The Editor's Notebook

Today, the planet Mars will be 69 million km from Earth — the closest it will be for the next 13 years.

Shevill Mathers, Leatherwood Online’s sky guru writes:

Astronomers around the world will be making the most of this close approach of the planet Mars.

The term ‘planet’ is not a scientific or astronomical term but has been used since early times to describe a ‘wandering star’.

The Boneyard’s toll climbed again when a third pod of 130 pilot whales, a species of dolphin, became stranded on a remote beach late yeserday.

Two groups of long finned pilot whales beached themselves near Marion Bay on the southern island state of Tasmania, according to Liz Wren, a spokeswoman for the state’s parks and wildlife service.

A fisherman first reported seeing the whales swimming ashore early Tuesday, but Wren said it took wildlife officials several hours to reach the site, which is accessible only by boat.

Nearly 60 whales died and about 10 had been rescued with the help of scores of volunteers and wildlife officials by nightfall Tuesday.

But a third pod began beaching at dusk. For safety reasons, the rescue effort did not resume until this morning, Wren said, when rescuers found about 70 of the latest arrivals dead and 14 still alive. Volunteers battled onshore winds and rough surf to return eight survivors to the sea by late morning. Another eight died.

Wren said exact numbers of deaths and survivors were not available because the beachings were spread over more than two kilometres of beach.

Writing in The Age, Andrew Darby, sums up another sad day for Tasmanian wildlife:

Another season, another row of streamlined whales, stiff and lifeless beside a surf break known as Boneyard. And there’s still little understanding why.

A herd of about 70 pilot whales came to grief on a rocky shore near Marion Bay, east of Hobart, yesterday. About 10 that were still alive were rescued.

The stranding confirmed the area’s reputation as a trouble spot for pilot whales, which are normally deep ocean dwellers.

Last December at nearby Maria Island, 53 of the animals beached - one of three mass strandings within 24 hours in Tasmania and New Zealand that killed 160.

Seven years ago to the week, 204 pilot whales stranded at Marion Bay, and 110 died.

Photo: Peter Mathew

Desperate to claim a share of the ancient “dinosaur” native — the Wollemi pine — bidders held up their hands for more than $1.5 million yesterday at a Sydney auction.

They were after 292 “first generation” saplings grown from cuttings of rare parent pines in the Wollemi National Park, New South Wales.

And we can now appreciate why Hobart’s own Wollemi pine is secured in its circular security cage at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.

The historic trees, once the food of dinosaurs, were thought to be extinct until a park ranger stumbled across them while canyoning.

Snatching the chance to recreate the now-secret grove, more than 200 bidders flocked to the Sydney Botanic Gardens for the Sotheby’s auction.

The largest and most coveted lot, the Sir Joseph Banks collection of 15 trees, was snapped up for $149,000, well in excess of the $50,000 auction house estimate.

Single trees, from tiny saplings to 2m trees, fetched between $2000 and $7000.