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This article is a book review of "Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ: Australia's 'Mission Girl' Annie Lock" by Catherine Bishop. The book is a historical biography that focuses on the Methodist missionary Annie Lock and her work with Aboriginal communities in Australia from the 1900s to the 1930s. The review highlights the benefits and damage of cultural exchange and explores the prejudices and complacency of Lock and other missionaries towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples. It also discusses the construction of boundaries between cultures and the role of missionary work in the settler state's racist agenda. The review praises the book for its contribution to understanding the power of disconnection and the need to listen to different voices and truths. [Extracted from the article]

Landscape‐scale factors known to influence in‐field abundance of pest herbivores and their natural enemies, but little is known about effects that operate through the shorter‐range influences exerted by habitats immediately adjacent to crop fields.This study first compared the abundance of brassica insect pests and their natural enemy arthropods in 24 spatially independent brassica vegetable fields across southern Australia. An 'edge effect' index was used to compare the abundance of each taxon in the field center with abundance in areas of the crop adjacent to differing habitats. Then, three landscape properties: landscape composition, edge density, and connectivity of diverse crop and non‐crop habitats were analyzed at five scales up to 5 km from these focal field centers to assess longer‐range influences on arthropod abundances in field centers and on the edge effects.Edge effect of adjacent woody vegetation promoted ladybirds and reduced diamondback moth and whiteflies. Conversely, the presence of crops and pastures immediately adjacent to focal crop fields reduced whiteflies and aphids but with no effect on natural enemies.Effect of landscape composition and connectivity on arthropod abundance at field center found promotion of aphids (cabbage aphid and green peach aphid) by woodland in the landscape.Effect of landscape properties on the edge effects of adjacent habitats was contrasting; strengthened (landscape composition and edge density on edge effect of crops, pasture and woody vegetation in reducing diamondback moth and whiteflies) as well as weakened (edge density and landscape connectivity on edge effect of crops, pasture and woody vegetation in reducing diamondback moth on diamondback moth, whiteflies and aphids, and promoting ladybirds).Synthesis and applications: Findings of this geographically extensive study help define the level of pest risk associated with sites as well as suggest potential interventions such as establishment or restorations of woody vegetation adjacent to crop fields that could reduce risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canola crops grown across southern Australia are subject to damage from more than 40 invertebrate species. Shifts within this invertebrate pest complex have evolved due to changing management practices. The latest change is the sowing of winter canola cultivars in the proceeding spring (September–November), grazing during late summer to early winter (February–June) and then 'locking up' for grain harvest in December/January. Complementary to this practice is the sowing of longer‐season spring cultivars in early autumn, also for grazing. Do long‐growing‐season crops create green bridges for insects and diseases? In the autumn of 2016, significant damage to forage canola caused by Hellula hydralis Guenée, 1854 was reported. The widespread occurrence of H. hydralis moths across south‐east Australia is expected due to it migrating on southerly airflows from where it is a pest in subtropical vegetable crops. Previously, H. hydralis had been considered as an occasional pest in forage turnips grown over the summer–autumn period. However, the occurrence of multiple larval instars in winter canola for a prolonged period in late summer and early autumn of 2016 across the high‐rainfall zones of south‐east Australia causing substantial loss of dry matter has not been reported previously. Little is known about this native species, but international literature exists for related pest species. The likely factors and implications of the unusually high occurrence of H. hydralis in forage canola are discussed. Pest report data indicate that H. hydralis continues to cause damage, suggesting that the growing of long‐season forage canola is providing another, more suitable, over‐summer breeding ground in southern Australia for this native species. Long‐term research on crop and non‐crop hosts is necessary to understand, hence manage, H. hydralis as a pest of canola. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the spring and summer of 2001, surveys of 50 plantings of vegetable brassicas (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) and associated wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) weeds were done to determine the occurrence of three aphid-borne viruses, Beet western yellows virus (BWYV), Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) and Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV). Plantings at 15 widely separated farms were sampled in the Perth metropolitan and Manjimup regions of south-west Australia. None of the three viruses was detected in vegetable brassica plantings at Manjimup and neither were CaMV or TuMV detected in the Perth metropolitan region. BWYV was only detected at a low incidence (2% infection) in one planting of cabbage at Carabooda. In contrast, populations of wild radish from one farm in Perth and five out of six farms at Manjimup were infected with BWYV at incidences up to 65%. One population of wild radish was also infected with TuMV at an incidence of 2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]