Aborigines' Dreaming or Britain's Terra Nullius: Perceptions of Land Use in Colonial Australia

Abstract

Lieutenant James Cook of the HMS Endeavour arrived upon the eastern shore of Australia in 1770 and found a landscape and continent unlike anything seen before by European explorers. Overwhelmed and intimidated by Australia's harsh climate and desolate landscape, Cook and the British explorers and colonists who arrived later described a " formidable " land " nearly the reverse of what we find in England. " 1 The Europeans saw this continent as a land with few people but full of potential natural resources and land awaiting delineation into property parcels for independent ownership and efficient commercial exploitation. By comparison, the original inhabitants of Australia, the Aborigines, saw a landscape created and inhabited by ancestral spirits that provided the resources necessary for survival. The differing Aboriginal and British perceptions of Australia contributed directly to how the land was used and to the environmental problems that developed as British influence increased. Australia currently struggles with the repercussions of commercialized agriculture in an arid climate, with problems ranging from erosion to groundwater pollution to extreme soil salinization. This paper compares Aboriginal and British land use perceptions and practices in colonial