MURDOCH RESEARCH REPOSITORY
This is the author’s final version of the work, as accepted for publication
following peer review but without the publisher’s layout or pagination.
The definitive version is available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10806-009-9158-5
Albrecht, G., McMahon, C.R., Bowman, D.M.J.S. and Bradshaw,
C.J.A. (2009) Convergence of culture, ecology, and ethics:
Management of feral swamp buffalo in Northern Australia.
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics,
22 (4). pp. 361-378.
http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/7876/
Copyright: © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.
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Convergence of Culture, Ecology, and
Ethics:
Management
of Feral Swamp Buffalo in
Northern
Australia
Glenn Albrecht
Æ
Clive R. McMahon
Æ
David M. J. S. Bowman
Æ
Corey J. A.
Bradshaw
Abstract
This paper examines the identity of Asian swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis
)
from different value orientations. Buffalo were introduced into Northern (Top End)
Australia in the early nineteenth century. A team of transdisciplinary researchers, including
an ethicist, has been engaged in
field
research on feral buffalo in Arnhem Land over the past
three years. Using historical documents, literature review, field observations, interviews
with key informants, and interaction with the Indigenous land owners, an understanding of
the diverse views on the scientific, cultural, and economic significance of buffalo was
obtained. While the diverse stakeholders in buffalo exploitation and management have
historically delivered divergent value orientations on the nature of the human–buffalo
relationship, we argue that over time there is the possibility of values and ethical conver-
gence. Such convergence is possible via transdisciplinary and transcultural agreement on
the value stances that constitute the construction of the being or identity of buffalo in the
face of the overwhelming need to manage population density and gross numbers.
Keywords Buffalo
·
Ethics
·
Culture
·
Management
·
Australia
G. Albrecht
School of Sustainability, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150,
Australia
e-mail: G.Albrecht@Murdoch.edu.au
C. R. McMahon
School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0909,
Australia
D. M. J. S. Bowman
School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 05, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
C. J. A. Bradshaw
Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability, School of Earth and Environmental
Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
C. J. A. Bradshaw
South Australian Research and Development Institute, P.O. Box 120, Henley Beach, South Australia
5022, Australia
Introduction
The introduction of Asian swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) into Australia was undertaken
initially for strictly utilitarian purposes. As a meat supply and as beasts of burden, they
were exploited on the basis of their use value. As settlements failed, buffalo no longer
possessed such a value and were released into the wild. Once in the wild, they reproduced
rapidly and became so numerous that they were perceived by colonists as pests. Aboriginal
people, when confronted with these alien megafauna, had to adjust rapidly to their pres-
ence. Europeans too had to re-evaluate their relationship to the buffalo and new avenues of
exploitation were opened from the nineteenth century onwards.
Indigenous hunting of buffalo for meat would have acted as a minor impediment to the
population explosion; however, a tropical monsoon ecosystem was suitable for their vir-
tually unchallenged and rapid colonization across Northern Australia. Europeans began to
exploit the buffalo for their hides from about 1886 onwards. The hide industry continued
until the late 1950s when an industry to supply meat for human and pet needs was
established. In addition, a trophy-hunting industry developed in the late 1950s and some
tourism in the Northern Territory has been based on the presence of iconic animals such as
buffalo and crocodiles in the national parks.
In spite of the demands of the meat industry, Indigenous hunting and trophy hunting, the
Top End buffalo population continued to expand such that, by the late 1980s, numbers
were in the hundreds of thousands. The feral buffalo was seen as a disease risk to the
Northern Territory cattle industry and the multi-million dollar Brucellosis and Tubercu-
losis Eradication Campaign (BTEC) was introduced in 1980 with a capture and ‘‘shoot-to-
waste’’ policy in operation from 1988 to 1992 to eliminate those animals (cattle and
buffalo) that could not be included in a disease-testing regime. Since 2002 there has been
an industry based on the capture of buffalo and their live export into Indonesia where they
are placed in feedlots before slaughter. There is also a small-scale crossbred
Tenderbuff
®
meat production industry based on farmed stock in the Northern Territory.
