B R Davidson’s book “The Northern Myth” was first published in 1965 and set out to dispel the then popular belief that tropical Australia could be transformed into a magical land of milk and honey from which boundless agricultural wealth would flow.
Davidson’s book should be mandatory reading for any contemporary politician who puts “the north”, “water” and “broad-acre tropical agriculture” within a bull’s roar of each other. At least one of Davidson’s predictions has become largely true. At page 287 he concluded that “the future still lies with large dry-land cattle properties operated by companies or individuals with adequate capital, which remain the only economic form of development possible in tropical Australia”.
Apart from mining and tourism, large-scale dry-land cattle production, particularly those young cattle turned off through feedlots and live-shipped north to our increasingly protein-hungry neighbours, has been one of the largest contributors to the economy north of the Tropic of Capricorn. One example of this live cattle trade that appears to be working for Aboriginal people is the subject of Paul Toohey’s recent article in The Australian. There he looks at the pastoral project that Alawa people run on their traditional lands at Waliburru station, south-east of Katherine in the NT.
It is also encouraging, particularly when Davidson’s cynicism about political intervention in northern development is considered, to see this piece on the ABC website today:
Politicians taken off water task force
The Federal Government has removed all politicians from the task force set up to explore the development of water resources in northern Australia. The Northern Land and Water Task Force was started by the previous federal government largely to examine how to move agricultural production north, where there is more water. The six Coalition MPs in the group have been replaced by representatives from business, the Indigenous community and farming groups.
I’ll pull Davidson’s book off the shelf when I get home from my travels in a few days and see what other gems fall from its pages. I’d encourage readers to submit any further contributions on his work, how the re-constituted Land & Water Task Force might best do its work, or your suggestions on what else the future might hold for the vast reaches of the Territory beyond the Berrimah line, particularly from those of you that live and work in this part of the world.
