Between the Murray and the Sea
Between the Murray and the Sea

Author: David Frankel

Publisher: Sydney University Press

Published: 2017-12-05

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1743325533

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Between the Murray and the Sea: Aboriginal Archaeology in South-eastern Australia explores the Indigenous archaeology of Victoria, focusing on areas south and east of the Murray River. Looking at multiple sites from the region, David Frankel considers what the archaeological evidence reveals about Indigenous society, migration, and hunting techniques. He looks at how an understanding of the changing environment, combined with information drawn from 19th-century ethnohistory, can inform our interpretation of the archaeological record. In the process, he investigates the nature of archaeological evidence and explanation, and proposes approaches for future research. ‘A carefully crafted and impressively illustrated depiction of the economic and social lives of past Aboriginal peoples who lived in the diverse landscapes that existed between the Murray and the sea. This book will be valuable to both specialists and non-specialists alike, as it provides a foundation for thinking about the remarkable variety of ways Aboriginal foragers adapted to the lands of southeastern Australia.’ Peter Hiscock, Tom Austen Brown Professor of Australian Archaeology, University of Sydney

Murray-Darling Basin, Australia
Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

Author: Barry Hart

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2020-10-23

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 0128181532

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Murray-Darling Basin, Australia: Its Future Management is a much-needed text for water resources managers, water, catchment, estuarine and coastal scientists, and aquatic ecologists. The book first provides a summary of the Murray-Darling River system: its hydrology, water-related ecological assets, land uses (particularly irrigation), and its rural and regional communities; and management within the Basin, including catchments and natural resources, water resources, irrigation, environment, and monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, the recent major water reforms in the Basin are discussed, with a focus particularly on the development and implementation of the Basin Plan. Murray-Darling Basin, Australia: Its Future Management then provides an analysis of the next set of policy and institutional reforms (environmental, social, cultural and economic) needed to ensure the Basin is managed as an integrated system (including its water resources, catchment and estuary) capable of adapting to future changes. Six major challenges facing the Basin are identified and discussed, particularly within the context of predicted changes to the climate leading to an increased frequency of drought and a hotter and dryer future. Finally, a 'road map' or 'blueprint' to achieve more integrated management of the Basin is provided, together with some 'key lessons' of relevance to others involved in the management of multijurisdictional river Basins. - Provides a consolidated account of the Murray-Darling Basin system; an area of global relevance to those interested in rebalancing river systems where the water resources have been over allocated - Offers a detailed analysis of the current system and its management, with a focus on water and ecosystem management - Discusses a number of key challenges, particularly those related to climate change, facing future reforms to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan - Provides a blueprint for changes needed to ensure the Basin is managed as an integrated whole (from catchment to coast)

Phylogenetic Diversity
Phylogenetic Diversity

Author: Rosa A. Scherson

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-08-31

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 3319931458

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“Biodiversity” refers to the variety of life. It is now agreed that there is a “biodiversity crisis”, corresponding to extinction rates of species that may be 1000 times what is thought to be “normal”. Biodiversity science has a higher profile than ever, with the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services involving more than 120 countries and 1000s of scientists. At the same time, the discipline is re-evaluating its foundations – including its philosophy and even core definitions. The value of biodiversity is being debated. In this context, the tree of life (“phylogeny”) is emerging as an important way to look at biodiversity, with relevance cutting across current areas of concern – from the question of resilience within ecosystems, to conservation priorities for globally threatened species – while capturing the values of biodiversity that have been hard to quantify, including resilience and maintaining options for future generations. This increased appreciation of the importance of conserving “phylogenetic diversity”, from microbial communities in the human gut to global threatened species, has inevitably resulted in an explosion of new indices, methods, and case studies. This book recognizes and responds to the timely opportunity for synthesis and sharing experiences in practical applications. The book recognizes that the challenge of finding a synthesis, and building shared concepts and a shared toolbox, requires both an appreciation of the past and a look into the future. Thus, the book is organized as a flow from history, concepts and philosophy, through to methods and tools, and followed by selected case studies. A positive vision and plan of action emerges from these chapters, that includes coping with inevitable uncertainties, effectively communicating the importance of this “evolutionary heritage” to the public and to policy-makers, and ultimately contributing to biodiversity conservation policy from local to global scales.

A World that was
A World that was

Author: Ronald Murray Berndt

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 9780774804783

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This extraordinary book, written from material gathered over half a century ago, will almost certainly be the last fine-grained account of traditional Aboriginal life in settled south-eastern Australia. It recreates the world of the Yaraldi group of the Kukabrak or Narrinyeri people of the Lower Murray and Lakes region of South Australia. In 1939 Albert Karloan, a Yaraldi man, urged a young ethnologist, Ronald Berndt, to set up camp at Murray Bridge and to record the story of his people. Karloan and Pinkie Mack, a Yaraldi woman, possessed through personal experience, not merely through hearsay, an all but complete knowledge of traditional life. They were virtually the last custodians of that knowledge and they felt the burden of their unique situation. This book represents their concerted efforts to pass on the story to future generations. For Ronald and Catherine Berndt, this was their first fieldwork together in an illustrious joint career of almost fifty years. During long periods, principally until 1943, they laboured with pencil and paper to put it all down - a far cry from the recording techniques of today's oral historians. Their fieldnotes were worked into a rough draft of what would become, but not until recently, the finished manuscript. The book's range is encyclopaedic and engrossing - sometimes dramatic. It encompasses relations between and among individuals and clan groups, land tenure, kinship, the subsistence economy, trade, ceremony, councils, fighting and warfare, rites of passage from conception to death, myths, and beliefs and practices concerning healing and the supernatural. Not least, it is a record of the dramatic changes following European colonization. A World That Was is a unique contribution to Australia's cultural history. There is simply no comparable body of work, nor is there ever likely to be.