The typical image of a desert island is a small patch of sand with a few coconut trees on it.

Were there any coconut trees in mainland Australia before Europeans arrived?

Which if any tropical islands of Australia had coconuts before Europeans arrived?

mollwollfumble said:

The typical image of a desert island is a small patch of sand with a few coconut trees on it.

Were there any coconut trees in mainland Australia before Europeans arrived?

Which if any tropical islands of Australia had coconuts before Europeans arrived?

The northern coastlines did have coconuts. They float around in the sea until they find land.. the original boat people.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

The typical image of a desert island is a small patch of sand with a few coconut trees on it.

Were there any coconut trees in mainland Australia before Europeans arrived?

Which if any tropical islands of Australia had coconuts before Europeans arrived?

The northern coastlines did have coconuts. They float around in the sea until they find land.. the original boat people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians On mainland Australia no animal other than the dingo was domesticated, however domestic pigs were utilised by Torres Strait Islanders. The typical Aboriginal diet included a wide variety of foods, such as pig, kangaroo, emu, wombats, goanna, snakes, birds, many insects such as honey ants, Bogong moths and witchetty grubs. Many varieties of plant foods such as taro, coconuts, nuts, fruits and berries were also eaten.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

The typical image of a desert island is a small patch of sand with a few coconut trees on it.

Were there any coconut trees in mainland Australia before Europeans arrived?

Which if any tropical islands of Australia had coconuts before Europeans arrived?

The northern coastlines did have coconuts. They float around in the sea until they find land.. the original boat people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians On mainland Australia no animal other than the dingo was domesticated, however domestic pigs were utilised by Torres Strait Islanders. The typical Aboriginal diet included a wide variety of foods, such as pig, kangaroo, emu, wombats, goanna, snakes, birds, many insects such as honey ants, Bogong moths and witchetty grubs. Many varieties of plant foods such as taro, coconuts, nuts, fruits and berries were also eaten.

Thanks for that!

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

The northern coastlines did have coconuts. They float around in the sea until they find land.. the original boat people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians On mainland Australia no animal other than the dingo was domesticated, however domestic pigs were utilised by Torres Strait Islanders. The typical Aboriginal diet included a wide variety of foods, such as pig, kangaroo, emu, wombats, goanna, snakes, birds, many insects such as honey ants, Bogong moths and witchetty grubs. Many varieties of plant foods such as taro, coconuts, nuts, fruits and berries were also eaten.

Thanks for that!

And fish.

“The modern coconut has two different species, essentially a Pacific version and an Atlantic one; however, all modern coconuts appear to be domesticated plants, rather than the more primitive forms found in fossils in North Australia and Indonesia.” (Assertion without attribution.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin.2C_domestication.2C_and_dispersal

“The range of the natural habitat of the coconut palm tree delineated by the red line (based on information in Werth 1933, slightly modified by Niklas Jonsson)”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin.2C_domestication.2C_and_dispersal

Michael V said:

“The modern coconut has two different species, essentially a Pacific version and an Atlantic one; however, all modern coconuts appear to be domesticated plants, rather than the more primitive forms found in fossils in North Australia and Indonesia.” (Assertion without attribution.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin.2C_domestication.2C_and_dispersal

“The range of the natural habitat of the coconut palm tree delineated by the red line (based on information in Werth 1933, slightly modified by Niklas Jonsson)”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut#Origin.2C_domestication.2C_and_dispersal

Bingo. From same source.

“It has generally been accepted that the coconut originated in the Indian-Indonesia region and float-distributed itself around the world by riding ocean currents. Most of these claims are vigorously disputed.”

Ah, vigorously disputed. That explains it. This thread was prompted by my reading in a book this morning (the book was about the Great Barrier Reef) that claimed that almost all coconut groves have been deliberately planted by humans, as opposed to self-distribution by ocean currents. But the image above argues strongly in favour of self-seeding.

Now following up on information from Michael V’s post by reading:

Independent Origins of Cultivated Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) in the Old World Tropics

in the journal Plos (2011).

mollwollfumble said:

Now following up on information from Michael V’s post by reading:

Independent Origins of Cultivated Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) in the Old World Tropics

in the journal Plos (2011).

