ABSTRACT

For most of the 20th century, environmentalists thought that they knew the best way to safeguard landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. Certainly in Australia, it became the case that when the environment movement cried ‘save’ the Great Barrier Reef, South-West Tasmania, the Alps, Fraser Island, Myall Lakes or the Tarkine, both environmentalists and the general community knew it meant ‘declare this area a national park’. The ‘safest’ we could make nature was to have it formally declared under legislation and managed by a government nature conservation authority.