Free Sample Essays > Australian History
White Australians Attitudes to the Environment
human colonies. For example by 1900 the brush-tailed rat kangaroo was extinct except in Western Australia, the brown hare wallaby was gone by 1890 and numerous others were on the verge of extinction (Bolton, 100).
The impact of human life was not only affecting inland, but off shore animals were also being affected and slaughtered by the millions. Australia off shore areas was a major target for whaling and the slaughter of millions of seals. It began predominantly in 1791 by a man named Thomas Melville (Bolton, 49).
The slaughter of whales and seals was mainly predominate after the period when the Third Fleet arrived, as it carried many skilled whalers and specialised fishermen (Bolton, 50). Seals and whales were prized for their skins as it provided material for clothing and oil for the overseas trade. This trading of goods was perfect for the economic income of a small growing colony. This trading industry became so successful, that in 1830-31 the export income for whale and seal was more then wool. Geoffrey Bolton even stated this in his text ¡®Spoils and Spoilers¡¯:
¡°Sealing was one of the few good investments available in the struggling colony, and plenty of hardened ex-convicts were ready to sign on as crew (Bolton, 51).¡±
The evidence above suggests that the act of slaughtering these animals reached such an extent that greed became the main influenced. Seals were easy to slaughter during breeding season, which caused income into the growing nation to be greater. Geoffrey Bolton makes an accurate statement in his text ¡®Spoils and Spoilers:¡¯
¡°By all account, they were a rough lot, careless of human and animal life (Bolton, 51).¡±
Just like the majority of the Australian native animals that were hunted for sport, food or trade, the numbers of the whale and seal decreased immensely. White man during the period of the colonisation of Australia became greedy and money hungry. The motives in relation to the slaughter of native species and the introduction of exotic animals in the beginning were entirely motivated by economic income. Sustainability and protection of the environment was not important at the time, because white man was not being threatened by depletion to an extent at this stage, however as the numbers of these animals decreased, and as more properties and landscapes became spoilt from farming and grazing attitudes slowly began to change.
Due to the slow changes of attitude, the actions to protect the environment were very minimal. However as threats began to interrupt international trade, the impact that man was having on the environment began to be noticed. Action slowly began to take shape and protection attitudes toward the environment were being formed. A movement which lead to the formation of the Australian Ornithologist Union, by the Tasmanian bird lovers ornithological society, 1888, sparked pressure to develop the Native Bird Protection Act in 1893 (Bolton, 99). In 1909 a group in Sydney whom pressured [next page]