Who Owns the Alps?

Public land, private land

A large portion of the land in Australia is public land - land that does not belong to any private individual or group, but is managed by State or Commonwealth governments in the interests of all Australians.

Most people are aware that public land has different uses from private land, and would recognise some of these, such as water catchment reserves, State forest, roadside reserves, national parks or recreation reserves. What is not widely understood is the legal and political processes which determine these uses. Both the recognised uses and the processes which determine them are complicated, as they have developed and changed over 200 years.

The concepts of public and private land derive from European legal systems and their attitudes to the possession of land. European attitudes to land were based on the existence of a recognised sovereign and system of government, the idea of 'usefulness', and private ownership. This enabled the British government to describe the vast continent, at the time of its discovery, as 'terra nullius', or no-one's land. The implication was that as the country was not under the rule of any recognised sovereign or system of government, the land was not legally owned or occupied and could be rightfully possessed by the new settlers. The colonists and colonial governments ignored, or did not understand, the cultural significance of 40 000 years of Aboriginal occupation and use - they were instructed to 'civilise' the Aborigines and convert them to Christianity.

From the time of Captain Cook's arrival (1770) and Governor Phillip's annexation of the whole country for the British King (1788), the land of Australia was considered as 'Crown land' to be managed by the colonial government as the representative of the Crown.

A major objective of the new colonists was to occupy and own the 'empty' land. For more than 150 years land was systematically 'alienated' or taken from the Crown into private ownership. Any lands not taken up for agriculture or townships remained as Crown land, part of the public estate. This was generally the land that was mountainous, infertile, or dry - in other words, unsuitable for agriculture. Attitudes to it can be understood from the fact that, even officially, it was often referred to as 'wasteland'.

Attitudes to public land since then have changed enormously. Once considered valuable only for exploitative activities such as mining, grazing and logging, it is now appreciated largely for its conservation and recreation value. The trend over the last 50 years has been to protect large areas of public land under conservation legislation in the form of national parks, state parks, conservation areas and other reserves.

Changes in land use

Uncompromising terrain, a harsh climate and remoteness made the Alps unsuitable for clearing and settlement. Consequently, a large part remains as public land - unlike the flat, lightly-timbered grasslands of central New South Wales and western and northern Victoria.

As public land, the Alps have been exploited from early days for a variety of purposes, including grazing, mining, forestry, water harvesting for irrigation and power, and recreation, both private and commercial. The extent and nature of these uses, and whether a particular group gains from them, are determined by government recognition of the public needs of the time. Governments support or discourage uses of public land through several means. Examples include issuing of grazing leases, granting of mining rights (particularly when mining was an accepted widespread use of the Alps), and the use of public funds to establish hydro-electric schemes. Licensing of a horse trekking tour operator or ski lift company, and legislation or zoning to exclude some uses, are more current examples.

Public support of acceptable uses is subject to change. At times of transition from one dominant or long-accepted use to another, public debate and conflict lead to pressure on the government of the day to change the existing system of use. The debate about grazing in Victoria's high country has been an example.

A change which may be occurring at present is the growing desire to protect the Australian Alps for their nature conservation values. The Australian Alps are unique, and their size, relative ecological intactness and biological diversity give them high conservation significance.

Traditionally, the Australian Alps have provided for a range of land uses. Today, in a world of diminishing open space and natural resources, there is still pressure on the Australian Alps to provide for many ot these uses. At the same time there is increasing pressure to protect the natural integrity of the area. That this is not a new issue can be seen from a 1961 analysis by R.G. Downes, then Chairman of the Soil Conservation Authority (Victoria), who summed up the difficulty of resolving the question 'Who owns the Alps?'

'In dealing with a single landholder, modifications or changes in land-use are not difficult to implement, once the landholder has been convinced of the need. However, on public land one is confronted with the conflicting opinions of different groups of people with respect to possible forms of land-use, their suitability for the area and their relative importance to the economy of the State. Consequently the problem is one of assessing the technical possibilities of the various suggested forms of land-use, their effects on the land itself, to what extent they are complementary or conflicting, and which of them under the prevailing circumstances should be given priority in the public interest.

The Victorian High Plains [read Australian Alps] are public land in which different groups of people have an interest with respect to various kinds of land-use. For various reasons it is a difficult environment, which limits the possible range of techniques for providing stability under some of the forms of land-use for which some groups of people consider it to be suitable.' (Royal Society of Victoria, 1962, Vol. 75)

The obvious conflicts between different land uses such as recreation and nature conservation, or grazing and water catchment, raise several issues: 'What are the limits for use imposed by the nature of the land?'. 'Has any group more right than any other to benefit from using the Alps?' and 'Should any one land use transcend all others?'.

