On the Wallaby
Overseas study students discover the challenges and enigmas of Australia while out on the Wallaby
Winter 2002
Australia is a land of environmental enigmas: World heritage sites like the Great Barrier Reef and the wet tropics of Queensland, yet beset by urban sprawl. Self-proclaimed home of the world’s first “green Olympics,” yet a paradigm for species extinctions. Marsupial like the koala that evolved nowhere else in the world, yet invaded by aliens such as the rabbit and the cane toad. The setting for the world’s longest-surviving society, the Aboriginal peoples, yet too often disrespectful of the land and the sacred places that have enabled them to survive for as long as 60,000 years.
Students in Michigan State University’s Australia: Media, Environment and Culture program study, think about and debate such enigmas during their six weeks of travel around Darwin on the continent’s Top End, at Uluru—Ayers Rock—and Alice Springs in the Red Centre, and in the national capital of Canberra, cosmopolitan Sydney and in Cairns, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. To get a flavor of their explorations, following are excerpts from nature essays by students in the 2001 program.
---
Eric Freedman is an assistant professor in MSU’s School of Journalism and headed the Australia: Media, Environment & Culture Program in 2000 and 2001. For information on the Summer 2002 program, contact MSU Journalism Professor Folu Ogundimu at (517) 353-6761 or ogundimu@msu.edu. Visit the program Web site at australia.jrn.msu.edu.
On dangerous wildlife
According to Brian Bush, an Australian snake researcher, “Snakes have had only 40,000 odd years of human predation to contend with. None of their behavior has involved targeting humans. Maybe this is why it is almost impossible to accidentally get bitten unless you run around the scrub in bare feet with your eyes shut, and half full of alcohol.”
Now, you’re thinking, what kind of person would do such a thing? Well believe it or not, they’re actually out there and we encountered one. Touring Kakadu National Park, our group of American students encountered this very stereotype. Our guide, Greg, fit the model of a rugged Outback man—stained clothing, unshaven face and hair that hadn’t been washed in quite some time.
As we drove toward Kakadu, he woke up the napping passengers by making a sharp U-turn, practically overturning the attached trailer. Without explanation, he jumped out of the driver’s seat, barefoot, and picked up a snake, which he later identified as the western brown snake. He motioned for us to follow him, though several students opted to stay in the bus.
After several unsuccessful attempts to pin the snake’s head with a large stick, he took another approach and used his shirt to grab the snake. At this point, students slowly crept toward the bus. We were all impressed by his lack of fear, but didn’t share his confidence. He defined himself as the “fair dinkum Crocodile Hunter.” A minute later, he threw down the snake and ordered us back to the bus. We then sped to the closest gas station without any explanation.
He’d been bitten.
On food, plants, culture and society
“It tastes like chicken,” “It tastes like beef,” “It doesn’t taste as sweet as it does at home.” “There’s no way I could eat that.” I hear these murmurs from my classmates as we sit at Kakadu National Park in northern Australia under the Southern Cross, feasting on crocodile, kangaroo and water buffalo. From drinking a Coke to eating kangaroo, consuming unusual cuisine is under constant criticism and evaluation.
People harbor nostalgia for the foods they ate as children because they consider what they eat to be part of their identity. Cuisine that is out of the norm is met with a variety of responses ranging from disgust to apprehension to even enjoyment. Whether at home, visiting a different place on vacation or moving there permanently, we continually compare new or different foods to something that we already know. Eating habits are the last to be dropped or modified when people migrate, as though food is the very foundation of culture.
Joseph Banks, the botanist on Captain James Cook’s first landing in today’s Sydney Harbour, wrote of the kangaroo, “To compare it with any European animal would be impossible as it has the least resemblance of one I have seen.”
The continent’s unusual flora and fauna left explorers and colonists desperate for familiar food from England. Ignorant of indigenous modes of survival, the early British settlers brought livestock and plants familiar to them as sources of food. Their successful breeding and cultivation of animals and plants allowed, for better or worse, the Australians to adopt the basic British eating habits.
