Dispossession, degradation and extinction: environmental history in ...

Biodiversity and Conservation 9: 295–308, 2000. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Dispossession, degradation and extinction: environmental history in arid Australia MIKE LETNIC School of Geography, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia Received 11 November 1997; accepted in revised form 14 May 1999

Abstract. Among the most popular media images of Australia are the outback heroes: the explorer, pioneer and pastoralist. However, there is insufficient attention paid to the role that pastoralists and their management strategies have played in the dispossession and degradation of arid Australia. A historical overview of ecology and land management suggests that the fragility of Australia’s arid ecosystems was identified over 100 years ago, and despite repeated calls for reform, effective regional management schemes are still vehemently opposed by pastoralists. I argue that, until the role played by pastoralists and their management strategies in the degradation of arid Australia has been adequately communicated, pastoralists will remain a powerful political lobby capable of thwarting the implementation of sustainable land management practises. Key words: aridity, Australia, biodiversity, management ecology

Introduction I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains. (Mackellar 1918)

The Australian public and our overseas visitors are almost daily confronted with romantic imagery of Australia’s remote, rugged outback and its pioneering heroes. This imagery is typically provided by movies, glossy magazines and television shows and has been incorporated into our national image via icons such as the Akubra hat and Crocodile Dundee (Carter 1996; Griffiths 1996; Richards 1996). Despite the well publicised image of the white pastoral pioneer, there is currently controversy regarding who the custodians of Australia’s outback frontier should be (Reynolds 1987). A recent decision by Australia’s highest court (Wik Peoples vs State of Queensland and Ors; The Thayorre Peoples vs Queensland and Ors 1997) found that Aboriginal title to pastoral lease was not extinguished by the previous granting of a lease and that pastoral lease does not exclude the use of land by Aboriginal people. Consequently various conservative politicians and lobby groups, particularly those serving pastoral and mining interests, have called for a complete abolition of native title (Flood 1997). Unknown to most Australians and virtually all our overseas visitors is the history of land degradation and loss of biodiversity in Australia’s arid frontier (Anon. 1867; Anon. 1901; Finlayson 1935; Ratcliffe 1947; Beadle 1948; Marshall 1966;

296 Morton 1990; Leigh and Briggs 1992; Lunney et al. 1992; Landsberg et al. 1996). The Australian arid lands are not the pristine wilderness often portrayed in the press (Kimber 1994), but amongst the most impacted of Australian ecosystems, having had the highest rate of mammal extinctions found anywhere in the world within the last 200 years (Morton 1990). This record of degradation questions the role of pastoralists as responsible custodians of the land and their aspirations for land tenure in the future. In this essay I examine some aspects of the environmental history of arid Australia, particularly the role that pastoralists (and their stock) have played in its degradation. Arid Australia The arid and semi-arid zone occupies approximately 70% of Australia’s land surface, encompassing numerous land forms and vegetation types, and is characterised by low rainfall. The arid zone is bound in the north by the 750 mm rainfall isohyet, the 250 mm isohyet in the south, the west coast and the 500 mm isohyet to the east (Young 1979).The north is hot with most of the rain occurring during late summer and autumn. The south is characterised by hot summers and cold winters with rainfall occurring mainly during winter. Many of the landforms of arid Australia are particularly ancient and consequently have been subject to extensive weathering. For these reasons the arid zone is relatively flat and possesses extremely poor soils. The most distinctive and important vegetation types within the Australian arid zone are the eucalypt woodlands, acacia woodlands, hummock grasslands, Mitchell grasslands, chenopod shrublands and stony deserts (Harrington et al. 1984). There are also extensive wetlands in the deserts that serve as vital waterbird habitats and breeding areas. Australian deserts, like many of those elsewhere in the world, run on a boom and bust cycle. Long droughts may be followed by exceptionally wet periods, with some years having two to three times the average rainfall (Stafford Smith and Morton 1990). To overcome drought periods and capitalise on good seasons, desert animals and plants use a wide range of strategies including physiological adaptation, aestivation, migration and explosive breeding (Finlayson 1939; Davies 1984; Freudenberger et al. 1989; Dickman et al. 1995; Ludwig et al. 1996). In low rainfall years, annual and ephemeral plants dieback or aestivate as seeds, tubers etc., leaving only the perennial trees, shrubs and grasses, and there is relatively little animal activity as many animals perish, aestivate or migrate to more productive areas. In high rainfall years on the other hand, the deserts can support a rich and abundant biota. People and the landscape People have been an integral component of Australian ecosystems for at least 60 000 years and possibly in excess of 100 000 years (Tacon et al. 1997). During this time,

