Seven species of Cliostomum Fr. recorded from Australia are treated. These include the widespread C. griffithii (Sm.) Coppins, the austral C. praepallidum (Müll. Arg.) Kantvilas & Fryday and the Tasmanian endemic C. vezdae Kantvilas, a reinstated name previously subsumed under C. flavidulum Hafellner & Kalb. Three species are described as new: C. latisporum Kantvilas, a corticolous species containing atranorin and gangaleoidin from coastal Tasmania and New South Wales, characterized by pale pink, soon immarginate apothecia, 0.3–0.9 mm wide, non-capitate, unpigmented paraphyses, and relatively wide, 1(–3)-septate ascospores, 9–15 × 4–6 μm; C. litorale Kantvilas, a saxicolous species containing atranorin and confluentic acid, recorded only from Tasmania, with relatively large, usually pale pinkish apothecia, 0.6–1.5 mm wide, non-capitate paraphyses, and 1(–2)-septate ascospores, 9–13 × 4−6 μm; and C. saxatile Kantvilas, a saxicolous species containing atranorin and lecanoric acid, also known only from Tasmania, with dark brown to black apothecia, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, pigmented with Laurocerasi-brown, capitate paraphyses, and 1-septate ascospores, 7–14 × 3–5 μm. The widespread, coastal Australasian species Tylothallia verrucosa (Müll. Arg.) Kantvilas is transferred to Cliostomum, with the additional synonym Catillaria brisbanensis Räsänen. Megalaria variegata (Müll. Arg.) D. J. Galloway, based on a New Zealand type, is a further synonym of Cliostomum griffithii. All species are illustrated and described on the basis of Australian and Tasmanian specimens.

Five species of Schaereria Körb. are known to occur in Australia (including Tasmania). The new species S. australis Kantvilas is described from alpine Tasmania and New South Wales; it is characterized by a thallus lacking lichen substances, apothecia with only brown pigments, and ellipsoid, uniseriate ascospores, 10−17 × 6−9 μm. Also treated are: S. bullata Kantvilas, endemic to Tasmania; S. dolodes (Nyl. ex Hasse) Schmull & T. Sprib., first described from North America and recorded here for the first time from the Southern Hemisphere (Tasmania); the bipolar S. fuscocinerea (Nyl.) Clauzade & Cl. Roux and the Australian endemic S. xerophila Rambold & H. Mayrhofer, both recorded for the first time from Tasmania. The species are illustrated and an identification key is provided.

The term ‘siphuloid’ is introduced for a suite of distinct lichen genera with a superficially similar foliose to fruticose morphology, notably Siphula, Siphulella, Siphulopsis, Parasiphula and Knightiellastrum. Three new species are described: Parasiphula squamosa Kantvilas (from Tasmania and New Zealand), characterized by a whitish grey, squamulose or minutely foliose thallus lacking lichen substances or containing traces of atranorin; Siphula capensis Kantvilas (from southern Africa), containing baeomycesic and squamatic acids, and characterized by robust, broadly flattened, rounded lobes with thickened apices; and S. crittendenii (from the Caribbean but with an outlying collection from Queensland, Australia), an epiphytic species containing thamnolic acid, with fragile, flattened lobes mostly to 10 mm long and 1−5 mm wide, with ragged or much-divided apices. Salient features of the species of Parasiphula are summarized and a first key for this genus is presented. Infrageneric problems in Siphula are also discussed briefly.

Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene aeolian deposits in Tasmania are extensive in the present subhumid climate zone but also occur in areas receiving >1000 mm of rain annually. Thermoluminescence, optically stimulated luminescence, and radiocarbon ages indicate that most of the deposits formed during periods of cold climate. Some dunes are remnants of longitudinal desert dunes sourced from now-inundated continental shelves which were previously semi-arid. Others formed near source, often in the form of lunettes east of seasonally-dry lagoons in the previously semi-arid Midlands and southeast of Tasmania, or as accumulations close to floodplains of major rivers, or as sandsheets in exposed areas. Burning of vegetation by the Aboriginal population after 40 ka is likely to have influenced sediment supply. A key site for determining climate variability in southern Tasmania is Maynes Junction which records three periods of aeolian deposition (at ca. 90, 32 and 20 ka), interspersed with periods of hillslope instability. Whether wind speeds were higher than at present during the last glacial period is uncertain, but shells in the Mary Ann Bay sandsheet near Hobart and particle size analysis of the Ainslie dunes in northeast Tasmania suggest stronger winds during the last glacial period than at present.