On ecotourism
Australian tourism promoters refer to it as the “eighth wonder of the world.” That’s a suitable name for the majestic coral structures that stretch 1,250 miles along the northeastern coast of Australia, collectively referred to as the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is not one structure, but rather an intricate lacework of thousands of individual reefs. The shimmering blue water is home to the most expansive variety of flora and fauna species found in any one location in the world and has been deemed the rainforest of the ocean.
Unfortunately, the reef’s beauty and natural wealth put it dangerously close to
destruction. Regular attacks on the Great Barrier Reef are launched from a range of offenders. As a result, the reef suffers damage from overfishing, pollution, silt run-off and anchor damage. Some species are slowly diminishing while in some areas, the reef itself is dying. Although the fragile ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef is vulnerable to all these industrial threats, it is the recreational threat that often causes the most damage.
On invading species
The most hated and most abundant of these feral animals are the rabbits. These little hellions cause over $600 million in damage, including the cost of control and production, each year. They also cause environmental damage that is often irreparable, and the loss of vegetation due to rabbit grazing threatens the survival of native plant and animal species. Lastly, their warrens—or underground living spaces and tunnels—often lead to soil erosion by removing vegetation and disturbing soil.
They were introduced near Gee Long, Victoria, in 1859 by Thomas Austin and proceeded to spread faster than any other introduced mammal anywhere in the world. In fact, within 30 years, the government was offering hefty rewards for ways to eliminate rabbits, but no reward was ever handed out, and the focus for rabbits like all other feral animals is now on containment.
While rabbits are the most abundant European ethnotramp, or deliberately introduced species, foxes also play a devastating ecological role. The European red fox was brought to Australia over 100 years ago for the purpose of hunting and is now common through most of Southern Australia.
Becoming one of the country’s most damaging pests, foxes have superior defense and hunting abilities, as well as higher breeding rates than native animals. They’re also opportunistic feeders that can survive where dingoes, cats and other animals starve. The fox has no natural predator besides people. In the course of its average life span of 10 years, a fox may kill 3,000 prey, making it a serious threat to the long-term survival of a range of native animals, lambs and other livestock.
On Aboriginal land rights
For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including those living in urbanized areas of Australia, the significance of land and sea is intimately bound to the spirituality surrounding the origins of landscapes and seascapes, and the animals, plants and peoples that inhabit them. Helen Nunggalurr explains why the land is so sacred to her people:
“First, all the things in our environment were created by spirit beings which we call Wangarr. They created the different tribes and their languages. During their creation journeys they created animals, plants, waterholes, mountains, reefs, billabongs and so on. Today we can see their tracks in our land and where they stopped we can see their signs. These are the features in our landscape. This is why these places are our sacred areas which we must respect and care for.”
The fight for land rights is ongoing. Commonwealth, state and territory laws provide some protection of indigenous Australians’ archaeological and sacred sites. However, for many years indigenous Australians have protested that they have insufficient control over that protection and the decision-making. In many parts of the more developed southern regions, Aboriginal peoples have been powerless to protect places, essential to them.
On development
Overdevelopment isn’t the sole issue facing the land and its inhabitants. Waste is clogging the Earth’s complexion. Australia’s Industry, Science and Resource minister, Nick Minchin, recently announced that the desert plateau, northwest of Woomera in South Australia, is a preferred location for dumping low-level radioactive waste.
Although the proposed site is within the Woomera Prohibited Area and is the ancestral land of the Kokatha people, Minchin insists that “it is in the interests of all Australians and is a significant step in getting radioactive wastes out of the city where it is currently stored.” It’s obvious that the project isn’t in the best interests of all Australians because the entire community of Woomera is strongly fighting against turning their sacred lands into a nuclear junkyard.
