The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

15. The evolution of landscape conservation in Australia
Former pastoralist settlements in Kosciuszko National Park (Australia) span
150 years of history of European occupancy. Today, huts remaining from this
area are managed for recreational uses, such as bushwalking and ski touring.
New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service
Australian artists to create works of literature and art now nationally celebrated and forming
part of the national psyche. The pastoral theme has strong social value, demonstrated in the
active continuation of its traditions and respect for its physical remains including its land -
scapes, wild horses and stock routes. The Man from Snowy River is an Australian cultural icon.
The huts remaining from this era have been managed by agreement with the Kosciusko Huts
Association (KHA) for bushwalking and ski touring (www.kosciuskohuts.org.au/the huts.
html).
As the largest and highest profile park in Australia at the time of its establishment in 1944,
Kosciuszko has also played an important role in the evolution and development of the
profession of park management. Like Uluru, it was designated an international biosphere
reserve in 1977. Despite the extensive identification and assessment of cultural values in
Australian alpine areas and official recognition of some on heritage registers, park managers
still need to better weave the evidence of long-term historical processes into their management
planning and to consider climate change, fire histories, and impacts of previous occupation.
Importantly, the knowledge of this history can provide baseline data from which to measure
change and provide frameworks for assessing the impacts of current landscape interventions
(Lennon, 2002).
The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is currently preparing a
new management plan for Kosciuszko National Park which addresses many of these issues in
the first major revision since 1982. In managing cultural heritage in the park, the Service has
only recently fully recognised the importance of heritage artefacts to both the Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal people who generated them and the living nature of many cultural connections.
Partnerships with local communities, families and individuals with strong connections to
places not only acknowledge the legitimacy and authenticity of their histories, they also
provide the best means of ensuring that the diversity of cultural values associated with the park
survive. The new plan, developed with input from a community forum, an independent
scientific committee and an Aboriginal working group, acknowledges that park management
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