Central Land Council

Rose Report One

Living areas and outstations

The issues of resource use and environmental management on Aboriginal land have a number of important dimensions around living areas. In the broader context of resource use across Aboriginal lands, the environmental impact of living areas is not great because of the relatively small areas involved.

However, the health and social welfare implications of living areas and the surrounding environment give environmental issues in these regions a high priority. Living areas include a range of community types from large centralised communities such as Yuendumu and Papunya, to small homeland communities or outstations which may support one extended family group. These communities and outstations are spread across Aboriginal lands and also on small excisions from pastoral properties, in which case the living areas usually occupy all or most of the excision.

Demographics and the outstation movement

The relocation of Aboriginal people from a traditional lifestyle into government and mission settlements occurred until the 1970's under the government policies of protection and assimilation.

The legacy of this era is still partly evident today in the continued pre-eminence of Aboriginal population distribution in the larger rural communities. The provision of housing and general concentration of services in urban and rural centres has led to an increase in the proportion of the Aboriginal population resident in these areas. At the same time, however, there has been a significant shift in the distribution of the rural Aboriginal population.

The homeland or outstation movement has seen the movement of Aboriginal people away from rural centres to set up outstations closer to their traditional country. This has occurred in response to a number of factors including the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976, changes in government policy allowing greater Aboriginal administrative control and political power, and discontent with life in larger Aboriginal population centres. Land and resource use on outstations varies according to the conditions of land tenure.

For example where communities are located on land which was granted freehold title under the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976 outstation establishment is restricted only by practical constraints of access to water and resources. The outstations around Yuendumu and Papunya are examples of this form of development. They also tend to be located in areas which have not been exposed to any form of intensive land use.

In most cases the driving force behind the setting up of these outstations is to get away from the social problems of the larger communities and to live more closely with their traditional lands. Intended land uses usually revolve around subsistence activities, with only modest aspirations for any more intensive land uses. On pastoral properties which have been purchased on behalf of Aboriginal people, and converted to freehold under the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976 community dissolution into outstations is also sometimes a priority.

Generally this land has been exposed to pastoral activity which may limit the land use activities which can be implemented in the short term. Often the people involved have had a long connection with the pastoral industry working as stockmen and labourers on pastoral properties and this is often reflected in a desire to continue pastoral activities on the property. Examples include Mt Allan, Mclaren Creek, Ti Tree, Willowra and Angarapa (Utopia) pastoral properties which are now Aboriginal land and continue to run cattle to varying degrees.

The level of outstation development on these properties also varies somewhat with Utopia now consisting of 10 outstations leaving no clearly recognised central community, and Mt Allan with 2 outstations and a well established central service community. Some outstation type communities have also been set up on small areas of land excised from non-Aboriginal pastoral properties where Aboriginal people have strong links to the land and have often been involved with the pastoral enterprise over several generations.

These areas are generally too small to allow the resident Aboriginal population any significant economic activity such as running a small herd of cattle. Land use pressure is often such that community use extends over the whole excision. Examples of excision communities are Alpurrulam on Lake Nash pastoral lease which has a population of approximately 250 people and an area of 10 km2 and Engawala community on Alcoota pastoral lease which has a population up to 100 people and covers 2.3 km2. The difficulty of gaining title to excisions under the current NT legislation is also worthy of note. In addition most pastoralists object to the granting of excisions large enough to run cattle or killer herds, and the NT freehold title under which such excisions are granted specifically prohibits certain land uses.

The outstation movement is seen to have a number of health benefits for Aboriginal people. Important factors are the reduction in overcrowding associated with larger communities, reduced social conflicts, a better level of hygiene and a decreased likelihood of exposure to infections. Communities with small populations also place less pressure on the immediate environment which reduces damage to vegetation and dust problems resulting in a better living environment.

Further to this the proximity of people to the country with which they are traditionally affiliated leads to an increase in traditional land management activities such as burning country and maintaining sites such as soaks and water-holes.

Land use around residential areas

Permanent settlement and high population densities around communities leads to a number of environmental problems. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic place pressure on local vegetation within the community precinct. The need for firewood for cooking and warmth leads to a reduction in wood resources in an expanding pattern out from the community centre and along access tracks.

Similarly, subsistence activities deplete bush foods around the community area and necessitate longer trips for hunting and bush tucker collection.

Horticulture and animal husbandry

Land use around communities has also involved the establishment of small horticultural projects and some attempts at animal husbandry. Unfortunately many of these projects have been unsuccessful. Kimber cites a range of failed and short term land use projects at Papunya.

Projects which have failed include vegetable gardens, a piggery, citrus orchard, carob tree orchard, olive tree orchard, rose gardens, goat husbandry, re-afforestation, date palms, apiary, lucerne crops, and poultry. Projects of short term duration include quarrying, post and rail cutting, dam construction, fencing, road clearing, prospecting and camel catching. A clear observation that can be made from this list is that none of the activities reflect traditional land management practices, and few reflect the sorts of work people may have been previously exposed to, for example, through involvement with the pastoral industry.

