Thesis (M. App. Sc.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

The management of wildlife tourism has been dominated by ideologies informed by western colonialism and its values of nature. These ideologies, made transparent through communicative and interpretative discourses, influence the way management policies and practices are devised and enacted. The inherent scientific and utilitarian views are supported by a doctrine of separation. This is apparent in the dualism posed, and enacted, between nature and culture that sees humans as being the sole carriers of culture that separates them from the uncultured and uncivilised world of nature into which all other animals, and certainly untamed wildlife, belong. It justifies the use of non-humans for human purposes and continues to allow us to treat non-human animals and other forms of nature in often abominable ways. This thesis investigates two situations in which wildlife tourism occurs in Australia. Fraser Island and Penguin Island are two wildlife tourism destinations on opposite sides of the continent with very different wildlife but some very similar issues. From these two contexts data was collected through interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and from literary and documentary sources. Understanding the empirical data collected from these case studies is facilitated through a social constructionist view of discourse analysis that allows an unpacking of the messages and a stance from which to challenge the dominant ideologies that frame management and interaction. In the thesis I demonstrate that anthropology, in its incarnation as environmental anthropology and as a team player in a necessarily interdisciplinary approach to understanding and resolving environmental issues, has much to offer. This engagement has the potential to enhance not only the sustainable future of naturebased activities like wildlife tourism but also the relevance of anthropology in the postcolonial contemporary world. The need for a holistic framework encompassing all the stakeholders in any wildlife tourism venture is proposed. This approach to wildlife tourism is best serviced by examining perspectives, values and concerns of all members of the wildlife tourism community at any given destination. It is only through this type of holistic and situated focus that we can hope to effectively understand, and then manage, in the best interests of all parties. More specifically, and finally, I argue for a rethinking of the way wildlife tourism interactions are managed in some settings. The ideology of separation, enacted both conceptually and physically to create maintain boundaries, is demonstrated through the two case studies and the ways in which interactions between humans and wildlife are currently managed. An alternative is posed, that by reconstructing management in settings where wildlife tourists may be more accepting of their own responsibility towards nature, a model can be developed that allows people and wildlife to co-exist without ‘killing’ the natural instincts of either.

Oceanic islands have been used as model systems for studies of evolution and speciation as the range of island sizes coupled with their known geological chronosequence make them ideal systems for the study of spatial and temporal variations in species diversity and distributions. These processes also occur on continental islands and mainland habitats but features of oceanic islands, notably their clearly delimited boundaries, natural isolation and simple geological composition make them more amenable to study. The perched dune lakes of Fraser Island, Australia share many of the properties of oceanic islands. The naturally isolated formation of the perched lakes, clearly delimited boundaries of the freshwater habitat and phase difference compared to the surrounding, terrestrial environment have significant implications for the biota these lakes support. Inhabitants of the perched dune lakes consist of the aquatic and semi-aquatic descendents of colonisers that were able to traverse a land barrier and survive in the oligotrophic, acidic waters over subsequent generations. Barriers to ongoing gene flow among lake populations, are however likely to be different for species with different life history characteristics. I therefore sought to assess the effects of three different life history characteristics on post-colonisation interpopulation gene flow. A representative species was selected to represent one of each of the following life history characteristics: * Aquatic species confined to lake for entire life cycle - freshwater shrimp Caridina indistincta. * Semi-aquatic species capable of terrestrial dispersal - freshwater turtle Emydura krefftii. * Semi-aquatic species capable of aerial dispersal - odonate Orthetrum Boumiera. 137-250 individuals were sampled per species across six lakes separated by 1-6km. Regions of the mitochondrial genome were targeted and molecular screening methods developed and employed to assess the relative levels of post-colonisation gene flow among lake populations. Parsimony analysis of the 25 unique haplotypes identified in the species with no apparent inter-lake dispersal mechanism, the freshwater shrimp Caridina indistincta, demonstrated that there was no sharing of derived haplotypes among lake populations. Star shaped genealogies were identified in four lake populations indicative of a population expansion and mismatch distribution analysis confirmed a recent population expansion estimated to have occurred no more than 200,000 years ago. This demonstrates that each of the perched dune lakes was colonised by C.indistincta soon after their inception but that no ongoing gene flow among lake populations has occurred. The population genetic structure of the species assessed which is capable of terrestrial dispersal suggests that although this species of freshwater turtle, Emydura krefftii, is capable of overland dispersal, gene flow among lake populations is limited. Even at the small spatial scale examined in this study, E.krefftii populations displayed a pattern of isolation by distance (r=0.854, p&lt0.03). Nested clade analysis also suggested a pattern of restricted gene flow with some long distance dispersal in recent times with long distance dispersal and a possible range expansion occurring historically. The species examined in this study that displayed the most extensive gene flow among lake populations was the dragonfly Orthetrum boumiera. No relationship was found between genetic and geographic distance (r= -0.0852, p&gt0.05) and nested clade analysis could not identify a geographical association among haplotypes, indicative of panmixia. While larval life stages of this species are fully aquatic, the winged adult stages of this species appear to be connecting seemingly isolated lake populations, at least at the spatial scale examined here. The results of this study have demonstrated that these perched dune lakes provide 'island like' models for recent biogeographic processes. The pattern of colonisation and subsequent diversification identified in these populations takes the form of insitu 'genetic radiations' with those populations that are isolated forming monophyletic clades endemic to a single lake. The genetic diversity and endemism identified in this study has occurred over much smaller temporal (&lt500,000 years) and spatial (&lt6.5km) scales than in studies of oceanic island fauna. However, the mode of formation of the perched dune lakes and the implications that their natural isolation and abiotic genesis have for the evolution of colonisers of these unique habitats has resulted in them being analogous to true oceanic islands.