Wilderness in a global age, fifty years on

The Wilderness Act 1964 marked a striking shift in the rhetoric of wilderness in the United States. Nature, rather than agriculture, could now civilize post-agricultural, hyper-industrial society. Australia, like the United States, also battled its land and forged a civilization of sorts for its settlers and the British Empire using the blunt tool of agriculture. New understandings of Country have created a rather different nature reserve system in Australia, one that does not depend so much on the idea of wilderness as on caring for Country. The Natural Heritage Trust of Australia Act (1997/no. 6) has created a National Reserve System (NRS) that includes national parks private reserves, and Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs). International groups such as the Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund are also involved as well as local and regional groups. The Wilderness Act is perhaps most important now in that it reminds us of a duty of care for the other-than-human life with whom we share the planet.