Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives On completion of this subject students should have an historical perspective on current environmental issues and concerns; have a general grasp of resource use in different kinds of economic systems in the past and of changing attitudes to the natural world; have developed their analytical written and oral skills by researching and writing a long essay and delivering two short tutorial papers.
Synopsis The subject offers an historical overview of environmental change resulting from human agency. It looks at the ways in which different economic systems have used the physical environment as a resource base, and at the consequences of various patterns of use. A brief study of the economic-environmental relationships found in hunter-gatherer, agrarian and industrial economies is followed by a more extended examination of environmental change and attempts at environmental management in Australia during the last century and a half. The subject ends by looking at some of the controversies over land use, pollution and the quality of life which have emerged in Victoria since the 1960s.
Assessment Written (3000-word essay): 40% + Class papers: 20% + Examination (2 hours): 40%