|
Australians are undergoing a radical reassessment of their relationship with the land, particularly when it comes to the basics like food, water and fire. |
|||
|
Leading the way are people like the Bell family, who run cattle sustainably in the ultra-dry Lake Eyre Basin, or the many involved in the development of sustainable aquaculture. These people are my national heroes. They mean far more to me than Ned Kelly or the Man from Snowy River, because they’re not just acting out European dramas on an Australian stage |
|||
|
I have no doubt that today many farmers are very far ahead of the majority of Australians in most aspects of environmental thinking. |
|||
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
FLANNERY POSITIVE ABOUT PASTORAL FUTURE
|
|||
In a speech ranging from colonial perceptions and actions to today’s multiculturalism and immigration, Flannery presented a deep understanding of the Australian environment.
According to Flannery, an arrogant colonial vision, unable to see and appreciate the subtle beauty of a strange new land, had tried to change it into a replica of Europe. In the process settlers destroyed what wasn’t understood and introduced foreign plants and animals.
But the address wasn’t all doom and gloom. Flannery offered a ray of hope for a sustainable future in the form of pastoralists and farmers giving as an example the Bell family of the Birdsville Track.
“…Today, as the Australian environment subtly teaches those who listen to it, Australians are undergoing a radical reassessment of their relationship with the land, particularly when it comes to the basics like food, water and fire. After 200 years of destruction, revolutionary changes are taking place in the countryside as farmers and graziers strive to make primary production sustainable in Australia’s unique conditions. Leading the way are people like the Bell family, who run cattle sustainably in the ultra-dry Lake Eyre Basin, or the many involved in the development of sustainable aquaculture. These people are my national heroes. They mean far more to me than Ned Kelly or the Man from Snowy River, because they’re not just acting out European dramas on an Australian stage; instead they are throwing out old, inappropriate European-based practices and inventing their own, distinctively Australian futures in a bid to create sustainability in this land.
“I have no doubt that today many farmers are very far ahead of the majority of Australians in most aspects of environmental thinking. What’s needed now is a change in consumption patterns by city-dwellers to provide a market for sustainably produced products…”
Flannery says that urban-dwellers need to become well informed about what environmental sustainability really means, and how they need to alter their patterns of consumption in order to achieve it.
For a full transcript of the Australia Day Address 2002 go to http://www.adc.nsw.gov.au/address_content.html