3.1.2 Relationships Flashcards
Relationship
R= P+I+I
Perception- How you view land
Interaction- How you act in outdoors
Impact- Effect you have on environment
Indigenous perceptions
Arrived 60-100,000 years ago Custodians of the land Part of the land Don't own it Land is their mother Live to protect it ever take more than you need Equal to the land Spiritual connection, totems
Indigenous land use
Victoria- Estimated 18,000 aboriginals lives in 38 distinct groups or tribes
Tribal lands around Melbourne
Bunurong people
Hunter gatherers- Don’t farm
Worked thirty hours week- Time/ energy efficient
Smallpox wiped most of the tribe 1790-1830
Bunurong people
Part of the tribes around bay referred Kulin Nation
Prevent interbreeding by marrying into surrounding tribes
1839- Reduce from 300-83
1850- 28
No more ‘pure’ Bunurong
Indigenous interaction
First race to a have sustainability, maintain it in better shape for next generation Most advanced race Fire stick farming Nomadic lifestyle Hunter gathering Story places Songs as road maps
Fire stick farming
Positive/ Negative
Positive 'Flush out' animals so they can be hunted Attracts animals- regrowth Manage fires Promote regeneration/ regrowth Negative Populated by tough species Destroy habitats Contributes to extinction of mega-fauna Change in Australian landscape
Hunter gathering
Aboriginals did not farm- too risky, climate variation, geological stability
Lived off what was available
Kangaroos/ fish/ emus
Possum skins clothing relied tools, weapons, skill
Story places
First 'national parks' ever created Sections of land where spirits resided Illegal to hunt in these regions according aboriginal law 'Safe zone' where animals reproduce Free to be hunted outside
Nomadic lifestyle
Bunurong were nomadic Moved location with the seasons Summer's spent beachside Winter spent further inland Areas tribal land, regenerate, weren't exhausted, available food
Wilsons Prom
Great spirit Luern lived/ protected Bunurong/ Gurnai Kurnai people in times distress
Middens found Whiskey bay, Sorrento, Portsea- evidence aboriginal hunter gathering/ nomadic lifestyle
Oral traditions
Aboriginals didn’t carry pens/ paper- impractical
Passed on stories (A-B) songs, ‘road maps’
Contemporary aboriginals relationship
European settlement- 1830s
Perception
Similar to pre
Some Bunurrongs, children’s were educated as ‘white children’
Mission to help
Introduce Christianity
Interaction
Hunter gathering/ fire stick farming restricted
Hunter gathering- livestock stolen from settlers, indigenous food sources, kangaroos shifted as result of deforestation
Nomadic lifestyle restricted due to ‘boundaries’ imposed by farmers, food in one particular area
Fire stick farming- Bunurong were diminished by disease
Impact
Increase uncontrollable fires
Over populated kangaroos
Conflict between farmers, shooting
Legal to kill if they ‘caused trouble’
Loss identity/ culture
De-aboriginalising
Removal of aboriginal people from their lands
Remove part of them/ bodies/ identity
Bunurong lady noted ‘the land is our food, our culture, our spirit and our identity’
Social problems
Quick criticize them
No comprehension of what aboriginal people go through
Some tribes live traditionally on traditional lands, Northern territory
Terra Nullius
1922
Ruled incorrect
Aboriginals DO use land correctly
Some land given back, slowly recognized as traditional owners
Evidence of aboriginals In Victoria
Shell Middens- Portsea/ Sorrento/ Cape Schank, leftovers after feasts (shells, stone flakes), forrest caves beach
Scarred trees- Box/ red gum trees, create canoes/ shields/ shelters,from Corinella paddle to Phillip Island
Mounds- Earth contains charcoal from fire, clay ovens, shell, bones
Burial sites
Burial grounds- often contain bones, teeth, important items, tools, ornaments
Spiritual/ sacred places
Quarries- Rocky outcrops, extracted materials for making axe heads, grinding stones/ other tools, Grampians
Phillip Island
“Beang Gurt”
Come to area 40,000 years ago
Came summer months- rich variety food available
Travelled bark canoe
Evidence scarred trees
Swan lake popular campsite- supply fresh water
Sea provided fish, abalone, shellfish
Shell Middens (pile empty shells), Forrest Caves beach
Native spinach
Gum/ sap from wattles/ eucalypts, banksia blossoms, dissolved in water to make sweet drinks
Seeds/ fruits Pale flax lily, coastal wattle, Coast beard-Heath provided variety in diet
Yams- important food source
Plants used medicinal purposes- bark Golden wattle
Clearing of land- first non-indigenous settlers the McHaffies, cleared Phillip island to farm animals such as sheep and cattle, provide areas for infrastructure and housing to be built
Intro native species- the McHaffies and other non-indigenous settlers which came from UK wanted Phillip island to be more like ‘home’, introduced animals such as foxes rabbits onto land
Bunurong hunted
Black swamp wallaby Possum Seals Penguins Shirt-tailed shearwater Echidna Cape Barron Geese Swans Parrots Fish Abalone Shellfish
Cape Schanck
Set aside secret men’s business
Celebrate/ recreate actions of dreaming ancestors
Rites initiation practices
Initiation was transition- boyhood to manhood
Point Nepean
Secret women’s business
The beach- where dolphins give birth, restricted to women.