Two Tasmanian species of the genus Cresponea are treated: C. graemeannae Kantvilas sp. nov., characterized by a very thin, saxicolous thallus, apothecia with a thick, radially fissured margin, thinly pruinose disc, hypothecium inspersed with oil droplets, and 5–9-septate ascospores, 25–40 × 6–8 μm; and C. subpremnea (Kantvilas & Vĕzda) Kantvilas comb. nov. The latter has ascospores 30–58 × 4.5–7 μm, which distinguish it from the related C. plurilocularis (Nyl.) Egea & Torrente (ascospores 27–45 × 6–8 μm). The taxa are illustrated, discussed and compared. Cresponea litoralis Elix, based on an Australian type, is considered a synonym of Bactrospora myriadea (Fée) Egea & Torrente. A key to the species of Cresponea reported from Australia is presented.

The new combination Ocellomma rediuntum (Stizenb. ex Hasse) Kantvilas, Gueidan & Tehler is proposed, supported by morphological, anatomical and molecular data. Hitherto known only from the Californian coast, this species is here recorded for Kangaroo Island (South Australia), Victoria and Tasmania. It is described and illustrated from Australian collections. The ecology of the species and its remarkable distribution are discussed.

An identification key to the 39 species of Menegazzia recorded for Australia and its offshore islands (including Tasmania) is presented. Distribution patterns are discussed and summarized. Mainland Australia supports 19 species, with seven endemics, and shares 12 species with Tasmania, six with New Zealand and one with South America. The new species, Menegazzia williamsii Kantvilas from New South Wales, is described and is characterized by an inflated, fragile, esorediate thallus containing stictic acid but lacking isopigmentosin, 2-spored asci and an inspersed epihymenium. In addition, M. hypernota Bjerke, formerly known only from New Zealand, is recorded from Tasmania for the first time.

Financial incentives may aid in conservation if they broaden the numbers and types of landowners who engage in protection and conservation management on private land. We examined the hypotheses that financial incentives (1) encourage participation of people with lower autonomous motivation towards conservation and lower self-transcendence (i.e. benevolence and universalism) values compared to participants in similar programmes without such incentives; (2) enable more on-ground works and activities; and (3) enhance feelings of competence and autonomy with respect to conservation actions. We surveyed 193 landowners in private land conservation programmes in Tasmania, only some of whom had received financial incentives. All of these landowners had high self-transcendence values, and autonomous motivation towards the environment. Owners of large properties and participants with higher self-enhancement values, lower self-transcendence values and lower autonomous motivation towards the environment were slightly more likely to engage in incentive programmes. However, people who received funding did not report more conservation actions than people in programmes without incentives. Owners of larger properties receiving incentives reported fewer conservation actions. Thus financial incentives probably recruited a few into nature conservation who may not have otherwise engaged, but did not result in a more intensive level of conservation management. Our results caution against the blanket-use of incentives amongst landowners who may already have values and motivations consistent with environmental action, and point to the need for further research on the socio-psychological characteristics of landowners, to examine the contextual factors that influence the effects of conservation payments.

Unusual corundum-bearing rocks occur in the Bond Range, northern Tasmania, in a hydrothermally altered Cambrian quartz porphyry. The assemblage exhibits quartz and corundum in mutual contact, a rare phenomenon, in association with andalusite, pyrophyllite, diaspore and other minerals. This metastable assemblage apparently resulted from advanced argillic alteration at moderate temperature and low pressure, followed by rapid depressurisation accompanying boiling of hydrothermal, granite-derived fluids. This corundum occurrence appears to be unrelated to the sapphires in placer deposits in Tasmania.

