The April 5 Edition

A tiny beetle is ravaging large numbers of trees (including century-old Moreton Bay figs and maples) in Perth – and it could be coming to a park or backyard near us on the east coast, if we’re not careful. The pest, no bigger than a grain of rice, is known as the polyphagous shot-hole borer, and its deadly talent is excavating a maze of tunnels inside a tree’s trunk and branches, leaving behind a trail of fungal spores which gradually cut off its supply of water and sap. As journalist Victoria Laurie tells us in her story this week, the borer, a native of South-East Asia, arrived on our shores about four years ago. This has already led to 4500 large trees across Perth being cut down – and many thousands more having branches removed. What has environmentalists, scientists and fruit-growers losing sleep is the prospect of the beetle hitching a ride to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and, in a worst-case scenario, spurring mass tree deaths in the eastern states. Also in this issue, the remarkable world of Cody Simpson, the former teenage pop idol and Commonwealth Games swimmer now receiving plaudits for his lead role in Guys & Dolls. – Acting editor, Greg Callaghan.