Men were unable to approach- fear of injuries likely to be inflicted by strong female spirits
Knowledge of fertility and child birth
Sorrento/ Portsea
Shellfish, collected by women, extremely important part people’s diet- confirmed by number of middens in area:
Known to be 8, bayside Sorrento, 7, back beach, 6, Portsea’s back beach, 25, quarantine station
Dandenong to Cranbourne
River red gums- canoes
Tyabb
Fresh water hole
Wilsons Prom
Harvested mutton birds
Mt Oberon where Boonjil- Eaglehawk spirit sometimes lived, so spiritually powerful it could only be seen through screen of leaves.
Bunurong movement
Seasonal- not our seasons, but theirs, watched for signs
winter began shy away, elders would see first blooms of the ti-tree, declare it was once again time to travel back to the swamps and coastal lagoons for the ‘egging’ season
Knew when first Wattles flowered, species fish were about to begin spawning, giving enough time to travel to the river and creek mouths to net or spear fish- surviving sustainably and comfortably
The dreaming
Their world/ history began with the Dreaming
Total of religious beliefs, held in genuine conviction by close to all Aboriginal people
Dreaming stories tell of the beginning, they tell of ancestor heroes who appeared and created life and the landscape as they moved from place to place
Creators were often animals or birds
Boonjil
2 creation totems, Boonjil, Eaglehawk, Waang, Crow
Boonjil- most important Bunurong ancestor heroes
Came from the skyworld, land of trees in heaven, cut the land with his knife, creating valleys, mountains, rivers, trees
Boonjil breathed life into clay, and so created the first people
When his acts of creation were complete, returned to sky
Indigenous at the Prom
Interaction
Impact
Part of environment
Sustainable use of resources
Use fire to ‘flush out’ animals
Promote regrowth
Sustainable
Fire influenced structure of vegetation
Sealing
Perception
Impact
1798
Seals were a commercial resource to be used by early settlers
Abundant number of seals, commercial possibilities were high
1830- most seals killed, industry no longer available
Timber cut to burn blubber
Areas vegetation killed for huts
Sealers brought cats/ dogs/ rabbits, became vermin
Access by indigenous to tribal land denied
Whalers
Perception
Impact
Valuable commercial resource use pd for survival
Considered dangerous/ threat to early settler, killing could be justified
Forests could be harvested for fuel- burn blubber
High timber demand- populated gold fields
Farmers required posts/ railings for fences
Loggers
Impacts
Strategies
Soil disturbance
Clearing vegetation
Loss old growth trees/ habitat for wildlife
Ban logging
Legislation to protect native flora
Natural regeneration
Mining
Perception
Impacts
Strategies
WW1- during this time tin became scarce, price doubled
Economic interest outweighed conservation debate at this time
Clearing vegetation
Construction pipelines
Erosion
Increase turbidity in waterways
Natural regeneration- land/ waterways
Education- impacts of mining on environment
Cattle grazing
Perception
Impacts
Strategies
Natural grasslands were ‘ideal’ pasture for stock
Believed land could be sustainably grazed, maintain biodiversity
Stopped 1922
altered structure native vegetation- trampling/ grazing wetlands
Change in biomass
Formation tracks
Weed dispersal- ragwort/ thistles
Weed control program
Control burning programs, help combat spread tea-tree
Education/ interpretation programs
Culture/ heritage management
Sealers cove settlement
1798
Lighthouse establish
What industries benefited
Impact
1859
Navigational aid to increase amount of commercial trade
Healthy woodlands cleared for construction
Recreation
Where people stayed
Impacts
Impact evidence
1930s recreational tourism
Introduction weeds
Soil compaction- hard hooves
Increase erosion
Post WW2
Why increase at Prom
No awareness potential impact on environment
Most scenic place camp, tidal river
Existing infrastructure army commando camps provide accommodation for more tourists
Impacts on contemporary visitors
Water pollution Impact freshwater habitat/ species Erosion Increase litter Feeding of native animals
Management strategies protect camp
Minimal impact
Planning for placement of campsites
Limit number campsites available
Upgrade installation water treatment/ sewerage plant at tidal river
When was the Prom made national park
1890- temporary reserve 91,000 hectares
1905- 75,000 hectares permanent
2002- named marine national park
What group petitioned for Prom to be national park
Field naturalists
1996
Protest against further development of tidal river
2002 event
Legislation passed creating worlds first representative system of highly protected marine areas
