Australia The Land Down Under

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Australia The Land Down Under

• http//www.garma.telstra.com/media.htm

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History

• Before the arrival of European settlers,
  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
  inhabited most areas of the Australian continent.
• Each people spoke one or more of hundreds of
  separate languages, with lifestyles and cultural
  traditions that differed according to the region
  in which they lived.
• Their complex social systems and highly developed
  traditions reflect a deep connection with the
  land and environment.
• Asian and Oceanic mariners and traders were in
  contact with Indigenous Australians for many
  centuries before the European expansion into the
  Eastern Hemisphere.
• Some formed substantial relationships with
  communities in northern Australia.

Lake Mungo- age of Mungo Man. between 30,000
years 60,000.
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• The first recorded European contact with
  Australia was in March 1606, when Dutch explorer
  Willem Janszoon (c.1570 - 1630) charted the west
  coast Queensland.
• Over the next two centuries, European explorers
  and traders continued to chart the coastline of
  Australia, then known as New Holland.
• In 1688, William Dampier became the first
  British explorer to land on the Australian coast.
  
• It was not until 1770 that another Englishman,
  Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour,
  extended a scientific voyage to the South Pacific
  in order to further chart the east coast of
  Australia and claim it for the British Crown.
• Britain decided to use its new outpost as a penal
  colony the First Fleet of 11 ships carried about
  1500 peoplehalf of them convicts.
• The fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January
  1788, and it is on this day every year that
  Australia Day is celebrated.

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• In all, about 160 000 men and women were brought
  to Australia as convicts from 1788 until penal
  transportation ended in 1868.
• The convicts were joined by free immigrants from
  the early 1790s.
• The wool industry and the gold rushes of the
  1850s provided an impetus for free settlers to
  come to Australia.
• Scarcity of labor, the vastness of the land and
  new wealth based on farming, mining and trade
  made Australia a land of opportunity.
• Yet during this period, Indigenous Australians
  suffered enormously. Death, illness, displacement
  and dispossession disrupted traditional
  lifestyles and practices.

Port Arthur, Tasmania was Australia's largest
penal colony
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• The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901
  through the federation of six states under a
  single constitution.
• The non-Indigenous population at the time of
  Federation was 3.8 million (Indigenous93,000).
  Half of these lived in cities, three-quarters
  were born in Australia, and the majority were of
  English, Scottish or Irish descent.
• The founders of the new nation believed they were
  creating something new and were concerned to
  avoid the pitfalls of the old world.
• They wanted Australia to be harmonious, united
  and egalitarian, and had progressive ideas about
  human rights, the observance of democratic
  procedures and the value of a secret ballot.
• While one of the first acts of the new
  Commonwealth Parliament was to pass the
  Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which
  restricted migration to people of primarily
  European origin, this was dismantled after the
  Second World War.
• Today Australia has a global, non-discriminatory
  policy and is home to people from more than 200
  countries.
• From 1900 to 1914 great progress was made in
  developing Australias agricultural and
  manufacturing capacities, and in setting up
  institutions for government and social services.
• 2006 - 20,629,787
• INDIGENOUS POPULATION 427,094

A poster entitled 'Advance Australia' produced in
1901
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• Overall, the Australian Aborigines went through
  stages of being conquered through an 'invasion'
  and taking of their lands.
• Many adapted to the new lifestyle (when many
  became reliant on alcohol, tobacco and handouts
  of food and clothing. However the settlers were
  often contemptuous of the Aborigines and
  separated them from their society and the people
  became the fringe dwellers of society. Often they
  were killed as a nusiance.
• Others were removed from their families and
  placed into institutions.
• From the late 1830s the remnants of the tribes in
  the settled areas were moved onto Reserves and
  Missions where they were 'managed' by Whitemen
  and were forbidden from teaching their children
  their language and customs.
• During the 1900s separation was an official
  government policy which lasted for many decades.
• Today, many Aboriginal people do not know their
  origins. In other words, which tribe they are
  descended from or the names of their parents and
  or grandparents. They are a lost generation.
• Source http//www.crystalinks.com/aboriginals.html

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• In 1967 the Australian people approved in a
  national referendum to give the federal
  government the power to pass legislation on
  behalf of Indigenous Australians and to include
  Indigenous Australians in future censuses.
• The referendum result was the culmination of a
  campaign by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous
  Australians.
• It was widely seen as affirmation of the
  Australian peoples wish to see its government
  take direct action to improve the living
  conditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander peoples.

