Jenny POPE, Co-operative Research Centre: Transformation in Mining Economies, Australia
Fiona MCKENZIE , University of Western Australia, Australia
Exmouth Gulf, 1250 km north of Perth, Western Australia, has distinct environmental, cultural and social values that are both unique and significant at the global scale. It is increasingly a popular tourist destination, recognised globally for its unique terrestrial and marine characteristics and biological diversity. However, the town of Exmouth, where most visitors stay and from which fishing and leisure boats launch, is under competing pressures from visitors and a variety of well established local industries, including naval and astral surveillance facilities that depend on dark skies. The preservation of air quality conditions, optimal for radio-frequency communications, and space and solar observation activities due to the low atmospheric pollution, reliably dark skies, and distance from industrial areas including heavy pollution emitters, is likely to take primacy over other commercial development activities. While the decision taken by government to limit commercial development in this remote, but popular location will curb visitor numbers, there is general acceptance that managing growth pressures will preserve important Aboriginal cultural and heritage sites, protect highly sensitive, interconnected ecological environments and maintain unique dark skies for a variety of uses. It is expected that the precautionary approach demonstrates compatibility with the protection of key values in Exmouth Gulf and its surrounds for long term sustainable outcomes.
Mots clés : Dark skies|sensitive ecologies |Aboriginal heritage|tourism
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