“the coconut played a fundamental role in human migrations and the development of civilization across the humid tropics. The impact of the coconut palm on the history of human dispersal in the humid tropics is unparalleled in the plant kingdom. As a portable source of both food and water, the coconut played a critical role in the ability of humans to voyage, establish trade routes, and colonize lands in the Pacific Rim and regions throughout the Old World tropics. While the coconut fruit is naturally adapted for dispersal by sea currents, its pantropical dissemination was achieved with the help of humans. A native of the Old World tropics, the species was spread to eastern Polynesia and subsequently introduced to the Pacific coasts of Latin America, most likely by pre-Columbian Austronesian seafarers from the Philippines “

This paper doesn’t mention Australia.

Given that the greatest genetic diversity of the coconut is in Papua New Guinea (PNG), it looks as if the modern coconut originated there. That’s pretty close to Northern Australia. From PNG it was transported westwards to Indonesia and Eastward to Polynesia by the Austronesian people. The Austronesians supposedly never visited Australia, skirting the top of PNG. The PNG people and Torres Strait Islanders are Melanesians, and they transported the coconut SE to Melanesia.

The coconut clearly did not originate in India, even though the first European and Arab accounts of the coconut come from India. Quite possibly, the coconut migrated west to the Comoros Islands and then Madagascar before moving back east with Arap traders to the Seychelles and India.

That paper doesn’t answer the question of how Coconuts got to mainland Australia or Australia’s islands.

From 1984.

Are coconuts indigenous to Australia, or have all Australia’s coconuts been introduced by man? Two lines of evidence suggest that they are indigenous: historical records and the occurrence of self-sown, wild-type coconut palms on beaches in tropical Queensland. The evolution and dissemination of the coconut, “one of the intriguing problems of botany” has been “a topic of controversy, often heated, for more than a century”.

On the basis of evidence then available, Harries (1978) noted that the pre-domestication niu kafa (ie. earlier type) coconut apparently did not establish in Australia, despite the proximity of coconut-bearing islands to the north and east, perhaps because Australia was too dry.

Coconut palms in Australia were first recorded growing spontaneously at several points on the Queensland coast by Mueller (1867) whilst Thozet (1869) found a single palm on a sandy flat 275 m from the sea near Rockhampton and estimated its age as 40-60 years. In his Flora Australiensis, Bentham (1878) described
stunted and twisted palms, nine m tall, near Keppel Bay, with obtusely 3-angled fruit about 15 cm in diameter, arguably a niu kafa type. Twenty years later, Bailey (1899-1902) in his Queensland Flora, described coconuts with fruit 25 cm in diameter, and suggested that they were not indigenous. They could well have come from introductions made by the Queensland Acclimatization Society in the 1870’s (Stephens 1965).

The Jardine family planted 15,000 palms at Somerset on the tip of Cape York in the 1890’s.

One of us, therefore, searched for mature coconut palms growing in strandline sites where they were unlikely to have been planted by man; some were found on Lizard Island, North Queensland.

If coconuts are indigenous to Australia, why are they not as common on tropical Australian shores as elsewhere in the Pacific and Southeast Asia?

From 2002 (unfortunately can’t get full article)

“There has been considerable debate about whether the now ubiquitous Coconut Palm is indigenous to Australia. Historically, the species has been considered to be non-indigenous, although some documentary evidence suggests that there were indeed extant populations at the time of European settlement. Today coconuts are extensively cultivated throughout tropical Australia, having been introduced in many areas during European times.”

Other sources. Note that Cocos nucifera is our current coconut, C zeylandia would be a distant relative.

“A fossil Cocos nucifera L. fruit from the latest Pliocene of Queensland, Australia”.

“fossil coconut shell and root fragments Cocos nucifera (5,420 BP) in Vanuatu”.

“Myocene fossil fruit of C zeylandia in new Zealand. Fossil Cocos nucifera remains in New Guinea more than 4,000 years old.”

