Something Old, Something New
Australia is a country of extraordinary contrasts. A quick appreciation is evident from looking at its physical characteristics. You might think it is an island, but although it is considerably larger than Greenland, (the world’s largest island), Australia is a continent, and therefore excluded from comparison! At 2.97 million square miles, it is marginally smaller than mainland USA, which extends just over 3 million square miles (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). It is the world’s driest continent, with the ‘outback’ taking up 81% of the total landmass, of which 44% is stony or sandy arid or semi-arid desert, and 37% sparse scrub. The remaining more fertile land runs along the perimeter, counter-clockwise from Perth in the southwest all the way round the coast, ending in the tropical forests of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. With only eight states and territories, three take up most of the space: Western Australia occupies one third of the total, Queensland 22%, the Northern Territory 17%, leaving three other states and two territories with the rest.
A big country, with a total population slowly approaching 26 million, compared to 330 million in the US, and 1.4 billion in China, whose population is squashed into 3.7 million square miles. Most of Australia’s tiny population is in the major cities, with Sydney and Melbourne both approaching 5 million, followed by Brisbane at 2.3 million, Perth 2 million and Adelaide at 1.3 m. With exception of Perth, these cities are along the southern and eastern coasts, where most of the population is to be found. Population density a hundred miles in from the coast anywhere in Australia is very low. Overall, most people are strung along the seaboard, with the big cities appearing every so often, like beads on a string.
There’s more. Not only is it a largely empty, big country, but it is predominantly flat! The highest mountain, Mount Koscuiszko, is a miserable 7,300 feet above sea level, part of the Great Dividing Range that runs along the east of the country from Queensland down to Victoria. Great sounds, well, great, but, the whole range is rather a disappointing effort. To make up for a lack of massive mountains, Australia does have the world’s largest coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef, extending for 1,240 miles off the north east coast.
It’s not all about size. Australia’s geology is like a textbook for students. At the simplest level, moving from the west to the east across the continent, we move from rocks 2,500-3,000 million years old to a jumble of different strata from 250-50 million years ago as we approach the Great Dividing Range, with a muddle of much older material thrown in. In the middle of this sweep of geological history, and roughly in the middle of country are two important areas. To the north is a huge outcrop of Cambrian rocks, the era of 500-550 million years ago, where many fossils from the first huge burst of diversity in life forms can be found.
For palaeontologists, however, particular interest is focussed on a second area, north of Adelaide, the Flinders Ranges, containing outcrops from 550 to 700 million years ago. With the unwieldy name of the Neoproterozoic, it is from within this area and time that the Edicaran rocks can be found, one of only two major sites in which the fossilised remains of the soft tissues of early life forms can be found preserved in shale, some examples dating back far as 600 million years ago (the other comparable site is the Burgess Shale in the US). Lots of numbers, but the point is that it is this small area that had revealed some of the key evidence on the way life evolved, long before creatures with hard shells or skeletons emerged, and many millions of years before those dinosaurs of Jurassic Park fame.
Something old. Reading the geology of Australia is like reading a physical map of time. It’s hard not get excited! More than just excited. To hold a 65-million-year-old opalised fossil shell from Coober Pedy is quite extraordinary: I was lucky enough to obtain two of them. However, a small shell looks rather disappointing when you go to the South Australian Museum and see the opalised skeleton of a six-metre-long Addyman Plesiosaur, found in a mine in Andamooka in 1968, a town of some 300 people nearly 400 miles north of Adelaide (six metres are almost twenty feet!). The museum claims it is the finest known opalised skeleton on Earth, but, despite that, I have never been moved to travel to Andamooka in an attempt to uncover another example. It is far too hot, dry and isolated over there!
