My Late Father's 98th Birthday - born 13 March 1911

My father, Mervyn Smithyman, would have turned 98 yesterday. He died in August last year after he fell and broke his leg and had to have an operation. Dad had been in fine mind, if frail of body. He was still walking with a little help and only went into frail care the preceding October.

At the age of 91 he had emigrated from Africa to live in Chester, UK, but he remained an African in my mind.

There was something special about the breadth of his vision, his ability to see beyond the minor inconveniences, beyond petty quarrels to common interests that we all shared. When I complained about some small nuisance, he would say, ‘but that is not a train smash’. Even when my mother and he, (and the dog and I) left Zanzibar Island during the revolution with nothing, not even passports, he recognised that we were the lucky ones. Things did not matter, people did.

I mourn his passing this last year, I miss him but am glad for what we had: a father that stayed the long journey with us, intelligent, fun and loving.

The first photo is of Dad at the age of 93 in Chester, UK.

Three generations in 2002: Here are Frost, (Dad's first great grandchild), David Adams, Dad's grandson (and my son) & Dad.
The last photo shows him on Independence Day (Uhuru) for Zanzibar Protectorate in December 1963 when Dad was 52. The revolution was a month later.

Raining on the Koalas!

It has been showering for over a day now and everyone in Adelaide is delighted. Soft soaking rain is what we need. We received 17mm in 24 hours (3/4 inch), others in the Hills behind us, 44mm (1.5 inches). But many regional areas in the State received nothing. A mixed blessing.

The Neotrigonia Shell - an Australian living fossil

The Neotrigonia is a Bivalve shell that is found in Australian waters. There are only 3 species in this family and they are the last ones of an ancient bivalve, often called a 'living fossil'. Its all to do with the hinge or dentation - where the shells join together. The shell has a strange primitive mechanism for the hinge. It is called 'trigonid'. It is believed that this family of shells, in ancient times, gave rise to the mussel families.

The Neotrigonia was called the 'brooch' shell because they were used as brooches in the Victorian era - due to their internal nacrous lustre.

It is a beautiful shell and normally found in relatively deep sea, up to 80 metres. However dead shells have been washed ashore on Brighton Beach, Adelaide as a result of the dredging that is occuring offshore.

And I have been collecting them.

Ana Glavinic of Flinders Uni, who is doing her Phd on this shell, says 'Neotrigonia is the sole surviving genus of the Trigoniidae, prominent during the Mesozoic, but only survived by a few species today in the southern ocean, occupying coastal waters of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. '

We first met Ana when she was doing her honours degree and we went on an expedition with the Waterhouse Club of the South Australian Museum into the Outback of northern South Australia. Ana was excited by the many shell fossils that she found.

The scientist leading this was Prof. Tim Flannery and we were looking for Cretaceous marine fossils that once inhabited the shallow, cold inland sea of Australia, called the Eromango Sea. We found many shell fossils. Its strange to come across ancient fossil reefs of shells in the middle of a desert. Our team was very happy to find the almost complete fossil of a baby ichthyosaur, like a huge fierce-toothed dolphin. It is now in the South Australian Museum, Origin Gallery.