Resource Management and Geography - Theses
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ItemThe impact of kangaroo grazing on sediment and nutrient mobilisation( 2000-05)The adverse impacts on vegetation and soils due to livestock grazing have been extensively studied for many years. The extent to which native wildlife may also be causing change to their environment, as a result of local increases in population density, has been the subject of debate in a number of countries. In Australia there has been a growing awareness in recent years that native herbivores, particularly kangaroos and wallabies, may also be causing changes to ecosystem dynamics. Environmmental changes, produced firstly by the aboriginal people and then by Europeans, have favoured the larger macropods, resulting in increased population levels. These impacts can also be seen in areas around cities, where pressure from urbanisation has restricted populations to smaller and smaller patches of remnant vegetation and reserves, increasing the pressure on diminishing food resources within these patches. This study focuses on one of the areas that supplies drinking water to Melbourne, the Yan Yean Reservoir catchment, which is situated 37 km north east of Melbourne. This study adds to our understanding of the impacts of native wildlife populations by investigating the extent of some of these possible changes to ecosystem dynamics.
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ItemGrazing the high country: an historical and political geography of high country grazing in Victoria, 1835 to 1935( 1980)Someone once said that if there is one lesson man can draw from history it is that man learns nothing from history. In my experience this observation often relates to the commonly held belief that history has little to contribute to the day to day "nuts and bolts" functioning of society. The thinking goes if history cannot supply the answers to practical problems then what is it worth? Such is the view of the pragmatist. Consequently some people will regard this thesis as being interesting in a purely antiquarian sense. If, however, one has a somewhat broader perspective and can see beyond the immediate problems of each day to underlying trends and inherent philosophies, then one will appreciate what this thesis has to offer. For, while it does not provide immediate solutions to existing land use conflicts associated with high country grazing, it does shed light on their origins and development, and hence their basic character.