Wilderness Explained
Wilderness Explained |
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What is Wilderness?
Trapped by the urban dream? There are many wilderness definitions but they all have one thing in common
— It is the only land category that excludes development and high impact use but it may include damaged areas because there is no pristine wilderness left on mainland Australia. The definition preferred by the Colong Foundation is:
A further definition of a wilderness is an area that is, or can be restored to be:
This complex definition was developed for the National Wilderness Inventory operated by the Australian Heritage Commission. This inventory is a data base of wilderness values across the continent and can be used to monitor the loss of wilderness through development and land clearing. The main criticism of technical definitions based on remoteness from access is that most wilderness is not remote from access by 4WD vehicle. Maps of such ‘remote’ areas are essentially ‘inverted road maps’ featuring vast areas of desert, while many forested areas are excluded simply because of the presence of 4WD dirt tracks. As Myles Dunphy said,
Wilderness protection is a basic environmental requirement. But without
active Government support the work toward wilderness protection grinds to a
halt. It follows that failure to recognise, protect and manage valuable
wilderness is a sure indicator of a Government’s poor overall environmental
performance. Wilderness Identification in New South Wales The Wilderness Act enables individuals and community groups to nominate areas for wilderness assessment. Following nomination, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS):
Top of page NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service - Wilderness Page Australia is one of the few countries still lucky enough to have undeveloped land. We accept wilderness as an integral part of the landscape, while people who live in crowded and developed countries are spellbound by it. But our wild places have not always regarded been regarded as places worth keeping. For 200 years native vegetation has been seen as an impediment to progress and extensively cleared. Entire ecosystems disappeared and biological diversity is being wiped out. Attitudes have only just begun to change. It was only in the last decades of this century that wilderness began to be reserved. Australia’s future relies on healthy soil, air and water systems and wilderness provides their best protection. It contains most of our ancient forests that purify our air. Its pristine catchments yield water that does not require expensive treatment. Wilderness is where we find peace, solitude and an opportunity for reflection away from machinery and the pressures of modern living. Many plant and animal populations will survive only if we preserve wilderness. Australia's distinctive heritage of wild landscapes and unique wildlife are at risk if we give in to the pressures of exploitation. The world's population is growing. As it does, pressure to exploit our natural resources is intensifying and our last remaining wilderness areas are coming under increasing threat. Miners, loggers, farmers and property developers interests, along with the commercial tourism operators and high-impact users such as recreational four-wheel-drivers are queuing to get into these rare areas. We must treat these areas carefully. If we can stabilise the consumption of natural resources, Australian society will be able to preserve wild places. Wilderness will remain a talisman of hope for the natural world and be our legacy for future generations to cherish. In the words of Henry Thoreau, as true today as when they were first written in 1851, "In Wildness is the preservation of the World." The Colong Foundation is dedicated to those who understand that society has more to gain from wilderness preservation than from its exploitation. Myles Dunphy (1891-1985) was a tireless publicist for the wilderness cause, producing maps and even publishing a wilderness broadsheet as a supplement to the Katoomba Daily in 1934. A weeks holiday with friends in a Katoomba boarding house in 1910 began his life-long love affair with the bush. He systematically mapped the Blue Mountains wilderness where previously existed only blank spaces on parish maps. Today these maps are treasured for the detailed information and practical advice to visitors of the Blue Mountains. From 1916 until the 1970s Myles Dunphy waged an active campaign for a state-wide system of national parks containing wilderness areas. His voluntary efforts extended over fifty years and inspired others, not the least of which was his son, Milo. Myles formed the Mountains Trails Club in 1914, the first bushwalking club to explore trackless wild places in Australia. The promotion of bushwalking through this club lead to the formation of the Sydney Bushwalkers, and with growing interest the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs was formed in 1932. By the late 1920s Dunphy’s bushwalking experiences gradually turned to protection. As he said at the time: ‘The best scenery should be protected for public use and benefit’. The operative word being scenery - ecology had not been invented, although the need for forest and catchment conservation was well understood. In 1932 Myles Dunphy formed the National Parks and Primitive Areas Council, which for the next 25 years advanced the case for national park reservation in NSW. From 1932 Myles promoted a system of national parks from the Snowy Mountains in southern NSW to the Hastings River in the north, including the 465,000 hectare Greater Blue Mountains National Park. These reserve proposals laid the foundations of the current national park system in NSW. Myles Dunphy also pioneered the first wilderness reserve in Australia, the Tallowa Primitive Reserve in 1934, and from the 1930s continued to advocate the need for a professional parks service. He received an O.B.E. for his services to conservation and the I.U.C.N.’s Fred M. Packer award for ‘Long Service with Merit in Advocacy of National Parks’. Milo Dunphy (1928-1996), the environmentalist, propelled nature conservation into to prominence by the proposal to quarry limestone at the Colong Caves in the heart of the southern Blue Mountains. Milo, influenced by his father, was alert to the danger, and led the fight to preserve the heart of the Kanangra-Boyd wilderness. For the first time, NSW nature conservation was in the media headlines. Through his inspiration, leadership and initiative the Colong Caves struggle helped to establish the NSW environment movement. No