Aboriginal occupation

A long history of Koorie (Aboriginal) occupation preceded European occupation. Cultural sites in the Alps, including art sites, have been dated at 21 000 years old, although evidence from other parts of Australia puts Aboriginal occupation at more than 40 000 years before the present.

Ethnological studies, based on accounts by Aborigines or early settlers, give some insight into the lifestyle of Aborigines in the alpine area. Living for most of the year at lower elevations on the tablelands and in the montane valleys, they journeyed to the mountain tops each summer for a few weeks to meet in groups and feast on Bogong Moths. These great gatherings were a time of ceremony, socialising, sharing and trading.

The Aborigines had systems of land occupancy and ownership which were not understood or recognised as such by Europeans. Groups of Aborigines had claims to certain areas of land in which they lived and hunted. Other areas which were used seasonally - such as the higher elevations of the Alps - were probably shared with all groups, a kind of public land.

'Whatever place we have been in, whether on top of the highest mountain, or in any of the deepest ravines, we always find evident marks that the natives occasionally resort to them, although there does not appear to be any inducement for them to visit these secluded places.' (William Hovell, 1824-25 in Mosley, G. (1988) Australian Alps World Heritage Nomination Proposal. VNPA)

The Aborigines used the Alps widely, but the uplands were much less densely populated than the western and coastal plains. This scarcity of people (and at higher elevations the brevity of their visits) meant that the Aborigines probably had little impact on the natural environment of the Alps.

Pastoral occupation

The first Europeans to move into the Australian Alps were explorer-pastoralists who entered the Monaro Tableland of southern New South Wales in the 1820s. Although often guided by Aborigines, the pastoralists ignored the occupancy rights of the indigenous people. To European eyes the land was uncultivated and unused. For the people of the expanding colony it was seen as desirable to occupy such 'empty' land and make it productive, in keeping with their agricultural tradition. By the end of the 1830s most of the Monaro had been taken up by squatters.

Stockmen looking for relief pastures for their sheep were probably the first to use the mountains west of the Monaro. In 1824, Hume and Hovell crossed the Murray River to enter present-day Victoria upstream of Albury, and then followed a southerly course in the mountain foothills to ford the Mitta Mitta, Kiewa and Ovens Rivers. New grazing districts were established in the rolling country along the way. In 1841, Angus MacMillan found his way through the Alps to the coastal plains of Gippsland and to the sea at what became Port Albert, thus opening up the pastures of Gippsland. Like the Aborigines before them, the early pastoralists followed natural trails through the Great Divide and had little interest in wider administrative issues such as legal boundaries or conditions of ownership.

By the 1840s runs had been taken up all through the Alps, except for the high alpine areas and steep montane slopes. Pastoral occupation had a disastrous effect on the Aborigines, and greatly contributed to their demise. Lhotsky wrote in 1834, 'The Menero tribe is already very weak, consisting of about fifty men' (Hancock, W.K., 1972, Discovering Monaro). Investigations suggest that the population of the whole Monaro area when squatters first rode in with their cattle and sheep in the 1820s was about 2500. By the early 1840s it had fallen to well below 1000.

Pastoral occupation led to huge tracts of foothills and tableland becoming privately owned, and imposed artificial boundaries such as roads and fences on the natural landscape, although this occurred on different scales in different regions and types of country. Inevitably, clearing and burning destroyed much native habitat, and the introduction of exotic species disrupted the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Summer grazing on public land began, mostly with cattle, on the high plains of the Snowy Mountains in the late 1820s, and in the Victorian highlands in the 1850s. Later in the century large flocks of sheep were also taken up, especially in times of drought. Some graziers burnt parts of the high plains regularly to produce 'green pick' for stock. The combination of burning and grazing damaged the dense carpet of alpine vegetation, increasing run-off and causing wide-scale soil erosion.

For the first seventy years the graziers' use of public land in the Alps concerned few but themselves. At the turn of the century, however, scientists, soil conservationists and recreationists began to look at other potential uses of the high plains - water catchment, recreation and nature conservation. The obvious conflict between those supporting grazing and associated activities and those favouring other land uses raised the questions of who had the predominant right to use the land, and who had the authority and responsibility to make the decisions about its use and management.