297 human activities have shaped the vegetation of the continent through the use of fire and, later, pastoral and agricultural practises (Clark 1990; Kohen 1995). For this reason, no environmental history of Australia can proceed without considering human utilisation of the landscape. The Aboriginal occupation of the Australian landscape has seen an increase in the frequency of fire, substantial vegetation changes and the extinction of megafauna (Dodson 1992; Kohen 1995). These changes with human occupation mirror those observed on other continents and islands and have been attributed to both climate change and human activities, although the causative factors have not been isolated (Dodson 1992). The introduction of the Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) by people some 3500–4000 BP (Corbett 1995) led to the extinction of the Thylacine and Tasmanian Devil from mainland Australia (Guiler 1985). At the time of British colonisation Aboriginal people were actively managing the terrestrial environment with evolving technologies (Kimber 1984; Kohen 1995; see below). The year 1788 saw the invasion and colonisation of Australia by the United Kingdom. Since that time there has been a violent annexation of Australia by European settlers (Reynolds 1987). To colonists the Australian landscape was a harsh, alien and unpredictable wilderness inhabited by strange people and even stranger animals (Finney 1984; Hughes 1987). These reflection are witnessed by the art and literature of the early colony, which for a considerable period portrayed Anglicised landscapes and fear of the natural environment (Smith 1960). This portrayal suggests an unwillingness, on the behalf of colonists, to accept the constraints imposed by Australian environments. The renowned explorer Charles Sturt, for example, wrote the following account of his exploration of the Simpson Desert: Ascending one of the sand ridges I saw a numberless succession of these terrific objects rising above each other to the east and west of me... The scene was awfully fearful, dear Charlotte. A kind of dread came over me as I gazed upon it. It looked like the entrance to hell. (Sturt 1844–1845)

The widespread availability of apparently unoccupied land (from the colonists’ perspective) and the cultural inexperience of Europeans in Australia appear to have facilitated a conquering mentality (e.g. Durack 1959). Later colonists overcame their fear of the landscape and its inhabitants by actively subjugating them in their quest for grazing and agricultural land and in so doing placed their own cultural signature on the landscape (Durack 1959; Morton 1993; Head 1994). The shift in the European perception of Australian landscape with survey and settlement is witnessed by a newspaper editor’s remarks on Hodgkinson’s (1877) exploration of the same region traversed by Sturt (1844–1845; see above) 32 years earlier: Thus it is that the Australian desert retreats before the advancing footsteps of the explorer and the herdsman. (Anon. 1876)

In the arid lands subjugation of the landscape was evidenced, for example, by the widespread provision of artificial waters (Landsberg et al. 1997) and the official endorsement of the ‘dispersal’ of Aborigines, the ringbarking of trees and the destruction of native animals (e.g. Anon. 1945; Reynolds 1987; Hrdina 1997). There always

298 was and still is, however, the underlying fear that the ‘capricious’ Australian climate may turn unexpectedly and thus threaten personal well-being or economic prosperity (Durack 1959; Wahlquist 1997). The imposition of what can now be viewed as ill-conceived land-management strategies, developed with little cultural experience of the landscape, has made the last 200 years the most rapid period of change for Australian ecosystems.