sooner had the dust settled than Milo was again leading the struggle to save the Boyd Plateau from being planted with pine trees. Again, his enthusiasm ensured that many joined the struggle. In this way Milo successfully carried forward his father’s conservation proposals. He helped expand the national park estate in NSW from 2 per cent to 4.5 per cent, including the addition of significant areas of rainforest in northern NSW that are now World Heritage listed national parks and the Deua and Wadbilliga wilderness National Parks to the south of the State. Milo was part of almost every the major environmental campaign in eastern Australia, from Terania Creek in NSW to Lake Pedder in Tasmania. Wilderness was always Milo’s first concern and he devoted his life to dedication of national parks and wilderness areas through involving the public in the protection of natural areas. Milo absorbed the conservation ethic from the cradle onwards (he was taken to Kanangra Walls in a pram at the age of 20 months). There are many places which today we treasure and tend to take for granted for their beauty as components of the public parks estate - places such as Colong, Myall Lakes, Bindook, Kanangra-Boyd, the Border Ranges, Kakadu and Terania Creek are living memorials to Milo Dunphy. For his services to conservation Milo was awarded an A.M, the Sidney Luker Memorial Medal form the Australian Planning Institute and named Architect of the decade, the University of NSW also awarded him a Doctor of Science honoris causa for his efforts. In May 1996, the former NSW Premier, Neville Wran described Milo as unquestionably the most persistent, and vigorous fighter and advocate for the environment we have had in this country. Established in September 1996 by the NSW Government to celebrate the contribution made by Myles and Milo Dunphy to conservation, the Fund provides a million dollars per annum for the purchase of private and leasehold lands within NPWS identified wilderness areas. In 1997, the Carr Government enshrined the wilderness family partnership - Myles and his son Milo Dunphy - in legislation by a minor amendment to the Wilderness Act. The Dunphy Wilderness Fund has significantly improved the protection of wilderness areas in NSW. By 2007, the Fund had acquired 60 properties for $11 million, protecting about 76,934 hectares including key areas of the Mummel Gulf, Guy Fawkes, Washpool and Tuggolo wilderness areas. The average land purchase price was $143 per hectare. In the last ten years the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife has raised $1.5M for wilderness acquisition in NSW. The Budawang Committee contributed over $73,000 for the acquisition of Crown leasehold lands at Corang Peak in the Budawang wilderness. Two women - Catherine Clare White and Genevieve Little - made generous bequests. These gifts enabled the purchase of 1846 hectares near Sassafras adjacent to the Ettrema Wilderness and 240 hectares with a four kilometre frontage to the Endrick River adjacent to the Budawang Wilderness. The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife also undertook a major fundraising campaign to protect 13,000 hectares of the Macleay Gorges Wilderness at Green Gully. Areas of the most significant acquisitions include Guy Fawkes (over 24 000 ha), Macleay Gorges (over 24000 ha), Ettrema wilderness (2500 ha) and Washpool wilderness (2700 ha). Other areas where the Dunphy Wilderness Fund has been used to acquire land include:
Dunphy Wildlife Fund is currently without Government funding. NSW environment groups are seeking a new allocation of Government funding of $15 million over 5 years for the Dunphy Wilderness Fund to build on the work of the last ten years. These funds would be sufficient to acquire the 200,000 ha of wilderness-quality private land. In the United States land philanthropists have played a crucial role in protecting wilderness areas. The first park east of the Mississippi River and the first park created solely by land donors. The initial U.S. national park purchase of 5,000 acres by John D. Rockerfeller in 1916 secured the core of the Acadia National Park. In the 1920s Rockerfeller helped fund land-acquisition of the Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah and Blue Ridge National Parks and acquisition of additions to Yellowstone National Park were also made (the Grand Teton National Park). Another prominent philanthropist was Percival P. Baxter of Maine. He purchased 202,000 acres to create the Baxter State Park surrounding Mt Katahdin. The donor attached one condition to his gift; the requirement that the park remain for all time inviolate from mechanical intrusions. At a little nook in the park called Thoreau Spring there is now a bronze plaque which recites Percy Baxter’s creed:
Wilderness supporters in NSW can still bequest a green legacy for future generations and for nature through the Dunphy Wilderness Fund. Simply print out the attached form, fill out the details and mail it to the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife. Donations are tax deductible. Shut you eyes and block your ears. Ignore the smells around you. Mask the taste and the feel of your modern life. Then imagine yourself being transported away from all that is urban, built and developed and gently landing in a wilderness. Now release your senses. Suddenly, wilderness becomes your world. Horizons determined only by time and the elements curtain any reminder of the human created world. Sounds timed perhaps at the whim of the bird seeking a mate, the random waterfall spray charging into glistening rock or the puff of a breeze that knocks together waxed eucalypt lances hanging overhead. Smells flow by as if by walking you are swimming from one sweet liquid to the next. Heat and cold, wet or dry, are merely the conditions imposed on anything that chooses to be at that place. This sensual feast, this luscious variety is what excites and lures about wilderness. We are there on its terms, and we love it for what it is. To describe exact details is unnecessary, even impossible; for every imagined wilderness is unique. And the experiences it releases on the senses are equally unique. The wilderness in the human mind is formed through personal contact with real wild places. From a brief glimpse or a long visit, from a Wollemi-sized hideaway, each contact is just as legitimate and capable of eliciting responses as no other can. Contact with a natural world allows us to escape. Take away wilderness and we become our own prisoners. |
To comment on this site, email: foundation@colongwilderness.org.au
Last updated Wednesday 19-Mar-2008
