by Kate Holden
‘The force of this willed perception was so phenomenal that it has persisted to the present day’: The virtues of Indigenous management are well attested. But some palaeontologists, ecological and Indigenous historians also argue that the impact of Aboriginal settlement brought drastic and apocalyptic change to the land. The strong implication of surviving palaeontological evidence is that humans, arriving on a ‘virgin’ land, ate the large herbivorous mammals. Uneaten, overabundant vegetation burned easily, and eventually, under the influence of human-directed ‘fire-stick farming’, the character, behaviour and thickness of vegetation changed radically across Australia (see Flannery, pp. 224–27). To ignore this likelihood collaborates in a disingenuous concept of Aboriginal peoples as ‘creatures of nature’: unconscious, instinctual, primaeval, faunal. This was exactly the sentiment European colonists expressed when they weighed their sophistication and entitlements against those of the people they were about to dispossess.
‘…the soil had a mulch of thousands of years …’: Rolls, 1994, p. 22.
“[N]o person, to my knowledge”: Atkinson, p. 21. Subsequent quotations in this paragraph, p. 17 and p. 8.
“… the land in a few years gets exhausted …”: ibid., p. 32.
‘… farmers welcomed artificial, controllable technology, applied mechanically’: Massy, p. 45. The stump-jump plough, invented in South Australia, was a game-changer; so was H.V. McKay’s 1884 stripper harvester, perfected over the next century and introduced to the north by the early twentieth century. That miraculous compendium machine reaped, winnowed and filled bags with clean grain as it moved. It was named, McKay said, for an image of God as sunshine, penetrating even through the cloudy skies of despair (see Main, p. 158).
‘Tined seed drills …’: Rolls, 2011, p. 215.
‘… defoliants like Agent Orange were liberally poured from aircraft’: Lines, p. 204. One who made his fortune in that employ was a man called Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
‘The town has little tidy brick houses, plush green winter paddocks …’: But in the hills beyond there are still farmers who get their sons working the land from sixteen. Education levels are low, and in many places there is little television reception or internet connectivity. Telegraph Point was hard-hit by bushfires in November 2019.
“I didn’t perceive him as gung-ho”: Chris Nadolny’s memories of Glen Turner in Nadolny, 18 February 2018.
‘… Roger reacted with fury’: Smith.
“While the EPA fully expects that you will comply …”: Chief Executive v Cory Ian Turnbull.
“illegal clearing is not degradation, it is restoration”: Muir, p. 83.
‘Some farmers waited it out’: Nadolny, ‘The New Biodiversity Laws’, p. 6.
‘They all used the same agent, and Turnbull’s lawyer …’: Holden, ‘Notes on Ian Turnbull Witness Statement’.
‘The brothers were allowed to stay on …’: ibid.
‘He didn’t realise the application couldn’t be granted …’: Nadolny, 24 October 2019.
‘After the ground was settled …’: Holden, ‘Notes on OEH Prosecution’.
‘She had stood up in the Croppa Creek hall …’: Spark, 2017.
‘Satellite images of vegetation cover …’: Explanation of the EPA process for tracking vegetation clearance and Simon Smith’s comments in Smith.
‘There were … usually two or three compliance officers …’: Hannam & Smith.
‘“Cory,” he said, when his call was answered’: call between Glen Turner and Cory Turnbull as recorded by Glen Turner in Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, s. 32.
‘The old man watched …’: Description of the clearing and Scott brothers’ presence in Nadolny, 24 October 2019.
‘Nadolny voiced it …’: Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, s. 32, entry dated 14 February 2012.
‘Smith … was about to leave his position’: Smith.
‘Back at Tamworth …’: Conversation between Glen Turner and Simon Smith in Smith.
‘As much as ethics or practicalities …’: Martin.
“He was quite a progressive farmer …”: Smith’s view of Turnbull and his motivations for clearing in Smith.
“I felt very confronted by him”: Quoted in Joseph.
‘They met on the verandah in the hot March air’: Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, s. 82, entry dated 21 February 2012.
