Quotulatiousness

June 12, 2011

QotD: A scene from an Australian National Park

Filed under: Australia, Bureaucracy, Environment, Quotations — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:53

A few years ago, two National Park rangers were doing a similar service while assorted tourists looked on and took their happy-snaps. The birds, whatever they were, had moved along the road a few yards when a dingo walked out of the long grass, killed one and started to stalk the remainder.

The two Rangers became embroiled in an ideological argument as to which protected specie was to be left alone. The tourists, appalled at the slaughter, then chased the dingo away. The Rangers were instantly reconciled and started issuing citations to the offending tourists for trespassing in a National Park, threatening protected species, obstructing traffic, affray, foul language etc. The tourists were told their cars could be impounded and all, eventually, got court summonses. Fines were levied and they were warned that the offences potentially carried jail time.

One disgruntled victim opined that he should have run over the Rangers and the birds. This was overheard by ‘authority’ and he was hauled into court again.

Visitor numbers at the National Park declined dramatically.

Roger Henry, posting to Railroad_Modeling_Still_Makes_Me_Grumpy@yahoogroups.com, 2011-06-11

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1 Comment

  1. Roger provided a more detailed post which added some useful nuggets of information to the original:

    The incident was some years ago.

    Back then, a benevolent government created many National Parks and then leased them back to the traditional, indigenous, land owners to manage and facilitate usage of the parks by the general public. The idea was to a. Shut up the Greenies and b. To generate some kind of income stream for the traditional owners.

    This, of course, meant a business plan of some kind which the traditional owners couldn’t, or wouldn’t, provide. So, they hit on the idea of sub-leasing the management to assorted management companies or even individuals. An idea not unknown in North America. These management groups often soaked up any income as ‘overheads’ and thus the indigenes still derived little income. As cash flows shrank, or didn’t meet objectives, the management types hit on the idea of enacting a myriad of bye-laws and regulations thus allowing them to levy substantial fines for the most minor of infractions.

    Often, the first the hapless tourist knew of their transgression/s was when they got a summons to attend some distant court or pay up. This was still too tedious for the park management groups and they got approval to issue on-the-spot-fines. i.e. pay up or wait here. (A business plan still common in some southern parts of the US of A).

    As a result of this nonsense, people stayed away in droves until a degree of common sense prevailed and most, not all, of this nonsense was swept away. The memory still lingers and some members of the various indigenous groups, who, presumably, did well out of this extortion, still hanker after the bad old days.

    Comment by Nicholas — June 12, 2011 @ 13:06

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