In order to understanding how and why the coronial inquiry into the January 2003 Canberra bushfires unraveled, and in order to understand the recent decision of the ACT Supreme Court to clear Coroner Maria Doogan of ‘apprehended bias’, it is perhaps necessary to have some understanding of the various meanings of ‘wilderness’.
The following quotes are perhaps relevant:
“Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and downs,
To the silent wilderness,
Where the soul need not repress
Its music.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, c. 1820
“Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1903
“The emotional aspects of a wilderness experience might be compared to a religious experience. It is particularly valuable for those people whose unconscious association of pain and discomfort in relationship to man render a deity in human form impossible. Christianity is unacceptable to some people because of the use of the human symbol, but some who can’t accept Christ can gain a tremendous sense of peace from relating to uncontaminated areas.”
Donald McKinley, Forest Industries, February 1963
“Wilderness, in the environmental pantheon, represents a particular kind of sanctuary in which all true values – that is all nonhuman values – are reposited.”
William Tucker, Harper’s, March 1982
“Wilderness: Land that, together with its plant and animal communities, is in a state that has not been substantially modified by, and is remote from, the influences of European settlement or is capable of being restored to such a state, and is of sufficient size to make its maintenance in such a state feasible.”
National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biological Diversity, Department of Environment and Heritage, 1996 http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/strategy/gloss.html
“This might apply to the surface of Pluto or the centre of the Earth, perhaps, but it would be arrogance or ignorance to presume that there is any place on Earth that hasn’t, at some time in the past, been managed or substantially affected in some way by humans.”
Bob Beale and Mike Archer in their book titled ‘Going Native’, October 2004
“Wilderness is an outdated 70s concept and it is dangerous. It is dangerous because in its pure form it prohibits proactive management in the area.”
Phil Cheney’s evidence to the ACT Coroner’s Inquiry into the January 2003 Canberra bushfires
http://www.courts.act.gov.au/supreme/judgments/doogan1.htm
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.