Australia's rangelands cover 80 per cent of the country.
The rangelands are those areas where the rainfall is too low or unreliable and the soils too poor to support regular cropping. They include savannas, woodlands, shrublands, grasslands and wetlands, within Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
This is boom and bust country. When there is a good year it's great, the native grasses and flowers boom, waterholes overflow, bringing fish and birds. But when it's bad almost everything dies and often there is only one or two good years in ten.
Despite this fragility, the rangelands are overall, in remarkably good condition. They are Australia's largest areas of wilderness and preserve diversity like no other savannah and arid zone in the world.
About 150,000 people, many of them indigenous, live in the rangelands but this number is on the decline. Changing economic fortunes have meant that pastoral operations can no longer hold out for years with out a profit and Indigenous communities are moving in to town for access to services.
The few state or national parks are enormous but prohibitively expensive to maintain and with so few tourists there is little opportunity to attract funding.
Ecologist worry that with disappearance of the rangelands' custodians there will be an explosion in invasive animal and plant species.
The director, Pew Trusts, Outback Australia, Barry Traill says much of the rangeland is actually wilderness but it needs people to be maintained.
'The outback is one of the few great natural places in the world but it needs people to manage it with fires, and to manage the feral animals.' Dr Traill said.
He says there are now fewer people living in the rangelands than there have been at any time in the last 50,000 years.
Dr Traill says there has been a 'haphazard' movement of areas out of pastoralism into tourism, carbon farming, conservation and even lifestyle blocks.
'In combination I think that is good, we need more diversification of enterprises in those districts'. He says a well-run cattle property can also look after the environment, but there are some areas that are too marginal for pastoralism.
One of the problems is that the pastoral leases that cover much of the rangelands are now inappropriate. Most mandate stocking levels, and do not permit other activities like tourism.
Professor Andrew Campbell, is the director of the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, NT and he paints a pessimistic picture.
Professor Campbell says much of the pastoral, sheep and cattle, industry survives in the rangelands because of history and it is difficult to make an economic case for its future. This will only get worse with climate change.
But Anne Britton, a cattle producer and photographer who lives near Boulia, in Queensland is not prepared to leave.
'I love it, it is amazing country. You can't control it, you have to learn from it to live out here. It can be harsh, but the beauty is there in the harsh times,' she said.
Peter Bryant ran a merino sheep and cattle in the north-west of NSW for 50 years. Mr Bryant says that after he finished school he could have done law or economics, 'but the land just grabbed me'.
He says those who farm that country need to understand it.
'When you own country in an arid area like that, you need to take a lot of account of what you have on the ground, and use your experience to know what is likely to happen in the future,' he said
Mr Bryant says and graziers must stock it very conservatively, even in the boom times.
Dr Traill says one huge positive change is the land that is now indigenous owned. 'It is protected and ranger programs are looking after that country. We are at the early stages of what I hope is a mix of government dollars, business dollars and carbon farming.'
Almost 500,000 square kilometres of the rangelands - twice the area of the state of Victoria - are Indigenous Protected Areas. There are now eight Indigenous Protected Areas in the Kimberley, looked after by 85 rangers The areas are either highly sensitive, have important biodiversity or are home to threatened or endangered plants and animals. They are managed by indigenous rangers, under long-term Healthy Country plans of management, which set out ecological aims and goals for the areas.
Land manager with the Kimberley Land Council, Daniel Oades, says the program would not be possible without government help.
'We are looking at extra opportunities to add value from other funding sources to keep this program happening.'
He says they are getting some good income through carbon programs in northern Australia, though they are disappointed with the current policy uncertainty around carbon trading and price.
'We would probably be doing it anyway, but it would mean our own income,' Mr Oades said.
Professor Campbell says public policy needs to take account of the new mix of activities on the rangelands, which also includes mining. 'We can only dig up our resources once and it is important that we get right return and return some of that to the area. We need to think about risk and who bears it.' He says there are more than 1000 legacy, or closed, mines in the Northern Territory. 'They are imposing costs on the government, but the companies are no longer around.'
And he argues the tourism strategy hasn't been refined since Crocodile Dundee.
Professor Campbell thinks people living in the rangelands should be paid for environmental duties, like looking after the habitat and water resources. 'The rangelands are an important cultural asset. There are very few places on early left like the Australian rangelands,' Professor Campbell said.
Guests
Credits
In this episode