Frawley's essay explores oyster populations and technologies in southern Queensland in the la... more Frawley's essay explores oyster populations and technologies in southern Queensland in the late nineteenth century. As cities and towns grew and demand for oysters increased, the depletion of this important keystone species resulted in significant damage to the environment. To sustain diminishing populations, oyster catchers became oyster farmers instead, drawing on existing oyster culture technologies and developing new methods to create new oyster ecologies. This essay delves into those technologies and their effects on the estuary life of southern Queensland.
As a ‘genre of history ’ in Australia environmental history is relatively new, emerging in the 19... more As a ‘genre of history ’ in Australia environmental history is relatively new, emerging in the 1960s and 70s from encounters between history, geography and the natural sciences in the context of growing environ-mental concern and activism. Interdisciplinary in orientation, the field also exhibited an unusually high level of engagement with current environmental issues and organisations. In this era of national research priorities and debates about the role and purpose of university-based research, it therefore seemed fair to ask: ‘can environmental history save the world? ’ In response, a panel of new and established researchers offer their perspectives on issues of relevance and utility within this diverse and dynamic genre. This article has been peer-reviewed.
In the 1880s, Eastern Australian estuaries supported thriving oyster industries. They supplied li... more In the 1880s, Eastern Australian estuaries supported thriving oyster industries. They supplied lime for building early in Australia’s development, but as cities and towns grew, it was the briny salty taste for this delicacy that saw the growth of the sector. When the oyster beds at the east coast of Australia became depleted, fishermen looked to New Zealand, where the same Oyster species grew, to supply cultivation stock for the Australian market. It was presumed that transfers would have the same impact as those already being moved within the Australian ecological networks. That is: it would present no problem at all. What was overlooked in this intercolonial exchange was the presence of the mudworm in the New Zealand estuaries. Mudworm co-habitats with oysters without killing them, but impedes the healthy development of the oysters making them inedible. This chapter places the mudworm at the center of a new narrative in the ecological networks of oysters. Rather than articulating ...
Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities, 2014
Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural r... more Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural ramifications of invasion ecologies. The impossibility of securing national boundaries against accidental transfer and the unpredictable climatic changes of our time have introduced new dimensions and hazards to this old issue. Written by a team of international scholars, this book allows us to rethink the impact on national, regional or local ecologies of the deliberate or accidental introduction of foreign species, plant and animal. Modern environmental approaches that treat nature with naive realism or mobilize it as a moral absolute, unaware or unwilling to accept that it is informed by specific cultural and temporal values, are doomed to fail. Instead, this book shows that we need to understand the complex interactions of ecologies and societies in the past, present and future over the Anthropocene, in order to address problems of the global environmental crisis. It demonstrates how humanistic methods and disciplines can be used to bring fresh clarity and perspective on this long vexed aspect of environmental thought and practice. Students and researchers in environmental studies, invasion ecology, conservation biology, environmental ethics, environmental history and environmental policy will welcome this major contribution to environmental humanities.
Governments across the globe use public–private partnerships to foster entrepreneurship while lim... more Governments across the globe use public–private partnerships to foster entrepreneurship while limiting their risk. ThePrickly Pear Destruction Act 1912enabled the Queensland government to enter contracts with private entities for land heavily covered with prickly pear (OpuntiaandNopaleaspecies). The story of Cactus Estates Ltd, the first negotiation under the Act, provides an opportunity to analyse this response to local ecologies changed by nineteenth-century plant transfers. Most scholarship on the invasion of prickly pear focuses on the science of entomology due to the spectacular success of the introduction ofCactoblastis cactorumin 1926. This article examines an earlier period in the history of applied science in Queensland. The Queensland government, along with scientific and business communities, pursued poisons for controlling the density of plant growth as the preferred mechanism for eliminating plants. Cactus Estates Ltd experimented with arsenic-based poisons for this pur...
By 1925, the introduced prickly pear (Opuntia and Nopalea spp.) covered up to 60 million acres of... more By 1925, the introduced prickly pear (Opuntia and Nopalea spp.) covered up to 60 million acres of Queensland and New South Wales in what was perceived as prime agricultural land. After 40 years of experimentation, all Queensland Government strategies had failed. Faced with this failure and a diminishing expectation that the land would ever be conquered, buffer zones were proposed by the newly formed Queensland Prickly Pear Land Commission. A close reading of government documents, newspaper reports and local histories about these buffer zones shows how settler anxieties over who could or should occupy the land shaped the kinds of strategies recommended and adopted in relation to this alien species. Physical and cultural techniques were used to manage the uneasy coexistence between prickly pear, on the one hand, and farmers and graziers on the other. Furthermore, this environmental history challenges the notion of racially homogenous closer settlement under the White Australia Policy, showing the many different kinds of livelihood and labour in prickly pear land in the 1920s.
