Skip to content
Environment, General News

Historian sheds light on Australian fishing’s ancient origins and forgotten tales? in new podcast

OzFish Unlimited 2 mins read
Anna Clark with Jonathon Bleakley.

University of Technology Sydney Professor Anna Clark delves into our national fishing heritage, exploring its ancient origins and forgotten tales in the latest episode of OzCast, the official podcast of conservation organisation OzFish Unlimited.

Professor Clark goes on a deep dive in the podcast into the history of fishing in Australia leading into the release of her latest book,The Catch: Australia’s Love Affair with Fishing, which will be available on August 29.  

The renowned historian’s extensive research has uncovered hidden gems about Australia’s earliest known Indigenous fishing practices prior to European settlement to the accounts of British explorers in the late 1700s and through the generations to today.   

When Captain James Cook famously found safe passage into what is now known as Botany Bay in 1770, he and his crew  looked to the waters below as a source of food for their survival.

But they were not Australia’s first foreign fishermen by a long way.  

“He’s just been on a boat for months and months so there’s issues of food and water, and nutrition for his crew. Fishing is more than a sport if you’re out there, it’s actually survival for his crew,” Professor Clark told host Jonathon Bleakley on the OzCast podcast.   

Professor Clark described how Muslim fishermen from Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia had been coming to Australia “for 400 or 500 years before Europeans arrived in Australia and they came every year and fished for sea cucumber”.    

“In terms of outsiders coming to Australia, which was a very isolated continent, certainly since it was cut off by sea level rise thousands of years ago. This simply wasn’t an unknown place, there had been interactions, contact and there had been fishing here for a long time.”  

She also reveals that the environmental movement is not new in Australia - far from it with a Royal Commission investigating the impact of over-fishing in the late 1800s.  

Clark said the introduction of invasive species such as carp and trout since European settlement has done untold damage to Australia’s waterways.  

 

Anna Clark is a highly regarded historian based at the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney. "The Catch: Australia’s love affair with Fishing, which will be released on August 29. 

  

Episode 4 of OzCast is brought to you by the Australian Government’s CRC Program and BCF – Boating, Camping, Fishing. It is also supported by the NSW Recreational Fishing Trusts. To listen to the full episode, head over to www.ozfish.org.au/ozcast 

Logos for the Australian Government, One Basin CRC, BCF, Recreational Fishing Trusts.

 

If you would like to know more about the project or get involved become a member of OzFish online at www.ozfish.org.au or contact 1800 431 308. 

 


About us:

About OzFish

 

OzFish Unlimited is a national environmental conservation charity established to improve the health of our rivers, lakes and estuaries. It is a member-based organisation dedicated to make our fishing grounds healthy, vibrant and more productive. Their active work includes; habitat restoration such as resnagging, riverbank planting, clean-ups, fishways, shellfish reefs and educational and community capacity building programs.


Contact details:

Media Contacts

Paul Suttor, OzFish Unlimited

0421 491 229 | paulsuttor@ozfish.org.au

Media

More from this category

  • Art, Environment
  • 30/11/2023
  • 07:01
Australian National Maritime Museum

Exhibition showcases 60 years of underwater pioneering by living national treasure

Valerie Taylor has recorded the marine environment and shared her knowledge with the public for over 60 years, staunchly advocating for better protection of…

  • Contains:
  • Environment, Transport Automotive
  • 30/11/2023
  • 06:50
Electric Vehicle Council

New calculator gives Australian drivers real information on EV v ICE emissions

A new online calculator will launch today, giving Australian drivers a fair and accurate comparison of how much carbon they will prevent from entering the atmosphere as a result of selecting an EV over a petrol or hybrid vehicle.The Electric Vehicle Council’s new lifecycle emissions calculator compares the amount of emissions that EVs, petrol and hybrid cars produce from cradle to grave, based on factors including production, fuel lifecycle, and recycling.It displays the vehicles’ CO2 emissions per kilometre and total lifetime emissions using electricity from the grid which changes for each state and territory.Comparison of EVs and petrol vehicles: Total…

  • Community, General News
  • 30/11/2023
  • 06:01
eSafety Commissioner

Keeping women and their children safe from tech-based abuse

Digital disruptor tools, anti-harassment software, perpetrator intervention schemes and a major national awareness campaign are among projects funded under the Australian Government’s $10 million Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program. Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland announced today seven grants totalling $3 million had been awarded by eSafety to universities and non-government organisations in the first round of grants under the program. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the projects demonstrated innovative approaches to support safe, gender-equal online spaces for women and their children. “These initiatives leverage the unique expertise of our successful applicants to address tech-based abuse from a…

Media Outreach made fast, easy, simple.

Feature your press release on Medianet's News Hub every time your distribute with Medianet. Pay per release or save with a subscription.