Year 10 Geography
Environmental Change and Management

How the Aboriginal people have managed the land

Aboriginal people have successfully managed this land for at least 40,000 years. This land provides the primary resources for clothes, food, building materials and all the other items needed for a healthy sustainable life.
Aboriginals basically lived off the land. They had such extended knowledge of their local land and surrounding areas. They had a good understanding of how the seasons affected their environment, the plants, the soil, and the animals close to them. The Aboriginals had an extremely spiritual attachment to the land and the community that only they alone could understand and relate to. The seasons impacted all aspects of their …show more content…
Generally but not always the men would hunt the animals via nets or spears, where the women in most cases would gather and capture plant foods, which would include, wild fruit, nuts, eatable leaves, snakes, goannas, tortoises, berries and plant roots. These items would vary depending on the time of the year, the season and the weather.

The Aboriginal men and women together would collect a variety of foods, in many different forms of hunting or gathering, such as fishing. They would catch fish via traps or caught by a shell hook on a bark string line or by spear. Placing sticky sap on branches so birds could not fly away was another technique used. Using seeds to attract birds. A unique technique used by the Aboriginal people to catch fish, was to use poisonous plants left soaking in the water holes so they could collect them after they had died.

The Aboriginals were very careful when collecting these bush foods, to leave enough behind such as the seeds, for they’re to be enough for new growth in the future. The young of any animal species were rarely killed. When collecting eggs from a bird's nest, some are always left to hatch, ensuring the survival of the species. There was no waste when it came to killing animals, as every part of the animal, including the skin, the meat and the bones were all used. The bones were used to make utensils, while the skin was used for clothing, blankets or even …show more content…
For example, helping small businesses grow, burning projects, education development, and commercial kitchen projects so people in the local community can access kitchen facilities. The government are also funding multi age care complexes, the care taking of national parks and assisting Aboriginal people to gain employment in the Northern Territory and sustain their land management.

Australian farmers still incorporate some aboriginal traditional methods for farming such as the use of fire. Fire has been used to clean up vegetation, making the land safer to avoid dangerous reptiles, but mostly used to promote growth of valued plants and to regrow grass to attract grazing animals for easy hunting and drive out few animals to be killed for food. These controlled fires are still used to today in a burning pattern to replace and promote regrowth.

What more could be done?

In traditional city life in Australia, we purchase all of our food from local stores, for examples our local supermarket, the butcher, the fruit and vegetable supplier, although fishing is quite common. Though farmers on the land would still have the opportunity to use their livestock as food resources, for example, pigs, cows and