Livestock, Land Cover, and Environmental History: The Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, 1820–1920

Abstract

For southeastern Australia, arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 raises similar issues in environmental history as the 1492 landing of Columbus in the Americas. But Anglo‐Australian settlement is younger and better documented, both in terms of scientific proxy data and historical sources, which include data on stocking rates that generally were light. Environmental concerns were voiced early, and a lively debate continues both among professionals and the lay public, with Australian geographers playing a major academic and applied role. This article addresses environmental degradation often attributed to early pastoralism (and implicit clearance) in the Tablelands of New South Wales. Methods include: (1) comparison of well‐reported travel itineraries of 1817–1833 with modern land cover and stream channels; (2) critical reviews of high‐resolution pollen profiles and the issues of Aboriginal vs. Anglo‐Australian fire ecology; and (3) identification of soil erosion and gullying both before and after Anglo‐Australian intrusion. The results indicate that (a) land cover of the Tablelands is little changed since prior to Contact, although some species are less common, while invasive genera of legumes have modified the ground cover; (b) the charcoal trace in pollen profiles prior to Contact supports an ecological impact of regular Aboriginal burning and rare, catastrophic fires; and (c) most stream channels were already entrenched (“gullied”) well before 1840, with repeated cut‐and‐fill cycles during the late Holocene, but before Contact. Land impairment has not been a major problem on the Tablelands, although the last two centuries have experienced cumulative and complex environmental change. This unexpected empirical picture suggests that, until high‐technology intervention, increasing periodicity/magnitude of extreme drought/precipitation events had been the overriding trend in interior New South Wales, perhaps reinforced by burning. There is no support for an apocalyptic model of colonial environmental history.

Alluvial sedimentation rates from southeastern Australia indicate post-European settlement landscape recovery

“…The vegetation of the steepest, forested areas surrounding the reservoir is in a relatively unmodified condition, however amidst the Southern Table-lands and upper Cox's River valley, broader landscape clearance has occurred associated with European settlement. Despite some preservation of the original woodland vegetation of these sub-catchments, particularly amidst higher ground (Butzer and Helgren, 2005), riparian and valley floor vegetation disturbance was widespread.…”

Forefronting the Socio-Ecological in Savanna Landscapes through Their Spatial and Temporal Contingencies

“…Travel diaries kept by explorers during colonial expansion have proven extremely useful in understanding general land cover of the times [89] and some long-standing government records (e.g., cropping yields from China) help to remind us of the legacies of past landscapes, climates, and human practices [90]. African savanna systems have in particular benefited from review of such records.…”

Ecohydrology in space and time: functioning and changes in the streamflow generation of catchments

“…These drivers of change are quite significant in Australia where its landscapes have been dramatically modified over the last 200 years (Walker et al, 1993;Butzer and Helgren, 2005) with forest clearing for cropping and grazing. However, in the last few decades an increase in biomass in woodland and forest ecosystems has been reported as a result of regrowth and CO2 fertilization (Fensholt et al, 2012;Donohue et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2015;Evans, 2016).…”

“…Australian landscapes have been extensively transformed since the establishment of the first European settlements (Walker et al, 1993;Butzer and Helgren, 2005). Numerous studies have…”

“…In terms of land cover, extensive clearing of native vegetation began, and has been largely ongoing, since the arrival of European settlers in the late 1700s (Walker et al, 1993;Butzer and Helgren, 2005). However, from 1970 onwards, native vegetation policies have been changing and clearing fluctuated accordingly (Bradshaw, 2012;Evans, 2016).…”