South Australia with some specimens held by other state collections, including the Royal Botanic Garden of NSW. He and Margaret were noted for their generosity and hospitality to fellow naturalists and others working at Broken Hill. Among those they befriended was the noted botanist and author Thistle Harris, who worked in Broken Hill as a teacher c.1930.By 1936 Albert Morris had acquired considerable expertise in the distinct fields of arid-zone tree plantation establishment, and arid-zone natural regeneration. His expertise in natural regeneration was based on the field knowledge that he had acquired on Barrier Field Naturalists Club outings into the surrounding countryside, and his deep botanical knowledge of arid-zone flora species. His own home nursery experiments with sand stabilising plants such as Atriplex spp. saltbushes, further enhanced his regeneration and restoration knowledge. Quite possibly the natural regeneration work of Professor Osborn and the South Australian pastoralists had influenced him. Broad acreage furrowing field trials, conducted in 1935-36 by Morris with local pastoralists on their pastoral stations, facilitated natural regeneration of the indigenous flora and must also have convinced him of the efficacy of natural regeneration as a means of restoring degraded lands.
Albert was also possessed of extensive administrative and communication skills. His professional employment as an assayer involved responsible administrative duties, and he utilised this experience to good effect in his volunteer conservation work. As secretary of the Barrier Field Naturalists Club, he corresponded with and lobbied New South Wales state government ministers and other representatives of industry and government bodies, on conservation and restoration matters. In particular, in 1935, he wrote on behalf of the Barrier Field Naturalists to the New South Wales state government, urging the government to establish a fenced natural regeneration area around Broken Hill. In April 1936, Albert and other field naturalists presented detailed submissions on soil and flora conservation, and stock exclosure and natural regeneration techniques, to the New South Wales Erosion Committee.