In NSW in the 1940s, awareness of the degraded state of the land brought the issue into the public arena and led to a long struggle, during which the alpine area was declared an 'erosion hazard' by the NSW Soil Conservation Service, to sway governments about the future land use of the Alps. Grazing was finally removed from Kosciuszko National Park in 1969, following an effective association between the Soil Conservation Service, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority and the Australian Academy of Science.

In Victoria, grazing still continues in much of the Alps today, but under a strict licensing system controlling location, duration and numbers of stock.

The graziers constructed many huts in the alpine area for shelter and refuge during the grazing season. These huts have cultural significance and interest for many people and play an important role in providing refuge and shelter for walkers, skiers and other visitors today.

The gold rushes

Following the early pastoral era, the next major phase of alienation from public land in the Alps came with the finding of gold. Soon after the first discoveries in the early 1850s the colonial government of Victoria paid Alfred Howitt to cut 350 kilometres of tracks linking the various goldfields. Townships were established, and the lure of gold brought many thousands of people into the Alps to places such as Kiandra (NSW) and Walhalla in Victoria.

'White reefs were hidden by snow in the Gippsland mountains. From the lower Goulburn River the Irish prospectors went upstream, following the razorback spurs, deep ravines and finding rich reefs and pockets of alluvial. Gaffney's, Gooley's, Donnelly's, Stringer's in Walhalla and Walsh's Creeks were opened between 1860 and 1862 and diggers and miners built huts and water races at Happy-go-Lucky, Tubal Cain, Jericho and the Jordan, Red Jacket and Blue Jacket, Alabama and Alhambra. Packhorses carried boiler plates and stampers up the muddy trail, strings of fifty of more horses with jangling bells. Melbourne gamblers began to hunt fortunes in the mountains and in 1866 the Woods Point district had 262 registered companies or 13 percent of Victoria's mining companies.' (Blainey, G. (1963) The rush that never ended; a history of Australian mining, Melbourne University Press).

The townships and settlements became private freehold land, but the actual mining itself was largely on public land under a licence system. Hence public land was both exploited and reduced in extent by the gold rushes.

After the initial rushes, mining continued in many areas for years. The impact on the environment was considerable - access tracks, vegetation clearance, huge holes in the ground, diverting of streams and frequent soil erosion.

Timber

Another early use of public land was timber cutting to supply nearby mining settlements. Much timber was extracted from the forests for props in mine shafts and sleepers for railway lines. In the 1930s and 1940s, the forest industry got under way on a much larger scale. The Alpine Ash forests of the upper montane slopes were particularly valued as the demand for housing increased rapidly in post-war Australia.

The impact of timber extraction was more than just the direct effects on the forests. Transport requirements, and the need to protect forests and people from fire, resulted in thousands of kilometres of roads being built through the area, facilitating access by motorists as well as by exotic plant pests. This road network also greatly reduced the extent of roadless wilderness country, and later provided access for four-wheel- drive touring and trail-biking.

Recreation

Organised recreation and tourism focusing on public land attractions in the Alps began in the 1850s when tourist parties first visited Mt Buffalo in Victoria. Sightseeing and walking were the main recreation activities in the early days. The demand for facilities and accommodation resulted in the establishment at the turn of the century of a number of large accommodation places in well-visited areas such as the Yarrangobilly Caves and Charlotte's Pass in NSW.

Since then, the growth of tourism and recreation has led to increasing numbers of visitors, and a variety of facilities on public land, ranging from ski resorts to walking tracks. The environmental impact of such facilities depends on their scale and the intensity of visitor use. A large resort in a sensitive area, such as above the snowline, can have a major impact. A walking track, on the other hand, can have minimal impact, depending on location and how much it is used.

Water catchment

The Australian Alps are a vitally important source of water, as they provide domestic and irrigation water and electricity to NSW, Victoria, ACT and South Australia.

The mountainous catchments of the Cotter River (now part of Namadgi National Park) were specifically included in the ACT for the purpose of providing the federal capital with domestic water. The desire for high quality water for Canberra has led to minimum disturbance and development in these catchments.

In 1938 the State Electricity Commission of Victoria began work on the Kiewa Hydro-electric Scheme, capturing the headwaters of the Kiewa River and some of the tributaries of the Mitta Mitta River on the Bogong High Plains.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Power Act was passed by the Commonwealth Parliament in 1949, ending more than 60 years of proposals and speculation about the development of water resources in the Snowy Mountains. The aim of the scheme was to divert water westwards for irrigation, and, from the falling waters in the diversion tunnels, to produce hydro-electric power. It involved the construction of major dams, such as Eucumbene and Jindabyne, power stations, aqueducts and several hundred kilometres of roads and transmission lines.