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• In March 1967 striking Aboriginal pastoral
  workers changed political history by extending a
  demand for equal wages to a declaration of their
  rights of ownership of traditional lands.
• This became one of Australias first successful
  land claims by its indigenous people.
• In this photograph Mervyn Bishop captures the
  moment when the country is symbolically handed
  back to Vincent Lingiari, one of the traditional
  land owners of Dagu Ragu (Wattie Creek), by the
  Prime Minister of the day, Gough Whitlam.

• Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into
  hands of traditional landowner Vincent Lingiari,
  Northern Territory 1975

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Forest Inventory
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• Australia has unique land, water, vegetation and
  biodiversity resources. The Australian continent
  of 7.6 million km2 supports a wide range of
  agricultural and forestry industries. The 16.1
  million km2ocean supports a wide range of marine
  species.
• The management of their natural resources is one
  of Australias greatest challenges.
• Production from natural resources earns over 30
  billion a year in exports from the agriculture,
  fisheries and forestry industries.
• Responsibility for natural resources generally
  rests with the States and Territories, however
  the Australian Government is responsible for some
  fisheries, primarily offshore or cross-State
  fisheries.

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Agricultural Production
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• Australia is a dry continent where rainfall is
  unreliable compared with Europe and North
  America.
• Recurring droughts and floods are a natural
  feature of the landscape.
• The Australian continent has a number of distinct
  climatic zones
• the summer dominant tropics and sub tropics to
  the north
• the Mediterranean climates to the south
• the arid and semi arid regions in the middle of
  the continent
• areas of high rainfall on coastal fringes and in
  the ranges of the east of Australia.
• Agricultural land use is heavily influenced by
  this climatic regime. Generally, the tropical
  north is suited to grazing (principally cattle)
  as well as the production of fruit and sugarcane.
  

120047 80031 500 20
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• Water availability
• Australia has an average rainfall of only
  469mm/year, with annual averages ranging from
  127mm in south east South Australia to 3,163mm in
  north east Queensland.
• Evaporation rates are extremely high with only
  12 of rainfall collecting in rivers, compared
  with a world average of 65.
• Of all the inhabited continents, Australia has
  the least amount of water in its rivers. The
  rivers have more than twice the flow variation of
  those of Europe, second to southern Africa.
• Water storage capacity is over 4,000KL per
  person, the highest water storage capacity per
  capita in the world.
• There are 447 large dams supplying 79,000 GL
  (Gigalitres) of water for irrigation,
  industrial, hydo-electricity and urban use.
• Estimated total water supply in 1996-97 was
  80,363 GL.
• Source http//www.affa.gov.au/content/output.cfm?
  ObjectIDF283DB44-6641-4723-8D4CC6B45E49F3A0

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• Irrigation is well established and is an
  important feature of the agricultural landscape.
• Widespread irrigation and extraction by other
  water uses has placed the natural ecosystems that
  rely on the nation's water resources under
  considerable pressure.
• The challenge for resource managers is to ensure
  balance between the use of water for production
  purposes and conservation of riverine
  environments

Percentage run off for each Basin
Drainage basins in the central Australian
mountain ranges, have rapid response times and
floods may rise quickly, blocking roads in Alice
Springs.  This image shows a flood on the Todd
River at the Heavitree Gap Causeway. 
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Bedrock Geology
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• Soils of Australia
• The agricultural landscapes of Australia are
  supported by a wide range of soil types.
• Most, soils are ancient, strongly weathered and
  infertile.
• Old soils along with the natural limitations of
  many soils and their interactions with climate,
  have made it more challenging to develop
  sustainable systems for agriculture.
• Limitations to productivity have also been
  induced through human impacts on soils.
• While some forms of degradation such as nutrient
  deficiencies can be corrected, others, such as
  soil erosion, compaction and acidification are
  difficult to remedy.
• Australian soils tend to be
• old     
• salty     
• clayey except in the west of the continent
  where they tend to be sandy     
• acidic     
• nutritionally and organically impoverished     
• structurally challenging.