It might be a harsh country, but there have been people in Australia for a long time. While research keeps uncovering more evidence, continuing to push back how long the Indigenous people have been present, there is little doubt the time humans have been here runs back at least 70,000 years, and possibly a great deal longer. Although there are many similarities between Indigenous Aboriginal Australians, there is also great variation among different communities, each with its own mixture of cultures, customs and languages. At the time of initial European settlement, over 250 languages were spoken; while some 120 to 145 of these remain in use, only 13 of that total are not considered endangered. Another Indigenous group, the Torres Strait Islanders, possess a heritage and cultural history distinct from Aboriginal traditions, from an area including over 100 islands, thoughtfully annexed by the British colony of Queensland in 1879 (talk about colonies can get confusing, but I will explain a little more on this later). The eastern Torres Strait Islanders are related to people from Papua New Guinea and are not generally included in the term “Aboriginal Australians”.
At one time, many Indigenous organisations used the phrase “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander” to highlight the distinctiveness and importance of Torres Strait Islanders in the Indigenous population. However, terminology has been revised over the years. While the term Indigenous Australians is seen to be more inclusive of Torres Strait Islander people, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples dislike it, feeling that it is too generic and removes their identity. Being more specific, for example by naming the language group, is considered best practice and most respectful. Terms that are considered disrespectful include Aborigine and ATSI (an acronym for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander).
When the British rolled up in 1788 and stuck a flag in the land around Botany Bay, the change to the country was enormous.[i] For the UK, sending people to the new colony, New South Wales, was an ingenious approach to deal with overcrowding in British jails. 775 convicts were sent in six transport ships, accompanied by a slightly smaller number of officials, crew, marines, and their families. Altogether a total of eleven ships sailed into the bay, comprising ‘the First Fleet’ as it is now called. It was the first of many, with some 164,000 convicts transported between 1788 and 1868. Further colonies were established in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, and Western Australia. Life was tough, freed convicts often continued their lives of crime, and a blokey ‘no worries’ male ethos emerged, a culture that is still evident today. At the same time, the Indigenous people were decimated, ravaged by western diseases, and western guns. A sad story,[ii] and in 2019, a full reconciliation with Indigenous people over Australia’s colonial past has yet to be achieved.
After more than a century of turbulent activity, the 1st of January 1901 marked something new. Following discussion over ten years, first at a Constitutional Convention in Sydney in 1891, and then at an Australasian Federal Convention from 1897-8, referenda in the colonies led to the adoption of the Australian Constitution, despite the fact the planning took place without direct participation by Queensland, (as the colony didn’t arrange authority to participate in time), and Western Australia, whose attendance was ‘sporadic’. Some would add this is much the case 120 years later, with Queensland preferring to ignore the others, and Western Australia only half-hearted in joint endeavours. The six colonies became states, and the new Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Compared to its Indigenous history, Australia’s history is so brief it can be described as something new grafted onto something old, although, at the time, and for many in the country today, most saw the ‘new country’ as the first country, England considering Australia as terra nullius before 1788, an empty land.
To travel around Australia today is to see all the signs of new growth. While the country may be experiencing a slightly slower rate of economic growth this year, it is now in its thirtieth year of increasing GDP, a record unmatched by any other OECD member. Despite slowing, there are cranes dotting the skyline in every city, unemployment is low, salaries continue to increase, and even the basic wage was adjusted upwards once again. One sign of wealth is cars. Around Melbourne’s CBD, new vehicles abound, including many expensive models (although everything in Australia is expensive, unsurprising in a country where the major source of wealth is selling unprocessed resources overseas – coal, ore and natural gas).
The area around the university where I am working provides a fascinating contrast in styles. Students with an Asian background (I am unable to tell if they are locals or international students) are well-dressed, often sporting expensive fashion labels. In contrast, some of the Caucasian staff seem to prefer to dress down (or badly, as it is hard to tell the difference). Perhaps this is a sign those of an academic disposition wish to make it clear that they eschew vanity? However, this appears to be the dress style of many ‘white’ people in the city.
A more telling distinction is between the young and those somewhat older. Australia is a young person’s country. Wine bars, cocktail lounges, tapas bars, night clubs and a variety of restaurants are packed out by young people, with fashion influencing much behaviour. A clear indicator is to look inside the restaurants in a popular area such as Brunswick Street in Fitzroy. Some are full, even with a queue forming, while others are almost empty: I wonder if the only difference is some are ‘in’ and others not? Yet another perspective on preferences is to compare the numerous pubs with other venues. Public bars tend to be filled by men, often watching sport on the screens around the room as they enjoy a beer.