From 2002, http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2002/vol46n3p134-138.pdf

Although Europeans first began to visit the tropical coasts of Australia in the early 1600s, it was not until the voyage of the Endeavour along Australia’s east coast in 1770 that coconuts were first reported. However, these reports were not of palm trees swaying in the tropical breeze, but merely of coconut fruits, either washed up on shore or floating in coastal waters. Banks described coconuts as part of the flotsam that he found on the banks of the Endeavour River.

Further exploration of the Australian coast was undertaken during the early 1800s (Flinders 1814), but still there were no reports of coconut palms. King (1828), in his voyage of 1818, recorded a recently opened coconut on a beach on the east coast.

It was not until the voyage of the Rattlensake (1846–1850) along the east coast of Australia, that a report verifying the occurrence of a small population of coconut palms was provided. On that expedition, both the naturalist, John MacGillivray (1852), and the artist, Oswald Brierly (1848), included an account of two small clumps of coconut palms that were observed on one of the Frankland Islands, to the southeast of Cairns. “This is the only instance in which I have seen this useful plant growing wild in any part of Australia, or the islands strictly belonging to it.”

A later report (1867-1869) has coconut palms with “stunted and crooked growth in the open sandy flats of Keppel Bay and about 30 ft high.”

“There has been an active debate on the natural status of coconuts in Australia, with general consensus that they are non-indigenous.”

Rigby (1995) described a silicified coconut fruit from the Chinchilla sands in southern Queensland and dated it to the late Pliocene, about 2 mya. Chinchilla is situated about 250 km west of Brisbane, and the area is otherwise rich in fossils of semi-aquatic animals such as crocodiles and tortoises, thus suggesting a previously more tropical and humid climate than at present. … but Conran and Rozefelds (2003) queried this identification, noting that as the specimen had not been sectioned its affinities were unsubstantiated.

to answer the unasked question.

you put de lime in de coconut.

Somewhere long ago I read of a coconut farmer espousing Australia as the place to do it. When he arrived somewhere in far FNQ there were natural stands which he turned into bigger stands.

roughbarked said:

Somewhere long ago I read of a coconut farmer espousing Australia as the place to do it. When he arrived somewhere in far FNQ there were natural stands which he turned into bigger stands.

There are many naturally looking coconut palms growing along sandy beaches in northern Qld., but I don’t think the nuts arrived by themselves, although they now do reproduce from the introduced stock. That is my understanding.

WP article needs some work, and seems to be the result of an edit battle.

For the first cocoanut palms found in Australian waters, you could look up the voyage of the Rattlesnake on project Gutenberg. It makes very interesting reading if you dip into any part of the text at random. Written in 1852. Includes for instance a chapter on the rescue of a white woman from captivity among the natives of Cape York.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00031.html

mollwollfumble said:

For the first cocoanut palms found in Australian waters, you could look up the voyage of the Rattlesnake on project Gutenberg. It makes very interesting reading if you dip into any part of the text at random. Written in 1852. Includes for instance a chapter on the rescue of a white woman from captivity among the natives of Cape York.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00031.html

Cook did not mention them as he journeyed most of the Barrier Reef. As he needed water, it seems unlikely that he overlooked them.

http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2002/vol46n3p134-138.pdf

So, practically no coconut trees in pre-European Australia, but here is a picture of the native village of Tassai New Guinea at the same time. Pre-1852. Coconut palms.

ChrispenEvan said:

http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2002/vol46n3p134-138.pdf

It should also be noted that Cook only found old waterlogged nuts that were not capable of germination. Coconuts have a limited life in the ocean and unless they catch suitable currents will not be viable when they finally reach land. It seems very strange that only a handful of coconut palms were discovered in Australia by the mid 1800s, whilst the ones currently growing here reproduce rapidly and now occur in very large numbers.

An alternative is the coconuts that did successful grow in northern Australia from nuts that floated ashore, were not from drifting on ocean currents for long periods, but were from ships that carried them as a source of water and nourishment. Such vessels became far more numerous once Australia was officially noted and spillage or shipwrecks would considerably increase the likelihood of coconuts being carried much closer to Australia than they could otherwise managed on their own.

mollwollfumble said:

So, practically no coconut trees in pre-European Australia, but here is a picture of the native village of Tassai New Guinea at the same time. Pre-1852. Coconut palms.