These hydro-electric schemes were constructed at high cost to the environment. Uplands and forested valleys were drowned under sometimes vast lakes. The landscape was scarred by dam walls, roads, construction towns, pipelines, tailraces and power transmission lines. The schemes also opened up access for visitors and hastened the development of the area for skiing and other forms of recreation.

Nature conservation

To early visitors, the Monaro landscape (and others like it) was a vision of unspoilt country.

'Plains and 'open forest', untrodden by the foot of the white man, and, as far as the eye can reach, covered with grass so luxuriant that it brushes the horseman in his saddle; flocks of kangaroos quietly grazing, as yet untaught to fear the enemy that is invading their territory; the emu, playfully crossing and recrossing his route, the quail rising at every step; lagoons literally swarming with wild-fowl - these are scenes reserved for the eye of the enterprising settler, or the still more enterprising 'overlander'...'

The natural values of the Alpine area have long been recognised, and the degradation of the environment through the impacts of other land uses has been substantially documented. Scientists and others have been recording the environmental consequences of different land uses in the Australian Alps since European occupation.

'...Nature as if offended, withdraws half her beauty from the land; the pasture gradually loses its freshness; some of the rivers and lakes run low, others become wholly dry. The wild animals, the former peaceful denizens of the soil, are no more to be found, and the explorer, who has gazed on the district in its first luxuriance, has seen it as it never can be seen again.' (Quotes from Recollections of a Bush Life, 1848, in Hancock, W.K. 1972, Discovering Monaro).

Recognition of impacts on the land, and resolution of conflicts, have led to changes in land-use practices. Strong advocacy by bushwalkers, conservationists, scientists and politicians for nature conservation in the Alps since the 1930s has resulted in nearly two-thirds of the Alps in Victoria, NSW and the ACT being declared as national park.

Public land use today - who decides?

Public land is owned by and available for use by the public. But who decides what is the most appropriate use of the land? Within the Commonwealth of Australia, public land management is the responsibility of the individual State and Territory governments. Victorian, NSW and ACT governments therefore manage their own parts of the Australian Alps.

Land-use decisions are determined through government processes which vary from State to State.

In Victoria, the Land Conservation Council (established in 1970) carries out investigations and makes recommendations to the government about the use of all public land. The overall aim is to establish balanced use of land in Victoria, which means making adequate and appropriate provision for all the major uses. An important aim is to establish a system of national parks and other reserves, representing the major ecosystems in the State and large enough to maintain their natural integrity. Another aim is to reserve enough State forest to support a sustainable timber industry. Once the LCC's recommendations are accepted by government, it becomes the responsibility of the appropriate land management agency to manage the land according to the objectives of the particular category of land use and the relevant legislation. For most of the Victorian Alps, this agency is Parks Victoria.

Land-use decision-making in NSW is under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (1979). This requires all authorities (including the government) that want to use land for a particular purpose to examine and take into account all matters affecting or likely to affect the environment. The management agency responsible for the alpine area is the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Policy and planning decisions about public land use in the Australian Capital Territory are made by the Territory Planning Authority which is responsible to the ACT government minister for the Environment. The ACT Parks and Conservation Service is responsible for public land management.

Australian Alps national parks

The area generally known as the Australian Alps includes the highest parts of the Dividing Range and associated mountains in the south-east of the continent. As well as most of the mainland snow country, the Alps take in slopes and valleys running down to as low as 200 metres above sea level. The Alps stretch in length for about 500 km, and about 50 km in width - a total of about 25 000 square kilometres.

In recent times, nature conservation, recreation and water catchment protection have become important land uses of the Australian Alps. About 60% of the high country in NSW, ACT and Victoria is now national park. Other areas of public land in the Alps are used for timber production (state forests) and winter recreation (which occurs in Alpine Resorts as well as national parks and state forests).

