Voice to Parliament a path towards restoring biodiversity

Implementing an Indigenous Voice to Parliament will have long-term benefits for Australia's environment and offer a chance to reverse catastrophic damage, writes Andrew Knop.

This article is an *IA Writing Competition (most compelling article category) entry.

I WOULD LIKE to share some little-known events that I have found insightful, informative and disturbing. They, along with a raft of other historical information, have assisted my journey to respect and restore country and ecosystems in central western NSW.

The first event relates to John Oxley’s 1817 exploration of western NSW. This was the colony's first expedition into the western interior. Oxley commenced from the new settlement of Bathurst, venturing west via the Lachlan River into Wiradjuri country, home of the largest Indigenous nation in eastern Australia.

Oxley noted on 29 July 1817:

Almost directly under the hill near our halting place, we saw a tumulus, which was apparently of recent construction (within a year at most). It would seem that some person of consideration among the natives had been buried in it, from the exterior marks of a form which had certainly been observed in the construction of the tomb and surrounding seats.

The form of the whole was semicircular. Three rows of seats occupied one half, the grave and an outer row of seats the other; the seats formed segments of circles of fifty, forty-five, and forty feet each, and were formed by the soil being trenched up from between them. The centre part of the grave was about five feet high, and about nine long, forming an oblong pointed cone.

To the west and north of the grave were two cypress trees distant between fifty and sixty feet; the sides towards the tomb were barked, and curious characters deeply cut upon them, in a manner which, considering the tools they possess, must have been a work of great labour and time.

Grave of a Wiradjuri man at Gobothery Hill, near Condobolin, 1817 by G E Evans (Image via NSW State Library)

The above journal descriptions and lithograph belie a disturbing event which, despite being well documented, has been overlooked by historical research and analysis, perhaps deliberately so. This event arguably initiated a cascade collapse in Indigenous/colonialist trust and relations.

After noting the recently-built tomb belonged to ‘some person of consideration’ and which ‘must have been a work of great labour and time’, Oxley decided to exhume the grave.

Oxley records:

On removing the soil from one end of the tumulus, and about two feet beneath the solid surface of the ground, we came to three or four layers of wood, lying across the grave, serving as an arch to bear the weight of the earthy cone or tomb above.

We were obliged to suspend our operation for the night, as the corpse became extremely offensive to the smell, resolving to remove on the morrow all the earth from the top of the grave, and expose it for some time to the external air before we searched farther.

This morning we removed all the earth from the tomb and grave and found the body deposited about four feet deep in an oval grave...

The bones and head showed that they were the remains of a powerful tall man. The hair on the head was perfect, being long and black... hecould not have been interred above six or eight months.

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So long as governments remain in the pocket of the logging industry, we will continue to destroy our forests and kill the planet.

Consider how you and your community would feel and react when confronted by such an act.

Oxley’s desecration marked the start of a critical tipping point for all eastern Indigenous nations. Within a few years, colonists were droving livestock to exploit the river systems and squatting on Indigenous lands. The squatters had minimal knowledge of the land and no regard for the country’s Indigenous spiritual significance.

The trespassing squatters assumed absolute control, showing little tolerance for Indigenous practices which impinged on their new business activities. The sacred site desecration and rapidly expanding territorial violation set the scene for escalating conflict for generations to come.

The fate of country under squatter management

This second reference is a series of observations recorded by the explorer Thomas Mitchell’s 1835 and 1848 expedition journals. In 1848, Mitchell retraced a large portion of a previous expedition providing him a unique opportunity to observe how colonial land management practices were impacting the landscape.

His journal describes how in the 12 years between his expeditions, extensive “unfavourable” changes had occurred. He considered the Indigenous peoples’ circumstances and repeatedly noted that the landscapes once clear and potable water were now extensively fouled by livestock.

Mitchell’s first expedition

Mitchell noted on 13 April 1835:

The party moved off at half-past eight o'clock, and at half-past nine it crossed Goobang creek, or chain of ponds. This channel contained some deep pools, apparently proof against the summer drought. The Goobang has its sources in the ravines between Harvey's and Croker's ranges, the course being towards the Lachlan. In this and other tributaries of the same river I observed that all the permanent pools were surrounded by reeds.