Pub clientele tells part of the story. For all the discussion of political correctness, gender diversity, and freedom from discrimination, Australia often appears to have remained a male world. It’s a silly game to attempt to make sense of the variety of sights along the street, but it is hard to escape the sense that older values are still there: unfashionable dressed men accompanied by beautifully groomed women. Something old and something new? It is hard to escape the conclusion that older gender stereotypes still underpin many interactions.
I know I am exaggerating. Sport is a unifying and central part of life for many Australians, and here gender seems less relevant, both among spectators, and, increasingly, among participants as women’s leagues have appeared in almost every sport. One of the more compelling sights is to watch supporters flocking into one of the football grounds, many dressed in team colours. I have often suggested that these supporters are members of tribes, loyal to their idols (the teams and specific players), roaring their side on to victory. To call it tribal suggests that these are closed groups, in opposition to one another, but while there is some tension (and occasional violence, especially after a game), most times more antagonism is shown towards the umpires when they call out a foul, even if they were right to do so!
Above everything else, life in the country is shaped by the physical character of the land. Just as Australia is essentially a huge arid island with a tiny edge of fertile land, so the people are like a tenuous plastic veneer nearly peeling off a solid timber base. This country wasn’t designed for people, and today’s population is already demanding more than the environment is able to provide. Water restrictions are being introduced in Sydney, bore water is running out in Perth as sea water extends further into the city’s water table, and Victoria anxiously awaits another ten-year drought. If we shouldn’t be trying to live in this hostile land, then another twenty years of drought conditions will probably push many more of us away.
More recently, Australia offers a vivid case study of the effects of climate change. On the one hand, much of the continent is free of pollution. Standing in the centre at night reveals an almost unbelievable array of stars spread from one horizon to the other. However, on the other hand, a thin ozone layer and a worldwide increase in carbon dioxide is slowly heating up an already hot place. Year on year, average temperatures increase, and droughts are more widespread. Former cattle country in Queensland is being baked out of existence. Increases in the acidity of sea water is beginning to erode the Great Barrier Reef (already damaged by an infestation of the Crown-of-thorns starfish over the past thirty years). Increased pressure on water resources has been evident for some time in all the southern regions, and there have been changes in fauna and flora in many areas: today more residents’ gardens are to be found stocked with drought resistant native plants. But in many ways city life hasn’t changed. Yes, it’s warmer in the summer, but people make time to go down to the beach to recover, with morning swims before work, and returning to relax there in the evening. The cost of living is going up, poverty is increasing, but for the majority it’s all manageable.
Something old? An almost dry continent that allowed well adapted fauna and a few resourceful humans to survive. Something new? 240 years of migrants with little understanding of the country. The only people who adapted to this strange continent are the very ones we have pushed away in careless acts of genocide. Central to the Indigenous world was an interdependence with their environment, based on respect: they felt that while the land sustains and provides for the people, people manage and sustain the land through culture and ceremony. In their view, each person is entrusted with the cultural knowledge and responsibility to care for the environment. Rather than owning land, Indigenous people had an intimate knowledge and connection for places related to them and central to their identity.
By the time we have finished, the new will have been completely replaced and will have obliterated the old. Not only have we failed to respect the Indigenous values of care and responsibility for the land, but all too soon our careless approach will ensure we will arrive at an end point, one where there will be nothing of value left, nothing for another generation to inherit, and no-one left to be the inheritors. The story told in 1788 will be true: Australia as terra nullius.
[i] The inside cover of a book published by the Australian Institute for Multicultural Affairs in 1984 featured two Indigenous people watching the arrival, with one saying to the other “there goes the neighbourhood”. How true! There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia’s Migrant Experience, Michael Dugan and Josef Szwarc, Macmillan.
[ii] Confrontingly told in Robert Hughes book, The Fatal Shore.