“Glen was just doing his job”: Nadolny’s view of Glen Turner, and the quad-bike incident, in Nadolny, 24 October 2019.
“Simon, Simon”: Quotations from Turnbull and Smith’s guilt in Smith.
‘… the precious grasses and groundcover had been ploughed’: Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, ss. 84–86, entry dated 13 March 2012.
“He’s guaranteed the loan, so it’s hard to disagree with him”: Testimony given by Cory Turnbull in Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, s. 97, entry dated 27 March 2012.
‘Turner allegedly said to Turnbull …’: Testimony given by Ian Turnbull in ibid.
‘Simon Smith admits …’: Smith’s admission and the OEH response in Smith, and Nadolny, 19 August 2019.
‘the state minister for the environment would be closely questioned …’: Spark, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’.
“I was very disappointed”: Smith.
‘The Turnbulls boasted to neighbours …’: Spark, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’.
Chapter 3
‘He spoke of a great river and fertile lands’: Clarke gave a vivid report to The Sydney Monitor in 1832, available at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32076934
‘Life in Australia had begun excitingly …’: Clarke’s life and Mitchell’s condemnation in Boyce & Rolls, 2011.
‘… two years later Mitchell took Clarke’s lead north’: Rolls, 2011, p. 85.
‘… though not a single plough …’: The first plough didn’t arrive until 1796, and there were hardly enough horses or oxen to drag it.
‘The Exodus and Eden myths …’: Curthoys. Indeed, a century later, in the 1890s, there was a project for a New Arcadia in the wastelands of Queensland, Victoria and South Australia; it is regarded as having failed, leaving abandoned villages and crushed hopes (see Bellanta). But Edward Wakefield’s dream, realised in South Australia and the Swan River settlement in Western Australia, drew comparisons in Britain with Goshen, the biblical land of plenty, and Hesperia, the Isles of the Blessed (see Young, p. 3).
“if you new what i now nough …”: Quoted in Haines, p. 258.
‘Fencing and enclosing land’: Atkinson, p. 91. The history of ecological change since settlement is full of ‘what if?’ moments. What if the colonists had been better informed about the place that awaited them; if Joseph Banks had not had gout and vanity that impeded him fully publishing his researches and findings? What if the British administrators hadn’t also been trying to establish a penal colony and so had short-term, practical issues on their minds? What if it had been Indonesia or China who colonised the continent, or the Dutch or French, with their diverse approaches to agriculture and portfolios of skill? What if settlers had been better able to negotiate initial encounters with the Eora and Dharug people, and welcomed their wisdom and expertise?
‘… had versatile agrarian skills’: Haines, p. 22.
‘… the countryside soon rustled’: Rolls, 1994, p. 30. Following a French example, the London Acclimatisation Society was founded in 1860. A year later, Edward Wilson, the future owner of The Argus newspaper, returned from a visit to London to found local branches with a project to introduce starlings, peafowl, common pheasant, white swans and linnets. His efforts were followed enthusiastically by the Society.
‘… more than 1300 plants have been introduced …’: Bolton, p. 85.
“The Thirties made the squatters
and the Forties broke them”: Blomfield, p. 20.
‘Sheep began to be killed …’: Rolls, 2011, p. 141.
‘Restraint … seemed unnecessary’: Bolton, p. 40.
‘By 1860, the country had twenty million sheep …’: ibid., p. 81.
‘It was a fair idea and an awful reality’: effects of the Land Acts, including property names, in Webb, p. 36–37.
‘The Land Acts, supposed to distribute land democratically …’: Lines, p. 95.
‘The third time Ian Turnbull and Glen Turner met’: Encounter and dialogue in Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, ss. 125–57, entry dated 28 June 2012, and Nadolny, 31 October 2019.
‘As evicted Aboriginal tribes had discovered …’: Galarrawy Yunupingu has pointed out the irony that Aboriginal people have for two centuries now been described as ‘nomads’, while the Europeans, who were constantly careening around the globe, were called ‘settlers’ (see Curthoys, p. 31).
‘He had licences for two shotguns and two rifles’: From author’s notes on witness statements to murder.
