Caring for the Australian countryside

The Biggest Estate on Earth: Aboriginal land management

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Adjunct Professor Bill Gammage
Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University

Bill Gammage is an adjunct professor in the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University (ANU) studying Aboriginal attitudes to land management from a historical perspective. He grew up in Wagga, and later studied as an undergraduate and postgraduate at the ANU. He taught history at the Universities of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Adelaide before returning to ANU to write several books. These include The Sky Travellers on cultural contact in PNG, and The Biggest Estate on Earth on Aboriginal land management. His other main books are The Broken Years on Australian soldiers in the Great War, and Narrandera Shire. Bill also served the National Museum of Australia for three years as Council member, deputy chair, and acting chair. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

The Biggest Estate on Earth: Aboriginal land management

The lecture outlines the logic of Aboriginal land management in 1788. It shows why Australia’s plants and animals made long-term, precise and detailed management possible. The lecture illustrates Aboriginal land management with examples, and explains how land management rules were enforced. Country was maintained locally, but conformed to universal religious sanctions and prescriptions. Australia was thus a single estate - not an untamed wilderness as newcomers thought. It was made to obey the Law, to ensure biodiversity, and to make all life abundant, convenient and predictable.

When:	Tuesday 7 February 2012 Refreshments from 5:30 pm Lecture and live streaming from 6pm
Where:	Shine Dome, Gordon Street, Canberra View map
Cost:	Free entry and parking
Contact:	Email: shannon.newham@science.org.au Phone: 02 6201 9460 Fax: 02 6201 9494