The Australian Government's Innovation Report

Sustainable use of Australia’s biodiversity
Managing ancient cultural land – the Canning Stock Route: Custodians of one of the largest cultural areas
and natural desert landscapes in Australia, the Canning Stock Route, have sought assistance to develop an integrated
management plan for the route in the face of a rapid and uncontrolled increase in tourism.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is developing a major ARC
Linkage Project in collaboration with Ngaanyatjarra Land Council and seven other state and federal industry
partners.
The stock route runs for 1800 kilometres between Wiluna and Halls Creek. Increased four-wheel drive access to
culturally important sites potentially endangers the integrity of unique examples of Aboriginal art and challenges
the sustainability of the environments where they are found.
The custodians of the country have asked for assistance with a management plan. They also want to see the
implementation of a ranger scheme, training initiatives, a permit system and effective site protection. The project
aims to address the need for management and interpretation of Aboriginal sites (especially art sites and Dreaming places)
along the route, including recognition that the land is Aboriginal-held under a consent determination of native title.
Land use history recovered from coral cores: Scientists at AIMS and James Cook University have discovered
a new use for the oceanographic information that can be extracted from core samples of massive reef corals.
To date, coral cores have been used to investigate changes in climate and to understand how the health of coral
reefs has been altered by human activities over time. New research has detected geochemical evidence of early
European settlement in coral cores from near-shore reefs.
Unique trace metals found in soil and released by land clearing primarily for cattle were transported to reefs through
local waterways. The quantity of specific metals (including Barium and Yttrium) found in the coral cores fluctuates
closely with cattle numbers from the region’s grazing industry and provides some of the first chemical evidence
of agricultural impacts in North Queensland.
The coral geochemical record of the element manganese documents a more complicated history of rapid
ecosystem changes caused by the introduction of sheep into north-eastern Australia. The coral cores provide
evidence of the sheep rapidly reworking and removing the manganese-rich topsoil which had accumulated over
several thousand years of regular brush burning by Australia’s Indigenous population.
The collaborative study supports an earlier finding that sediment exports to the Great Barrier Reef from the
Burdekin River catchment increased four to five-fold soon after the arrival of Europeans and more specifically,
the presence of livestock.
This research presents a biological record of the effect of humans and livestock on the water quality of the Great
Barrier Reef and its catchment. Data from coral cores is helping scientists to understand the health of the reef
over time and to predict future impacts of human activities.
Foreign fishing depletes Australian shark stocks: Illegal fishing is one of the most severe problems currently
affecting world fisheries and has dramatically increased in Australia’s fishing zones particularly in northern
Australia. The main target of illegal fishing in this region is shark, driven by demand for shark fin, which is
increasing exponentially.
Hundreds of fishermen are arrested each year in northern Australian waters for illegal possession of shark fin.
The fishery is becoming increasingly sophisticated with nets replacing long lines and electronic navigation
systems becoming commonplace.
An AIMS research initiative, supported by the Departments of the Environment and Heritage, and Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry, has shown a striking difference in the abundance and species richness of sharks on fished
and unfished reefs in the productive oceanic shoals of northern Australia.
Sharks were found to be anywhere from 17 to four times less abundant at fished reefs. Of particular significance was the
fact that the sharks considered most valuable for the fin trade (Silvertip Whalers Carcharhinus albimarginatus and
Scalloped Hammerheads Sphyrna lewini) have been virtually eradicated from the northern reefs accessed by illegal
fishermen.
98 Backing Australia’s Ability