Ideology, environment and legislation: South Australian attitudes to vegetation

The paper addresses one possible manifestation of the interface between geographical concerns and the law. A brief discussion about aspects of law, images, attitudes and ideology is presented. A broad historical survey of legislation from the South Australian Parliament pertaining to vegetation illustrates that elements of the law, statutes in this case, can be usefully applied to studying geographical problems such as environmental management. It is argued that geographers should more regularly make use of legal materials, concepts and issues in both research and teaching.