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Parks and Recreation Collection – Narratives

Category: Natural resources and environment

conservation; fire; water resources; pests; vegetation; climate change; biodiversity

GRAZING THE VICTORIAN SNOW COUNTRY: A Traditional Land Use in a Changing Public Policy Environment

Updated on date by author

 

Geographer Peter Cabena, originally resident of Victoria, completed a Masters dissertation in 1980 on the grazing of cattle in the Victorian high country, having conducted a deep dive into state government archives, and a significant round of interviews with mountain district cattlemen and others. The original thesis can be viewed at https://www.highcountryhistory.org.au/historical-item/grazing-the-high-country-victoria-an-historical-and-political-geography-of-high-country-grazing-in-victoria-1835-to-1935/.

Peter returned to the subject in 2014 to review, refine & expand the scope and content of his research, finally calling time out on his efforts on 4 February 2025, when he passed it to the Secretary of PaRC for uploading.

PaRC is delighted to have the privilege of publishing this monumental work with its snapshot of the views of people affected by a highly controversial and widely discussed issue of land-use and park management. Being a research dissertation not formally published in the scholarly literature this work has, until now, remained relatively unknown to the broader community.

If any part of this publication breaches copyright or privacy, please be assured by the author and PaRC that this is inadvertent; and don’t hesitate to let the Secretary know so that the breach can be rectified.

Proofreading for consistency of style has not been completed.

 

INVITATION TO COMMENT

Peter Cabena offers to readers the opportunity to comment on any perceived factual errors or issues regarding interpretations.Please submit to PaRC via secretary AT SYMBOL parcaustralia.com.au.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

PRELIMINARIES

INTRODUCTION

ABBREVIATIONS & DEFINITIONS

LIST OF FILES WITH SIZES

 

CHAPTER 1: PASTORAL EXPLORATION & EXPANSION
a) Background
b) Settlement of the Alpine Periphery
c) Exploring the Snow Country
d) Pioneer Mountain Grazing
e) Gold Discoveries and the Rise of Smaller Scale Pastoralists

 

CHAPTER 2: HOW THE ADMINISTRATION OF LAND TENURE INFLUENCED SNOW COUNTRY GRAZING

a) The Necessity for and Consequences of a Land Tenure System
b) The Impact of Land Selection
c) The 1878 Crown Lands Commission
d) The 1884 Land Act
e) Long Term Increase in Pastoral Occupation after 1884

 

CHAPTER 3: LATER LAND SETTLEMENT DREAMS AND SCHEMES
a) Land Selection in the Snow Country
b) Land Settlement Schemes
c) Tourism

 

CHAPTER 4: HOW GRAZIERS USED THE SNOW COUNTRY

a) Cattle Country

b) The Number of Snow Country Graziers

c) Trends in Stocking Levels

d) Drought Relief Grazing

e) Common Practices and Structures

f) Social Capital

 

CHAPTER 5: A TRADITIONAL PASTORAL ECOLOGY (AN APPLIED PASTORAL ECOLOGY, AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE)

 

CHAPTER 6: PUBLIC INTERESTS, PUBLIC VALUES AND PUBLIC PURPOSE LAND RESERVATIONS

 

CHAPTER 7: (WINDING DOWN): CHANGING SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CIRCUMSTANCES

 

CHAPTER 8: EPILOGUE

 

APPENDICES

A. LOCAL HISTORIES
Western Fringe

Buffalo Platea
Upper Goulburn River Watershed

Baw Baw Plateau

Central Core

The Greater Bogong High Plains

The Snowy Range & Dargo High Plains

Far East

The Snowy – lndi Divide

Nunniong Plateau

 

B. EXPOSING FERDINAND MUELLER’S MISLEADING CLAIM

C. EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE SOIL CONSERVATION BOARD / AUTHORITY CONCERNING ITS OVERSIGHT OF GRAZING ON THE BOGONG HIGH PLAINS, 1945 – 1988

D. LIST OF SNOW COUNTRY GRAZING RUNS AND THEIR OCCUPANTS. (Note: this is an Excel file. If it does not transmit successfully, please let PaRC know).

E. SHEEP GRAZING IN THE SNOW COUNTRY AS RECORDED IN THE ORAL HISTORY

F. NOTES OF INTERVIEWS WITH SNOW COUNTRY GRAZIERS, 1975-1978 (128 pages).

G. HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SNOWY RANGE.

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Cultural heritage and awareness, Narratives, Natural resources and environment |

MidCoast Walking Cycling and Trail based Activity Strategy

Posted on date by author

MidCoast Walking Cycling and Trail based Activity Strategy

 

This strategy is part of the MidCoast Parks & Recreation Planning Portfolio, a group of 9 strategies and plans for the management of the 827 parks and reserves, and the activities that take place in them, on the MidCoast of NSW.

 

This strategy sets out a 10 year plan for the management, enhancement and addition of paths and trails throughout our urban, coastal and mountain reserves.