Source http//www.affa.gov.au/content/output.cfm?
ObjectIDF9AB31F2-E3AB-4CC1-B5D07FDE0A82E197
http//humanities.cqu.edu.au/geography/GEOG11023/w
eek_8.htm
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• Australian soils have less organic matter and
  poorer structure than soils in the Northern
  Hemisphere.
• They tend to be quite clayey just below the
  surface which restricts drainage and impedes root
  growth.
• Some of the clay characteristics cause problems
  for engineering and farming because of their
  shrink and swell nature.
• Australias rate of soil formation is low by
  world standards taking 1,000 years, in many parts
  of the country, for 3 cm of soil to form.
• Dust storms can cause large losses of soil, for
  example the 1983 Melbourne dust storms resulted
  in a loss of more than two million tons of soil.

Source http//www.affa.gov.au/content/output.cfm?
ObjectIDF9AB31F2-E3AB-4CC1-B5D07FDE0A82E197
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Source of Soils Information

• http//www.clw.csiro.au/aclep/asc/asc.htm
• http//www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/page
  s/gloss_DG
• http//humanities.cqu.edu.au/geography/GEOG11023/w
  eek_8.htm
• http//www.grdc.com.au/growers/oft/soiltype.htm

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Source www.clw.csiro.au/aclep/asc_re_on_line/appe
nd5.htm
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• FERROSOLS Soils with B2 horizons which are
  high in free iron oxide, and which lack strong
  texture contrast between A and B horizons.
• The B2 horizon has structure more developed than
  weak and a fine earth fraction which has a free
  iron oxide content greater than 5 (as opposed to
  a Dermosol).
• Some Tasmanian soils, particularly the ferrosols
  (the red soils of the north-west and north-east)
  are of world class quality because of their free
  drainage and good structure, but they can be
  easily degraded.
• This soil profile is an example of a soil with a
  gradational profile (clay content increasing
  gradually down the profile).
• Source Richard Doyle

Source Soil Orders-Australia
http//www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/page
s/gloss_DG
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• Organosol This class caters for most soils
  dominated by organic materials.
• Although they are found from the wet tropics to
  the alpine regions, areas are mostly small except
  in south west Tasmania.
• There have been few previous attempts to
  subdivide these soils and data are limited in
  Australia.
• Organosol soil profile from Tasmania.

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• Dermosols Soils with structured B2 horizons and
  lacking strong texture contrast between A and B
  horizons.
• Although there is some diversity within the
  order, it brings together a range of soils with
  some important properties in common.
• This example is of a Red Dermosol that occurs on
  a lower river terrace of the Tallangatta Creek in
  north-east Victoria

Red Dermosols occur on a range of landscapes in
the North East region of Victoria - from lower
river terraces to mountainous areas.
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• Kandosols This order accommodates those soils
  which lack strong texture contrast, have massive
  or only weakly structured B horizons, and are not
  calcareous throughout.
• The soils of this order range throughout the
  continent, often occurring locally as very large
  areas.
• Kandosol soil profile from Western Australia.
• Red Kandosoldeveloped on granite

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• Rudosols This order is designed to accommodate
  soils that have negligible pedologic
  organisation.
• They are usually young soils in the sense that
  soil forming factors have had little time to
  pedologically modify parent rocks or sediments.
• The component soils can obviously vary widely in
  terms of texture and depth many are stratified
  and some are highly saline.
• Data on some of them are very limited.
• Rudosol soil profile from Queensland.

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• Hydrosol This order is designed to accommodate a
  range of seasonally or permanently wet soils and
  thus there is some diversity within the order.
• The key criterion is saturation of the greater
  part of the profile for prolonged periods (2-3
  months) in most years.
• The soils may or may not experience reducing
  conditions for all or part of the period of
  saturation, and thus manifestations of reduction
  and oxidation such as 'gley' colors and red
  mottles may or may not be present.