Dispossession Following British colonisation, explorers, some commissioned by the government and others privately financed, undertook vast journeys into arid Australia, surveying its features and reporting its prospects for grazing and mining. The journals of these explorers provide some insights into what the environment and Aboriginal life may have been like prior to the British colonisation (Kimber 1983; Denny 1992; Pickard 1992). Aboriginal populations had low densities and survived by hunting and harvesting plant materials (Tindale 1981). Their settlement was usually based around a number of permanent and temporary water sources, including some that could be relied upon during drought times (Peasly 1983; Hercus and Clarke 1986). During wetter periods people travelled further afield to forage, trade and conduct ceremonial activities (Tindale 1981: Hercus and Clarke 1986). It would be naive to think that the explorers and later the squatters and overlanders, complete strangers to arid Australia, could just wander around and happen upon water with little knowledge of the country. To overcome their lack of local knowledge, they used a number of environmental cues and often brutal methods to achieve their ends. Travelling along watercourses, following birds, and consulting local people were common ways of navigating and locating vital water supplies (Hodgkinson 1877; Winnecke 1884; Carnegie 1898). On many occasions, locals were not just consulted but taken captive (Hodgkinson 1877; Winnecke 1884; Carnegie 1898). The gold prospector David Carnegie for example, made considerable use of Aboriginal captives in his navigation across the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts and in his journal writes: I decided to take the gin [Aboriginal woman] back with us, as it had been clear to me for some time past that without the aid of natives we could not hope to find water. “...” I felt myself justified, therefore, in unceremoniously making captives of what wandering tribes we may fall in with. (Carnegie 1898)

The explorers often gave little thanks to the traditional custodians, and many a waterhole was destroyed or depleted by the horses, camels and stock that accompanied expeditions (Winnecke 1882; Carnegie 1898). On one occasion, after capturing some Aborigines and forcing them to guide his party to a well, Carnegie wrote: We did not completely exhaust the water in the well–not, I fear, because we studied the convenience of the natives, but because our makeshift appliances did not enable us to sink deeper. (Carnegie 1898)

Early European settlements like Aboriginal settlements, depended on the availability of permanent water (Durack 1959). Consequently, the more heavily armed Europeans

299 displaced Aboriginal groups, forcing Aborigines to move onto more marginal areas or become dependent on pastoral stations for food and water. In this way Aborigines were drafted into service on pastoral stations as their water supply and hunting grounds were degraded by stock. Aborigines choosing to remain on the land often speared cattle for food and/or led uprisings against the newcomers. However, the consequences were severe, and thousands of Aborigines were massacred in reprisals with Aborigines vilified in the media and literature (Reynolds 1987; Elder 1988). In unsettled areas there was a drift of Aboriginal people towards towns and the repatriation of Aborigines from their traditional lands to missions and reserves (Peasly 1983). The ethnographer Roth wrote the following account, describing the dislocation of aboriginal people from their land only 25 years after settlement of the Boulia district: Owing to the opening up of the country with the advent of the Europeans some of these tribal camps have been shifted of late years from their original quarters or else amalgamated with others, while in a few cases, what with privation, disease, alcohol and lead [bullets], the whole community has been annhilated. Even during my sojourn at Boulia, the head centre of the Pitta-Pitta tribe, I have never seen more than 50 of these individuals congregated there on any one occasion, though this number might occasionally have been augmented by vistors coming in from neighbouring districts for the purposes of trade and barter. At the present day I do not suppose that the whole tribe numbers more than 200 souls, scattered here there and every where. (Roth 1897)

