Emergence of the Soil Conservation Act 1938 (NSW): the Origins of a Cooperative and Voluntary Regulatory Approach to Landcare on Private Land 1884-1938

Soil conservation is an important environmental and natural resource issue affecting private land in Australia. The focus of the Soil Conservation Act 1938 (NSW) was the urgent remediation of the water-induced sheet and gully erosion of agricultural land on the slopes and tablelands to the west of the highest points of the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales. The origin of the voluntary regulatory approach, which was formalised in soil conservation legislation in the late 1930s and then largely retained by the modern Landcare movement, can be traced to the 1890s. This article examines not only those policy origins but also the more contemporaneous catalysts during the 1930s that led to the enactment of this significant legislation.