That was Brumer Island, south of the SE tip of New Guinea. The next is Brierly Island. Further east.

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

So, practically no coconut trees in pre-European Australia, but here is a picture of the native village of Tassai New Guinea at the same time. Pre-1852. Coconut palms.

That was Brumer Island, south of the SE tip of New Guinea. The next is Brierly Island. Further east.

But it is not Australia, which was the original question. I would imagine currents would flow between PNG and Australia and rarely to and fro.

ChrispenEvan said:

http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2002/vol46n3p134-138.pdf

Ta.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

So, practically no coconut trees in pre-European Australia, but here is a picture of the native village of Tassai New Guinea at the same time. Pre-1852. Coconut palms.

!http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00031-images/mcgillivray1-14.jpg

That was Brumer Island, south of the SE tip of New Guinea. The next is Brierly Island. Further east.

But it is not Australia, which was the original question. I would imagine currents would flow between PNG and Australia and rarely to and fro.

Being pedantic, there are some Australian islands in Torres Strait which are within a few km of New Guinea. They would have to have coconuts on them.

Tamb said:

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

That was Brumer Island, south of the SE tip of New Guinea. The next is Brierly Island. Further east.

But it is not Australia, which was the original question. I would imagine currents would flow between PNG and Australia and rarely to and fro.

Being pedantic, there are some Australian islands in Torres Strait which are within a few km of New Guinea. They would have to have coconuts on them.

I think you are being pedantic. Again it would depend on the direction of the ocean currents and if you are correct about there being coconut palms on those islands in the pre-Cook period. We simply don’t know and can only surmise from early records.

PermeateFree said:

Tamb said:

PermeateFree said:

But it is not Australia, which was the original question. I would imagine currents would flow between PNG and Australia and rarely to and fro.

Being pedantic, there are some Australian islands in Torres Strait which are within a few km of New Guinea. They would have to have coconuts on them.

I think you are being pedantic. Again it would depend on the direction of the ocean currents and if you are correct about there being coconut palms on those islands in the pre-Cook period. We simply don’t know and can only surmise from early records.

Here is a picture of ocean currents. You can see they are heading west between Australia and PNG. Therefore and coconuts to reach Australia would need to come from a Pacific island way out to the east, which would take a very long time to reach the Australian coast.

What a lovely old map

dv said:

What a lovely old map

Good thing currents are not as fickle as people and remain much the same for millions of years. Looking at the currents on that map, it is difficult to see how coconuts could have spread as far as PNG and Australia without human assistance, which due to the distances involved and the limited viability of coconuts in the ocean, the Polynesians may well have been the vector.

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

What a lovely old map

Good thing currents are not as fickle as people and remain much the same for millions of years.

No, the major currents depend very much on the extent of glaciation. They are quite different now from what they were at the Ice Age peak.

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

What a lovely old map

Good thing currents are not as fickle as people and remain much the same for millions of years.

No, the major currents depend very much on the extent of glaciation. They are quite different now from what they were at the Ice Age peak.

Perhaps you might like to produce the evidence.

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

Good thing currents are not as fickle as people and remain much the same for millions of years.

No, the major currents depend very much on the extent of glaciation. They are quite different now from what they were at the Ice Age peak.

Perhaps you might like to produce the evidence.

You might like to note the Great Ocean Conveyor belt to the north of Australia. It might change its intensity with stronger or weaker currents (warmer/colder), but basically it remains much the same. What does change major currents dramatically to affect our discussion here would be plate tectonics, which happen over millions of years.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/04/science/ocean-currents-tied-to-timing-of-ice-ages.html

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/ancient-ocean-currents-may-have-changed-pacing-and-intensity-ice-ages

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/summitcountyvoice.com/2016/06/27/climate-slower-currents-during-last-ice-age-helped-oceans-store-more-carbon/amp/?client=ms-android-samsung

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34299/

And hundreds more…

Srsly tho it is pretty basic knowledge for someone interested in the climate

PermeateFree said:

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

No, the major currents depend very much on the extent of glaciation. They are quite different now from what they were at the Ice Age peak.

Perhaps you might like to produce the evidence.