“Of course I will abide by your direction …”: Quotations in this and next paragraph from Turner’s email dated 7 August 2012 in Holden, ‘Excerpts from OEH Correspondence’.
‘most people want to do the right thing’: ‘Compliance Policy’, p. 4.
“You should not plan to go to Strathdoon …”: Manager’s comments to Turner and decision on team support in email dated 7 August in Holden, ‘Excerpts from OEH Correspondence’.
“… Gary’s experience and training …”: Turner in a letter dated 15 August 2012 in ibid.
‘… other staff had also received threats …’: ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’.
“Australians inherited the strong British dislike …”: Bolton, p. 18.
‘On the ground was a huge chain …’: Nadolny, 24 October 2019.
‘illegal clearing of Belah …’: Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, s. 158, entry dated 9 July 2012.
Chapter 4
“My work takes me all around the northwest”: Spark’s description of his job, involvement with Turnbull and suspicions that Turnbull was being protected in Spark, 2017.
“I think a lot of the attitude there relates …”: Nadolny, 18 February 2018.
“Farmers do what they consider to be the ‘right thing’”: Vanclay, p. 214.
“I started out assisting with the Landcare movement”: Nadolny, 18 February 2018.
“Farmers … do not believe they are ‘raping the earth’”: Vanclay, p. 216.
“As an ecologist …”: Nadolny, 18 February 2018.
“… sustainability means something along the lines of …”: Vanclay, p. 215.
“Glen was a reasonably experienced officer …”: Smith.
‘They entered through the “Strathdoon” gate’: Description of clearing, presence of koalas and Turner’s expression in Nadolny, 19 August 2019 and 24 October 2019.
“He was really aggro when he was speaking to me …”: Joseph.
“You’re just a selfish bitch”: Smith.
‘Simmons was on the phone to her landlord …’: Joseph.
‘… he’d keep at the Turnbulls …’: Quoted in Holden, ‘Notes on Ian Turnbull Witness Statement’.
‘The legislation would … not just be amended but wholly trashed’: By late 2019, two farmers had testified, while being sentenced in the Land and Environment Court, about this alleged advice. They reported that Humphries had indicated to them there would be no prosecutions, as the law was soon due to change. Both farmers were convicted and fined. Humphries faced calls for investigation of his remarks by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (see Davies).
“I think I can get the Turnbulls to stop clearing”: Nadolny, 24 October 2019.
“Governance is a behaviour management system”: Martin & Hine, p. 556.
“They may become … game-players”: Bartel & Barclay, pp. 160–61. They identify what they call the exploitative type, the grouping into which Turnbull would most likely fit. These individuals are a tiny minority, the rusted-on, the intransigent. They don’t participate in nature conservation programs. They don’t consider the environment when they vote. They aren’t interested in Landcare and tend to be the most sceptical of climate change. They don’t like government intervention – not even of the supportive kind, say in weed control – and they aren’t likely to make sacrifices or plan for a sustainable future. Ian Turnbull had been a conservation farmer, with a pragmatic, more than esoteric attitude to country. Now, faced with an opportunity for wealth, the OEH and the obstacle of environmental regulation, it seems he clenched into this pose.
‘A person with a resistant, intransigent posture to authority’: Bartel & Barclay, pp. 160–61. Nearly half of game-players didn’t have involvement with local environment groups; they explained it was pragmatic concern for profit and loss, and the risk of weeds and pests getting out of control, that constrained their enthusiasm. They didn’t like social change in their districts and weren’t much interested in further education. They farmed rice, beef and wool, had lived the longest on their properties and were mainly from New South Wales. Ian Turnbull fit this profile well: he was in his late seventies when he oversaw illegal clearing on his family’s blocks, after a lifetime spent farming in the Moree district, mostly in mixed agriculture and sheep grazing. Untypically, he had been a conservation champion at one time; but when the authorities said ‘no’ to him, the long devotion to pragmatism showed through.
‘Criminal subcultures … are shaped by the same foundations’: Bartel & Barclay.
‘The federal government was quick to investigate the clearing …’: Spark, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’, p. 11.