Agencies responsible for management

Australian Capital Territory Parks and Conservation Service

Namadgi National Park 105 900 ha

New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service

Brindabella National Park 12 050 ha

Kosciuszko National Park 690 000 ha

Bimberi Nature Reserve 7100 ha

Scabby Range Nature Reserve 3 449 ha

Parks Victoria

Alpine National Park 645800 ha

Mount Buffalo National Park 31 000 ha

Snowy River National Park 98 700 ha

Avon Wilderness 39 650 ha

National parks are managed primarily for the protection and conservation of natural ecosystems and cultual heritage, but are also important for recreation and education, and, particularly in the case of the Alps, for catchment protection.

These and related objectives for management are generally accepted in Australia. However, because of the varied history of the area and past land-use practices, the practical details of management in the national parks of Victoria, NSW and the ACT are not always the same in all States. A major example is seasonal grazing. In Kosciuszko and Namadgi national parks seasonal grazing of stock ceased many years ago, but in Victoria grazing under licence is still allowed in many areas of the Alpine National Park.

Another difference is in the management of ski resorts. In NSW, ski resorts are part of the national park and are managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. By contrast in Victoria, although the resorts are adjacent to national park boundaries, they are not part of the park and are managed by a separate agency, the Alpine Resorts Commission. Parks Victoria, which manages most other public land in Victoria, including national parks, has input into the care of the natural environment of the resorts.

The Memorandum of Understanding

The Australian Alps are physiographically and ecologically a contiguous unit of land on which State boundaries and different types of land management have been arbitrarily imposed. Many people consider that the protection and conservation of the Alps can be better achieved by consistent planning and by treating them as one unit.

A major step towards co-operative management of the Australian Alps National Parks was the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding. Commonwealth, NSW, ACT and Victorian Ministers responsible for nature conservation signed the Memorandum in July 1986, thereby agreeing to future co-operation in the management of the areas. The objectives of the MOU are to co-operate to achieve:

protection of the landscape
protection of native plants and animals and cultural values
protection of the mountain catchments
provision of outdoor recreation opportunities to encourage enjoyment and understanding of the alpine environment.

The following quote summarises the story of the Alps since European settlement began:

'...a desire to exploit the natural resources of the region [has created a history] relatively simple and uncomplicated. The well-watered open grasslands of the high 'plains' supplied the incentive for its exploration and first use for grazing in the 1830s; its rocks and geological history provided the gold; the first skating in Australia was on its winter snow-fields in 1861; abundant waters and high elevation made it an essential part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme; and great natural beauty led to its inclusion in the Kosciusko [National] Park' (Moye, D.G., 1959, Historic Kiandra. Cooma-Monaro Historical Society.)

Each of the past uses has been seen as important by the community at the time. At present many people perceive recreation, water catchment protection and nature conservation to be the most important land uses in the Australian Alps. Consequently much of the land has been reserved in national parks and a lot of time and energy is being channelled into protection of the natural and catchment values of this area. At the same time, as more people seek out the special recreation settings of the Alps, the increasing number of visitors is putting pressure on the area's natural values. It may be that difficult choices will need to be made about recreation and tourist uses, just as they have been made about previous uses, so that public land will be protected for future enjoyment and appreciation.

View the Memorandum of Understanding or for more general information visit the About us page.

Resources

Johnson, D. (1974) The Alps at the Crossroads. VNPA

Frawley, K.J. (1986) Australia's Alpine Areas: Management for Conservation. National Parks Association of the Australian Capital Territory.

Land Conservation Council Victoria (1977) Report on the Alpine Study Area .

Land Conservation Council Victoria (1979) Final Recommendations, Alpine Area.

Land Conservation Council Victoria (1988) Statewide Assessment of Public Land Use.

Department of Conservation and Environment (1992) Alpine National Park Management Plan. Dartmouth Unit. Cobberas-Tingaringy Unit. Wonnangatta-Moroka Unit. Bogong Unit.

National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW (1988) Kosciusko National Park Plan of Management.

ACT Parks and Conservation Service (1986) Namadgi National Park Management Plan.

Study Directions

Consider the impacts of each past use of the land, and evaluate the extent to which each has affected the alpine area. Long-term effects? Short-term effects?

Who owns the land? Use the material available in this paper to assess the different attitudes to public land in Australia from the 'terra nullius' policy of the British Government through the 'wastelands of the crown' in the 19th century to the present struggles for preservation and protection of natural areas in national parks.

Investigate the different systems for defining public land use in each of the States and the ACT. Investigate differences in management between the States and the Territory.

Would an Australian Alps National Park covering all the Alps parks as one unit be the most effective way of managing the Australian Alps?

The Australian Alps Education Kit

For more information please refer to the Australian Alps national parks list of references