You might like to note the Great Ocean Conveyor belt to the north of Australia. It might change its intensity with stronger or weaker currents (warmer/colder), but basically it remains much the same. What does change major currents dramatically to affect our discussion here would be plate tectonics, which happen over millions of years.

I like the way that the map obliterates parts of P-NG, and wipes out the top half of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region – and Madagascar. While leaving the rest untouched.You know, the important countries, especially the ones with oil, like Indonesia, and the ones with the valuable stuff, like South africa.

And how Tasmania is just an outline.

Tasmania? Really? There’s such a place?

dv said:

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/04/science/ocean-currents-tied-to-timing-of-ice-ages.html

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/ancient-ocean-currents-may-have-changed-pacing-and-intensity-ice-ages

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/summitcountyvoice.com/2016/06/27/climate-slower-currents-during-last-ice-age-helped-oceans-store-more-carbon/amp/?client=ms-android-samsung

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34299/

And hundreds more…

Srsly tho it is pretty basic knowledge for someone interested in the climate

Well Mr Smarty
Had you bothered to read the references you produced, you would discover that major currents slowed. They did not stop, change direction or go into reverse, to do so would take a very severe Ice Age to occur, in which case the palms would probably have died off anyway. Therefore the currents flowing between PNG and Australia in recent cold periods continued to flow in the same general direction as today, thus coconuts were still unlikely to have drifted from PNG to Australia, plus coconut palms to the east of PNG and Australia are most likely introduced by the Polynesians within the last 900 years.

>>“The ice sheets must have reached a critical state that switched the ocean circulation system into a weaker mode,” said Goldstein.<<

>>A pair of new studies led by University of Cambridge scientists show that cold oceans at the peak of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago, circulated much more slowly, enabling them to store more carbon for longer than modern oceans.<<

I also like how the warm Gulf stream extends around the top of Scandinavia.

That would explain the ice-free-port conditions that prevail in that part of the world.

And the lack of icebergs in the North Atlantic.

mcgoon said:

PermeateFree said:

PermeateFree said:

Perhaps you might like to produce the evidence.

You might like to note the Great Ocean Conveyor belt to the north of Australia. It might change its intensity with stronger or weaker currents (warmer/colder), but basically it remains much the same. What does change major currents dramatically to affect our discussion here would be plate tectonics, which happen over millions of years.

I like the way that the map obliterates parts of P-NG, and wipes out the top half of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region – and Madagascar. While leaving the rest untouched.You know, the important countries, especially the ones with oil, like Indonesia, and the ones with the valuable stuff, like South africa.

It is a very large current that must be shown on a retaliatively small scale map. It shouldn’t take too much imagination to work out the general direction of flow.

PermeateFree said:

mcgoon said:

PermeateFree said:

You might like to note the Great Ocean Conveyor belt to the north of Australia. It might change its intensity with stronger or weaker currents (warmer/colder), but basically it remains much the same. What does change major currents dramatically to affect our discussion here would be plate tectonics, which happen over millions of years.

I like the way that the map obliterates parts of P-NG, and wipes out the top half of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region – and Madagascar. While leaving the rest untouched.You know, the important countries, especially the ones with oil, like Indonesia, and the ones with the valuable stuff, like South africa.

It is a very large current that must be shown on a retaliatively small scale map. It shouldn’t take too much imagination to work out the general direction of flow.

Well, that’s good – i don’t have very much imagination.

I do note that the Falkland Islands get coloured in as does New Caledonia. But, Tasmania? Sorry, colouring-in budget ran out.

Mind you, i’m not saying that a world without the top half of the NT would be a worse-off place…

mcgoon said:

And how Tasmania is just an outline.

Tasmania? Really? There’s such a place?

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

• Mind you, i’m not saying that a world without the top half of the NT would be a worse-off place…

Come now, there are far more worthy places of being washed away…

PermeateFree said:

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

I dare you to stand in Franklin Square, Hobart, and declaim that in a loud voice.

PermeateFree said:

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

And the Falklands were?

mcgoon said:

PermeateFree said:

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

I dare you to stand in Franklin Square, Hobart, and declaim that in a loud voice.

