AUSTRALIAN ECOLOGY

 Interdisciplinary study that argues against the belief that Australia’s European colonists despised their new environment and were blind to their destructiveness. Argues that environmental concern among European Australians dates back to the arrival of the First Fleet. Author makes use of a wide range of sources, in particular works of art. Illustrated throughout with reproductions of period artwork (some in colour) and photographs. Includes notes, bibliography and index. Volume 34 in the second Miegunyah Press series. Received the 2001 New South Wales Premier’s History Prize and Queensland Premier’s History Prize. Author is both an art historian and environmental lawyer. Previous books include ‘Images in Opposition: Australian Landscape Painting 1801-1890’ and ‘Places Worth Keeping: Conservationists, Politics and Law’.

When the First Fleet sailed for NSW in 1787, the British government ordered Governor Phillip to preserve the cattle, sheep and hogs he brought with him but not the environment he found. Yet Phillip and his officers were quick to try to protect Australia’s land. This book challenges the equation of colonization with destruction.

Taking art as his starting point, Bonyhady explores how issues such as the preservation of endangered species, the protection of forests, the maintenance of public rights over the foreshore and even the likelihood of climate change already loomed large in colonial Australia. This is a story of activism and idealism, of intense appreciation of Australia’s remarkable environment, and of sharp awareness of the limits to colonial growth. It is also a story of failure: of environmental ideals sacrifcied to political expediency and commercial self-interest; of innovative and enlightened laws ignored and broken. Drawing on a remarkable array of sources, from paintings and poems to reports of public meetings and parliamentary debates, ‘The colonial earth’ shows that far from being a product of the 1970s, an environmental aesthetic has always been part of the culture of European Australia.

• xi, 432 p. ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 405-[423]) and index. First Edition. #301124

• Environmentalism — Australia — History
• Environmental management — Australia — History
• Environmental law — Australia — History
• Environmental protection in art
• Environmental protection in literature
• Environmental policy — Australia — History6