‘Weak relationships with the environment go with strained social relationships’: Muir, p. 31.
“[I]t is no coincidence …”: ibid., p. 31.
Chapter 5
‘… federal and state environment departments rarely shared knowledge …’: Spark, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’.
‘… Phil Spark rang Glen Turner’: Conversation in Holden, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook’, s. 187–89.
‘… Gary Spencer had called Grant Turnbull’: Conversation in Chief Executive v Grant Wesley Turnbull, 2017, pp. 44–45.
‘They too saw the pushed trees’: Chief Executive v Turnbull, NSWLEC150, 2014, s. 142 and Spark, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’.
“The lighting of those fires …”: Quoted in Chief Executive v Grant Wesley Turnbull, 2017, p. 47.
“We have heard all the political spin …”: Spark, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation’.
“Once adequate information is gathered …”: ibid.
‘Almost all settlers to northwest New South Wales …’: Robin, 2007.
‘To many, Australian nature was eccentric …’: Frawley, p. 65.
“… trees retained their leaves …”: Young, p. 9.
“The country is horrible”: Daniel Brock quoted in Griffiths, Jay, p. 216. Major Mitchell had tried hard, on his surveys, to learn and bestow local Aboriginal names, but many of the replies, allegedly, actually meant “I don’t understand what you’re asking”, and so, as Jay Griffiths observes, ‘he dutifully transcribed the terms of incomprehension; a truer representation of the colonial mind than any “correct” place names could be’ (see Griffiths, p. 217).
“… looking actively dead …”: descriptions of the bush and Charles Darwin quoted in Bonyhady, p. 118.
‘Traditional cultures were not much interested in an ideology of progress’: Gascoigne, p. 12.
‘… there was growing defensiveness among settlers …’: That ambivalence, resolving into aggression, can be sensed in a letter by a settler’s teenage son who spoke Kamilaroi fluently and describes an alarming encounter. ‘I am sorry to inform you
that the blacks have driven off all our horses. They are now ten times more troublesome than they have been,’ said Andrew Doyle Jnr on the Barwon River after finding forty cattle killed. ‘I fear that unless some prompt steps are adopted by the Government for our protection, the blacks will carry out their threats of either killing or driving off all the whites from the Barwon and McIntyre River’ (see Madden, pp. 11–12).
“Shoot them all …”: Quoted in Rolls, 2011, p. 57. Some whites were periodically killed; many blacks, in reprisals. A magistrate had to go along on punitive expeditions so it would be lawful killing; he could later attest it was necessary.
“I often think about ‘Murdering Gully’ …”: William Henry Weick quoted in Society, p. 14. Massacres have been attested near the region at Ardgowan Island on the Gwydir River, and Gravesend Mountain, both near Warialda, and at Slaughterhouse Creek, just a few kilometres away, near Pallamallawa. The total dead at these three relatively unknown events is estimated at five hundred. Other atrocities, to the north, are reported at Cramptons Corner and the Macintyre River in the 1840s. Then there were the twenty-eight killed at Myall Creek, just 115 kilometres from Croppa Creek.
‘… a proxy for the traditional masculine challenges …’: Muir, p. 70; see also Robin, 2007.
“[t]he self-chosen white victim …”: Curthoys, p. 37.
“No matter how much self-conviction …”: Gibson, p. 92. Subsequent quotation p. 94.
“If I go to jail, I won’t be there long”: Quoted in Cornwall, 2017.
Chapter 6
“I haven’t got an underpinning of science studies …”: Anderson.
‘… place attachment fosters a healthy investment in those sites’: Bartel & Graham.
‘Landholders arguing a special privilege …’: ibid.
“subdued, tilled and sowed any part of it …”: Locke. For example, a property owner might claim ‘takings’ if government regulation inhibits the owner from doing what he or she might normally expect to do, such as use the water resources on the owned land, or profit from agricultural products planted there. Much depends on the expectations of the owner on acquisition and on what is considered an accepted use – damming a river that flows through a property is not an expected privilege, but using the water in a private dam probably is.