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Photographic images are
useful tools for environmental historians and have their place alongside the official
documents generated by environmental regulators and managers, and the unofficial
written observations and oral testimonies of everyday citizens attuned to their
natural surroundings. The photographs in the Historical Coastlines archive were
taken for the most part over the past 130 years by residents of the Rockhampton/Capricorn
Coast region for their own pleasure, usually to capture and preserve memories
of pleasant scenes and happy holidays. Most are not forensic in intent, nor were
they conceived and composed with any practical purpose in mind. Nevertheless,
they do allow us to see in a vivid way, how earlier generations regarded, used
and enjoyed the local riverine and coastal environments.
Historical photographs also can provide scientists with useful biophysical baseline
data to trace environmental change over time. This page is designed to show how
the photographs in this collection might be used to help understand how a particular
environment works. They show the main beach at the Central Queensland town of
Yeppoon, first settled in the early 1870s. Here is a photo of Yeppoon taken in
2002 with the main beach at the left. |
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