They would probably clap in agreement.

mcgoon said:

PermeateFree said:

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

And the Falklands were?

Are you really this dumb mcgoon or just trying it on?

furious said:

• Mind you, i’m not saying that a world without the top half of the NT would be a worse-off place…

Come now, there are far more worthy places of being washed away…

Yes, but how could we possibly induce a flood of Biblical proportions in Canberra while both Houses are sitting?

PermeateFree said:

mcgoon said:

PermeateFree said:

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

And the Falklands were?

Are you really this dumb mcgoon or just trying it on?

he is that dumb. if you had two short planks, a brick and mcgoon you’d be hard pressed to tell em apart.

PermeateFree said:

mcgoon said:

PermeateFree said:

Considering the map was to show the Great Ocean Conveyor belt, Tasmania was not very important.

And the Falklands were?

Are you really this dumb mcgoon or just trying it on?

I plead SNDC, and an oversupply of Portuguese sherry, and ask that 65 previous offences be taken into consideration, m’lud.

ChrispenEvan said:

hey, i resemble that remark!

“Two short planks, separated by two bricks”.

That’s how we used to describe RAAF people.

“They’re awfully nice people, but…”

Righty-oh, then.

Going away now,

Evening all.

Tamb said:

But it is not Australia, which was the original question. I would imagine currents would flow between PNG and Australia and rarely to and fro.

Being pedantic, there are some Australian islands in Torres Strait which are within a few km of New Guinea. They would have to have coconuts on them.

That I would very much like to know. I have proof that coconuts grew on some islands south of New Guinea, but no proof yet for any of the Torres Straight islands.

I like the ocean currents, they explain how come coconuts came to wash up on at least four places on the east Australian coast, but not on the north or west coasts. However, washing up is not the same as growing to maturity, or reproducing.

Maybe swallows carried them. They could grip the coconuts by the husk.

fsm said:

Maybe swallows carried them. They could grip the coconuts by the husk.

Heh. :)

roughbarked said:

fsm said:

Maybe swallows carried them. They could grip the coconuts by the husk.

Heh. :)

European swallows or African swallows?

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

So, practically no coconut trees in pre-European Australia, but here is a picture of the native village of Tassai New Guinea at the same time. Pre-1852. Coconut palms.

That was Brumer Island, south of the SE tip of New Guinea. The next is Brierly Island. Further east.

Could also be artistic license?

Anyway here’s this bloak’s view on the issue, though Russel’s story has a lot of holes in it, I’ll give it to you to read http://ellabayforever.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/are-coconut-palms-native-to-australia.html

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

So, practically no coconut trees in pre-European Australia, but here is a picture of the native village of Tassai New Guinea at the same time. Pre-1852. Coconut palms.

That was Brumer Island, south of the SE tip of New Guinea. The next is Brierly Island. Further east.

Could also be artistic license?

Anyway here’s this bloak’s view on the issue, though Russel’s story has a lot of holes in it, I’ll give it to you to read http://ellabayforever.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/are-coconut-palms-native-to-australia.html

and here’s the document from Mike Foale, he refers to. http://aciar.gov.au/files/node/453/mono101.pdf

The ancestors of Coconut Island built their houses out of grass, coconut leaves and trees that floated down from the Fly River jungles of Papua New Guinea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_Island_(Queensland)

Cocos (Keeling): The islands have been called the Cocos Islands (from 1622), the Keeling Islands (from 1703), the Cocos–Keeling Islands (since James Horsburgh in 1805) and the Keeling–Cocos Islands (19th century). Cocos refers to the abundant coconut trees, while Keeling is William Keeling, reputedly the first European to sight the islands, in 1609. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_of_the_Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

fsm said:

Maybe swallows carried them. They could grip the coconuts by the husk.

Heh. :)

European swallows or African swallows?

Actually the white tailed rats swam across the straights to bring them back because somehow they had evolved to predate upon them.

roughbarked said:

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

Heh. :)

European swallows or African swallows?

Actually the white tailed rats swam across the straights to bring them back because somehow they had evolved to predate upon them.

My swallow question was a Monty Python reference.

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

Tamb said:

European swallows or African swallows?

