Queensland rainforest management: Frontier attitudes and public policy

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on rural land-use policy in north-east Queensland, Australia. The region has been the subject of conflict throughout the 1980s over the management of the wet tropical rainforest of the area which in December 1988 were accepted for inclusion on the World Heritage List. It is argued that environmental management policy in Queensland can be seen as flowing from a contanuation of a set of pioneering frontier attitudes which developed early in the State's history. The role of these attitudes is considered within the Queensland political culture. Three phases are identified in rainforest management in the State and briefly outlined. In the most recent period, attention is drawn to the primarily urban-based conservation challenge to these pioneering attitudes, as well as the much debated and legally contested role of the Federal government in carrying forward the World Heritage nomination proposal in the face of State government opposition.