Textbook Notes

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BRIEF OUTLINE / 4 CLASS THEMES Chapter 11 THE AUSTRAL REALM   DEFINING THE REALM 540   PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY: Land and Environment 540 Biogeography 541   REGIONS OF THE REALM 543  Australia 543 Distance 544 Core and Periphery 544 A Federal State 546 Economic Geography An Urban Culture 546 Economic Geography 548 Agricultural Abundance 550 Mineral Wealth 550 Manufacturing Limits 550 Cultural Geography: Australia's Future 550 Aboriginal Issues 551 Immigration Issues 552 Regional Issue: Indigenous Rights and Wrongs 553   New Zealand 555 Human Spatial Organization 556 The Maori Factor and New Zealand's Future 557

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE REALM

• Australia and New Zealand constitute a geographic realm by virtue of territorial dimension, relative location, and dominant cultural landscape.
• Despite their inclusion in a single geographic realm, Australia and New Zealand differ physiographically. Australia has a vast dry, low-relief interior; New Zealand is mountainous.
• Australia and New Zealand are marked by peripheral development-Australia because of its aridity New Zealand because of its topography.
• The populations of Australia and New Zealand are not only peripherally distributed but also highly clustered in urban centers.
• The realm's human geography is changing - in Australia because of Aboriginal activism and Asian immigration, and in New Zealand because of Maori activism and Pacific-islander immigration.
• The economic geography of Australia and New Zealand is dominated by the export of livestock products (and in Australia also by wheat production and mining).
• Australia and New Zealand are being integrated into the economic framework of the western Pacific Rim, principally as suppliers of raw materials.

DEFINING THE REALM

• Geographically unique
• two countries (Australia and New Zealand
• Differences between the two countries
  • Australia is in every way dominant
  • New Zealand is physiographically more varied
  • New Zealand is positioned directly on the border between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate therefore there are many earthquakes and volcanoes
  • Australia is located in the center of the Australian Plate; earthquakes are rare and there are no volcanoes

    

  • Differences in relief: New Zealand is has tall mountains (12,316 ft.) and Australia's great Dividing Range only reach 7318 ft. above sea level.
  • Australia has a more varied climate
• Tasmania Sea between them
• Physical Barriers at the realm borders:
  • East: Pacific Ocean
  • West: Indian Ocean
  • South: Southern Ocean?
  • North: less severe barriers; Timor and Arafura Seas
• Changes / Crossroads:
  • more contact with Asia to the north than in the past
  • original inhabitants (Maori in New Zealand, Aboriginal communities in Australia) are demanding "better terms of life"
  • Pacific Rim markets are buying huge quantities of raw materials
  • Japanese and other Asian tourists
  • much more multicultural than just a few decades ago

• Physical Geography: Land and Environment

• Australia's Physiographic Regions

  Eastern Uplands (Great Dividing Range Mountains) coastal mountains from Cape York Peninsula to the far southeast and continued into Tasmania only reach a height of 7318 feet Central Lowlands low relief Great Artesian Basin provides water for irrigation in this dry region the continents predominant river system (Murray-Darling) lies in the south Western Plateau and Margins low relief with the exception of the McDonnell Ranges Great Victoria and Great Sandy Deserts contains much of Australia's mineral wealth

• New Zealand's Physical Geography
  • Tasmania Sea separates New Zealand from Australia
  • two large mountainous islands and many scattered smaller islands
  • together the two islands are larger than Britain
  • South Island is slightly larger with taller snowcapped mountains (the Southern Alps)
  • North Island has more land with low relief and a central highlands used as dairy pastures

   

• Climate Patterns
  • Australia:
    • tropical in the far north (AW),
    • dry in the interior; BS steppes providing grassland for livestock, and BW) deserts
    • humid temperate (C) in the southeast (the economic and population core)
  • New Zealand: moderate, moist, temperate in north, colder in south

  

Question: On a blank outline map label the major physiographic and climatic regions of Australia

• Biogeography
  • A sub-field of geography- the spatial arrangement of flora and fauna
  • Evolved from the overlap between geography and biology
  • Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859) is recognized as the founder
  • Subdivided into 2 main branches:
    • Zoography: the geographic study of animal life
    • Phytogeography: the geographic study of plant life
  • The Australian Realm serves as a "laboratory" - Why?
    • wildlife and vegetation is a defining characteristic of the realm: (kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, platypuses)
    • unique wildlife due to early separation of Australia from Gondowana protecting the MARSUPIALS from more advanced mammals

To see a larger image, RIGHT CLICK on the image and select VIEW IMAGE

"Approximately 100 million years ago, the Dinosaur Cove area (small red outlined boxes) at the southern end of Australia was well within the Antarctic Circle, more than 40 degrees closer to the South Pole than it is today."