Actually the white tailed rats swam across the straights to bring them back because somehow they had evolved to predate upon them.

My swallow question was a Monty Python reference.

knew that. ;)

http://search.lyricfinder.org/?query=ive+got+a+loverly+bunch+of+coconuts#ytPlayer

Anyone remember this song?

bob(from black rock) said:

http://search.lyricfinder.org/?query=ive+got+a+loverly+bunch+of+coconuts#ytPlayer

Anyone remember this song?

Yep

I’VE GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS
(Fred Hetherton)

Recorded by:

Cliff Adams, Billy Cotton & His Band, Merv Griffin, Danny Kaye,
London Pub, Freddy Martin, Norfolk Singers, Tessie O’Shea,
Mel Tormé.

Tamb said:

bob(from black rock) said:

http://search.lyricfinder.org/?query=ive+got+a+loverly+bunch+of+coconuts#ytPlayer

Anyone remember this song?

Yep

Good giggle?

I’VE GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS
(Fred Hetherton)

Recorded by:

Cliff Adams, Billy Cotton & His Band, Merv Griffin, Danny Kaye,
London Pub, Freddy Martin, Norfolk Singers, Tessie O’Shea,
Mel Tormé.

bob(from black rock) said:

http://search.lyricfinder.org/?query=ive+got+a+loverly+bunch+of+coconuts#ytPlayer

Anyone remember this song?

Shies away from that question.

mollwollfumble said:

bob(from black rock) said:

http://search.lyricfinder.org/?query=ive+got+a+loverly+bunch+of+coconuts#ytPlayer

Anyone remember this song?

Shies away from that question.

Good one molly.

mollwollfumble said:

bob(from black rock) said:

http://search.lyricfinder.org/?query=ive+got+a+loverly+bunch+of+coconuts#ytPlayer

Anyone remember this song?

Shies away from that question.

Some as big as yer ‘ed.

roughbarked said:

The ancestors of Coconut Island built their houses out of grass, coconut leaves and trees that floated down from the Fly River jungles of Papua New Guinea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_Island_(Queensland)

Cocos (Keeling): The islands have been called the Cocos Islands (from 1622), the Keeling Islands (from 1703), the Cocos–Keeling Islands (since James Horsburgh in 1805) and the Keeling–Cocos Islands (19th century). Cocos refers to the abundant coconut trees, while Keeling is William Keeling, reputedly the first European to sight the islands, in 1609. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_of_the_Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands

Slaps forehead. I should have thought of that. who was there in 1622? That’s a rather early date. Check web. In 1609, Captain William Keeling was the first European to see the islands, while serving in the East India Company. Heck, I didn’t this the British were out here this early.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/wild-journey/2016/12/coconut-palms-shouldnt-be-promoted-as-symbols-of-tropical-queensland?adbsc=social_20161212_68650066&adbid=10154159046638339&adbpl=fb&adbpr=100614418338

poikilotherm said:

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/wild-journey/2016/12/coconut-palms-shouldnt-be-promoted-as-symbols-of-tropical-queensland?adbsc=social_20161212_68650066&adbid=10154159046638339&adbpl=fb&adbpr=100614418338

It is a fair point.

Ever since this post:

ChrispenEvan said:

to answer the unasked question.

you put de lime in de coconut.

I’ve had the lime in de coconut going through my head every time I see a new post link.

I hope this cures it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA9OqUuA6a0

(Actually, it’s a bloody good song, even if it has got over 6 million views)

The Rev Dodgson said:

Ever since this post:

ChrispenEvan said:

to answer the unasked question.

you put de lime in de coconut.

I’ve had the lime in de coconut going through my head every time I see a new post link.

I hope this cures it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA9OqUuA6a0

(Actually, it’s a bloody good song, even if it has got over 6 million views)

sorry.

:-)

The Rev Dodgson said:

Ever since this post:

ChrispenEvan said:

to answer the unasked question.

you put de lime in de coconut.

I’ve had the lime in de coconut going through my head every time I see a new post link.

I hope this cures it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA9OqUuA6a0

(Actually, it’s a bloody good song, even if it has got over 6 million views)

Fresh young coconut with white rum poured into it. Mmmmm!