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ABSTRACT Environmental impact is clearly evident in Australia. By using the concept of an ecosystem, the term environment is defined as being composed of six interconnected areas. Although Aboriginals modified their landscape, particularly through their use of fire, the impacts they made did not substantially damage the environment. In contrast, the white settlers quite deliberately set out to tame, civilze, and exploit the land. The native flora was affected by clearing, grazing, and introduction of foreign plants. Likewise, the fauna has had serious competition from introduced animals. Over half of Australia's wetlands have been destroyed in various ways, and our seas also fail to escape human impact. The land itself suffers from erosion, salinity, and desertification, as well as considerable change in the terrain. Industrial centres and the nation's cars affect the atmosphere. Each of these issues are closely inter-related. The seriousness of the impacts of 207 years of white settlement make it clear that the supporting ideologies are no longer sustainable. INTRODUCTION "In the last one hundred years man has reshaped the earth more than he did in all the preceding generations, and today he changes land, sea and sky more rapidly and radically than he ever did in the past. The sheer scale of our present impact on the environment confronts us ..."1 Indeed it does! And here in Australia no less than elsewhere. In fact David Attenborough estimates that eighty percent of Australia has been damaged since white settlement.2 What have been the actions and ideologies behind the environmental impacts? What have the impacts been? Can the Australian environment continue to sustain the impacts? In answering the first question Aboriginal and white environmental ideologies are discussed; to illustrate the different land management approaches; to provide a baseline for the state of the environment before settlement; and to understand why the settlers interacted with the Australian environment as they did. The various impacts made upon the environment are then looked at to cover the second question. Finally, relationships between the topics, and implications for the environment's future, are mentioned. Prior to discussing these issues it is necessary to define what is meant by the term environment. DEFINITIONS A general definition of environment is, "conditions under which any person or thing lives or is developed; the sum total of the influences which modify and determine the development of life or character."3 Environment is also equated with 'surroundings'. It is possible to have a variety of environments, political, social, economic, etc. But the one that comes most readily to mind is the physical environment. A definition of the physical environment is encompassed well by describing an ecosystem. An ecosystem is all of "the organisms that comprise a community and the physical environment [surroundings] with which they interact - including soil, water, atmosphere, terrain, etc"4 All components of the environment are interdependent, no one component of the system can experience change or human impact without far-reaching effects. For the purposes of this essay, environment, will be defined as a complex interaction of: flora; fauna; wetlands (including rivers, lakes, underground water, etc) and oceans; land; and atmosphere. ABORIGINAL IDEOLOGY Aboriginals have been living in Australia for at least 60,000 years, and not surprisingly have a thorough understanding of the world they live in. In Bell's words, "they explain to their children the significance of the land and its bounty, they impress upon children the integration of person, place and the Dreamtime heritage as one living complex whole"5 Evidence of Aboriginal land management is apparent in many areas, for example, yams were collected in a fashion that allowed them to grow again, waterholes were regularly cleared and care taken not to foul an essential supply, and most importantly, their use of fire to 'clean up the country'. Regular low-density fires were used to produce grasslands (both for grain and animal pasture); to protect already productive areas by burning fire-breaks; and to control food yields. Regular burning increased cycad kernel production up to seven times and ensured that the crop ripened at the same time.6The fact that they "kept their own population in balance with their environment "7 is another example of understanding the limits of their land. "[M]uch of the vegetation encountered by early white settlers in Australia was not natural but artificial: an Aboriginal artefact..."8, It was an environment that had been managed in a way that didn't cause ongoing damage.
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