Kimber suggests that the proponents of these schemes have never really known what Aboriginal people thought about them. Cane and Stanley suggest a number of reasons for the lack of success of such ventures, such as the difficult environmental conditions and lack of knowledge and commitment. They also seriously question the value of introducing such activities for Aboriginal communities. "...one wonders why the gardens were started at all and this leads one to ask what the responsible personnel were hoping to achieve by promoting horticultural activities at outstations. What we would like to know is what the Europeans really thought they were contributing to the Aboriginal people with their horticultural ideas and how compatible this was with the Aborigines' own aspirations."

While many of these projects have been seen as unsuccessful there are a number of ventures involving gardens and trees in communities which have provided significant benefits. The contribution to improving the community environment through the provision of shade and dust prevention is an important factor and the production of any fresh produce is valuable in a remote community context. The initiatives of the Aboriginal resource agencies such as Tangentyere council and Pitjantjatjara council have provided a great deal of the momentum for these sorts of activities.

Aboriginal people are increasingly taking a role in the planning and implementation of these projects. Resources to facilitate these activities, especially those of the Pitjantjatjara and Tangentyere councils, are spread very thinly across a large area. Increasing access to programs such as the National Landcare Program using existing projects as models for further development has the potential to significantly improve the community environment.

A number of remote Aboriginal communities maintain small "killer" herds of cattle which provide a source of meat for local people. Clearly there are environmental and resource constraints on the development of such projects. For example this option is not available for communities located on land with little or no vegetation available for stock. In other areas the introduction of stock is not advised as it may precipitate land degradation problems.

There is also the potential for cattle to compete with other land uses such as subsistence bush tucker collection. Proposals to establish killer herds need to be carefully examined because they may compound environmental problems around a community where land use pressure is already high. At Yuendumu, for example, a small killer herd is notorious for gaining access to areas of new growth such as gardens and damaging fences intended to keep them at bay.

Use of vegetation around communities

Apart from the contribution made to the diet through the collection of bush vegetable food a number of other uses are made of vegetation around communities. Many native trees are used for shelters, fencing, firewood and making implements. The production of artefacts for sale has also increased pressure on local resources.

Spears, shields, clubs, spear throwers and boomerangs, wooden dishes and a variety of carved and decorated artefacts including sculpted native animals are made from bush materials. The roots of River Red-gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) are used to make a variety of artefacts and the wood of the Mulga (Acacia aneura) is widely used in implement manufacture and for firewood. As previously discussed the arid environment is diverse with respect to the availability of water and nutrients in the landscape. In general, however, firewood resources from species such as mulga are very slow growing and represent many years of vegetative production. There are also strong indications that these species have been declining in remote areas with the change from the patch burning fire regime of traditional Aboriginal management to less frequent very hot wild fires. Around outstations and communities wood resources are rapidly depleted from continued use so that where once enough wood could be gathered by hand from the bush, trips in vehicles over considerable distances have become necessary. These resources are therefore more expensive to obtain and in the process the environment around the community is degraded.

Contemporary subsistence activities

The types of bush foods and animals collected by Aboriginal people is largely gender specific. Men are generally involved in hunting for large animals such as macropods, while women collect small animals such as goannas or small native mammals and most of the vegetable material, seeds, roots and fruits that are consumed by the community. These gender differences and other factors have made studies of the importance of bush tucker gathering difficult.

Nevertheless, studies by Devitt, Cane and Stanley and Walsh indicate that bush food collection in outstation communities can contribute up to 75% of protein intake in the diet. The introduction of new technology into subsistence activities has had a differential effect on access to different types of resources. The use of vehicles for access to resource rich areas is skewed towards the uses of men because, as Young et. al. point out, "fewer women can drive or are car owners and therefore are less likely to be able to go foraging when they wish or where they wish".

Introduced technology has both positive and negative impacts. The use of vehicles and guns for hunting has increased hunting efficiency and the range that can readily be exploited. Thus resource use pressure can be spread over a larger area despite the sedentary nature of community and outstation settlements. There is also the possibility of over exploitation of resources as a result of very efficient hunting tools. Animal populations could be reduced in some areas to a level which limits the rate of recovery during favourable environmental conditions.

Such areas are likely to be around communities and along corridors beside roads where much hunting is carried out when simply travelling from place to place. A solution which has been suggested to overcome these problems is the development of "a series of graded tracks connecting resource rich zones, places of mythological importance and major water-holes." The suggestion is that a network of roads would connect resource rich areas providing benefits in terms of resource access for people, while at the same time reducing pressure on the immediate outstation environment.

Other benefits from such a proposal are that traditional land management such as burning country and maintaining water-holes would be further spread through the more remote areas. The issue of subsistence is much broader than the focus which has been given to resource use around outstations. Subsistence needs to be highlighted as a traditional land use of primary significance to all Aboriginal communities throughout central Australia. Subsistence land use can be affected by other land use practices, however, the extent to which activities such as pastoralism impact upon resource availability is largely unknown. There is a need for further research into contemporary subsistence and its relation to other land uses. Subsistence must be recognised as an important aspect of Aboriginal land use which needs to be included in any decision making process.

