PARKS FOR THE NATION 

The national park concept is of such great social and environmental significance that I believe the exploration of its origins and contributions deserves more attention.

Essentially, the concept began and has continued as a counter to the industrial/urban revolution which moved people into factories and cities and reached out far and wide to grab natural resources. By making it possible for the threats of change to be resisted in special areas, the parks enabled people to maintain their links with rural life and nature.

The two kinds of parks referred to by Vincent Serventy (NPJ Feb 2001) – the English/European type and the American/Australasian type – both have the combined aim of preserving the environment and providing for public enjoyment. The difference is in the type of environment protected – a mixture of rural and natural in the case of the former, and natural conditions in the latter. Both were responses to basically similar general circumstances.

There seems to be little doubt (although I am still researching the matter) that it was William Wordsworth who was the first to develop the national park concept in some detail. In his Guide to the Lakes (fourth edition 1835) he described the threats to the Lake District and his solutions, and referred to the area as, "a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy."

Unfortunately, it was another 126 years before the Lake District National Park was established as part of a national system of parks in England and Wales (in 1951, the second after the Peak District NP).

The Americans and Australians acted more promptly. In 1832 George Catlin had put the case for land beyond the Missouri to be left alone as a large primitive area, speaking of it as: "A nation’s Park". Yosemite (reserved 1864), Yellowstone (1872), The National Park (Royal) (1879) and a few others were all set aside for public recreation in the 1860-1880 period. Royal’s distinction is that its reservation was the first time that the term "national park" was used in the official statutory authorisation.

The Australian States and Territories have a host of different arrangements for achieving the rural landscape conservation aims of the English national parks, and hopefully these will soon gain national recognition as a group (perhaps as cultural landscapes on the proposed thematically arranged national heritage list).

However, this would not justify removing the prefix "national" from the English parks. As in all the countries mentioned, and as Wordsworth and Catlin put it, the main purpose has been to indicate that they belong to the people of the whole nation.

CAR-FREE BUSHWALKS 

About four years ago I decided to drastically reduce my car use in order to reduce my contribution to air pollution and other deleterious effects on the environment. And because I mainly used my car to get to the national parks, I decided it was incongruous to create pollution in order to get to a pollution-free environment!

Being a Sydneysider, I found I had so many options to stop using the car, eg walk, bicycle, bus, train, ferry, taxi. Needless to say, I haven’t used a car since in order to have a great bushwalk! So even though Sydney is seemingly car-dependent, I have found this somewhat illusory, especially if you are not in a hurry.

You can get to a great area for a bushwalk car-free with a lot less impact on the environment, and sometimes the journey is quite an experience!

NPA is keen to promote the idea of public transport access to national parks. 
If you know of any examples of good public transport access, please let us know.

DESERT SCENERY 

As a member of NPA I have naturally visited several national parks and walked through many miles of New South Wales countryside; also a little bit of NZ! So this January I was pleased to have an opportunity of travelling further afield – to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

I must say I loved the place, from the moment the plane landed at what seemed a tiny airport with the announcement the temperature was 82, to the last look as the very long train slowly wended its way out of the station.

In between those two exciting moments, quite a lot of desert and local scenery were experienced, including "Desert Park" which is about three years old. The long, winding, desert paths form delightful bushwalks, and the trees are identified with the labels telling their stories of what animals inhabit them and the uses by Aboriginal people. Several caves and arches afford shelter to the walkers where they view exhibitions, and at the open-air auditorium a keeper showed large local birds in flight. The twilight zone was a little creepy at first, but trying to see where the night-time animals were hiding was fun. So much more was available, but the bus had arrived and we left very hot and tired, having spent almost the whole day at this unique and well-designed park.

The scrub trees and waterless rivers were indeed a change of scene!