Looking after country Australian Aborigines undertook and, in many parts, continue controlled burning (‘looking after country’) of vegetation to capture game, promote the growth of plants that are valuable for food, prevent widespread wildfires that could destroy food supplies and culturally mark the landscape (Head 1994; Latz 1995; Mutijulu Community and Baker 1996). This method of land management has been coined ‘firestick farming’ by scientists (Jones 1969). In most parts of Australia, Aboriginal burning practises ceased following pastoral settlement or the repatriation of Aborigines to missions (Griffin and Friedel 1985). Since the 1900s there have been a few massive bushfires in central Australia, some of which have burnt for months (Luke and MacArthur 1978). One series of fires is though to have burnt an area 1/3 the size of the Northern Territory (Luke and Mac Arthur 1978). These extensive fires are likely to have resulted from fuel build-up and the absence of fire breaks following the cessation of Aboriginal burning practices. Such wildfires have the potential to destroy large areas of habitat, directly killing animals or destroying their food and shelter. Some scientists and Aborigines believe that these large wildfires may have had long-lasting detrimental effects on the ecology of central Australia (Kimber 1983; Flannery 1990; Mutijulu Community and Baker 1996). The Anangu people of Uluru describe changes in the post-European (Piranpa) fire regime as follows:

300 Before Piranpa came, there weren’t big bushfires because country had always been looked after by Anangu and such fires did not occur. After Piranpa arrived Anangu were forced to move away or were discouraged from looking after country in the old way, by patch burning. That was when Anangu first started to see huge bushfires that have killed off the country, in summers after years of good rainfall. (Mutijulu Community and Baker 1996).

Degradation Following exploration, the next stage in the colonisation of arid Australia was settlement and the establishment of economic industries. In remote areas these were mostly grazing and mining. Mining, though visibly destructive, usually occurs in a relatively small area and so, in most cases, has probably had little impact on the region as a whole. Pastoral activities in arid Australia, on the other hand, typically utilise natural pastures, termed rangelands, and rely upon grazing animals over vast areas, using natural watering points and artesian bores. A single pastoral property may cover millions of hectares. The early pastoral settlers did not have access to the technology to construct artesian bores and began grazing in full knowledge that it would not be possible to produce economic quantities of stock each year (Durack 1959). Their strategy was to maintain herds during drought seasons that could breed up and be sold after high rainfall seasons. This approach placed considerable stress on the vegetation and soils in the vicinity of natural waterholes. John D. Weinholt of Warenda in central-west Queensland, wrote the following acount of his stocking strategy during a few ‘dry’ years in the late 1880s: No surface water accumulated here, and the stock were dependent entirely on springs and what few wells were put down near them, the water being bailed into troughs... The feed of course, for miles around the watering places was very scarce, but it is astonishing how well the cattle there enjoyed good water for some time, and where only a few could be supplied at one place. (Anon. 1890)

With the availability of percussion drills after 1920 came the technology to construct artesian bores easily (Letts et al. 1979). As a result the dependence on natural watering points decreased, allowing the utilisation of more land and maintenance of higher stocking rates, particularly during droughts (Newman and Condon 1969; Landsberg et al. 1997). Consequently, an even greater area of land was subject to grazing and in many cases degradation from overgrazing (Landsberg et al. 1997). It did not take long for pastoralists to realise the fragility of the Australian rangelands. Throughout arid Australia stocking rates reached their peak levels soon after settlement (using natural watering points and rain tanks) although they crashed during droughts. They never again achieved those peak levels despite the availability of bores and therefore a greater area of grazing land (Beadle 1948; Newman and Condon 1969; Friedel et al. 1990). Many pastoralists have blamed the collapse in stocking rates on overgrazing by rabbits, which swept across much of arid Australia towards the end of the nineteenth century (Myers 1983; Ratcliffe 1947). One station owner made the

301 following observations along the rabbit fence that for some time prevented the entry of rabbits into Queensland from New South Wales: The country on the Queensland side is luxuriant with vegetation after this fine season, while on the New South Wales side of the line it is a desert of red sand, relieved only by rabbits and the stumps of dead bushes. (from Payne et al. 1930)

