In article ,
Phred wrote:

then a brown "skin" on the white flesh, then the liquid, and
finally the embryo itself. I think that's the lot.

Can an amateur in a cold climate identify a coconut embryo? We mostly
see them stripped to the hard brown shell, but green coconuts do appear
here, usually hacked to a convenient size to hold and with a hole bored
and a plastic straw stuck in.

Seems there's a view that coconuts are not native to Australia. Given
that they are dispersed so readily by sea as you point out, and they
occur all around large parts of the Pacific, it's really hard to
believe that they didn't arrive "naturally" in Australia too.

They seem to be common around the Indian Ocean as well. If tiny geckos
can make it all the way from Madagascar to the Andaman Islands by sea,
with possible stops at Reunion and Mauritius, why not coconuts to Australia
from Sri Lanka or Indonesia?

The "death to coconuts" gang suggest that the Great Barrier Reef may
have prevented them coming ashore where they would have been best
adapted. (And they may have a point when one looks at prevailing
ocean currents -- but one of my mates also suggests the aborigines
just ate them as fast as they arrived! ;-)

I like the island-hopping hypothesis. It's better than the one where
they stick to bird's feet or travel in their guts.