1st Edition

An Environmental History of Australian Rainforests until 1939 Fire, Rain, Settlers and Conservation

By Warwick Frost Copyright 2020
234 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

234 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

234 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book provides a comprehensive environmental history of how Australia’s rainforests developed, the influence of Aborigines and pioneers, farmers and loggers, and of efforts to protect rainforests, to help us better understand current issues and debates surrounding their conservation and use. While interest in rainforests and the movement for their conservation are often mistakenly portrayed... Read more

 

  1. Fire and Rain: Rainforests, Settler Societies and Frontiers
  2. From Regenwald to Rainforest: Changing Terminology and Meanings
  3. Gondwanan, Aboriginal or European Rainforests? The Evolution and Distribution of Rainforests
  4. European Settlement of Australia’s Wet Frontier, 1788-1914
  5. Clearing the Rainforests: Techniques, Origins and Challenges
  6. The Environmental Impact of Clearing: Regrowth, Pests and Secondary Clearance
  7. Butter (and Sugar): The Search for a Sustainable Staple
  8. Chinese and Pacific Islanders: The White Frontier and the Other, 1880-1920
  9. ‘My Love Is Otherwise’: The Fascination with Rainforests, 1820-1914
  10. Forest Conservation, Water Supply and Transport: Tensions between Governments and Farmers
  11. Rainforest National Parks and Scenic Reserves: Origins, Developments and International Comparisons, 1872-1928
  12. The Lamington Plateau: The World’s First Large Rainforest National Park
  13. Australia Unlimited? Conflicting Visions of Farming, Forestry and Conservation in Uncertain Times, 1918-1939
  14. Afterword: 1939 and Beyond

Appendix A: The Making of The Land of the Lyre Bird

Appendix B: Common and Scientific Names of Plants

Biography

Warwick Frost is Professor of Tourism, Heritage and the Media at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include environmental history, comparative economic history and the history of national parks and zoos.

"Frost provides an ecologically informed human history of the rain forests of Australia, from the far north of Queensland to the southern island of Tasmania. [The] main focus is the impact of settlers, white and others, on Aboriginals ecologically, agriculturally, and culturally. He also emphasizes how rain forests have shaped the modern Australian imagination. Frost nicely fills a gap, adopting an interdisciplinary approach that draws from history, literature, and tourism studies, while not ignoring the basics of biology and ecology."

D. S. Azzolina, University of Pennsylvania, USA, in an excerpt from the April 2022 issue of CHOICE.