Rabbits have had a major impact on the vegetation of the arid zone (Auld 1995). However, there is considerable evidence that it was stock and not rabbits that were the primary agent of degradation. Francis Ratcliffe, employed to investigate soil erosion in arid South Australia during the 1930s, concluded as follows: Many pastoralists blame the rabbit for damage which they themselves are responsible, through their stock. They lay on this convenient scapegoat the blame for skinning the saltbush and bluebush from hundreds and thousands of square miles of country now bare and eroded. But the bush was killed in the drought, when rabbits were in eclipse; and it was sheep that did the killing. (Ratcliffe 1947)

The collapse of stocking rates in areas free of rabbits, such as north-western Australia (Newman and Condon 1969) and arid areas elsewhere in the world including South Africa (Dean and MacDonald 1994), the Sahel (van Keulen and Breman 1990) and arid parts of South America (Schofield and Bucher 1986), lends further support for the hypothesis that management practices were the factor responsible for the collapse of stocking rates in arid Australia. Following a collapse in stocking rates in 1901–1902, about 50 years after pastoral settlement, the New South Wales government held a Royal Commission into the condition of land in western New South Wales (Anon. 1901). A similar commission was heard in South Australia in 1867 (Anon. 1867). The New South Wales Royal Commission heard of massive soil erosion and the transformation of open shrubland and woodland with a grass understorey into dense shrubland and woodland. Increases in shrub and tree densities in these areas known as the ‘woody weed’ problem are attributed to selective grazing by stock, erosion of soil suitable for grass growth and the cessation of aboriginal burning following pastoral settlement (Ludwig et al. 1996). With respect to the condition of the vegetation of the Cobar region in New South Wales, a stock inspector from Cobar included the following in his submission to the Royal Commission on Western Lands (Anon. 1901): There has been a general deterioration of the country caused by stock, which has transformed the land from its original soft, spongy, absorbent nature to a hard, clayey, smooth surface (more especially on the ridges), which instead of absorbing the rain, runs it off in a sheet as fast as it falls, carrying with it the surface mould, seeds of all kinds of plants, sheep manure and sand andc., to enrich the lower lying country, and plant it with pine, box, and other noxious scrubs.

The collapse in stocking rates throughout arid Australia was associated with overstocking of land extending into drought periods, resulting in the elimination of perennial plants (essential for soil binding and water retention) and, ultimately, soil erosion. This process of soil erosion and transformation of the land surface by human activities in concert with drought has been widespread throughout the world’s arid areas and has been termed desertification (Mabbut 1984).

302 It is the unpredictability of the Australian climate combined with the slow response of pastoralists (to reduce stock numbers), often dictated by market forces (Young et al. 1984), to environmental conditions that has resulted in severe land degradation during drought periods (Ratcliffe 1947; Ludwig et al. 1996). The decisions of pastoralists are by necessity business-based, not conservation based, and thus reflect complex market demands as well as prevailing climatic and landscape conditions. For example, pastoralists have long been faced with the dilemma of meeting short-term financial obligations (e.g. repaying debts and generating cash-flow) or reducing stock numbers in response to unfavourable environmental conditions (Ludwig et al. 1996). The necessity of maintaining short-term business viability therefore has often outweighed the long-term ecological costs associated with overstocking. Today 17% of Australia’s rangelands are so degraded that they require destocking (State of the Environment Australia 1996), but how many pastoralists are willing or in a financial position to do this?

Extinction Declines in the abundance of native mammals were identified soon after the colonisation of arid Australia (Gould 1863; Krefft 1866). In 1857, the naturalist Gerrard Krefft identified declines of several species of native mammals in western New South Wales and Victoria (Krefft 1866). He considered stock (cattle and sheep) to pose the main threat to these mammals and described the decline of the pig-footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus) as follows: This singular animal which Sir Thomas Mitchell first discovered in his expedition to the Darling, June 16, 1836, is still found on the plains of the Murray; though it is exceedingly rare, and is disappearing as fast as the native [Aboriginal] population. The large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle occupying the country will soon disperse those individuals which are still to be found in the so-called settled districts, and it will become more and more difficult to procure specimens for our national collection. (Krefft 1866)

