Peoples and Populations The Australian Environment

Peoples and Populations

88. The Australian Environment

GG.The Humid Eastern Highlands and Tasmania

GH.The Tropical Savannas of Northern Australia

GI.The “Mediterranean” Lands of the South and Southwest

GJ.The Dry Interior

89. Australia’s Natural Resource–Based Economy

GK.Sheep and Cattle Ranching

GL.Wheat Farming

GM.Dairy and Sugarcane Farming

GN.Australia’s Mineral Wealth

GO.Urbanization and Industrialization Down Under

90. New Zealand: Pastoral and Urban

GP.Environment and Rural Livelihood

GQ.Industrial and Urban Development

91. Antarctica: The White Continent

Both Australia and New Zealand are countries that strongly reflect their British heritage despite their enormous distance from Great Britain. Both are English-speaking nations, with British-style parliaments, laws, and educational systems. They belong to the Commonwealth of Nations and acknowledge the British sovereign as their own.

Australia and New Zealand also have indigenous minority groups. In Australia these are the Aborigines, who today mostly live in the tropical north of the country and along the fringes of white settlements in squalid conditions. Throughout much of the twentieth century the Australian government abducted 100,000 Aboriginal children and placed them in the care of white parents to fully assimilate them. A contentious issue between Aborigines and the Australian government is that of control of the land and the resources contained in it. New Zealand’s indigenous people are the Maori, who are poorer than whites but considerably better off than the Aborigines. The Maori are becoming increasingly integrated with the white population of New Zealand.

Australia has four principal physical regions: the humid eastern highlands and Tasmania, the tropical savannas of northern Australia, the “Mediterranean” lands of the south and west, and the dry interior (often referred to as “the outback” or “the bush”). Australia’s most famous physical feature, Uluru or Ayers Rock, is located in the interior. Much of Australia is arid or semiarid, and very little of the country is suitable for agriculture. However, Australia is one of the world’s leading wheat exporters. Sheep and cattle ranching are also important. Australia is a major global exporter of minerals such as diamonds, bauxite, coal, and gold. Australia is industrialized but imports many manufactured goods. Ninety percent of Australians live in urban areas.

New Zealand is an isolated country, 1,000 miles southeast of Australia. It is much smaller, more rugged, and more humid than Australia. The country is composed of two main islands, North Island and South Island. North Island contains the majority of the population. The country’s main exports are meat, wool, dairy products, and hides. New Zealand is less urban than Australia and has fewer mineral resources to base industrial development on, but it is still one of the more affluent nations of the world.

Situated at the South Pole, Antarctica is the world’s coldest and driest continent. It has no permanent population. Antarctica is almost completely covered in an ice sheet up to 10,000 feet thick, and while there is speculation that there may be great mineral wealth under the ice, to date no deposits of value have been found. The Antarctic Treaty of 1961 prohibits any colonization of the continent and any exploitation of its natural resources.

174. 
     Australia and New Zealand are both neo-Europes in the Southern Hemisphere, settled by the British. The English language and British-style legal codes, parliaments, and educational systems are present in both nations. They are both relatively wealthy nations and both lightly populated. The majority of their populations are European, but they both have significant minority indigenous peoples as well (Aborigines in Australia, Maori in New Zealand). [pp. 436-437]
     

175. 
     The British were the first widespread non-indigenous settlers of Australia. The continent was originally a penal colony for British convicts. [p. 436]
     

176. 
     The Dreamtime for Aborigines signifies the creation of the Earth and everything on it. Everything was created from the dreams of the Aborigines’ ancestors, who “sang the world into existence” by singing out the names of various things as they appeared. [p. 436]
     

177. 
     The four natural regions of Australia are the Humid Eastern Highlands and Tasmania, the Tropical Savannas of Northern Australia, the “Mediterranean” Lands of the South and Southwest, and the vast Dry Interior. [pp. 437-441]
     

178. 
     Kangaroo ranching might be better for Australia rather than ranching conventional livestock, as kangaroos are native to the continent and lack the sharp hooves that can cut into the soil and promote erosion and desertification. Kangaroo meat is already exported from Australia, and an increase in its popularity both at home and abroad would encourage farmers to reduce their sheep and cattle herds and allow kangaroos to breed and proliferate on their ranches. [p. 441]
     

179. 
     Very little of Australia’s land is arable, and only a small fraction of that arable land is actually cultivated. However, sheep ranching has taken hold along the western slopes of the eastern highlands, spreading westward over increasingly marginal lands. Cattle ranching is spread throughout northern Australia, especially in Queensland, with hot, humid conditions and coarse forage. Wheat production is important to Australia’s agriculture, and it is produced in largely the same areas that sheep ranching occurs in. Dairy farming takes place along the country’s eastern coast, and sugarcane is grown in Queensland. [pp. 442-444]
     

180. 
     Australia is a mineral-rich land, and the wealth the country has generated from exporting its resources has led to its industrial development. Gold, coal, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, and natural gas (which is mainly exported to China) are all major Australian mineral exports. [pp. 445-446]
     

181. 
     Australia’s largest cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. They are all seaports and all are capitals of their respective states. These metropolitan areas account for 61 percent of Australia’s total population. The national capital, Canberra (population 300,000), is not considered a large urban place. [pp. 446-447]
     

182. 
     New Zealand is composed of two large islands and numerous smaller ones all located about 1,000 miles southeast of Australia. Most of the country is rugged, with peaks on South Island reaching over 12,000 feet. The country receives ample rainfall annually, with a generally mild climate. Much of the country remains relatively untouched by people. New Zealand is not as rich in mineral resources as Australia; small deposits of coal, iron, and other minerals allow a small manufacturing base. Hydropower and forest products are being developed to reduce New Zealand’s historic reliance upon sheep and dairy exports for revenue. [pp. 447, 449]
     

183. 
     Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent. Most of the continent is covered by glacial ice, which measures nearly two miles thick in places. Antarctica has been the center of attention in the study of global warming, evidence for which comes from observations of rising temperatures and the melting of sea ice fringing its coast and glacial ice of its interior. There is no human settlement besides teams of research scientists. Seven countries enacted claims to parts of Antarctica’s land area: Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, France, Norway, and Great Britain. No other country recognizes those claims, and all formal territorial claims to Antarctica have been suspended since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1961. Currently, these claims to the continent would be economically unproductive; there is speculation that mineral wealth may lie beneath Antarctica’s massive ice cap, but to date there have been no proven valuable mineral deposits located there. [pp. 450-452]
     

This chapter should enable your students to…

• 
  Appreciate the economic prominence of larger, Europeanized Australia and New Zealand in a vast sea of small, mainly indigenous political units
  
• 
  Recognize the associations between the physical geographies of islands, their typical social and political organizations, and their economic characteristics
  
• 
  Consider the impacts of human agency, especially deforestation and the introduction of exotic species, on island ecosystems
  
• 
  Understand how minority control of most of the wealth generated by mineral and other resources has led to discontent and rebellion among majorities
  
• 
  Hear the concern expressed by low-lying island countries about the production of greenhouse gases in faraway industrialized nations
  
• 
  Recognize the peculiar dependence of some Pacific populations on the military interests of distant nations
  

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