Australia is the world’s flattest continent, a testament to its ancient, wellweathered geological landforms, and consequently the associated soils are generally of low fertility (Flannery 1994). It is also the world’s driest inhabited continent, a situation that is exacerbated by erratic rainfall and high evaporation. In comparison with other countries, agriculture in Australia is characterized by: dependence on low productivity environments that are prone to drought and degradation; the large scale of agricultural activities; concentration on a limited range of products; heavy dependence on overseas markets; and a relatively high standard of living in the agricultural community (Laut 1988). Almost three-quarters of the country is classed as rangelands, mainly arid and semi-arid lands that are not suitable for intensive agriculture. European settlement and agricultural development of the continent, and rangelands in particular, has been marked by bitter experiences of coming to terms with the climatic and edaphic constraints of this environment.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abbott, B. N. and R. R. J. McAllister. 2004. Using GIS and satellite imagery to estimate historical expansion of grazing country in the Dalrymple Shire. Pages 405-406. In: G. Bastin, D. Walsh, and S. Nicolson, editors. Living in the outback: conference papers. Australian Rangeland Society, Alice Springs, Australia.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). 1910. Official year book of the Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). 1925. Official year book of the Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). 2002. Year book Australia 2002. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). 2004. Year book Australia 2004. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia.
Allingham, A. 1977. Taming the wilderness: the first decade of pastoral settlement in the Kennedy district. Dissertation. James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Australia.
Anthony, T. 2004. Labour relations on northern cattle stations: feudal exploitation and accom-modation. The Drawing Board: An Australian Review of Public Affairs 4:117-136.
Ash, A. J., J. Corfield, and T. Ksiksi. 2002. The Ecograze project - developing guidelines to better manage grazing country. CSIRO, Townsville, Australia.
Ash, A., J. Gross, and M. Stafford Smith. 2003. Scale, heterogeneity and secondary production in tropical grasslands. Pages 569-579. In: N. Alsop et al., editors. Rangelands in the new millennium. International Rangelands Congress, Durban, South Africa.
Beare, S., R. Bell, A. Blias, P. Gooday, A. Heaney, S. Hooper, D. Langenkamp, G. Love, C. Levantis, C. Mues, E. Qureshi, and C. Riley. 2003. Natural resource management in the Burdekin River catchment: integrated assessment of resource management at the catchment scale - a case study. eReport 03.18. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Eco-nomics, Canberra, Australia.
Bell, P. 2000. A short history of Thuringowa. Thuringowa City Council, Thuringowa, Australia.
Blake, T. W. 1979a. Cunnamulla, a brief history of the Paroo Shire. Paroo Shire Council, Cunnamulla, Queensland, Australia.
Blake, T. W. 1979b. Land settlement across the Queensland border. Volume 12. In: W. J. Cameron, editor. The history of Bourke. Bourke and District Historical Society, Bourke, New South Wales, Australia.
Bolton, G. C. 1963. A thousand miles away: A history of north Queensland to 1920. Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, Australia.
Bortolussi, G., J. G. McIvor, J. J. Hodgkinson, S. G. Coffey, and C. R. Holmes. 2005a. The northern Australian beef industry, a snapshot: 1. Regional enterprise activity and structure. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45:1057-1073.
Bortolussi, G., J. G. McIvor, J. J. Hodgkinson, S. G. Coffey, and C. R. Holmes. 2005b. The northern Australian beef industry, a snapshot: 4. Condition and management of natural resources. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45:1109-1120.
Caltabiano, T., J. R. P. Hardman, and R. Reynolds. 1999. Living area standards. Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Coorparoo, Australia.
Cameron, J. and R. Blick. 1991. Pastoralism in the Queensland mulga lands. Pages 75-116. In: J. Cameron and J. Elix, editors. Recovering ground: a case study approach to ecologically sustainable rural land management. Australian Conservation Foundation, Melbourne, Australia.
Centre for International Economics. 1997. Sustainable natural resource management in the rangelands. Centre for International Economics, Canberra & Sydney, Australia.
Day, D. 2001. Claiming a continent: a new history of Australia. HarperCollins, Sydney, Australia.
De Corte M. W. M., E. V. Barry, M. J. Bright, M. G. Cannon, and J. C. Scanlan. 1994. Land degradation in the Dalrymple Shire, a preliminary assessment. Methods and results. Project report Q093023, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.
Finlay, M. C. and P. L. Lloyd. 1983. Dalrymple Shire handbook. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.
Flannery, T. F. 1994. The future eaters: an ecological history of the Australasian lands and people. Reed Books, Melbourne, Australia.
Greiner, R., N. Stoeckl, C. Stokes, A. Herr, and J. Bachmaier. 2003. Natural resource management in the Burdekin dry tropics: social and economic issues. CSIRO, Townsville, Australia.
Gross, J. E., R. R. J. McAllister, N. Abel, D. M. Stafford Smith, and Y. Maru. 2006. Australian rangelands as complex adaptive systems: a conceptual model and preliminary results. Environmental Modeling and Software 21:1264-1272.
Hannam, I. 2000. Policy and law for rangeland conservation. Pages 165-180. In: O. Arnalds and S. Archer, editors. Rangeland desertification. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Hewitt, R. and J. Murray. 1999. South-West Strategy & sustainable rangeland management -it’s about attitude. Pages 76-77. In: D. Eldridge and D. Freudenberger, editors. People and rangelands - building the future. VI International Rangeland Congress, Townsville, Australia.