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In 1848, Mitchell retraced his footsteps to find an overland route to the Gulf of Carpentaria, writing on 20 December:

Reaching a hill laid down on my former survey, and from which I recognised Mount Laidley, I returned directly to the camp. We had encamped near those very springs mentioned as seen on my former journey, but instead of being limpid and surrounded by verdant grass, as they had been then, they were now trodden by cattle into muddy holes, where the poor natives had been endeavouring to protect a small portion from the cattle's feet, and keep it pure, by laying over it trees they had cut down for the purpose.

The change produced in the aspect of this formerly happy secluded valley, by the intrusion of cattle and the white man, was by no means favourable, and I could easily conceive how I, had I been an Aboriginal native, should have felt and regretted that change.

Over the next two weeks, Mitchell followed approximately 200 kilometres of western NSW river systems including the Bogan River and various tributaries. All were similarly impacted by the early squatters droving activities, the expeditions efforts to obtain potable water proved extremely difficult.

As Michell neared the western limit of droving operations he proclaimed:

‘We hoped to find within the territory of the native, ponds of clear water, unsoiled by cattle.’

The ‘chains of ponds’ Mitchell described in 1835 are rivers and streams dominated by expanses of grasses and reeds that protected the soil and filtered the water. Being sheltered from the wind and sun, Mitchell thoughtfully observed the chain of ponds to be the landscape's proof against drought.

The Goobang landscape today

Today, incised channels replace Mitchell’s chains of ponds and verdant landscapes. Incised channels are riparian landscapes characterised by a lack of aquatic habitat with simplified channel geometry and morphology and compromised floodplain soil formation, nutrient cycling and groundwater hydrology. Simply, the river has been turned into a gutter.

The Goobang Creek system started to degrade when the first floods scoured through the squatters' “muddy holes”. Over time, the over-grazed soils compacted, the channel deepened and the once verdant, drought-proofed lands disappeared. The landscape's compromised soil protection and water filtration left it exposed to the full erosive power of future floods.

These floods stripped organic matter, nutrients and minerals from the landscape, degrading farm productivity. The flood waters continued downstream, moving large quantities of animal dung, debris, urban and agricultural waste including petroleum residues, chemicals, plastics, herbicides and pesticides. Concentrated into the river systems, this runoff turned once verdant, productive biomes into dangerous and sometimes highly toxic environments.

Australia is now a land of incised channels, agricultural and urban waste, droughts and flooding rains. The escalating instances of mass fish kills, and the severity of modern droughts, floods and dust storms are all directly attributable to the activities observed by Mitchell combined with recent industrial-scale land clearing, soil cultivation and chemical application.

Environment is the enemy of Right-wing governments

The biggest cause of environmental destruction in our country is the Right-wing ideology shared by conservative politicians and media groups.

The post-industrial Anthropocene merges global-scale biodiversity loss, ecological fragmentation and resource degradation with rapid climate change. Why does this matter? Simply, the health of the biospheres and their ecosystems (life on Earth, generally) relies heavily on two fundamental attributes — connectivity and diversity. Connected, diverse individuals and systems can move, potentially adapt and evolve when faced with change and adversity.

Since the Phanerozoic (the last 500 million years), the Earth has been covered with plant and animal life, with species and ecosystems overlapping and evolving. Every shock event unleashed since the Phanerozoic (cosmic, volcanic, tectonic, atmospheric) occurred when the biospheres were operating and interacting at arguably their highest functional level and resilience capacity. Our modern world is a pale shadow of those worlds and change is upon us.

It is this degraded and fractured natural resource legacy we hand to future generations. A legacy that threatens our relatively recent social achievements in fundamental and unprecedented ways.

Indigenous cultures, who have sustainably interacted with the world's water, soils and biodiversity for millennia, possess knowledge and skills we must recognise, respect, learn and use.

October 2023 presents Australians with a unique opportunity to seize the day, revise our priorities and lead the world in Indigenous recognition.

It is high time we listen to the voice of country.

* Full IA Writing Competition details HERE.

Andrew Knop has an interest in natural heritage and the need for individuals to take an active role in protecting and restoring what fundamentally makes life on Earth possible.