Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The first Australian study of wilderness of any consequence, the wilderness study of
eastern New South Wales and south-east Queensland by Helman et al. (1976; see also
A.D.Jones 1978) was designed as a model for future Australian wilderness inventories
and it was applied in Victoria (Feller et al. 1979) and Tasmania (Russell et al. 1979).
However, the inventory procedures may not be valid for arid and semi-arid environments
because they were undertaken in relatively humid, forested and mountainous
environments (Lesslie and Taylor 1983); also, they failed to recognise the remoteness and
primitiveness which constitute the key qualities of wilderness (Mark 1985). Stanton and
Morgan's (1977) study of Queensland identified four key areas as fitting rigid
conservation-based criteria. Twenty-four other areas were identified as being 'equivalent
to the wilderness areas delineated by Helman et al. (1976) in their study of eastern
Australia' (G.Morgan 1980).
Kirkpatrick's (1980) study of south-west Tasmania identified wilderness as a
recreational resource, 'as land remote from access by mechanised vehicles, and from
within which there is little or no consciousness of the environmental disturbance of
western man' (Kirkpatrick and Haney 1980:331). Kirkpatrick assigned absolute
wilderness quality scores, which had not been attempted in Australian wilderness
inventories, although it was characteristic of American ones. However, unlike the United
States inventories, Kirkpatrick focused on the more readily quantifiable characteristics of
wilderness: remoteness and primitiveness.
Remoteness and primitiveness are the two essential attributes of wilderness (Helburn
1977). Remoteness is measured 'as the walking time from the nearest access point for
mechanised vehicles' while primitiveness, which 'has visual, aural and mental
components', is 'determined from measures of the arc of visibility of any
disturbance…and the distance to the nearest disturbance' (Kirkpatrick and Haney
1980:331). The identification of remoteness and primitive ness as the essential attributes
of a wilderness area helped create the methodological basis for the wilderness inventory
of South Australia by Lesslie and Taylor (1983, 1985) and provides the basis for a
national survey of wilderness.
Lesslie and Taylor (1983) saw previous wilderness inventory procedures as
unsatisfactory because they sought to express a relative concept in absolute terms. They
identified four indicators of wilderness quality: remoteness from settlement, remoteness
from access, aesthetic primitiveness (or naturalness) and biophysical primitiveness (or
naturalness). These indicators were used to provide an inventory of relatively high-
quality wilderness areas in South Australia. The attributes of remoteness and
primitiveness may be expressed as part of a continuum which indicates the relative
wilderness quality of a region (Figure 7.1). A continuum approach can accommodate the
ecological and recreational characteristics of a far wider range of environments than can
the inventories formulated for the higher rainfall areas of Australia (Lesslie and Taylor
1983; Hall and Mark 1985; Hall 1987; Lesslie et al. 1987; Lesslie 1991; Manidis Roberts
Consultants 1991).
The variation in approaches to wilderness inventory in Australia is 'systematic of
confusion concerning the definition of wilderness, since areas which satisfy biocentric
considerations need not be consistent with areas which satisfy anthropocentric
considerations' (Lesslie and Taylor 1983:11). The area required to satisfy recreational
criteria for wilderness may be much smaller than the area required for maintaining the