• Proposed zoogeographical boundaries between "Australian wildlife" and the different wildlife of surrounding areas
  • Australian wildlife exists not only in Australia, but in New Guinea and some islands to the west
  • Zoogeographer Alfred Wallace included Sulawesi and New Guinea in the region of Australian zoographic realm
  • his border is called WALLACE'S LINE
  • Zoogeographer Max Weber put the zoographic realm boundary further to the east

  

  Question: What are "biogeography" and "Weber's Line"?

REGIONS OF THE REALM

• Australia
  • "Australia is one of the most fortunate countries on Earth" (p. 543) WHY?
    • politically stable
    • strong economy high standard of living (for most)
    • good farmland, large amount of pastureland
    • ample underground water, minerals, and energy resources
    • good natural harbors
    • well educated
    • 91% urbanized
    • responded very well when the Pacific Rim economies stalled in the late 1990s
    • no longer a NDC "newly declining country"
  • Australia's indigenous aboriginal population is less well off:
    • about 400,000
    • economically disadvantaged
    • currently a nationwide campaign to redress these inequities
  • Distance
    • distance has an significant effect on living in Australia
    • far from nearly everywhere else on earth
    • distances within Australia are or "continental proportions"
    • can be beneficial:
      • protected Australia from the expanding Japanese Empire prior to W.W.II
      • XXXX p. 544 immigration policies
      • other
  • Core and Periphery
    • Two sub-regions
      • Core
      • Outback (periphery)
    • Core
      • Population concentrated in the Core

        

      • includes the largest city (Sydney) , the second largest city (Melbourne) and the capital (Canberra)
      • secondary core in the southwest around the city of Perth
      • 
        • "C" climates
        • the rest of Australia is drier

     

    • The Outback Periphery
      • Extensive grassland pastures
      • Supports one of the world's largest sheep and cattle industries
      • A fragile environment
      • Ownership issues

  Question: Australia compares in size to the United States, China, and Brazil, yet, while our authors divide the US into seven regions and China into three regions and Brazil into six subregions, BUT the Austral Realm is only divided into two regions: Australia and New Zealand. why don't our authors divide this realm into more culture regions?

  • Historical Geography
    • Aboriginal Australians arrived 50,000 to 60,000 years ago
    • British Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney harbor in 1788
    • British settlements established on the coasts - penal colonies and freetowns
    • coastal aboriginal communities were "doomed"
    • distance protected the Aboriginal communities in the northern interior
    • Aboriginal Australians were "exterminated" on the island of Tasmania
    • Coastal communities developed into seven different colonies each with its own hinterland
    • straight-line colony borders were delimited in 1861
    • largest group of surviving Aboriginal people were in the Northern Territory
    • Independence from Britain in 1901

    Question: When and how did the Aboriginal people get to Australia? When and why did the first European settlers come to Australia?

     

  • Cultural Geography: Political Geography - a Federal State
    • A federal state (country) since 1901
      • federation vs. unitary state
    • "Commonwealth of Australia" still recognizing the British monarch as the head of state
    • Comprised of 6 states and 2 territories
      • Northern Territory to protect the interests of the Aboriginal people there
      • Federal territory establish around the capital, Canberra
    • Capital: Canberra
      • only large city not on the coast
      • a "growth pole"
    • Political divisions

      

     

  • Economic Geography
    • See table G-1. p. 41
      • Population of 24.5 million
      • Aboriginal population Of 300,000
      • Arithmetic density of 6.8/sq. mi.
      • Physiologic density of 113.4/sq. mi.
      • Per capita income of $27,073
    • An Urban Culture
      • 91% urbanized
      • Major urban centers
        • Sydney (4.1 million)
        • Melbourne (3.4 million)
        • Canberra (342,000) - Capital (a classic growth pole)
      • All major cities (except) Canberra) are coastal (like Japan) due to arid interior ( Japan's interior is mountainous)
    • Principal Patterns:
      • Exports raw materials
      • Based heavily on the primary sector activities
      • Depends on world markets because of small domestic market
    • Import-substitution industries
      • due to great distances , and therefore costs, of imported items, many "import substitution" industries arose
      • as shipping costs have decreased in the last 50 years [see: Shipping containers celebrate their 50th birthday] , these industries faced increased competition
      • therefore they asked for protection and the Australian government erected high tariffs on imported items
      • these are called "import substitution trade barriers"
        • RESULT:
          • "local products could be made inefficiently" because they have a guaranteed market
          • because of these policies, and other circumstances, the economy began to decline and unemployment increased
      • "Australia commenced a basic reorientation of its economy in the 1980s and has transformed itself from an inward looking, import-substitution country to an internationally competitive, export-oriented one. Key reforms included unilaterally reducing high tariffs and other protective barriers" [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2698.htm]
        • RESULT: "Today, Australia's per-capita GNI of U.S. $28,290 compares favorably not only to those successful East and Southeast Asian economies (economic tigers), but is also higher than the majority of European countries" (textbook, p. 550)

