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Abstract
Cultural models of the coast affect—and are affected by—our marine ethics, frameworks for coastal ownership, and management practices. The coast can be seen as an ecosystem with intrinsic values, a commodity that can be bought and sold, a community place where people meet, a landscape with aesthetic appeal, a productive system that generates profits, a property to be managed, or a spiritual realm that relates to proper order and reverence. Each of these cultural constructions interacts with the others and this can create conflicts over rights and responsibilities. Each construction has implications for who should manage the coast, to what ends, and by what means. This article explores the negative and positive implications of seven cultural models to the Australian coast and makes suggestions about the value of Australian Indigenous and sustainability perspectives to a durable human relationship with the coast. Examples are drawn from recent coastal developments in Australia, such as Native Title debates, the marine protected area process, and Coastcare.
Notes
1. Boordier yok Dorothy Winmar, Oral Interview: 2002 by Collard, L. Acknowledgments of Nyungar Boodja. www.htawa.org/resources/visions/Abl_democ.doc
4. Traditional owners are Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who, according to custom, have the right to speak for country, take part in ceremony in country, the right to hunt, and the right to enter country without seeking permission.
5. This is not to say that Indigenous peoples have had no effect on their environment. Indeed, much debate has occurred around the pre-colonization environmental impact of Indigenous peoples in Australia. For example, Indigenous burning practices played an important role in the management of coastal landscapes (e.g., “The Top End,” Queensland, Central Coastal Arnhem Land, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales) prior to colonization and in many places still do (CitationBowman, 1998; CitationLangton, 1998, 38–55), and have impacted these environments to various degrees (CitationBowman, 1998).
6. The proportion of freehold title on foreshore land varies from state to state. In Victoria freehold title on foreshore land amounts to 10% (CitationThom, 2004); most foreshore land is Crown land. Coastal lands in Queensland are primarily freehold. Western Australia has a mixture of Crown land allocated for reserves, conservation purposes, and commercial use, and unallocated Crown land. Most coastal land in the Northern Territory is Aboriginal freehold land granted under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. In Tasmania and South Australia limited tenure exists over coastal foreshore. Approximately 5 to 10% of coastal land in South Australia is held privately. www.innovation.gov.au/Documents/Coastal_land_ownership20061010142810.pdf
7. Traditionally, marinas have not been alienated but treated as public reservations in the Perth Metropolitan Region Scheme for benefit of the broader community (CitationEDO, 2004).
12. Mandurah and Yanchep were once independent locales to the south and north of Perth, respectively, but are rapidly becoming part of the large metro area.
14. www.abs.gov.au
16. A small hopping native marsupial now confined to this island.
19. A species introduced from the Australian state of Victoria to Western Australia.
20. City Beach and Cottesloe are popular beaches in northern metropolitan Perth.
21. Mary Magulagi Yarmirr, claimant. Northern Land Council, First victory in the battle of the seas, Press Release (11 October 2001).
22. Indigenous alliance to strengthen management of dugong and marine turtles, NAILSMA. www.nailsma.org.au/media_releases/turtle_dugong.html
24. For a map of Indigenous Protected Areas see http://www.environment.gov.au/indigenous/ipa/map.html