  Exotic Pine Trees at the Redoxic Hydrosol Site
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• Tenosols This order is designed to embrace soils
  with generally only weak pedologic organisation
  apart from the A horizons.
• It encompasses a rather diverse range of soils,
  which are nevertheless widespread in many parts
  of Australia.
• Tenosols have a weakly developed soil profile
  which is typically very sandy and without obvious
  horizons.
• Tenosols form from highly salicious parent
  material and where rainfall is from 0 to 1400mm.
• Generally, tenosols have a very low agricultural
  potential with very low chemical fertility, poor
  structure and low water-holding capacity.
• Ground-water contamination can be a potential
  problem due to the high permeability of these
  soils.

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• Vertosol Clay soils with shrink-swell properties
  that exhibit strong cracking when dry and at
  depth have slickensides and/or lenticular
  structural aggregates.
• Although many soils exhibit gilgai microrelief,
  this feature is not used in their definition.
• Australia has the greatest area and diversity of
  cracking clay soils of any country in the world.
• Vertosol soil profile from Queensland.

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• GILGAI MICRORELIEF Gilgai's are common where
  they are Grey Vertosol soils.
• The land surface is irregular with alternating
  mounds and depressions and is commonly referred
  to as 'crab hole' country.
• Gilgai microrelief in a paddock in the Horsham
  region. Note the well defined mounds.
• Gilgai microrelief is formed due to clay horizons
  shrinking and swelling with alternate drying and
  wetting cycles (vertic properties).
• This forces 'blocks' of subsoil material
  gradually upwards to form mounds.
• The resultant soil on the mounds have properties
  which are more like Grey Vertosol subsoils (i.e
  lighter colour, more alkaline, presence of
  carbonate, higher salinity).
• Source http//www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.n
  sf/pages/gloss_DGfactual

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• CRUSTY Soils with a massive or weakly structured
  surface crusty horizon (3 cm or less thick).
• It is often lower in clay content than the
  underlying non-self mulching structured clay.
• This term is used as a Great Group definition for
  Vertosols
• CONCHOIDAL FRACTURING A mass of soil which has
  obvious concave fracturing (ball and socket
  appearance).
• This is associated with severe compaction and
  remoulding (disturbed in a moist to wet
  conditon.).
• It is best seen in a soil pit exposure when
  material is removed with a mattock or pick and
  has the appearance of fractured bluestone.
  Conchoidal fracturing is most likely to occur
  just beneath the surface of clay soils
  (Vertosols) and if the soil has been compacted
  (e.g. vehicular traffic) whilst in a moist to wet
  condition (i.e. wetter than the plastic limit)
  for prolonged periods.

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• Kurosols Soils with strong texture contrast
  between A horizons and strongly acid B horizons.
• Many of these soils have some unusual subsoil
  chemical features (high magnesium, sodium and
  aluminium).
• Red Kurosol on granite near Springhurst

Surface (A) horizons loam or sandy loam
texture 15-20 cm thick shallow hardsetting A1
overlying bleached A2 horizon clear to abrupt
change toSubsoil (B2) horizonclay texture
well developed fine subangular blocky peds
strongly acid
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• Sodosols Soils with strong texture contrast
  between A horizons and sodic B horizons which are
  not strongly acid.
• Australia is noteworthy for the extent and
  diversity of sodic soils
• Sodosol soil profile from Western Australia

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• COLUMNAR STRUCTURE Soil particles are arranged
  around a vertical axis with flat faced peds.
• The tops of the columns have clearly defined
  domes.
• Columnar structure is often associated with
  subsoil sodicity.
• Columnar structure in the subsoil of a
  Corangamite Sodosol.

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• Chromosols Soils with strong texture contrast
  between A horizons and B horizons.
• The latter are not strongly acid and are not
  sodic.
• The soils of this order are among the most
  widespread soils used for agriculture in
  Australia, particularly those with red subsoils.
• Chromosols display a significant texture change
  from loamy upper horizons to clay subsoils which
  are neither sodic nor strongly acidic.
• Examples can be found on hillslopes in the
  uplands and on volcanic plains.
• Subsoils are strongly mottled and strongly
  structured with shiny clay peds suggestive of
  early Pleistocene weathering.
• Red Chromosol on alluvial deposits near
  Navarre.
• Yellow Chromosol