Hinton, A. W. 1993. Economics of beef production in the Dalrymple Shire. Queensland Department of Primary Industries. Brisbane, Australia.
Holmes, J. M. 1963. Australia’s open north. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, Australia.
Holmes, W. E. 1980. Property build-up in a semi-arid grazing area. Dissertation. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Isbell, R. F. and G. G. Murtha. 1972. Vegetation: Burdekin-Townsville region (Queensland): resources series. Department of National Development, Canberra, Australia.
Janssen, M. A., B. H. Walker, J. Langridge, and N. Abel. 2000. An adaptive agent model for analysing co-evolution of management and policies in a complex rangeland system. Ecological Modelling 131:249-268.
Janssen, M. A., Ö. Bodin, J. M. Anderies, T. Enquist, H. Ernstson, R. R. J. McAllister, P. Olson, and P. Ryan. 2005. Toward a network perspective of the resilience of social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society 11:15.
Johnston, P. W., G. M. McKeon, and K. A. Day. 1996. Objective ‘safe’ grazing capacities for south-west Queensland Australia: development of a model for individual properties. Rangeland Journal 18:244-258.
Kraatz, M. 2000. Managing for healthy country in the VRD. Tropical Savannas CRC, Darwin, Australia.
Land Settlement Advisory Commission. 1959. Report on progressive land settlement in Queensland. State of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Landsberg R. G., A. J. Ash, R. K. Shepherd, and G. M. McKeon. 1998. Learning from history to survive in the future: management evolution on Trafalgar Station, north-east Queensland. Rangeland Journal 20:104-118.
Laut, D. P. 1988. Changing patterns of land use in Australia. Pages 547-556. In: I. Castles, editor. Year Book Australia 1988. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia.
Lewis, D. 2002. Slower than the eye can see. Tropical Savannas CRC, Darwin, Australia.
McAllister, R. R. J., I. J. Gordon, and C. J. Stokes. 2005a. KinModel: An agent-based model of rangeland kinship networks. Pages 1624-1630. In: A. Zerger and R. M. Argent, editors. Proceedings of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation.
McAllister, R. R. J., I. J. Gordon, and M. A. Janssen. 2005b. Trust and cooperation in natural resource management: The case of agistment in rangelands. Pages 2334-2339. In: A. Zerger and R. M. Argent, editors. Proceedings of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation.
McAllister R. R. J., J. E. Gross, and C. J. Stokes. 2006. Rangeland consolidation patterns in Australia: An agent-based modelling approach. In: P. Perez and D. Batten, editors. Complex science for a complex world: Exploring human ecosystems with agents, ANU ePress, Canberra.
McKeon, G., W. Hall, B. Henry, G. Stone, and I. Watson. 2004. Pasture degradation and recovery in Australia’s rangelands: learning from history. Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy, Brisbane, Australia.
Mills, J. R. 1989. Management of mulga lands in far south-west Queensland: project report QO89023. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.
Mitchell, C. 1997. Review of Desert Upland biogeographic region: management issues. Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane, Australia.
Mortiss, P. D. 1995. The environmental issues of the Upper Burdekin catchment: project report Q905017. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.
Passmore, J. G. I. and C. G. Brown. 1992. Property size and rangeland degradation in the Queensland mulga rangelands. Rangeland Journal 14:9-25.
QNRM (Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines). 2001. Managing state rural leasehold land: a discussion paper. Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Coorparoo, Australia.
Quirk, M. F., A. J. Ash, and G. McKillop. 1996. Dalrymple Shire, Queensland: case study -present. Pages 71-83. In: N. Abel and S. Ryan, editors. Sustainable habitation in rangelands. Proceedings of a Fenner Conference on the Environment. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia.
Reynolds, H. 1974. Settlers and Aborigines on the pastoral frontier. Pages 153-162. In: Anon, editor. Lectures on north Queensland history. James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
Rogers, L. G., M. G. Cannon, and E. B. Barry. 1998. Land resources of the Dalrymple Shire. Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Australia.
Roth C., J. Aldrick, A. Ash, R. Hook, P. Novelly, D. Orr, M. Quirk, and M. Sallaway. 1999. The north Australia program: NAP occasional Paper No. 4. CSIRO, Townsville, Australia.
Roth, C. H., G. Lawson, and D. Cavanagh. 2003. Overview of key natural resource management issues in the Burdekin catchment, with particular reference to water quality and salinity. Burdekin catchment condition study: Phase 1. CSIRO Land and Water, Townsville, Australia.
Stokes C. J., A. J. Ash, and R. R. J. McAllister. 2004. Fragmentation of Australian rangelands: risks and trade-offs for land management. Pages 39-48. In: G. Bastin, D. Walsh, and S. Nicolson, editors. Living in the outback: conference papers. Australian Rangeland Society, Alice Springs, Australia.
Tothill J. C. and C. Gillies. 1992. The pasture lands of northern Australia: their condition, productivity and sustainability: occasional paper. Tropical Grasslands Society of Australia, Brisbane, Australia.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stokes, C.J., McAllister, R.R.J., Ash, A.J., Gross, J.E. (2008). Changing Patterns of Land Use and Tenure in the Dalrymple Shire, Australia. In: Galvin, K.A., Reid, R.S., Jr, R.H.B., Hobbs, N.T. (eds) Fragmentation in Semi-Arid and Arid Landscapes. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4906-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4906-4_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4905-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4906-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)