Community resource use management strategies

Resource use around communities and outstations will be intensified with the expanding Aboriginal population in rural areas. There are a number of aspects of resource use which can be addressed through forward planning and by designing programs to manage localised resource use pressure. It is important, however, that any planning processes are community based so that decisions are based on community priorities.

Implementing a planning process which provides solutions from outside the community in a "top-down" approach is likely to lead to the sorts problems which have resulted in the lack of success of a range of land use projects. The location of communities and outstations within a landscape is of critical importance for minimising environmental health problems and for optimising the availability and sustainability of local resources. In practice, however, the environmental factors are often overlooked in the decision making process. There are a number of reasons for this including the lack of funding for consideration of environmental issues, a lack of awareness of the environmental implications, a lack of policy and guidelines controlling the design and contracting of construction work.

A range of practical factors also influence the community development process. These include the availability of water, Aboriginal cultural priorities for community location and in the case of excisions, the process of negotiation for a suitable area of land can preclude a proper consideration of environmental issues. One of the primary influences on the location of outstations is the availability of potable water.

In many cases lack of information on the availability of water severely limits the planning of outstations to take best advantage of the local resources and topography. Outstations are commonly established along road sides and near old cattle bores. From an environmental perspective these areas are often not optimal for such developments. Outstations and seasonal living areas may be located near important water-holes or other culturally important areas which may lack the resilience for such increases in land use intensity. While land degradation can result from poor siting of outstation development, the availability of bush tucker and other resources is also likely to be less than optimal.

Such problems could be addressed through planning processes which take into account the importance of hunting and gathering to Aboriginal people and its impact on the local environment. At present there are no formal processes whereby outstation development can be planned to take into account all of the cultural, social and environmental factors which need to be addressed. Some researchers have also suggested that there is a great deal of scope for the use of bush resources to be increased. Young et.al. argue that the importance of subsistence both as a land management strategy, and in terms of its value to people, has been misrepresented and is subsequently not supported by mainstream resource use support programs. The potential importance of bush resources in both economic and health terms has not been realised and there must be an effort to facilitate access to these resources in a sustainable way.

Cane argues that access to bush tucker could be increased through the development of "bush tucker gardens" whereby traditional bush food plants could replace the introduced vegetables which have resulted in many failed agricultural enterprises. The advantages of bush food plants are that they are adapted to the arid environment and are resistant to pests. They therefore require little upkeep and maintenance of reticulation systems and equipment is kept to as minimum. Increasing the access to and use of bush foods may have potential, however, the acceptability of these ideas to Aboriginal people needs to be investigated. If such projects are initiated by Aboriginal groups they have much more chance of success than if they are introduced from outside.

It can be argued that the sustainable use of bush resources was practised for an extended period prior to European settlement. A number of factors contributed to this sustainability including Aboriginal management practices such as the use of fire, low population densities, and the ability to utilise resources over a wide area. Many of these factors have now changed. Given the cultural and economic importance of bush resource use to Aboriginal people it is important that strategies to ensure sustainability in the context of contemporary resource use pressures are developed.

Community development planning

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) provides funding for community development. In existing communities ATSIC has provided these funds in conjunction with a planning process of limited scope. ATSIC community development plans focus on activities which require funding such as major capital works and infrastructure development. These documents tend to take the form of a wish list for ATSIC funding.

Until recently ATSIC has given no clear indication of the role or importance of environmental issues in its approach to funding community development. The recent development of an ATSIC Environment Policy and the development of strategies such as the Rural Industries Strategy may clarify this issue. The process through which these statements of policy and strategies will influence practical decisions for sustainable development remains unclear.

The Northern Territory Open College (NTOC) has been involved with community development planning since 1987 through the operations of their Community Development Planning Team. A review of this program highlights many areas where the community planning process could be improved but it also identifies the need to improve the link between community planning and the broader system of planning in Aboriginal affairs. Specifically, there is a need for an agreed joint agency approach to community development planning which marries bottom up planning from communities with the top down planning processes within government agencies.

Summary

Land use around community areas is directly related to the health of community members. Issues such as the resilience of land types for the establishment of new living areas and the availability and sustainability of bush resources do not currently receive adequate attention. Community areas encompass a range of land uses which can be conflicting. It is important that management of these areas reflects community values and that land uses are derived from community initiatives which will enjoy continued support. Programs not based on the aspirations of local people rarely succeed. The value of bush resources for the residents at outstations is not widely recognised. Bush resources are seen as incidental to many land management resource programs and there has been little attempt to manage or improve people's access to them. Bush resources are available at increasing cost as they are depleted around areas with ready access. Added to this the use of modern technology such as cars and rifles has changed resource use patterns over large areas. There is a need for community based bush resource use planning to identify strategies to manage these changes and ensure that bush resources are used sustainably and for long term community benefit.