The first
European settlers of Australia had little regard for the environment of the continent and the early focus was to use the abundant resources and convert the environment into a less hostile and European setting to make settlers feel more at home. The first signs of the environmental movement in Australia began with the growing naturalism movement at the turn of the 19th century.
Early field naturalists The first naturalists arrived in Australia very early.
Joseph Banks, a botanist and naturalist, was a member of
First voyage of James Cook and the
First Fleet. Despite some significant discoveries by botanists such as
Joseph Maiden it wasn't for many decades and with the rapid deterioration of native habitat and growing understanding of the native environment that the first organised clubs began to form. The
Field Naturalists Club of Victoria was formed in 1880, followed shortly after by the New South Wales Naturalists Club and
Field Naturalists Society of South Australia. A similar organisation was established in Tasmania in 1904. Despite the existence of a strong Victorian era
zoological movement, there was little emphasis on conservation or management of the environment and in the early days these naturalists were primarily concerned with cataloguing and academia.
First national parks The idea of land conservation began 1879, when the
Royal National Park in
Sydney was proclaimed. Previously it had been a recreational area; however, it followed the lead of
Yellowstone National Park in the United States as a conservation park. As the conservation movement grew, so too did the number of national parks.
Response to endangered species In 1908, the Victorian Naturalists Society and the Wilsons Promontory management committee were involved in advocating for the preservation of the
thylacine, a species being hunted to extinction in Tasmania. Members of that group went on to establish
Healesville Sanctuary. The environmental movement became mainstream with public outcry following extensive culling of
koalas. Between 1915 and 1927, nearly 4 million koalas were killed, with the largest cullings occurring in Queensland. By 1924, koalas had officially become extinct in South Australia and endangered elsewhere. In response to the threat of extinction,
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was opened. Native fauna advisory committees began to be established to address the concern of rapidly dwindling populations of a number of mammal species. In 1928, the Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna had recommended a reserve to protect any remaining thylacines, with potential sites of suitable habitat including the
Arthur-
Pieman area of western Tasmania. This was also the beginning of a Tasmanian wilderness movement. While the movement was started too late to save the thylacine from extinction, with the last thylacine dying in captivity in 1936, other species were saved with official protection orders. The koala was declared a protected species in all states in 1937. The
Tasmanian devil, another iconic species hunted to the brink of extinction, was protected in 1941.
Landcare movement While threats to iconic species stimulated the public to act, the conservation movement took some time to grow. Vast areas of Australia were set aside as
crown land; however, these were seen as areas of potential development and
land use rather than for conservation. Private land use was in general insensitive to native wildlife. The landcare movement in Australia was begun by farmers and has its roots in the 1960s to combat the growing problems of
soil erosion and
soil salinity which were having an increasing impact in Australia. The movement later embraced benefits of native biodiversity. Groups of volunteers were formed for projects which promoted revegetation and better resource management. Many of these projects were funded by community groups such as the
Returned Services Leagues and
Rotary International, or official government programs, such as
Land for Wildlife in Victoria or protection of remnant native vegetation through trusts and covenants. Having started locally, the landcare movement gained a national voice in the late 1980s with the foundation of Landcare and later
Landcare Australia. Despite increasing awareness of greater environmental issues, however, a growing conflict was occurring between conservationists and farmers.
The anti-litter movement The anti-litter movement also had its roots in the 1960s due to the growing problem in Australia of
litter as a form of
visual pollution.
Keep Australia Beautiful, founder Dame Phyllis Frost saw the litter (cups, plastic bags, cans and bottles) strewn along the landscapes of Victoria and then sought the support of the National Council of Women, with a group of voluntary organisations and local government groups who were invited to join Australia's first anti-litter campaign. Initially named '§tate Wide Civic Pride' under the guidance of the Minister for Local Government R J Hamer, the group adopted the name 'Keep Australia Beautiful Council' and officially inaugurated the organisation in 1968. Attracting public support from the famous Australian Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam to the music band
ABBA supporting
Keep Australia Beautiful's anti-litter campaigns, the organisation remains the leading campaigner for a litter free and sustainable Australia. With regional programs supporting civic pride through the only regional sustainable programs Tidy Towns Awards, annual Keep Australia Beautiful Week to the long standing eco-education programs, Keep Australia Beautiful continues as the country's leading anti-litter campaigners with increasing responsibility being put back on to the producers through litter auditing, government reporting and pushing for corporate responsibility.
The rise of the green movement The first rumblings of the Australian green movement as a political force came with protests over the
Lake Pedder damming project in 1972. The project gained worldwide publicity and brought the environmental movement to the mainstream in Australia. The movement escalated with the
Franklin Dam project and Bob Brown was made a martyr for the cause when he was jailed for environmental activism. The protests included the
United Tasmania Group who were the precursor to the
Tasmanian Greens and are now recognised as the world's first
green party. The group that preceded the
Tasmanian Wilderness Society, the South West Tasmania Action Committee, continued after the flooding. Another key development in the 1970s was the emergence of the Green Bans movement. In New South Wales the Builders Labourers' Federation, and allies such as the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemens' Association, protected areas of urban bushland, alongside heritage sites, from clearing and demolition through the placement of work bans in support of community based campaigns.
Indigenous land An increasing consciousness in
Indigenous Australian culture and the practices of sustainable landcare also contributed to an overall increase in popularity of the environmental movement and concern for indigenous species. Additionally the
Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 which granted indigenous people ownership based on traditional occupation, which effectively locked away large tracts of land from overdevelopment.
Late 20th century The environmental movement reached a peak in Australia in the 1980s. Popular Australian culture began to embrace the environmental messages of rock bands like
Midnight Oil. Blockades disrupting logging, mining, dredging, clearing and other environmentally destructive activities were increasingly undertaken throughout the 1980s and have become regularly used by campaigners. The
sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand polarised the community on the green movement.
Nuclear testing and
whaling in the
Pacific region had major impacts on the social consciousness of Australia. The environmental movement also became a hot political issue. The
Australian Labor Party, in particular, began to capitalise on the popularity in its election campaigning with a national conservation and soil conservation strategy. In July 1989,
Bob Hawke made a famous "Our Country, Our Future" speech that the Australian Labor Party would plant a billion trees to combat
soil erosion and declared the 1990s the "Decade of Landcare". In the same year, the government introduced the
Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Act 1989, the focus of which was to eliminate the use of
chlorofluorocarbons. The widening hole in the
ozone layer was of high concern due to Australia's growing rate of skin cancer incidence; however, with the shift to the
Keating government the economy became the dominant issue and government environmental policy was not a mainstream political issue for over a decade.
21st century were held in support of
carbon pricing policies. The
2000s Australian drought made
climate change a more prominent issue at the turn of the century. A Newspoll released prior to the
2007 federal election found that the environment was the fourth most important issue to voters behind
Medicare, education and the economy. At the grassroots level,
Extinction Rebellion and
School Strike for Climate were both active in Australia from the 2010s. Between 2010 and 2019, Australian environmental groups advertised over 24,000 events on
Facebook. in 2014 in opposition to a mine.The governments of
John Howard,
Kevin Rudd and
Julia Gillard all prioritised climate change policies such as
carbon pricing and
emissions trading schemes. However, the government of
Tony Abbott opposed environmental policies and abolished a number of schemes after their
2013 federal election victory. Subsequent prime minister
Malcolm Turnbull unsuccessfully proposed a
National Energy Guarantee to address climate change and energy issues, but was also later removed as party leader due to opposition to it. His replacement,
Scott Morrison, and
his government were criticised for their response to the
2019–20 Australian bushfire season, which brought climate change to further popular attention. == Issues ==