On the North coast of Arnhem Land is an indigenous community called Maningrida. An hour’s drive from Maningrida is an outstation called Kolorbidahdah, nearby a river called Cadell, and standing in this river is Dr Robert Raven, an arachnologist with the Queensland Museum.
He is surrounded by a group of local Maningrida high school science students, explaining that around him could be up to 300 species of spiders, never before studied. The excitement in Dr Raven’s face is contagious. He has devoted his life to the study of spiders, despite being chronically arachnophobic.
His pupils charge off into the bush under instructions to gather as many species as possible. "Careful guys, we want them intact," calls Dr Raven.
The Maningrida Community Education Centre has invited Raven and his lizard-catching associate, Dr Andrew Amey, to assist the senior boys with their high school science project. It’s all part of the Year 12 Contemporary Issues in Science subject, in which students are studying the diversity and abundance of spiders in burnt and bush environments.
The connection between Dr Raven and Maningrida began in 2005, when the school created a science class for senior students. With no science facilities or resources, teacher Mason Scholes decided to use what was at hand—the outdoors, and the boys’ natural inclination to collect creepy-crawlies.
Despite previous jobs in the National Parks system, Scholes didn’t know a lot about spiders, so he called the Brisbane-based Dr Raven. Excited by a school that was finally encouraging the study of things that can kill you, the good doctor furnished him with details of how to catch and keep samples, and offered to identify the genus, gender and attributes of what they found.
Months later, the astonished Dr Raven was informing the boys they had discovered 18 new species of spider.
He remembers the moment clearly. "It was so exciting, I couldn’t believe it ... This is a new world here. These guys are real discoverers. This is like exploring; we’re breaking new ground. Where has this spider fauna come from? Is it Asian? Is it Australian? Is it a mixture of both? Our pet ideas could go out the window in a flash."
So little has been collected from this area that just about everything Dr Raven and the boys find is, in some way, new. He is intrigued by the process of drawing out the story of the land,