Postcards from the edge

Abstract

Spanning two major ecosystems, the GBR and its catchments, this paper explores fragments of culture-postcards-as they circulate between river and sea. It examines some of the more pragmatic assessments of cultural values surrounding 'fresh' water and contrasts those values against the more ideological positions that are espoused for the GBR. Highlighting the irony that-although they are undeniably connected-fresh and salt water are posited as somehow opposite, this presentation examines some of the ideological ways that salt and fresh ecologies and heritages are viewed as phenomenologically distant and circularly defined against each other in the GBR province.