The Visions of Future Landscapes (May 1999)

Foreword

Fenner conferences on the environment are sponsored by the generosity of Professor Frank and the late Mrs Fenner, under the auspices of the Australian Academy of Science. They have the aim of identifying issues of environmental and ecological significance that are of relevance to policy.

The aim of the 1999 conference was to promote a wide cross section of views on the options for future landscapes facing Australians. Sessions compared current resource uses and management with likely future scenarios, both if we continue with current actions, or change these in various directions.

For the first time, the 1999 Fenner Conference on the Environment brought specialists in sociology, the visual arts, history and philosophy together with scientists, conservationists and economists, with the aim of creating a more integrated and holistic framework in which to consider future options.

The Bureau of Rural Sciences was proud to host the conference, and received major sponsorship from the Australian Academy of Science, Land & Water Resources - Research & Development Corporation, Grains Research & Development Corporation, and Environment Australia. Further sponsorship was received from the Australian Heritage Commission, The Murray Darling Basin Commission, and the ACT Historic Places Cultural Facilities Corporation.

The conference generated significant interest and was considered of particular impact because of its strong focus on bringing scientists, artists and administrators together with industry representatives.

Reports from each session identified very strong consensus that 'we cannot go on as we are' if we are to restore degraded environments, manage our resource uses more sustainably, and achieve landscapes that are environmentally sound and socially acceptable.

The key recommendations are that the economic bottom line must be replaced with the Ecologically Sustainable Development's triple bottom-line accounting (social, environmental and economic) at the very least. There is a strong feeling that local communities and leading individuals are the basis of making the necessary changes.

Contents:

• Foreword

  Peter O'Brien

• Executive Summary and Recommendations

  Ann Hamblin

• Opening Session

  Chair - Peter O'Brien, Bureau of Rural Sciences
  Opening speech, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia, delivered by Geoffrey Gorrie
  Going beyond rhetoric: developing Australia sustainably. Neil Byron
  Learning from environmental mistakes: some thoughts on the international experience. Isabel Valencia

• Where are we now?

  Chair: David Bennett, Hassalls and Associates
  Contrasting perspectives: young countries in old landscapes and vice versa. Andrew Campbell
  The role of history in the creation of a vision of future landscapes. Matt McGlone
  Effects of changing vegetation on hydrology and biodiversity. Ted Lefroy, Richard Hobbs, Tom Hatton
  The potential of tree crops to contribute to the restoration of the ecological and economic balance of agricultural lands. Syd Shea

• The Lie of the Land: Landscapes Seminar

  Chair: Elaine Lawson, Lanyon Historic Precinct 
  From pictures to politics: aesthetics and politics in the 18th century - theories of the sublime and the picturesque. Peter Haynes
  Colonial picturesque: an antipodean Claude Glass. Ken Taylor
  Images of the desert in literature, visual arts and film. Roslynn Haynes

• Where are we going with current land uses and policies?

  Chair: John Williams, CSIRO Land and Water
  Scenarios for Australian landscapes. Doug Cocks
  Sustainable development for multiple land uses in New Zealand: utopian vision or realistic goal? Morgan Williams
  Australia's coastal beauty: maintenance or despoilation. Andrew Short

• The Lie of the Land: Landscapes Seminar

  Chair: Tom Griffiths, Australian National University 
  The aesthetics of remnant vegetation and rural landscape futures. John Cary 
  After the scene, after the fever. Geoff Park 
  Post-Aboriginality, litter and responsibility. Ian North 
  This El Dorado of pure recognition and desert of pure non-recognition. Mandy Martin 
  Landscape gardens and the colonial inheritance. James Broadbent
  

• Where are we going with current land uses and policies?

  Chair: Onko Kingma, Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry - Australia 
  Future landscapes of northern Australia: avoiding past mistakes, building a common future. Andrew Johnston 
  Still Settling Australia: landscapes, policies, institutions and memory. Stephen Dovers 
  A future Australian landscape without sheep! Alex Campbell 

• Where do we want to be in the future?

  Chair: Morgan Williams, Commission for the Environment, New Zealand 
  Visions of the Pilbara. George Seddon 
  The fire that is the centre of each family: landscapes of the ancients. Marcia Langton 
  Landscape and Incident. Jonathon Bordo 

• Visual Presentations

  Environmental futures - the role of information technology. David Green 
  The Fishman of south-east Australia: a wilderness experience. John Reid 

• Tools for the future

  Chair: Roy Green, National Land and Water Resources Audit 
  Using water wisely: improving the performance of our social institutions in a human ecosystem context. Geoffrey Syme 
  Biodiversity and farm diversity. Chris Williams, Stephen Morton, Mike Sutherland 
  Art, Agriculture, environment: the dynamic balance. James Darling 
  Unlocking the secrets of travelling stock reserves and routes. Ian Davidson 
  The Iberian dehasa: unrealistic parkland or practical solution? Ann Ridley, Richard Joffre 

• Community solutions and cultural visions

  Chair: Don Blesing, Cooper Basin Management Committee 
  Maori identity in the Aotearoa landscape. Tipene O’Regan 
  Culture, environment and landcare in the Yirrakala region of north-east Arnhem Land. Banduk Marika 
  Whose places? Community involvement in protection of heritage places in the landscape. Jane Lennon 
  Landcare in the future: using landscaping now to design our futures. Finnuala Frost, Peter Metcalfe 
  Prospects for a New Zealand Aotearoa cultural landscape. Colin Meurk, Simon Swaffield  

• Plenary Session

  Chair: David Yencken, University of Melbourne
  Alternative directions for the twenty-first century: their implications for landscape and ecology. The late Robert Theobald
  Contributed papers and posters.
  Closing comments. John Passioura 

• Conference Workshop Proceedings

  Chair: Andrew Pearce, Landcare New Zealand LTD 
  What have we learnt from this conference. Andrew Pearce 
  Landscapes of the future: past changes, future visions. Val Wiseman
  Sunrise 21: sustainable regional development case study. Ross Lake
  Group session outcomes. 

• Colour plates and illustrations.