Land Sea & Water

Western Australian law intended to maintain social responsibility is in grievous danger. This is because WA's parliament plans to revise legislation designed to protect Aboriginal heritage. The revisions will make it easier for developers to disturb this heritage. We have to take a step back tens of thousands of years to see why.

An overview by Dr Nick Herriman from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the School of Social Sciences and Communications at La Trobe University. [node:read-more:link]

There has been regular trading along the northern coast of Australia with other countries for many centuries before the British arrived. Here is an interesting find that puts some further light on the trading lines.

The coin was found on a beach on Elcho Island, part of the Wessel Islands off the coast of Arnhem Land, NT, during an exploratory expedition of scientists in consultation with the local traditional owners. [node:read-more:link]

The Martu people in remote Western Australia hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards, as they have many thousands of years. A University of Utah researcher found such man-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations – showing how co-evolution helped marsupials and made First Nations people into conservationists.

The findings suggest that Australia might want to encourage small-scale burning to bolster wildlife populations in certain areas. [node:read-more:link]

Further damage by vandals has been discovered at the site of some of the world's oldest and largest Aboriginal carvings, which have laid undisturbed for centuries on the Burrup Peninsula. Not only is the site vulnerable to the destruction of country meted out some of Australia's biggest mining projects, but there is also a total failure of governments to protect the site from grand theft and casual vandals.

The true owners say they do not want to have to close off areas to the public. [node:read-more:link]

Key environmentalist, Dr Jim Green, has taken issue with Warren Mundine's environmental comments early in June 2014.

Mr Mundine challenged green groups ‘to name one place in Australia where they would support a new mine'. Mr Mundine wrote, that he is ‘still waiting for an answer'. Dr Green said that if Mr Mundine had asked him he would have responded and he can name six States and two Territories where I would support a new mine. [node:read-more:link]