From "The Future Eaters"

"The European history of the colonisation of Australia has followed the same pattern as has the history of all of the colonists of the 'new' lands. All have arrived at what they are convinced is a virgin land. All have found resources that have never before been tapped, and all have experienced a short period of tremendous boom, when people were bigger and better than before, and when resources seemed so limitless that there was no need to fight for them. Because the was enough for everyone, egalitarian, carefree societies with the leisure to achieve great things, have prospered. There was a period of optimism, when people imagined great futures for their nations. Inevitably however, each group has found that the resource base is not limitless. Each has experienced a period when the competition for shrinking resources becomes sharper. The struggle between people increases, whether it be a class struggle or a struggle between tribes. If people survive long enough, they eventually come into equilibrium with their newly impoverished land -- and their lifestyles are ultimately dictated by the number of renewable resources that their ancestors have left them." (Flannery, The Future Eaters, page 344)

Australians today still reflect the love of the frontier, which characterized this early and super-optimistic time. The photos show our hosts on our first trip to Canberra. We went to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve for a picnic, where emus -- as shown lurking in the picnic grounds -- tried to eat our lunch. The destructive cycle of Australian climate has unfortunately taken its toll: major forest fires destroyed some or all of this park several years after our visit. According to Flannery, the cause of these major fires is the cessation by Europeans of the Aborigines' forest management through controlled burning to maintain a brushless forest floor.