Antinuclear

There are especially magical, mysterious, spectacular places in the Outback — Kakadu, Uluru, the Kimberley — icons that draw visitors from the nation and ­beyond.

But these are parts of a whole, places embedded within a vast natural landscape, and dependent on the greater landscape for their ecological health. It’s essential that we think about the Outback as an entire and modern whole because its varied landscapes now face similar problems…….

The Outback is at a crossroads economically and environmentally. Social and economic development is highly dependent on maintaining the natural health of the Outback. The condition of many landscapes and wildlife species in the Outback is dependent on active human management.

It is possible, and Australia now faces the challenge and the opportunity, to create a modern Outback that depends on nature, which in turn supports people, jobs and regional economies……..

From the 1950s onwards the Aboriginal people of the Gibson and Great Sandy deserts, the Pintupi, the Martu and the Walmajarri, progressively left their country, moving to more centralised settlements on the desert fringes, to cattle stations, missions and government-run communities. Most people had moved out of the deserts by the end of the 60s.

But it was only 30 years ago that the last desert people came into contact with modern Australia. The ‘‘Pintupi Nine’’, a family of two co-wives and their seven children, decided to come in from the desert in 1984.

What was noticed by the desert people during the time of their merging with mainstream Australia were major alterations in the wildlife and country during their lives.

In the deserts, the areas of the Outback with apparently the least impact from modern world changes, the numbers of some ­native wildlife plummeted in the 20th century, particularly some of the smaller mammals.

These included bilbies, the desert bandicoot that has risen to fame in recent years as a replacement for the Easter bunny. Also vanishing from many areas were small desert wallabies — the burrowing bettong and ­rufous hare-wallaby. Some of the native mammals disappeared entirely from our deserts.

Others have held on but only in greatly reduced numbers and ­locations.

The declines are ongoing. The tropical savannas of the north have been a hot spot for major losses of native mammals and birds in the past decade.

A range of causes are at play in these losses.

But people are a core part of the needs for managing the land. In part the mutual connection between people and country is 50,000 years old, and in part threats that have arisen since Eur­opeans arrived.

Fire is the ancient connection. Practices varied from place to place, but the drier parts of the Australian landscape were burned in particular and often in very nuanced ways by Aboriginal clans. The general pattern was to have smaller fires at times of the year, including when the vegetation was moist, and large wildfires were rare. The smaller fires created a patchwork of bush plants of different ages. This mosaic provided food and homes for different animals such as the bilby and dozens of other species.

Where the deserts and savannas have been left unmanaged Outback fires have tended to get bigger and more intense. Sometimes they ignite naturally from lightning strikes, and sometimes by unguided people in the driest seasons. These fires can now burn huge areas intensely, dramatically altering the balance in the bush.

In the Aboriginal Martu lands of the desert, the average size of fires in the 50s was 60ha. By the 80s, across lands now empty of its custodians, the average fire had grown to cover 50,000ha. While some wildlife prefer such fire-rich country, others fail to find food or shelter over wide fire-scarred areas and struggle to ­survive.

The second more recent threats came with the partner colonists of Europeans: feral animals…….

. In part, the Outback operates as a colony from which natural ­resources are exploited and usually exported elsewhere for processing. Mining and government services dominate its overall economic output. Tourism, fishing, ­pastoralism, conservation and indigenous art industries are more dispersed and support more communities and individuals outside of the cities and major towns.

However, the trend for decades now has been towards fewer people in many landscapes, not more. National policies and economies during the past 150 years have led to altered patterns of people on the land. Much of the Outback now has fewer people inhabiting and actively managing the land than at any time in the past 50,000 years. Few people share the responsibility of managing the millions of square kilometres of country. Because too few people are managing these lands, parts of the landscape are faltering.

Fundamental to protecting its wildlife and communities is establishing a modern Outback that values and respects its nature……..

Another imagined future is to treat the Outback as a land ripe for unfettered development. It would divide the landscape into exploited and conserved (or neglected) sectors, and would seek to transform the areas by creating an economy highly reliant on intensive agriculture and mining.

It would seek to overcome logistical and environmental constraints of such industrialisation through government subsidies. This may create brief economic growth in a few districts. However, in the long term this approach would cause irredeemable loss to those values that make the Outback so distinctive and important.

There is a different future that instead recognises the extra­ordinary existing inherent value in the Outback, and supports development that adapts to and works within the environmental and other constraints of remote and dry lands……..

SUCH changes are already happening in many districts. More than 50 million hectares — an area more than twice the size of the state of Victoria — are now managed and protected in Indigenous Protected Areas.

These are parks on Aboriginal-owned lands managed by Abor­iginal ranger groups using a combination of modern and ­traditional knowledge and techniques.

The growth of Indigenous Protected Areas during the past 10 years, and their management for the benefit of local communities and all Australians, has been one of the success stories in the environmental and economic development of remote Australia………

There is now a compelling opportunity for the modern Outback — the future Outback — to be shaped more deliberately and thoughtfully. It represents one of Australia’s greatest conservation and development opportunities.

Those best placed to lead this creation are the people who live in, value and actively care for the immense landscape. Connecting, supporting and resourcing these stewards, indigenous and non-­indigenous, provides the best ­opportunity to protect Australia’s largest natural wonder for forevermore. Such a process must involve a dialogue. The first in the Outback Papers — The Modern Outback: Nature, People and the Future of Remote Australia — seeks to contribute to that dialogue and to encourage Australians to consider the heart of Australia and how its future will be crafted.

The Outback faces a range of potential prospects. It is imper­ative for Australia, and the world as a whole, that a positive future is crafted for our beautiful heartland.

This is an edited extract of the first in a series of Outback Papers, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and published in partnership with The Australian. Barry Traill is the director of Pew’s Outback to Oceans Program. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/a-modern-outback-nature-people-and-the-future-of-remote-australia/story-e6frg6zo-1227086873825