  Agricultural abundance What: sheep raising (20% of the world's wool) beef wheat Where: just west of the Core area Large area Sugar cane (A climate) Mineral Wealth Diverse see figure 11-5 includes oil and natural gas inland Bass Strait Indian Ocean Coal Iron ore most sold to Japan, and now China

  • Manufacturing Limited
    • Small, but affluent, domestic market
  • Pacific Rim: Regional Complementarity?
    • Would appear likely with Australia's\'s agricultural and mineral products and the manufactured products of Japan, China,a and Asian Tigers
    • BUT Trade barriers. both in Australia and in the Pacific Rim countries restrict mutually beneficial trade opportunities
    • ALSO: Australia's small markets get little interest from the East and Southeast Asian producers

   

  Question: On the map below, locate Australia's core area(s) and use the maps that follow to explain WHY?   How does Australia compare economically with neighboring realms (Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Pacific Realm)? See textbook and table G-1. Be sure to discuss some of the most used measures of economic development.   Briefly discuss similarities in the economics and economic development of Australia and New Zealand. Also discuss "import-substitution industries and "peripheral development".   The textbook authors state: "Australia is one of the most fortunate countries on Earth" (p. 543). WHY?

   

• Cultural Geography: Australia's Future

   

  • Population (2005): 20.2 million.
  • Annual population growth rate: 1.1%.
  • Ethnic groups:
    • European 92%,
    • Asian 6%,
    • Aboriginal 2%.
  • Religions (2001):
    • Anglican 21%,
    • Roman Catholic 27%,
    • other Christian 20%,
    • other non-Christian 5%,
    • no religion 16%
    • and not stated 12%.
  • Languages: English.

   

  • Aboriginal issues
    • Population dates from 50,00-60,000 years ago
    • approximately 400,000 (2% of population)
    • 1980s campaign against mining and exploration of traditional lands
    • Aboriginal Land Issue
      • 1992: Aboriginal people can claim title to traditional lands
      • 1993: Native Title Bill Aborigines can petition for tittle to land that was taken from them
    • 1996: Legal review of pastoral leases implied that the Aboriginal people may have the legal ownership of large areas of the outback (see figure 11-6)
    • Current land Issues
    • Indigenous rights and wrongs (p. 553)
    • Aboriginal Claims
      • 

     

    • Question: Discuss the current political and economic issues involving the Australian Aborigines. What are "eugenic" immigration policies and what do they have to do with the "Asianization" of Australia?

  • Immigration Issues
    • Eugenic (race specific) immigration policies prior to the 1970s
    • currently Asian immigrants outnumber European immigrants each year
    • currently Asian immigrant outnumber the natural increase each year
    • An important political issue: fear of "Asianization"
    • Essentially an urban issue
  • Environmental Degradation
    • important and growing political issue
  • Other Political Issues: Status and Role
    • become a "republic" or maintain part of the British Commonwealth?
    • Relations with neighbors to the north
      • East Timor and Indonesia: offshore oil and natural gas rights
      • Papua New Guinea

     

• New Zealand
  • Physical Geography
    • Two major islands (North Island and South Island) and many smaller
    • Mountainous environments
    • Population of 4.2 million, of which 85% are European
    • Maori heritage (Polynesian roots), but a minority today of less than 400,000
    • Economic activities

   

  • New Zealand's relative location on the boundary between the Pacific and Australian Plates

     

    

   

  • RESULT: Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

   

  • 

    

   

  • Climate Patterns
    • 

       

Where do people live and why? - Human Spatial Organization lowlands: northern North Island and western and southern South Island near farmland and pasture land   Cultural Geography Population Overview Population of 4.2 million, of which 85% are European Maori heritage (Polynesian roots), but a minority today of less than 400,000 Maori minority of about 10% Arithmetic density: 39.8/sq. mi. Physiologic density: 27.3/sq. mi.   The Maori Factor and New Zealand's Future Maori are the original inhabitants of Polynesian origin reached New Zealand during the 10th century (900s AD) mostly on North Island 550,000 or 15 % of population Treaty of Waitangi 1840 between the British colonial government and the Maori granted British sovereignty guaranteed Maori rights over their tribal lands Recent problems: Maori demanding that the treaty be enforced want more land be given back to the Maori

 

Question: Discuss the current political and economic issues involving the Maori people of New Zealand.

• Economic Geography
  • See table G-1. p. 41
  • Per capita income : $21,120
  • 78% urbanized
  • Peripheral development: Coastal with mountainous interiors especially on South Island
  • Land use patterns:

    

   

• Commonalities: How are Australia & New Zealand SIMILAR?
  • British heritage
  • Pastoral economies
  • Small internal markets
  • Challenges of distance to world markets and remote location
  • High % urbanization
  • Peripheral development
  • Concerns with indigenous peoples
  • Excellent quality of life for most