The Search for a Solution to Australian Locust Outbreaks: How Developments in Ecology and Government Responses Influenced Scientific Research

Abstract

A national research approach to the ‘grasshopper problem' began following a plague of the Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera Walker) in inland south-eastern Australia in the 1930s. After the plague of the 1950s, the role of arid inland areas as a source of migrations into agricultural areas received greater attention. In the 1960s and 1970s, international collaborative experimental research with the CSIRO advanced the knowledge of locust lifecycles and population ecology. Studies of nocturnal mass migration on upper-level winds brought a new understanding of Australian locust population dynamics. This paper traces Australian research into locust ecology within the contexts of locust infestations and government responses to them. Investigations on Australian locusts reflected many contemporary ideas and methods in entomological research and contributed to the development of international ecological theory during the twentieth century. International locust research based on the phase change and outbreak area model of Uvarov particularly influenced work carried out in Australia.