Radicalising the rangelands: disruptive change or progressive policy?

Abstract

Only ~15% of Australians now live outside the cities and the essentially suburban coastal corridor. Those coastal suburbs are home not to the descendants of drovers and Anzacs, but to ambitious migrants from Asia and the Middle–East, with no taste for rural life. Under pressure of globalisation and market economics the narrative of the rangelands has changed and with that the national interest in the rangelands has declined. Increasingly self-interest has over-powered national interest in the rangelands. The traditional narrative relied on mining, pastoralism and tourism and the contest for land and resources between these sectors and Aboriginal interests. The early champions in each of these sectors were revered. Today these sectors are driven more by self-interest and international investors than national interest. Today, there is not the same recognition of the names like Kidman or Flynn or Perkins as in the past. The rangelands are no longer in the hearts and minds of the nation. Rangelands impinge to a degree on national security through the buffer of confidence their vast expanse provides to coastal communities. Rangelands also figure in the national conscience through the complexity of issues around ‘the problem’ of Aboriginal lifestyles as perceived by coastal communities. Yet topics that spark national interest in rangelands are hard to identify unless they relate to share dividends. In this indifferent environment, will the rangelands benefit from grand national-policy initiatives or from increasingly focussed progressive policy? This paper argues for a narrative with a more disruptive and innovative radicalisation of the rangelands to re-ignite national interest and national investment.

Policy Follows Population: Alternative Development for the Rangelands

“…Rather than restraint, Walker (2015) advocates disruptive activism to capture policy interest. As an insider based in central Australia, Walker's advice is firmly fixed on the politics of remote regions.…”

Innovation in Australian rangelands. A special issue from the 18th Biennial Conference of the Australian Rangeland Society

“…Nor does it embrace opportunities that are outside the ambit of market economics and that respect and add value to the interconnections between people, place and livelihood that characterise much of the Australian rangelands. Walker (2015) argues that disruptive and innovative radicalisation and structural change to governance are needed in order to develop a vision that rangelands people share, and to improve social cohesion, change the dynamic of underdevelopment, and re-ignite and sustain investment. The 18th Biennial Conference of the Australian Rangeland Society and the papers contributed from the conference to this special issue indicate there is strong aptitude and appetite for ongoing innovation and change, for helping Australians to better appreciate their rangelands, and continuing to move rangelands people and landscapes towards sustainability.…”

Re-imagining the future for desert Australia: designing an integrated pathway for enhancing liveability

“…Despite the strength of the Australian economy over recent decades, many Aboriginal people living in the remote desert area have remained among the most marginalised in the country (Productivity Commission, 2014). The desert region in Australia remains a confounding challenge for policy makers and the private sector, and for local communities, seeking to develop its prosperity (Walker, 2015). A suite of inter-connected and reinforcing factorseconomically, socially and environmentally -create what some have termed a 'desert syndrome' (Stafford Smith and Huigan, 2009).…”