Things are crook in the bush! The weather fluctuates, but indexed commodity prices and social stability continue to decline. I want to suggest a way by which we could take greater control of our destiny; to harness the winds of change and use their energy to redefine our social, political and economic platforms. I personally believe that the latest National Rangeland Management Strategy should be released as a discussion paper, with a clear commitment from all governments involved that a genuine and comprehensive consultative process will be undertaken; a process that would encourage community generated visions to be developed and integrated into regional strategies and ultimately a composite Rangeland Strategy. The implementation of an information technology based Rangeland Network would assist natural resource managers, administrators and scientists to model the ecological, commercial and administrative systems from their respective locations. Once united, the rangeland communities would be able to ensure that an equitable and sustainable share of wealth generated in the Outback remained there. If some of the money could be spent developing state of the art telecommunications infrastructure it would help to entice service industries out of the cities, as it has in Sweden.
September 24-27, 1996
Port Augusta, South Australia
ISSN 1323-6660
Full-text publications from the Australian Rangelands Society (ARS) Biennial Conference Proceedings (1997-), Rangeland Journal (ARS/CSIRO; 1976-), plus videos and other resources about the rangelands of Australia.