Since British colonisation, 38 species of mammals are considered to have become endangered or extinct within Australia. Of these species 26 were present within the arid zone (Strahan 1983; Morton 1990). Most of these mammals weigh between 0.03–5 kg; they include rodents, carnivorous dasyurids, omnivorous bandicoots and herbivorous kangaroos. Many bird species have also experienced declines in their range and abundance since colonisation (Smith et al. 1994). In addition to the animals, 34 species of plant are known to have become extinct and another 55 species are considered endangered owing to the effects of overgrazing and fire exclusion (Leigh and Briggs 1992). Why did these animals become extinct or rare, many of them in the last 50 years? Many hypotheses for their extinction have been proposed including introduced predators, competition with rabbits, disease, drought, increases in dingo numbers, overgrazing, and the cessation of Aboriginal burning practices, being followed by

303 extensive wildfires (Burbidge and McKenzie 1989; Flannery 1990; Morton 1990; Corbett 1995). Because no one factor appears to have affected the entire arid zone, it seems likely that the extinctions may be a response to a number of these factors in combination, particularly stock and introduced predators (Finlayson 1935; Morton 1990). In 1935, Hedley Finlayson provided this graphic account of the disruption of Australia’s arid ecosystems by colonisation and feral animals: . . . much of the settlement so affected is very sparse so far as the human element is concerned, and incredulity is often expressed that such occupation as obtains in many parts of the interior could have caused appreciable changes to the original conditions. It is not so much, however, that species are exterminated by the introduction of stock, though this has happened often enough, but the complex equilibrium which governs long established floras and faunas is drastically disturbed or even demolished altogether. Some forms are favoured at the expense of others; habits are altered; distribution is modified, and much evidence of the past history of the life of the country slips suddenly into obscurity. (Finlayson 1935)

Present day attitudes and issues Continued calls for preservation and rehabilitation of Australia’s arid rangelands since last century and land rights campaigns by Aborigines suggest that little has changed in the rangelands of Australia (i.e. land is still being degraded and the fight for land tenure continues) (Collins 1997; Woodford and Millet 1997). A recent survey of the attitudes of pastoralists in South Australia indicated that pastoralists identify themselves as a cohesive group (Holmes and Day 1995). As a group they regard themselves to be responsible custodians of the rangelands and consider their livelihoods to be more threatened by interest groups such as conservationists and Aborigines than by environmental uncertainty and land degradation (Holmes and Day 1995). Given the poor history of pastoralists as land managers and the overriding influence of unpredictable droughts and floods on livestock production, their response appears to be counter-intuitive. The attitudes of many pastoralists appear to be a product of history and the cultural insularity produced by the isolation of the Australian rangelands. Since the time of the squatters and overlanders, rural Australians have long been recognised as individualists who initially acquired and developed their land with little government aid (Durack 1959; Coupe 1989). Their perceived threat of external interest groups is likely to result from deeply rooted resentment against Aborigines who constituted a physical enemy (and now a legal enemy) to be overcome and governments and city-dwellers whose lack of financial support or unwelcome advice on Aboriginal, environmental and economic matters have long been seen as a hindrance to ‘progress’ (Carnegie 1898; Durack 1959; Coupe 1989; Reid 1994; Morton et al. 1995). Recently rural Australians have voiced their opposition to government controls on land clearing and the establishment of integrated catchment management schemes (Reid 1994; Dick 1996). These demonstrations suggest that many farmers and

