Hear, hear, Alan!
A while back, I pointed out that the Anglo-Australian view of land
usage is NOT universal and that, in a number of relatively closely related
(and highly democratic) jurisdictions, land owners are not permitted to
exclude all other citizens from use and enjoyment of the land - especially
large landholdings in rural areas or areas of high tourism interest.
The example I cited was of the Swedish "right of common access" - which,
you will note, is almost always fully explained in tourist handbooks.
This legal right does NOT mean people can come onto your land and peer
in your windows or steal your garden plants. However, it does mean
that everyone can responsibly enjoy the countryside. The right does
not extend to private house grounds, parks and fields with growing crops.
Provided no damage is done to plants, you are allowed to pick wild berries
and mushrooms. You are allowed to spend a night on private property and
light a fire - again, so long as no damage is done. In Sweden, it
is a right based on age-old custom and seems to work okay. I for
one think it would work perfectly well in the vast expanses of Australian
grazing leasehold land and would be to the benefit of we birders who have
a legitimate reason for wanting access to the Australian environment.
Andrew Thelander
Allan Morris wrote:
Hi
Birders,I was interested to hear Terry Pacey's comments about the access
to private lands but I think he is off the "pace"! Here on the Central
Coast if there is an interesting bird on private land, I naturally would
ask permission to go on that land, and avoid going on the land if I knew
that the owner was unco-operative. But when travelling in the Western Division
of NSW (which is outside of the agricultural lands) I have a more radical
view. That is because the properties could be 300000-400000 ha in extent,
the owner may actually own or lease 2 or 3 such properties and does not
live on any! Trying to find who the "owner" is well nigh impossible.
While you are travelling you have no idea where the homestead is located,
and in many places the name of the property is not shown anywhere (for
security reasons?) so it is difficult to determine who "owns" the land
and so seek permission to enter.
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