Course overview
This course takes students into regional Australia to examine the impact of federal and state laws on our diverse environments, towns and peoples in remote isolated regions. We will visit Port Augusta to learn about the interaction of Aboriginal people with the courts and the legal system, Woomera Rocket Range to learn about the history of weapons testing in SA, the opal mining town of Andamooka, the mining town at Roxby Downs including the Olympic Dam Uranium Mine, and the Arid Recovery conservation lands. Then we head down to Iga Warta Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Gammon Ranges and spend a couple of days immersed in Aboriginal culture and modern day issues of mining, land rights, and justice access issues in remote townships in Australia. Finally a day in the Flinders Ranges to relax and reflect. We visit diverse small towns on the way. We look at conservation, biodiversity, mining law and practice, the impact of mining on Aboriginal people, the unique issues that people in remote communities face in terms of justice access, the way pastoral lands which make up the bulk of this space are regulated, and challenges for the future. The course is general in nature you don't have to have studied any related courses to participate, but you will learn about how all these legal social and justice issues intersect in remote Australia. The course will assist students to develop perspectives and understanding of biodiversity and planning mining and land management law as well as focus on the intersection of Indigenous interests with all of these issues, and enrich Indigenous cultural awareness. It will focus on developing legal analysis skills within a practical and holistic context and it will also focus on legal research.
Course learning outcomes
- Identify the operation of laws both past and present which have had an impact and continue to impact on indigenous people in South Australia, including native title and the impact of mining and pastoralism
- Explain the key requirements of biodiversity law in Australia, the importance of policy and the practical difficulties associated with the implementation of such laws
- Explain the importance of land use planning laws and the relationship between such laws and the processes associated with major projects and environmental impact assessment and the complexities of the range of laws impacting on rural areas
- Evaluate, synthesise and critically analyse information from a wide variety of sources and experiences
- Independently undertake self-directed legal research and analysis at a high level, including through the use of online technologies
- Demonstrate good inter-personal and communication skills in both written and oral communication, working independently and as a member of a team