Russell-Smith, J. (2016). The Path to Sustainable Development in North Australia. Solutions 7(2): 10–15. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-path-to-sustainable-development-in-north-australia/
Envisioning
The Path to Sustainable Development in North Australia by Jeremy Russell-Smith
This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all the right changes have been made.
M
uch has changed over the past half century across the sociocultural, ecologic-economic, and political landscapes of the northern quarter of Australia. At the start of the millennium, the vast, relatively unspoiled tropical savannas (covering a land area equivalent to Mexico) comprised one of the least densely populated, habitable regions of Planet Earth—with a population of only three percent of Australia’s 20 million or so people. Although the population has more than tripled recently, regional ecosystems are now in substantially better condition and many of the underlying socio-economic fundamentals are being addressed. Formerly administered under three separate, often competing political jurisdictions, declaration of the North Australia autonomous region was celebrated in 2050. To appreciate the drivers and changes that have taken place, it is useful to return to the start of the 21st century and consider the regional socio-cultural, ecological, and economic conditions prevailing at the time. In 2015, the then Australian government released its political vision for northern development—a policy document which exemplified the standard business-as-usual view of the era, with its emphasis on big infrastructure developments
including fossil-fuel extraction, dams, and other long cherished, but unfounded development dreams such as food bowls and extensive irrigable agriculture.1 Needless to say, this policy vision included no mention of climate change challenges and renewable energy opportunities, and only a passing reference to the potential for developing a diversified land-and-seasector ecosystem services economy. The outdated agricultural vision had already been critically and authoritatively dismissed by the 1960s.2
The Early 2000s Development Context At the time of the 2011 census, the regional population comprised 750,000 people, over half of whom resided in major urban service centers, with the remainder scattered in small settlements and communities at densities typically less than 0.1 persons/ km.3 Indigenous (aboriginal) people constituted about a fifth of the regional population and typically, the majority in remote regions. The Indigenous population was increasing at over twice the rate as that of the non-Indigenous population. Remote Indigenous communities faced an array of significant social challenges and disadvantages, including: unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rates; limited educational opportunities (including support for bilingual programs) resulting in poor literacy and numeracy outcomes; high unemployment; inadequate housing and related infrastructure; and, very high levels of incarceration. Government attempts to address these issues were generally sincere, if haphazard—and despite the considerable allocation of resources
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there was no real understanding of the need to support significant tenure reforms and development of community based and culturally appropriate land-and-sea-sector enterprises. Around the turn of the century, mining and off-shore fossil-fuel energy extraction industries were the major private contributors to the regional economy, but directly employed only a small proportion of the workforce. Tourism and hospitality industries—the second largest contributor—employed around nine percent of the workforce, and were based on internationally significant natural and cultural assets including the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics rainforests, Kakadu National Park, and the rugged Kimberley region and its wild coastline. Pastoral, agricultural, and fishing industries provided significant, if lesser, economic returns and employment opportunities. Publicly funded services, including health, education, defense, community safety and public administration sectors, provided employment for more than 30 percent of the regional workforce.4,5 By the early 2000s, it was well recognized, at least in scientific circles, that agricultural development had limited potential in North Australia— especially given that seasonal rainfall is highly variable especially in more inland regions, evaporation generally exceeds annual rainfall, and flat topography mitigates against water storage. One authoritative report estimated that the maximum potential for growth in irrigable land was likely a tripling of the area then under production, to a maximum of 60,000 ha.6 The potential for ‘mosaic irrigation,’ based on localized ground-water