Some Key Initiatives in the Conservation and Management of Queensland’s Rangelands Paul S. Sattler OAM
[email protected] Keywords: rangelands, conservation, national parks, duty of care As we review the future of brigalow was reserved, with many types not pro- Queens land’s rangelands, tected (Sattler & Webster, 1984). The requirement it is useful to highlight by the Lands Department for properties to leave some key initia tives that 10% uncleared also had been long overlooked. have shaped their conser- Graziers in the mid-1960s were active in va tion and management, establishing western branches of the Wildlife par ticularly those by The Preservation Society of Queensland in response Royal Society of Queens- to the extent of clearing. Southwood National land (RSQ). Indeed, we are indebted to Sir James Park, one of the few brigalow parks, was estab- Ramsay, Governor of Queensland and RSQ lished in 1970 as a result of agitation by a local Patron, for his historical remarks in opening The landholder who said at the time: “I wish we Brigalow Belt of Australia Symposium in 1982 could keep some of this country just the way it (Ramsay, 1984). was when I came here, so that my children can One hundred years earlier, in 1884 when the see it …” (Webb, 1984). RSQ was formed, the Society’s first President, Sir James, in opening the symposium, offered A. C. Gregory (the explorer and Surveyor his insight that “not all the problems associated General), in a debate on the Land Bill of 1884, with clearing large tracts of brigalow have been argued against the opening up of the briga- solved and not all of the side effects have yet to be low country.