CONSERVATION OF AUSTRALIA'S ARID LAND IN RELATION TO CONTINUING EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

Abstract

Continental areas in the lower-mid earth latitudes are primarily arid. Where the areas are also topographically depressed, conditions are, or often have been, conducive to sedimentation favouring coal or hydrocarbon generation. Such land areas are now primarily loci of sand or gibber deserts or semideserts where drought incidence, temperature ranges and windiness tend to be extreme. Vegetation tends to be minimal and often ephemeral. Salinas and evaporitic deposits may be extensive. Rock outcrops may be deeply weathered and mineral gossans spectacular. Mountains and inselbergs comprise the arid range province, often with relict faunas and floras.

Life in the arid interior is often highly specialised and well adapted to the harsh conditions. Many plants and animals have adaptive mechanisms that are little understood or studied. They represent an invaluable gene pool for physiological investigation.

Heightened interest in Australian deserts and arid mountains through mining and petroleum exploration and tourism, has highlighted the special problems of these areas. The need for cautious progression, changing attitudes and modified field techniques is now widely recognised.

In the absence of over population, or over efficient new predators or grazing animals, Australian deserts are remarkably regenerative. Disused tracks tend to be rapidly obliterated and providing rubbish is deeply buried and pits are filled in, signs of earlier occupation disappear quite rapidly. However, as population pressure, exploration effort and tourist traffic inevitably intensify, an added awareness of new ecological dangers is essential to avoid or minimise damage -particularly by fire (spinifex or mulga forests), introduction of alien animal species, the undisciplined use of terrain vehicles, or clearing activities.

In mining areas, as in tourist centres, damage to vegetation by human pollution, soil erosion, or the activities of introduced animals such as goats, cats and dogs may present serious problems. Abandonment or collapse of flowing artesian water wells is a particular problem in central Australia, although such localities commonly become centres of bird concentration and dispersal.

Mining and exploration companies and tourist organisations generally have a particular responsibility to reduce the impact of their operations on the delicately balanced desert environment. Alternative, less destructive methods of extracting minerals in the shallow subcrop also need to be developed wherever possible, and the costs will have to be passed on to the consumer. The mere declaration of large areas of the Australian inland as national parks or other protected areas is not enough unless adequate policing is also provided. Vermin, such as goats, rabbits, cats, foxes, dingoes and others still provide a major potential menace in any such closed off areas. At least in "marginal" pastoral areas the responsible pastoralist must be encouraged in protecting this environment, and compensated accordingly rather than relying solely on visiting wardens "foreign" to these areas.