On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 09:14:25AM +1000,
wrote:
> You will find that people in small country towns are much more likely
> to know what birds are visiting their gardens. Farmers will know what
> birds they have on their properties. Oh, yes, some won't but
> proportionally the degree of knowledge is infinitely greater than
> their urban cousins. As people move from rural areas to cities this
> knowledge is lost as their children grow up not knowing the "bush" and
> what it contains.
As inner city dweller I feel some compulsion to defend by brethren.
My children's relationship with nature is surely different to that of my
father and grandfather. As a child Dad cycled on a dirt track through
remnant rainforest every morning to bring the cows in for milking on
their small north coast dairy farm. His father as a young man hauled
saw logs with a bullock team and hunted Koalas for the fur trade.
But my 6 year old daughter has snorkelled on a coral reef, camped in a
wilderness area, netted pipefish from eelgrass beds in Port Stephens,
caught White-lipped Tree Frogs at Julatten, been pecked by a Woodhen on
Lord Howe, raised various moths and butterflies from caterpillars, seen
in the wild Budgies, Bustards, Saltwater Crocodiles, Humpback Whales,
Bottlenose Dolphins, Echidnas, Pademelons, lyrebirds, ...
No doubt our holidays include more focus on nature than average,
but most of her friends travel widely, and knowing I'm interested her
friends are often telling me about some animal or other they've seen on
their weekend away or holiday.
Another significant part of their relationship with nature is contact with
captive animals - e.g. the nocturnal house at the zoo, Sydney Aquarium
etc and of course endless nature documentaries on TV. Very different
to what Dad experienced growing up but not without advantages.
Also politically, support for conservation issues is far stronger
among the voters in my inner city electorate than in any rural electorate.
Andrew Taylor
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