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• CALCRETE A layer where cemented carbonate
  accumulation has occurred.
• The material must be hard in a pan or in the
  substrate.
• This definition does not describe the common soft
  carbonate nor the carbonate accumulated in
  nodules or concretions.
• This term is used to describe a number of soils
  in the Australian Soil Classification

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• Calcarosols As the name suggests, the soils in
  this order are usually calcareous throughout the
  profile, often highly so.
• They constitute one of the most widespread and
  important groups of soils in southern Australia.
• Limitations for agriculture include shallow
  depth, low water retention and wind erosion on
  the sandier forms.
• High salinity, alkalinity and sodicity may also
  be a problem. Soil fertility deficiencies are
  widespread
• Calcarosol soil profile from South Australia.

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• COFFEE ROCK A compacted, cemented or indurated
  layer within the profile that is comprised of
  humus and iron oxides.
• Thick coffee rock layer (Bhs horizon) from 80 cm
  depth in a Cranbourne Podosol.
• Thinner irregular coffee rock layer (Bhs horizon)
  at 80 cm depth in a Cranbourne Podosol.

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• Podosols
• Soils with B horizons dominated by the
  accumulation of compounds of organic matter,
  aluminium and/or iron. These soils are recognised
  world-wide, and Australia is particularly noted
  for its 'giant' forms.
• Podosols are the dominant soil in the
  CranbourneBotanic Gardens and support heathland
  communities.
• Elsewhere in the region they have largely been
  cleared ofnatural vegetation and support land
  uses such as horticulture.

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• Groundwater
• Without groundwater much of inland Australia
  could not have been developed.
• The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is Australias
  biggest source of groundwater and extends under
  1.7 million km2 (22) of Australia
• The Basin ranges in depth from less than 100
  metres at the edge to over 3km in places.
• The GAB contains 64.9 million GL of water, making
  it the worlds largest artesian groundwater
  basin.
• Average groundwater flow is from 0.2 to 2.5
  metres/year. It can take two million years for
  water to cross the Basin.

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• The Murray-Darling Basin in the south-east of the
  continent has a large irrigation infrastructure,
  supporting the production of fruit, vegetables,
  rice and many other intensive agricultural
  activities.
• A better understanding of groundwater flow
  systems will help manage salinity in the
  Murray-Darling Basin.
• source http//www.ndsp.gov.au/catchclass/

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• Agriculture in the arid zone involves extensive
  grazing, where sheep and cattle are reared at
  relatively low densities of less than one sheep
  per 10ha.
• The higher rainfall zones are suitable for
  dairying, as well as more intensive grazing
  enterprises that produce meat.

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• The National Action Plan is a strategy for
  tackling two of Australia's most serious natural
  resource management issues increasing salinity
  levels and declining water quality.

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• The seven-year, AUD1.4 billion program is
  jointly funded by Commonwealth, State and
  Territory governments and builds on existing
  government initiatives to tackle salinity and
  water quality problems, including the Natural
  Heritage Trust.

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Australias Future

• Global Climate Change shorelines, drought,
  floods
• Neighbors to the North- Indonesia - 201 million
  people with a booming economy (oil) and with a
  military regime Indonesia is a nation with a
  desperate shortage of space, which may regard
  Australia as an empty country
• National debt (28 billion ) Australia's national
  debt is just under four per cent of GDP
• Energy resources-Australia has some of the
  lowest-priced energy in the industrial world, due
  largely to the wide availability of inexpensive
  coal. Thirty three per cent of Australia's
  greenhouse emissions come from electricity
  generation, with 92 per cent of this from coal.
  Australia has large resources of energy, such as
  gas, hydro, wind uranium and solar, which have
  lower emissions intensities than coal. But each
  of these has drawbacks.
• Need for environmental protection of fragile
  resources.
• It is a bright future, it is an optimistic time.
  
• The Australian economy now is better and stronger
  than it has been at any time since World War II.
• We don't have a fixed exchange rate, we don't
  have high tariffs, we don't have an
  overdependence on certain exports.
• We have a growing capacity in the service
  industries in relation to exports, we've
  diversified our manufacturing exports, we still
  continue to be greatly enriched from our
  agriculture and mining exports.
• John Howard- 3 March 2004