304 pastoralists, while offering rhetoric calling for the adoption of sustainable practices (e.g. National Farmers Federation 1996), are unwilling to see serious reforms implemented by external agencies. Instead, politicians and farming organisations have used the existence of community initated land management schemes (e.g. Landcare) as an argument for not implementing external management decisions made by government departments and scientists (Curtis and De Lacy 1996). However, research suggests that many Landcare initiatives, while increasing the awareness of landholders to environmental problems (Goss and Chatfield 1993; Holmes and Day 1995; Curtis and De Lacy 1996), place too much responsibility upon individual landholders, who do not have the finance or motivation to effect sustainable practises (Curtis and De Lacy 1996). In this context Landcare expenditure could be seen as ‘soft green dollars’ outlaid by governments cautious not to provoke retribution from a powerful rural lobby suspicious of external management. The history of degradation and extinction within Australia’s arid lands suggests that there is increased need for external management of the rangelands. One measure that I believe to be essential is the adoption of regional land management schemes (Morton et al. 1995). Such schemes will allow external bodies (such as a government department) a role in land management by providing them with the legislative power to influence land-clearing, stocking levels, water-use and soil erosion. Increased harvesting of native animals such as kangaroos and emus may also present less destructive opportunities for utilisation of arid lands than the grazing of hard hooved sheep and cattle (Grigg 1996). Unfortunately, from a conservation perspective, pastoralists constitute a powerful lobby group in political circles and consequently their opposition to external management strategies is usually heeded (see above). Pastoralist’s political position appears to be bolstered even further by their popular media image as pioneers ‘doing it tough on the unforgiving land’ (e.g. Durack 1957; Duncan-Kemp 1961; Cole 1988; Wahlquist 1997). Recent moves to provide a more accurate social history of Australia (e.g. Reynolds 1987) have outlined the role of pastoralists in the maltreatment of aborigines, but it is politicians and not pastoralists who have provided the apologies (Carlton 1997). Perhaps the reason for this is that pastoralists still remain as icons (e.g. Cole 1988) that can be sold in the marketplace (Richards 1996) and as a result have not been targeted by media campaigns. Certainly, media campaigns by conservationists have been successful in changing forestry practises in Australia (Morton 1993). One step towards rectifying the environmental problems of arid Australia may be to shift the emphasis of media reports on outback Australia. Perhaps then, pastoralists and the history of their land management strategies, rather than arid Australia’s unpredictable rainfall and poor soils, will be focus of the inevitable drought stories broadcast by the popular media. To do this, however, scientists and historians will need to become more adept at utilising the media and interacting with conservationists. Relatively recent changes in the perception of Australia’s Aboriginal and convict social histories (e.g. Reynolds 1987; Hughes 1987) have been labelled as ‘black

305 arm-band history’ by conservative politicians. This denial of distasteful events in Australia’s history has been termed ‘historical amnesia’ (Hughes 1987). The generally poor level of public knowledge and paucity of media treatment concerning arid Australia’s recent history suggest that historical amnesia also afflicts our environmental history. Perhaps pastoralists and Australians, in general, have denied their misunderstanding and mismanagement of arid Australia’s ecology. Without widespread recognition of arid Australia’s environmental history it will be difficult to persuade pastoralists and the public of the need for rangeland reforms. Again, this emphasizes the need for more open lines of communication between the media, scientists and historians etc.

Conclusion Historical analysis suggests that the Australian arid zone has been degraded, probably irreversibly, by the application of management techniques ill-suited to unpredictable rainfall and poor soils. The popular media image of the tough pioneer hero battling the environment is literally correct, but there is little evidence to demonstrate that pastoralists have worked within the ecological constraints of arid Australia. The history of degradation and extinction following British colonisation suggest that less intensive management techniques used by Aboriginal people are/were better suited for land management in arid Australia. We have been aware of arid Australia’s susceptibility to degradation and loss of biodiversity for over 100 years; however, without integrated management, including input from external interest groups, degradation will continue. When Australians identify themselves with explorers and pioneers they present a dark image, acknowledging the violent annexation of Australia and the exploitation and degradation of its fragile environment. An important step towards conservation of Australia’s arid lands may be to dispel the myths of outback Australia, by detailing the role of pastoralists in its disposession and degradation to the general public. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Daniel Simberloff and three anonymous referees for their comments which greatly improved the content of this paper.

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