Think of Australia and a flood of images spring to mind. From the vast expanse of the Red Centre, with Uluru as its crowning glory, to great swathes of bushland, clear, fish-filled seas fringed with deserted beaches, and ancient rainforests alive with birdsong, everything points to this being a wild, untouched country.
So begins Phoebe’s most recent piece for The Telegraph, which looked at a huge number of rewinding initiatives currently underway in Australia.
She continues…
So the idea that Australia needs “rewilding”, that we have to work hard at repairing a ruined Eden, may at first seem contradictory. But look closer and it is clear that this once-harmonious ecosystem has been damaged – and European settlement was to blame, bringing with it farming and the release of invasive flora and fauna.
Humans have called this continent home for more than 60,000 years, and the aboriginal people who came first hunted and lived in a far more sustainable way than the settlers. They thought about the future in everything they did. If they took too much, they knew their descendants would have nothing. Cave paintings acted as helpful hints for those who would come next; land management was undertaken to help minimise the impact of bush fires and regenerate plants that needed fire to release their seeds. Aboriginal people worked with the natural world – not living off it but living with it, realising this was the way to survive.
Finally, she presents the most weirdest and wonderful critters found in Australia.
You can read the full article by clicking on the below photograph. Happy rewilding/reading!
