Indigenous Australians and Europeans, from their arrival in 1788, in Australia, have inhabited the continent for thousands of years, with their respective methods of obtaining food. The arrival of the Europeans impacted upon the Australian environment.

Aboriginal practices

Aboriginal people have effectively managed their land and resources for at least 40,000 years. This must show that sustainability of the Aboriginal methods to exploit the land in a sustainable manner. This means that traditional Aboriginal land use practices in Australia use resources in such a way that they are renewed and not worn out.
Plant foods consumed by the Aborigines include wild fruit, nuts, berries, edible leaves and plant roots. Animal food sources included kangaroo meat, fish, and other wildlife. By eating a hefty variety of foods, Aboriginals can make sure that no one food source can be over-used. This also ensures a relatively well balanced diet al all of the food can be taken quickly and easily from the land. However, Aboriginals never over-exploited a food source and moved on as they felt a source has been used sparingly. This allowed the land to recover over time as they progressed.
Fire-stick farming is a term coined to describe the practice of Indigenous Australians where fire was used regularly to burn vegetation to facilitate hunting and to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area. Aboriginal peoples have had a permanent impact on the environment through their use of fire, which has been used for generations on maintenance on the vegetation, making it easier to walk through the land and creating a clearer environment for safer pathways, to protect from dangers such as snakes. Fire was frequently used to promote the growth of valued plants. This regrowth of grasses attracts grazing animals, such as kangaroos, back to the vicinity for easier hunting. Fire has also been used to force out animals which can then be then culled for sustenance.
This guarded use of fire has been used for tens of thousands of years. This burning pattern has transformed the look of the Australian bush with large areas of forest being replaced by open grasslands. Plant species which did not regrow well after fire declined in numbers, whilst more fire resistant species, such as grass trees, eucalypts and acacias, dominated. This was a generally negative impact on the environment, as some plant species may have been wiped out, or severely diminished in numbers.

Impact of European farming on the environment

In stark contrast, Europeans had a concept of land ownership and exploitation for gain. Europeans had a tradition of agriculture in growing and harvesting crops, and rearing domesticated animals. This notion of maximising production and using the land for one’s own purposes was opposite to what the Aborigines practiced. European settlement had a dramatic effect on the Australian environment. They brought introduced animals such as cattle, sheep and rabbits to use for agriculture and for lifestyle purposes. This was not unlike the Aborigines, who made use of the dingoes for hunting and for warmth at night. However, Australia was not suited for these animals. There was quite a destructive impact, and by 1870, “the land and vegetation resource was devastated over a large percentage of the area by the combination of rabbit plagues, high stock numbers, severe economic depression and prolonged drought” (Wickman, 1998). Moreover, cattle and sheep have hard hooves, which compacted the soil and lead to soil degradation.

Overgrazing was common, as well as land clearing to make way for agriculture. The removal of trees destroyed the soil structure, and lead to a lot of erosion. Nearly all of European farming was unsustainable and caused problems like rising water tables and soil salinity, killing many plants. Erosion caused the fertile top layer of the soil to be washed away, leaving unfertile soil lacking in nutrients that was not suitable for cultivation. This loss of plant cover and degradation of soil eventually lead to desertification. Introduced domestic animals like cattle and sheep would compete with native animals like kangaroos for food, crowding out native animals. Fertilisers used in farms ran into waterways, polluting them and affecting habitats of marine life. Europeans have introduced many pests into Australia, like foxes, rabbits and cane toads, which are a problem to this day. In modern Australian agriculture, many sustainable practices are used, such as crop/paddock rotation to allow soils to recover. This is similar, in principal, to Aboriginal nomadic habits. In the past, European practices did not take into account the long-term effects on the environment, while Aboriginal practices were sustainable for the future.

References

Brown, L., Hindmarsh, R., Mcgregor, R., 2001. Dynamic Agriculture Book Three (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Book Company, Sydney.

Encyclopædia Britannica CD-ROM, “Australia: Agriculture, forestry, and fishing”, 2001.

Encyclopædia Britannica CD-ROM, “Australian Aborigine”, 2001.

NSW HSC online, “Aboriginal land use”, 2005, http://hsc.csu.edu.au/agriculture/production/aboriginal_land/aborigl.html

Wickman, S., “Land degradation issues and management concerns for Aboriginal communities of central Australia”, 1998, http://www.regional.org.au/au/asa/1998/plenary/wickman.htm.