It’s as if the minister contends that the current use of the land is insignificant compared to the proposed use and that city dwellers’ well-being is more important than native traditions. This controversy is similar to the waste problems in Michigan. Both Detroit and Flint are targeted locations for dumping the state’s waste. It’s clear that the dumping plans aren’t in the interests of the residents.
Meanwhile in Kakadu, the Energy Resources of Australia mining company has proposed a new uranium mine in the traditional homelands of the Mirrar Gundjehmi people. Not only does this pose a threat to a living tradition that consists of customary law and spiritual connections to the land, but it also creates a toxic hazard if mining takes place. In attempts to protect the planet, there are many concerns over whether restricting access to specific areas will adversely affect the inhabitants’ lives.
On species at risk
The majestic green-blue Arafura Sea laps gently along the shores of North Australia. Underneath the tranquil waves, green sea turtles glide along the smooth sand. They live a simple life but they’re being killed, and yet their predators aren’t vicious sharks or other natural enemies. Instead their biggest threats are simple fishing nets abandoned in the sea.
As a result, these creatures are being entangled by the nets and unable to surface, suffocate from lack of air. In fact, human-generated litter in the marine environment is one of the greatest pollutants of the Arafura Sea and poses a major threat to the green sea turtles along Cape Arnhem in the country’s Northern Territory.
On the role of fire in the environment & culture
Fire has played a significant role in Aboriginal people’s daily lives since the beginning of their time. They incorporated fire into many aspects of their life including day-to-day activities, rituals and in hunting and gathering food. Fires burned constantly for heat as well as light. Without fire, ceremonies could not proceed at night.
Consider a ritual that deals with childbirth: Women in labor squatted over a small fire to facilitate birthing. After the child was born, the mother held it over a smoking fire. The smoke helped dry the mucus membrane and sealed the life spirit into the body. Similar rites of purification by fire and sealing by smoke were repeated at each important life passage, signifying a rebirth into each new status.
On Dreamtime
An original version of the Magna Carta lies enclosed in a case at the Australian Parliament House, protected by thick glass and revered as an important historical record. Many Australians believe British law and settlement established “civilization” and brought order to a primitive land.
The rock art sites at Kakadu National Park tell a different story. Research done at three sites in Australia, including Kakadu, point to the existence of cultural and artistic traditions reaching back 44,000 years, predating known European cave art by almost 10,000 years. The art lining the Kakadu escarpment depicts Aboriginal myths, life elements and a complete cultural heritage, a heritage that isn’t observed through a glass case but is lived and learned and entrusted to future generations.
The Aboriginal Dreamtime is that part of the culture that explains the origins of the land and its people. The expression ‘Dreamtime’ refers to the ‘time before time’ or ‘the time of the creation of all things.’ In white cultures, dreaming often refers to an individual’s set of unconscious beliefs or desires.
However, for Aboriginal peoples, Dreamtime holds a much deeper significance. Dreamtime is their religion and culture, a sacred history. They learn the meaning of their existence through these myths. Being removed from that culture as non-Aboriginals, we may have a hard time believing stories that aren’t founded on “facts,” but these myths explain the relationships between people, land, animals and religion that construct meaning for the Aboriginal way of life.
On nature and illness
Even though advanced technology can relieve symptoms of many illnesses quickly, some Aboriginal people prefer the traditional methods of the old ways of life to find relief.
One tree widely used by the Aboriginal people for cures and by health food stores, is the rotten cheese fruit. Common in Costal monsoon vine forests and areas with permanent freshwater, the bark produces a yellow dye for fiber that is used for baskets and fishing lines.
Its pale, oblong fruit gives off a strong offensive odor and has a potent taste when ripe. The fruit is eaten whole to treat diarrhea, asthma, colds and sore throats. The ripe pulp can be used to treat fever and general pain, and the fruit is mashed into a paste-like substance and rubbed on the forehead, or the body part that has the pain, for immediate relief.
Native lemon grass has both medicinal and all-around uses, including healing the flu, coughs and colds. The Aboriginal people mixed the crushed ends of the stems with warm water to put around their body or neck.