A calcium-rich ralstonite, forming colourless octahedral crystals up to 2 mm across, occurs in a F-rich assemblage at the Cleveland Mine, northwestern Tasmania. Other minerals present include well-crystallized morinite, gearksutite, vivianite, siderite, K-rich feldspar (adularia), fluorite and quartz. The F-rich assemblage probably formed during greisenization when Na and F-rich magmatic brines reacted with enclosing carbonate host rocks to produce hydrothermal Na-Ca-Mg-bearing solutions. Chemical analysis of the ralstonite-like mineral gave a formula (Na1.47Ca0.52)(Mg1.49Al0.55P0.04)F6 [(OH)0.43O0.36F0.21)].

This differs from the ‘pyrochlore’ formula, due to the substitution of Ca + (OH,O,F) for H2O, in addition to the coupled substitution of Na + Mg for Al in ‘normal’ ralstonites. The Cleveland Mine ralstonite has the highest recorded Ca, Na and Mg contents. While the mineral is likely to be a new species on chemical grounds, single crystal X-ray photographs indicate the structure is disordered, possibly composed of small compositional domains.

Moraines on Schnells Ridge, southwest Tasmania, have been dated using in situ 10Be. An age of 19,400 ± 600 yr is indicated for the well-preserved innermost moraine from consistent measurements on four large quartzite boulders. This corresponds closely with exposure ages reported by T.T. Barrows et al. (2002, Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 159–173) for Last Glacial Maximum glacial features farther north in Tasmania and southeast Australia. In contrast, ages between 39,000 and 141,000 yr were obtained from a series of boulders on a more extensive outer moraine, indicating that this has had a more complex history.

Thick successions of turbidites are widespread in the Ross–Delamerian and Lachlan orogens and are now dispersed through Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. U-Pb detrital zircon age patterns for latest Precambrian, Cambrian and Ordovician metagreywackes show a closely related provenance. The latest Neoproterozoic–early Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks have major components, at c. 525, 550, and 595 Ma, i.e. about 40–80 million years older than deposition. Zircons in these components increase from the Neoproterozoic to Ordovician. Late Mesoproterozoic age components, 1030 and 1070 Ma, probably originate from igneous/metamorphic rocks in the Gondwanaland hinterland whose exact locations are unknown. Although small, the youngest zircon age components are coincident with estimated depositional ages suggesting that they reflect contemporaneous and minor, volcanic sources. Overall, the detrital zircon provenance patterns reflect the development of plutonic/metamorphic complexes of the Ross–Delamerian Orogen in the Transantarctic Mountains and southern Australia that, upon exhumation, supplied sediment to regional scale basin(s) at the Gondwana margin. Tasmanian detrital zircon age patterns differ from those seen in intra-Ross Orogen sandstones of northern Victoria Land and from the oldest metasediments in the Transantarctic Mountains. A comparison with rocks from the latter supports an allochthonous western Tasmania model and amalgamation with Australia in late Cambrian time.

In order to better understand community-level effects of fishing on temperate reefs at continental scales, changes in densities of common species in five Australian marine protected areas (MPAs) were estimated from prior to establishment to three years after enforcement of fishing prohibitions. A before-after-control-impact survey design was used, with 5–14 replicated sites distributed within both sanctuary and fishing zones associated with each MPA. On the basis of published meta-analyses, exploited species were generally expected to show increased densities. By contrast, only two of the 11 exploited fish species (the red morwong Cheilodactylus fuscus and latrid trumpeter Latridopsis forsteri), and none of seven exploited invertebrate species, showed significant signs of population recovery within sanctuary zones. Four fish species increased in biomass between survey periods. When variation in abundance data was partitioned by PERMANOVA independently for the five MPAs, the ‘zone × year’ interaction component consistently contributed only c. 4% of total variation, compared to site (c. 35%), zone (c. 8%), year (c. 8%) and residual error (c. 45%) components. Given that longer-term Australian studies show clear community-wide responses following MPA protection, the discrepancy between weak observed recovery and a priori expectations is probably due, at least in part, to the three-year period studied being insufficient to generate clear trends, to relatively low fishing pressure on some temperate Australian reefs, and to meta-analyses overestimating the likelihood of significant short-term population responses.