Since the cessation of the BTEC campaign, buffalo numbers have again increased to
approximately 150,000 animals (Garnett, Kakadu National Park Feral Animal Management
Symposium. Jabiru Northern Territory, 3–4 December 2008). Apart from traditional
Aboriginal owners who want some buffalo available as a ‘‘meat bank,’’ and the live export
meat industry, others have expressed concerns about the negative impact of feral buffalo.
Such concerns have focused on the ecological integrity of ecosystems within national parks
(Bradshaw et al. 2007), renewed disease threats (McMahon and Bradshaw 2008) and human
safety (Robinson et al. 2005). Despite all these concerns, trophy hunters and tourists still
perceive buffalo as iconic megafauna and want to experience wild buffalo in the Top End.
In what follows, distilled from these different conceptions of the roles buffalo play in
history, culture, ecology, and economy, distinct buffalo value orientations can be deter-
mined. The different positions with respect to buffalo and their interaction with humans
shall be treated chronologically, starting with historical and Indigenous evaluations and
concluding with contemporary thinking about ethical ways of treating buffalo within
research, wildlife management, and natural resource exploitation contexts.
Understanding the perceptions people have towards buffalo is informative and impor-
tant because they provide insights into how best to manage buffalo and reconcile the
utilitarian and other values placed upon them by humans. Here we explore this relationship
and how it has changed between humans and buffalo since their introduction in the early
1800s.
Historical
Context
Asian swamp buffalo were introduced in the early nineteenth century from what were once
known as the Dutch East Indies to an ancient landscape and culture in the Top End of
Australia. Idriess (1946) claims that it was the Commandant of Fort Dundas on Melville
Island, Maurice Barlow, who imported the first three buffalo in 1825 into what are now
called the Tiwi Islands. In 1826 another sixteen animals were imported from Timor to Fort
Dundas on Melville Island primarily to be used as a meat supply for the garrison. In 1827
they were also introduced to Raffles Bay on the Cobourg Peninsula (Tulloch 1969, 1970).
Raffles Bay and Fort Dundas were abandoned in 1829. In 1838, eighteen buffalo were
obtained from Kissa Island, which is to the north of Timor, and were introduced to
mainland Australia at Victoria Settlement on Port Essington on the Cobourg Peninsula. It
too was abandoned in 1849, leaving all the buffalo behind (Earle 1863, in Tulloch 1970).
There were also early introductions of buffalo into the Darwin and Pine Creek areas and
they then spread out in the coastal zone of the Alligator Rivers’ region and into Arnhem
Land and finally Kakadu National Park.
By 1844, only 16 years after the introduction of the buffalo, the explorer Ludwig
Leichhardt reported numerous sightings of wild buffalo and their tracks in the vicinity
of the East Alligator River. Leichhardt recounts an Aboriginal man (named ‘‘Bilge’’) who
‘‘… frequently mentioned ‘Devil devil,’ in referring to the (expedition’s) bullock, and I
think he alluded to the wild buffaloes, the tracks of which we soon afterwards saw.’’
(Leichhardt 1844–1845). Leichhardt also reported in his journal:
They (the Aboriginal people) called the buffalo ‘‘Anaborro’’ and stated that the
country before us was full of them. These buffaloes are the offspring of the stock
which had either strayed from the settlement at Raffles Bay, or had been left behind
when that establishment was broken up. They were originally introduced from the
Malay islands (Leichhardt 1844–1845).
Earle (1846) confirmed Leichhardt’s account of the spread of the feral buffalo:
The buffaloes that had been left behind when the settlement at Raffles Bay was
abandoned have increased to a surprising degree, and wander about the country near
the neck of the peninsula in herds of forty and fifty. Stragglers have often been
encountered in the immediate neighbourhood of the settlement––large unwieldy
bulls that have been driven out of the herd by others stronger than themselves
(Earle 1846, in Tulloch 1970).
It is clear that, from the outset of their introduction to Australia, buffalo were seen as
something to be exploited for their meat and strength. No consideration was given by the
early colonists to the possible implications of the introduction of a megafauna herbivore
into a complex cultural and ecological setting.
