Old Guardians, New Guardians: Elite Contests over Land and Water in Queensland
Veronica Strang, University of Auckland
Since the early days of European colonisation, the ‘squattocracy’ has had few challenges to its guardianship of land and water in Australia. Native Title claims have been effectively resisted; the public has been largely excluded from ‘private’ land, and government agencies have been kept at a distance. However, with the economy no longer centred on agriculture, and water being commodified by neo-liberal reforms, the ‘Kings in their Grass Castles’ are being challenged by powerful new elites: wealthy urban professionals able to pay over the odds for ‘lifestyle blocks’, and city financiers keen to invest in newly alienable water ‘assets’. Long-term landowners are also under pressure from professional environmental managers determined to impose their own forms of guardianship. In a rapidly changing political economy, the old guard is on guard, defending its traditional position with a variety of strategies. This paper considers the dynamics of this elite competition for the control of critical resources.
