Aboriginal Environmental ImpactsWhen Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney, he saw a magnificent harbour lined with trees. Many areas were park-like in appearance with well-spaced trees interspersed with patches of grass. The local Aborigines were soon driven away and with them went the practice of regularly burning off the undergrowth. The grass disappeared and the undergrowth took over, and so emerged the 'untidy' bush of the foreshore that we see today. For 50,000 years before white settlement the Aboriginal people were an integral part of the environment. They harvested the land and they changed the environment to suit themselves. Fire was their tool for doing this. The degree to which hunting and burning has changed the patterns of vegetation and populations of fauna is hotly debated. Were the Aborigines responsible for the disappearance of the megafauna? In this book Kohen says they were a contributing factor, but probably only after major population declines due to climate change. He presents the arguments and evidence to show that Aboriginal influence on many ecosystems of this continent has been profound and that any understanding of the Australian environment must take this into account. |
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Table des matières
| 25 | |
| 43 | |
| 60 | |
| 80 | |
The impact of European settlement | 106 |
Conclusions | 125 |
ENDNOTES | 138 |
INDEX | 154 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
4000 years ago Aboriginal burning Aboriginal hunting adapted areas argues arid zone Arnhem Land arrived in Australia artefacts Australian environment became extinct bogong moth carnivores certainly changes charcoal climate coast coastal colonisation continent core tool cultural Cumberland Plain dated diet dingo Diprotodon edge-ground European settlement evidence exploit factors fauna fire regime fish Flannery fossils habitat Holocene Homo erectus Homo sapiens horsehoof cores human population ibid impact increasing Aboriginal Kangaroo Island Kartan Kow Swamp Lake Mungo Lampert landscape large animals late Holocene least Lourandos macropods mainland mammals marsupial megafauna ment microlithic occupied occurred pattern perhaps Pleistocene pollen population density possums prey probably protein Queensland rainfall rainforests range resulted sclerophyll sclerophyll forests sea level season shellfish small tool tradition social South Wales specialised species square km stone tools suggests survive Tasmania thylacine tion tool and scraper traditional Aboriginal vegetation associations wallabies woodlands yams
Fréquemment cités
Page 64 - The inhabitants, living chiefly upon shell-fish, are obliged constantly to change their place of residence; but they return at intervals to the same spots, as is evident from the piles of old shells, which must often amount to many tons in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a long distance by the bright green colour of certain plants, which invariably grow on them.
Page 146 - On the Occurrence of a Submerged Forest with Remains of the Dugong at Shea's Creek, near Sydney.
Page 126 - Essentially, management involves the utilization of the landscape without any long-term deterioration, whereas exploitation involves longterm degradation to the detriment of the environment.' He identifies two main interrelated factors that determine whether land use practices can be defined as management or exploitation. The first is the nature of the landuse strategy and the second is the human population density. Both of these factors may seem intuitively obvious, but they need to be justified...
Page 107 - ... Phillips, to cultivate a good understanding with them. When himself was speared he would suffer no vengeance to be taken, and on no account an injury to be done them by a white man. The natives of the Hawkesbury (the richest land possibly in the world, producing 30 and 40 bushels of wheat per acre) lived on the wild yams on the banks. Cultivation has rooted out these, and poverty compelled them to steal Indian corn to support Nature. The unfeeling settlers resented this by unparalleled severities....
Page 64 - Gidjingali) are small camp sites used during the middle of the day while people are engaged in hunting trips away from their home base. At these sites they cook and eat food that has been procured up to that time.
Page 135 - ... routinely and regularly used unless there was a particular need for it. The Gunei in Arnhem Land do not burn for nine or ten months of the year because they are pyromaniacs, they burn to increase the productivity of the landscape.
Page 108 - The fires were sequential, and burning a composite of practices in a mosaic of environments that extended over nine to ten months. Most of the grasslands and savannahs burned: portions of the floodplains burned twice: the woodlands and forests burned on the order of a fourth to a half their area.
Références à ce livre
Rethinking Resource Management: Justice, Sustainability and Indigenous Peoples Richard Howitt Aucun aperçu disponible - 2001 |
The Salinity Crisis: Landscapes, Communities and Politics Quentin Beresford,Hugo Bekle,Harry Phillips,Jane Mulcock Aucun aperçu disponible - 2004 |
Informations bibliographiques
| Titre | Aboriginal Environmental Impacts |
| Auteur | James L. Kohen |
| Édition | réimprimée, révisée |
| Éditeur | UNSW Press, 1995 |
| ISBN | 0868403016, 9780868403014 |
| Longueur | 160 pages |
| Exporter la citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |