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The landscapes of Australia

The landscapes of Australia Abstract The Australian landscape is sometimes discussed as the stage or setting on which the events of Australian history have unfolded, but this is a misleading metaphor; first, because It implies a passive role for the ‘stage’ and, second, because it assumes that the landscape was simply ‘there’ waiting. However it was not like that at all, and the second assumption is a biophysical version of the doctrine of terra nullius, that the land was not owned — it was available, passively receptive and, in a sense, already ‘known’. The application of English words is itself a form of appropriation; it implies that rivers are rivers, plains are plains, forests are forests. Though they are not: Australian rivers, plains and forests, are nothing like the things to which these words are applied in Britain. Think of Salisbury Plain and the Nullarbor Plain, which stretches across a third of the continent along the southern margin; or the Thames and the Darling, nearly a 1000 km long, but often no more than a string of water holes. Australians also tend to impose their current knowledge of the landscape on the Europeans who were encountering it for the first time. For example, the school texts show the routes of the explorers on the maps of an explored land, but for the explorers themselves, the map stopped where they pitched camp each night, as Paul Carter reminds us in The Road to Botany Bay.1 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes Taylor & Francis

The landscapes of Australia

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References (14)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1943-2186
eISSN
1460-1176
DOI
10.1080/14601176.2001.10436266
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract The Australian landscape is sometimes discussed as the stage or setting on which the events of Australian history have unfolded, but this is a misleading metaphor; first, because It implies a passive role for the ‘stage’ and, second, because it assumes that the landscape was simply ‘there’ waiting. However it was not like that at all, and the second assumption is a biophysical version of the doctrine of terra nullius, that the land was not owned — it was available, passively receptive and, in a sense, already ‘known’. The application of English words is itself a form of appropriation; it implies that rivers are rivers, plains are plains, forests are forests. Though they are not: Australian rivers, plains and forests, are nothing like the things to which these words are applied in Britain. Think of Salisbury Plain and the Nullarbor Plain, which stretches across a third of the continent along the southern margin; or the Thames and the Darling, nearly a 1000 km long, but often no more than a string of water holes. Australians also tend to impose their current knowledge of the landscape on the Europeans who were encountering it for the first time. For example, the school texts show the routes of the explorers on the maps of an explored land, but for the explorers themselves, the map stopped where they pitched camp each night, as Paul Carter reminds us in The Road to Botany Bay.1

Journal

Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes – Taylor & Francis

Published: Mar 1, 2001

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