User:HistoryforCHC/sandbox

CHC: History Blog task#4
Sustainability has been a concept long ignored in western history, especially during colonization. For Australia this has been no different. Since the English arrived in the first fleet for colonization of Australia they took a frontier approach gradually expanding to suit its needs for the short term with the idea that they would be always more land this from the beginning. Farming is something that takes up an immense part of Australians environmental foot print on the land and this itself is not sustainable. Population growth itself has required increased farming and land clearage. Not to mention the environmental damage run off chemicals cause gradually to river systems and oceans. Sustainable development in Australia is not our rapidly growing suburbs that increase to eat away at the natural landscape nor is it our road systems that have become so heavily used and developed. Sustainability is not something that Australia was founded on or follows today, but attempts to address this issue are being developed slowly. Population wise however we are reaching a point of stability which is only being continued by immigration. According to the Australian government (at: http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/04fifty.htm.) Since 1947 immigrants have arrived in Australia in the millions, and with Australia’s population today one forth of the people that call this country home were born overseas. This immigration in the long term is not sustainable if it continues at its current rate forever, but as a nation we are still developing and expanding. Still after 200 years we are not yet striving for sustainability.

References:

Page: Australian Government.. Author: Produced by the National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra. Last reviewed October 2012. Published: 2009. Accessed: 6/6/13 Retrieved: 6/6/13 from: http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/04fifty.htm