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Articles on Northern Australia

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The Ord River was targeted for agricultural expansion in the 20th century. isthatdaves/Wikimedia Commons

Water in northern Australia: a history of Aboriginal exclusion

Ever since British settlement, water rights in Australia’s north have favoured landowners over traditional owners, effectively locking Aboriginal people out of agricultural development.
Clean water can help to break the link between poor hygiene and eye diseases such as trachoma. Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA)

It’s a fallacy that all Australians have access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene

As Australia joins a New York summit to discuss the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it still faces questions over whether it is meeting water standards at home.
The new assistant minister for cities, Angus Taylor, has expressed a ‘deep belief that consultation and proper public debate gets to wise outcomes’. flickr/Crawford Forum

Memo to our latest cities minister: here’s what needs to be done

Effective development planning must anticipate where growth might occur and its wider impacts. So, if the federal government is serious about cities policy, it needs a proper settlements plan.
The remote rivers of northern Australia could be home to untold numbers of new and threatened fish. Matthew Le Feuvre

We discovered 20 new fish in northern Australia – now we need to protect them

A score of new fish species discovered recently in northern Australia remind us how little we know about our country.
An historian reading the government White Paper on developing northern Australia will realise we’re actually heading all the way back to the 1890s. andrew matthews/Flickr

Northern development plan shows Australia’s fraught vision of our tropics

The federal government’s recent White Paper on developing northern Australia has disturbing echoes of the 1890s, a time when unbridled capitalism and indentured labour developed the North.
The north may be pleasant now, but climate change may make it less so. rjcox/Flickr

Climate: the elephant in the room for developing northern Australia

The recently released white paper on developing northern Australia ignores an elephant in the room: climate change. While the paper sees a bright future for the north (roads, rail, dams and food), without considering climate change we can’t be sure the north will even be liveable.
The white paper on developing northern Australia outlines a solid vision - now for action. Andrew Campbell

Is the white paper a game-changer for northern Australia?

The White Paper on Developing Northern Australia represents the most comprehensive attempt yet to think through the development possibilities of the north.
Tony Abbott: ‘We can encourage jobs and tackle the costs of living far away from major cities’. AAP/Lukas Coch

Abbott to announce boost for the north

A 20-year roadmap to boost northern Australia’s development and investment will be unveiled by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Looking over Palmerston and the East Arm of Darwin Harbour to the new $35B Inpex LNG plant. Many resources projects in the north are in beautiful, environmentally important places. Andrew Campbell

The budget harks back to old ideas for northern Australia

This year’s federal budget outlined plans for infrastructure in northern Australia, but it will need to do more than build roads and rail to sustainably develop the north.
More mines, more roads, as the government puts its drive towards economic development ahead of all else. AAP Image/Alan Porritt

There are no green shoots for sustainability in this Budget

Amid talk of paths to surplus and investing in infrastructure, both sides of politics seem to have forgotten Australia’s longstanding responsibility to govern sustainably, and not just for the economy.
Not at loggerheads: jobs and the environment can coexist in Queensland’s north. Willem van Aken/CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons

Jobs versus the environment: the debate Queensland can end

Do politicians really have to choose between being pro-development or pro-environment? No, says Allan Dale, and Queensland’s new government has the chance to prove it.
Cane toads are still spreading across northern Australia. UNSW

Building fences could stop cane toads in their tracks

Cane toads, introduced in 1935 to control cane beetles, have now spread across a huge swathe of Australia, from the Kimberley in northern Western Australia to northern New South Wales. They’re still spreading…
King tides are just one of the threats faced by the people of Saibai Island in the Torres Strait, as a result of climate change. Brad Marsellos

Rising seas pose a cultural threat to Australia’s ‘forgotten people’

While you may have heard about the increasing threat that climate change and rising seas pose to Pacific islands — already forcing some communities to move — Australia has its own group of islands that…
Indigenous rangers at the Fish River Station in the Northern Territory. Indigenous Land Corporation

Why Australia’s outback is globally important

There are places in Australia that are awe-inspiring, spectacular, mysterious; they touch our spirit and help define our nation. Kakadu is one, Uluru another, the magnificent red sandy deserts, the Kimberley…

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