Review Status:
Posted in Health, fitness and well-being, Infrastructure, facilities and urban environments, Management and governance, Natural resources and environment, Open space and recreation areas, Planning, policy and legislation | Tagged , , | Leave a reply

MidCoast Playspace design and maintenance guidelines

Updated on date by author

Playspace design and maintenance guidelines

 

These guidelines have been developed by play planners and designers, as well as council operational staff who are experienced with play design and maintenance.

Review Status:
Posted in Health, fitness and well-being, Infrastructure, facilities and urban environments, Natural resources and environment, Open space and recreation areas, Planning, policy and legislation | Tagged , , | Leave a reply

Use of Public Open Space by Commercial Fitness Trainers Policy

Posted on date by author

MCC Policy – Use of Public Open Space by Commercial Fitness Trainers Policy

MCC Procedure – Use of Public Open Space by Commercial Fitness Trainers Policy

 

These two documents, the Policy, and the Procedure, set out Council’s position on the management of commercial fitness trainers in their use of public open space in MidCoast Council area.

Review Status:
Posted in Health, fitness and well-being, Human resource management, Leisure activities, Natural resources and environment, Open space and recreation areas | Tagged , , | Leave a reply

Aquatic fauna of Hotel Creek adj. Barrington Tops National Park

Updated on date by author

This charming report of 117 pages by biologist Evelyn Elfick commences with a generic explanation of aquatic systems then includes a list of some 89 aquatic invertebrates identified during a survey, with information and original drawings for each one. Hotel Creek is in the Chichester State Forest adjacent to Barrington Tops National Park in central New South Wales.

Although the title is Aquatic Insects of the Chichester State Forest, the list of fauna includes one fish (a gudgeon) and several molluscs, crustaceans and other invertebrates that are not insects.

The introductory ~20 pages could form a useful introduction to aquatic systems for secondary-level teachers as it is not site-specific.

Evelyn Elfick has supplied the following explanation by way of background:

“While studying as an undergraduate at the University of New England, I started collecting for a visiting lecturer from the USA. Her PhD was on freshwater aquatic insects and I collected ephemeroptera [mayflies] from rivers and streams from the South Coast at Bega to just north of the Hunter.

“I became so interested in the diversity of the then “unpolluted” freshwater systems that I decided to continue and chose Burra Creek as the main study area. This booklet was originally produced in A5 format to be used as a field guide for people working in the area.”

Evelyn may be contacted via elfick AT SYMBOL bigpond.com.

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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Determining appropriate land use

Updated on date by author

The brief internal paper Determining Land Use was written in 1984 as a guide for staff of the Metropolitan Parks Branch of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works. During that era (1980s), the Branch was taking occupation of numerous properties zoned Proposed Public Open Space, many of them worn out or run down (given that sale to the Board was more or less inevitable). Field staff were required to assess properties and decide whether to manage them for environmental conservation or develop for some form of public recreation, or something else. The paper is signed by Tony Whitham, but is marked in Trevor Arthur’s handwriting as by Geoff Edwards.

Roll on two decades, and the same Geoff Edwards in the Department of Natural Resources and Mines in Queensland, wrote a more sophisticated and comprehensive paper with a similar purpose. However, the scope of the land uses that departmental officers (who were the target audience of this Resource Planning Guideline) were from time to time required to evaluate were much broader, covering virtually all the land uses for which various parcels of Crown land could be allocated. This Guideline F9 Determining Most Appropriate Use was published in 2005 and appeared briefly on the Department’s website.

There is a subtext implied by the term “most appropriate use”. This concept is one grounded in public interest, and not in economic profit. It is in tension with the term “highest and best use” that is widely used as the basis of planning in planning schemes and water allocation. “Highest and best” implies the most intensive or economically profitable use (as determined by the market) that can be permitted under the regulations in force; “most appropriate” implies the use that maximises the benefit to the community, deriving from the intrinsic attributes of the land nestled in its locality; with economic potential, being only one criterion. The difference between these two concepts is explained in other papers in this series of Resource Planning Guidelines, obtainable by request to PaRC or from Trove.

 

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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Bushlands Magna Carta

Updated on date by author

It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this modest one-sheet black-and-white leaflet dated October 1969.  From the Save our Bushlands movement, triggered in particular by the Little Desert controversy in the late 1960s, and crystallised in this leaflet, the Victorian Government cancelled the Little Desert development scheme and legislated to create the Land Conservation Council with far-reaching consequences for the disposition of unallocated State Land.

 

 

Review Status: Pending
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Yarra Valley Metropolitan Park

Updated on date by author

Here PaRC reproduces a number of visitor leaflets and other descriptive materials.

Fauna of YVMP handout – about late 1980s. Authored probably by Visitor Services Officer Georgie Waterman and Ranger Patrick Fricker.

Yarra Valley Scats, a staff newsletter, authored by Patrick Fricker in ~1986.

Planting record 1991-1994.

This roneoed report is undated but would seem to date from about the declaration of the Yarra Valley Metropolitan Park in the late 1970s, when the board resolved to develop the park out of the area set aside in the planning scheme as “proposed public open space”. It includes information about the natural features and other characteristics of the area  and the provisions of the planning scheme.

The Great Yarra Parklands: See separate post.

Review Status: Pending
Posted in Education, outreach and advocacy, Narratives, Natural resources and environment | Leave a reply