Macquarie University

Australian Environmental History - MHIS202

Australian environmental history explores the multifaceted history of human interaction with the diverse natural environment of Australia from per-contact to now. Changing environmental patterns from Gondwanaland to climate change will be included, as will questions like the degree of Indigenous impact pre-contact to contemporary questions of sustainability. The approach will be thematic. Topics will include 'discovery' and settlement of the land and the emotional and practical responses to it, exploration and mapping, ideas about the interior and outback, the discovery of native flora and fauna, the 'bush', population debates, water, urban development and the rise of conservation, environmental and land rights movements. The unit will consider the connection between science, society and environment through an historical lens. While the methodology will be social history, it will draw on insights from a range of other disciplines including geography, politics, sociology, cultural studies and art.