School of Design Creative Industries Faculty, 2012
The Talking Fish project arose from an increasing realisation that many different groups of peopl... more The Talking Fish project arose from an increasing realisation that many different groups of people, including fishers, Indigenous communities, tourists and landholders have developed unique relationships with the rivers of the MurrayͲDarling Basin. There is also the growing recognition that the health of the MurrayͲDarling Basin is at risk. By accessing and recording different people’s stories about their experiences of a river, its fish and how both have changed will contribute to our collective knowledge and help shape future management decisions. These stories also have the potential to give people a sense of just what these magnificent rivers and their fish were once likeͲand could be again with ongoing rehabilitation efforts. The Talking Fish project focussed on 12 reaches within the following rivers: Namoi (NSW), Upper Condamine River (Qld), Katarapko Creek (SA), Upper Murrumbidgee River (NSW / ACT), CulgoaͲBalonne Rivers (Qld / NSW), Paroo River (Qld), Goulburn River (Vic), Lower Darling River and the Great Anabranch (NSW), Ovens River (Vic), Mainstem Murray River (NSW / Victoria), Upper Darling River (NSW) and The Coorong and Lower Lakes (SA). The Talking Fish project is a starting point to share local knowledge and learned experience with others to improve the health of the MurrayͲDarling Basin. Project information is available at: www.mdba.gov.au and www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/habitat Aboriginal names usage note The attempts of early European settlers to translate the names of Aboriginal nations and language groups into English led to variations in how these names were spelt. Local Aboriginal people often prefer particular spellings. Where an interviewee has a preference, this is used in their profil
Http Www Dpi Nsw Gov Au Fisheries Habitat Publications Historical Accounts Talking Fish in the Murray Darling Basin, 2011
To say ‘Back o’ Bourke’ means ‘miles from anywhere’ to most Australians, however the Barwon and D... more To say ‘Back o’ Bourke’ means ‘miles from anywhere’ to most Australians, however the Barwon and Darling Rivers that pass by the townships of Brewarrina and Bourke, respectively, are at the heart of the Murray‐Darling Basin. These are the traditional lands of the Ngiyampaa, Murawari and Yuwalaraay peoples (refer Aboriginal language groups in the Bringing back the fish section at the back of this booklet). They fished the river and surrounding waterways and hunted the wetlands. The Ngiyampaa, Murawari and Yuwalaraay people have seen their land and the rivers change...
Frawley's essay explores oyster populations and technologies in southern Queensland in the la... more Frawley's essay explores oyster populations and technologies in southern Queensland in the late nineteenth century. As cities and towns grew and demand for oysters increased, the depletion of this important keystone species resulted in significant damage to the environment. To sustain diminishing populations, oyster catchers became oyster farmers instead, drawing on existing oyster culture technologies and developing new methods to create new oyster ecologies. This essay delves into those technologies and their effects on the estuary life of southern Queensland.
As a ‘genre of history ’ in Australia environmental history is relatively new, emerging in the 19... more As a ‘genre of history ’ in Australia environmental history is relatively new, emerging in the 1960s and 70s from encounters between history, geography and the natural sciences in the context of growing environ-mental concern and activism. Interdisciplinary in orientation, the field also exhibited an unusually high level of engagement with current environmental issues and organisations. In this era of national research priorities and debates about the role and purpose of university-based research, it therefore seemed fair to ask: ‘can environmental history save the world? ’ In response, a panel of new and established researchers offer their perspectives on issues of relevance and utility within this diverse and dynamic genre. This article has been peer-reviewed.
In the 1880s, Eastern Australian estuaries supported thriving oyster industries. They supplied li... more In the 1880s, Eastern Australian estuaries supported thriving oyster industries. They supplied lime for building early in Australia’s development, but as cities and towns grew, it was the briny salty taste for this delicacy that saw the growth of the sector. When the oyster beds at the east coast of Australia became depleted, fishermen looked to New Zealand, where the same Oyster species grew, to supply cultivation stock for the Australian market. It was presumed that transfers would have the same impact as those already being moved within the Australian ecological networks. That is: it would present no problem at all. What was overlooked in this intercolonial exchange was the presence of the mudworm in the New Zealand estuaries. Mudworm co-habitats with oysters without killing them, but impedes the healthy development of the oysters making them inedible. This chapter places the mudworm at the center of a new narrative in the ecological networks of oysters. Rather than articulating ...
Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities, 2014
Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural r... more Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural ramifications of invasion ecologies. The impossibility of securing national boundaries against accidental transfer and the unpredictable climatic changes of our time have introduced new dimensions and hazards to this old issue. Written by a team of international scholars, this book allows us to rethink the impact on national, regional or local ecologies of the deliberate or accidental introduction of foreign species, plant and animal. Modern environmental approaches that treat nature with naive realism or mobilize it as a moral absolute, unaware or unwilling to accept that it is informed by specific cultural and temporal values, are doomed to fail. Instead, this book shows that we need to understand the complex interactions of ecologies and societies in the past, present and future over the Anthropocene, in order to address problems of the global environmental crisis. It demonstrates how humanistic methods and disciplines can be used to bring fresh clarity and perspective on this long vexed aspect of environmental thought and practice. Students and researchers in environmental studies, invasion ecology, conservation biology, environmental ethics, environmental history and environmental policy will welcome this major contribution to environmental humanities.
Governments across the globe use public–private partnerships to foster entrepreneurship while lim... more Governments across the globe use public–private partnerships to foster entrepreneurship while limiting their risk. ThePrickly Pear Destruction Act 1912enabled the Queensland government to enter contracts with private entities for land heavily covered with prickly pear (OpuntiaandNopaleaspecies). The story of Cactus Estates Ltd, the first negotiation under the Act, provides an opportunity to analyse this response to local ecologies changed by nineteenth-century plant transfers. Most scholarship on the invasion of prickly pear focuses on the science of entomology due to the spectacular success of the introduction ofCactoblastis cactorumin 1926. This article examines an earlier period in the history of applied science in Queensland. The Queensland government, along with scientific and business communities, pursued poisons for controlling the density of plant growth as the preferred mechanism for eliminating plants. Cactus Estates Ltd experimented with arsenic-based poisons for this pur...
By 1925, the introduced prickly pear (Opuntia and Nopalea spp.) covered up to 60 million acres of... more By 1925, the introduced prickly pear (Opuntia and Nopalea spp.) covered up to 60 million acres of Queensland and New South Wales in what was perceived as prime agricultural land. After 40 years of experimentation, all Queensland Government strategies had failed. Faced with this failure and a diminishing expectation that the land would ever be conquered, buffer zones were proposed by the newly formed Queensland Prickly Pear Land Commission. A close reading of government documents, newspaper reports and local histories about these buffer zones shows how settler anxieties over who could or should occupy the land shaped the kinds of strategies recommended and adopted in relation to this alien species. Physical and cultural techniques were used to manage the uneasy coexistence between prickly pear, on the one hand, and farmers and graziers on the other. Furthermore, this environmental history challenges the notion of racially homogenous closer settlement under the White Australia Policy, showing the many different kinds of livelihood and labour in prickly pear land in the 1920s.
School of Design Creative Industries Faculty, 2012
The Talking Fish project arose from an increasing realisation that many different groups of peopl... more The Talking Fish project arose from an increasing realisation that many different groups of people, including fishers, Indigenous communities, tourists and landholders have developed unique relationships with the rivers of the MurrayͲDarling Basin. There is also the growing recognition that the health of the MurrayͲDarling Basin is at risk. By accessing and recording different people’s stories about their experiences of a river, its fish and how both have changed will contribute to our collective knowledge and help shape future management decisions. These stories also have the potential to give people a sense of just what these magnificent rivers and their fish were once likeͲand could be again with ongoing rehabilitation efforts. The Talking Fish project focussed on 12 reaches within the following rivers: Namoi (NSW), Upper Condamine River (Qld), Katarapko Creek (SA), Upper Murrumbidgee River (NSW / ACT), CulgoaͲBalonne Rivers (Qld / NSW), Paroo River (Qld), Goulburn River (Vic), Lower Darling River and the Great Anabranch (NSW), Ovens River (Vic), Mainstem Murray River (NSW / Victoria), Upper Darling River (NSW) and The Coorong and Lower Lakes (SA). The Talking Fish project is a starting point to share local knowledge and learned experience with others to improve the health of the MurrayͲDarling Basin. Project information is available at: www.mdba.gov.au and www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/habitat Aboriginal names usage note The attempts of early European settlers to translate the names of Aboriginal nations and language groups into English led to variations in how these names were spelt. Local Aboriginal people often prefer particular spellings. Where an interviewee has a preference, this is used in their profil
Http Www Dpi Nsw Gov Au Fisheries Habitat Publications Historical Accounts Talking Fish in the Murray Darling Basin, 2011
To say ‘Back o’ Bourke’ means ‘miles from anywhere’ to most Australians, however the Barwon and D... more To say ‘Back o’ Bourke’ means ‘miles from anywhere’ to most Australians, however the Barwon and Darling Rivers that pass by the townships of Brewarrina and Bourke, respectively, are at the heart of the Murray‐Darling Basin. These are the traditional lands of the Ngiyampaa, Murawari and Yuwalaraay peoples (refer Aboriginal language groups in the Bringing back the fish section at the back of this booklet). They fished the river and surrounding waterways and hunted the wetlands. The Ngiyampaa, Murawari and Yuwalaraay people have seen their land and the rivers change...
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