John Tracey interviewed by Gregg Borschmann in the People's forest oral history project [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 1441770
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Tracey, J. G. (John Geoffrey), 1930-, interviewee
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research and personal copies; written permission required for public use.
- Description:
-
- 1994
- 4 digital audio tapes (ca. 270 min.)
- Series:
- People's forest oral history project.
- Summary:
-
Tracey, ecologist and former CSIRO scientist, with years of experience on tropical rainforests, speaks of how his interest had turned to over-run lands where the forests once grew; how his work as a scientist for the Queensland's CSIRO Dept. together with Dr. Len Webb, a pioneering ecologist had provided the foundation for the scientific defence for the successful heritage listing of Queensland's wet tropical rainforests in 1988; how they used their scientific insight & authority to write about land degradation & how they had argued the case as early as the mid-1960's for a greatly expanded national park estate; how in the 1960s he planted a rainforest in a gully at Brisbane's CSIRO Long Pocket laboratories; how after relocating to the CSIRO Forest Research Station at Atherton (Nth. Qld) he had worked with the Regional Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service in Cairns, to identify rainforest habitat suitable for new national parks.
Tracey speaks of how he conducted vegetation surveys to see what could be saved on the largely cleared coastal lowlands and the Atherton Tableland; being seconded to the Federal Dept. of the Environment in the mid 1980s, where he was relied upon heavily to help draw boundaries for heritage nominations and to contribute to the scientific defence of the heritage listings; his work with rainforest rehabilitation was viewed as one means of solving the problems of degradation in cleared lands located in different parts of the north Queensland environment, depending on climate and soils; teams of unemployed timber workers being put to work in four local shires for several years repairing the landscape by planting trees and rebuilding the ecosystem; the short-sightedness of bureaucracy in not recognising as a higher priority the need to re-establish the rainforests natural ecosystems and maintain forest rehabilitation programs such as the one he was ran, rather than view it as a drain on government funds.
- Biography/History:
-
Tracey, an ecologist grew up in Cairns (Qld); held a job for a short period as a clerk with the Queensland Lands Dept. checking lease conditions of soldier settlement blocks, judging the Departmental policy of clearing blocks as being unsustainable to the environment; in 1949 he started as a Technical Assistant at CSIRO, Brisbane headquarters working for Dr Len Webb on the Phytochemical survey; in 1959 Tracey and Webb became the principal staff at the CSIRO's newly established Rainforest Ecology; in the early 1980s Webb retired and the Rainforest Ecology Section was closed; Tracey moved to a position with CSIRO Forest Research Station at Atherton (Nth Qld); was seconded to the Federal Dept. of the Environment in the mid 1980s, where he was relied upon heavily to help draw boundaries for heritage nominations and to contribute to the scientific defence of the heritage listings.
- Notes:
-
- Preservation and user cassette copies made.
- Recorded on May 9-12, 1994 in Yungaburra, Qld.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia;
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Corrected transcript (typescript, 97 leaves)
- Subject:
- Occupation:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Borschmann, Gregg (Gregg John), 1955-, interviewer
- Related Records:
-
This belongs to the People's forest oral history project.
This collection contains 93 records. - Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2064 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1994
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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