An Ethnography of Environmental Engagement, Emplaced Identity and the Traveston Crossing Dam Dispute in Queensland, Australia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Water, Place and Community: An Ethnography of Environmental Engagement, Emplaced Identity and the Traveston Crossing Dam Dispute in Queensland, Australia Kim de Rijke A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in February 2012 School of Social Science Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the General Award Rules of The University of Queensland, immediately made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Statement of Contributions to Jointly Authored Works Contained in the Thesis No jointly-authored works. Statement of Contributions by Others to the Thesis as a Whole No contributions by others. Statement of Parts of the Thesis Submitted to Qualify for the Award of Another Degree None Published Works by the Author Incorporated into the Thesis None ii Additional Published Works by the Author Relevant to the Thesis but not Forming Part of it de Rijke, K. (2009) Rural Culture and Urban Water Security: the Traveston Crossing Dam Case. In: D. Kendal (ed.) Proceedings of the Universitas 21 International Graduate Conference: Sustainable Cities for the Future. Melbourne and Brisbane, pp. 33–5. iii Acknowledgements This thesis draws on the generous contributions made by a large number of people from the Mary River catchment area and beyond. I wish to express my gratitude to all of them, in particular to the members of the Save the Mary campaign committee who contributed significantly to my research despite the demands put upon them in the context of their campaign. For assistance in the archival research and comments on the history chapter I thank historians Dr. Elaine Brown at the local history section of the Gympie Library, Dr. Murray Stewart in Tasmania and Dr. Fiona Skyring in Sydney, as well as Sally and Ian Mackay in Moy Pocket. Other people I wish to thank include the members of the Greater Mary Association in Maryborough, the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee in Gympie, and Mary Valley Inc. in Imbil, who all made me welcome at their meetings. I also want to thank for their personal friendship and help: Elizabeth and Jos Moores who assisted us in finding a comfortable house in Gympie, Phil Stringer for the wonderful clarinet music and helping us fix the garden when we left, Jan and Coby van der Es who ensured my old Landcruiser kept going, Tanzi Smith and Shawn Jervis who supplied us with mangoes and a place to stay, Steve Burgess who filled me in on all things political, scientific and musical, and Sally Mackay with whom I shared, amongst other things, such memorable midnight conversations on the side of the main road in Kandanga. Particular gratitude also goes to the people at the University of Queensland: to my supervisors Prof. David Trigger and Dr. Sarinda Singh, who provided such friendly and constructive advice during all the stages of this project, and to those whom I was fortunate enough to meet including Charmaine Jones, Isabel Cane, Carla Meurk and Cameo Dally. Last but far from least, I thank my wife Carlijn and our two young children Nelson and Siena. Without their love, enthusiasm, and unwavering support this thesis would not have been possible. iv Abstract As one of the driest countries in the world, Australia is increasingly concerned with the supply of water for human consumption, food production and environmental purposes. This thesis seeks to address the socio-cultural issues associated with a particular initiative by the Queensland State Government in 2006 to dam the Mary River in southeast Queensland. The so-called Traveston Crossing Dam was aimed, among other things, at providing additional drinking water for the city of Brisbane, which was by then effectively running out of water. The dam was to inundate a large area of agricultural land upstream from the proposed dam site and would displace hundreds of families. This ethnography seeks to address the dispute that erupted as a result of the proposal, and it attempts to understand this dispute particularly in terms of local environmental engagements, emplaced identity and the symbolic politics of community. To provide insights into the region at the time of the dam announcement, I start with an environmental and social history of the region, followed by a detailed discussion of the anti-dam campaign. Drawing on anthropological concepts of community and identity politics, I describe how a sense of community was forged in this area despite significant local diversity. I subsequently turn to the role of epistemology in the negotiation of community identity. I describe strategic engagements with science and the role of embodied experience to analyse the ways in which trust and the validity of knowledge were negotiated. I further draw on the analytical concepts of endogenous and exogenous identity to distinguish between different ways of knowing nature and related senses of emplacement. These concepts figure particularly in the final parts of the thesis, which attempt to understand the dam dispute by contrasting exogenous knowledge of the environment, developed often as abstract scientific and management models, with the ways in which local emplaced identities have emerged through practical, embodied environmental engagement, including naming practices. Through such contrasting relationships with the land and the river, and the mutually constitutive aspects of identity, practice and epistemology, this thesis seeks to address the socio-cultural aspects of a dispute surrounding a natural resource extraction project. Keywords environmental anthropology, dams, conflict, environmental campaign, place and identity, epistemology, ethnography, water. v Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) 160104 Social and Cultural Anthropology 100% vi Contents Contents..................................................................................................................................... vii Maps, Plates, Tables and Figures....................................................................................... x Abbreviations and Acronyms............................................................................................ xii Preface....................................................................................................................................... xiv 1. Introduction........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Study Region: Environment and Population................................................................ 1 1.2 The Traveston Crossing Dam Proposal ................................................................................ 7 1.3 Research Questions............................................................................................................... 12 1.4 The Literature ....................................................................................................................... 12 Culture, Identity and Community ..................................................................................... 12 Nature and the Notions of Endogenous and Exogenous Identity ..................................... 14 Belonging, Indigeneity and Community........................................................................... 16 Epistemology ....................................................................................................................18 1.5 The Methods .......................................................................................................................... 19 Informants, Locations and Events..................................................................................... 20 The Save the Mary River Coordinating Group................................................................. 21 State Officials and Scientists............................................................................................. 22 Aboriginal People ............................................................................................................. 22 Records.............................................................................................................................. 22 1.6 The Thesis Structure............................................................................................................. 23 Chapter Outline................................................................................................................