The theme for this year’s competition was ‘scales’.  

Youth Section Awards:

Both Jordyn and Hamish are Katherine residents.

A Special Mention for Humour was awarded to Naomi Hunter for 'Weighing up a good time' (11) - Katherine person.

Member for Katherine Award:

 Those who view the exhibition in the next two weeks will vote for the People's Choice in the Open and Youth Sections.

Since the first Green Snaps in 2009, we have had themes that started with ‘NT Environment‘ and ended with the focus for that year.  In order, they have been Sky, Rock, Water, Grass, Fire, Wings, Texture, Weeds and Ferals last year and Scales this year. 

These themes have given Territorians the opportunity to record a marvellous mixture of different aspects of the NT environment. 

Looking back now, there is a major factor that has only rarely appeared in Green Snaps’ photos so far.  This factor is something that is very closely connected to our environment and that can have both good or bad impacts on it.

The 2018 Green Snaps Theme is: People in the NT Environment. 

The tenth anniversary of Green Snaps seems like a good time to celebrate all the people who live in the NT environment. 

I hope that people of all backgrounds will be recorded in the part of the NT environment they live or work or play in. 

Think of it; from the Centre to the Top End, from arid areas to islands, dry river beds to Nitmiluk Gorge, remote bush to George Brown Botanical Garden in Darwin – these different parts of our environment are beautiful and all have been impacted, in many ways by people. 

There are many who work for a living in our environment – pastoralists, agriculturalists, horticulturalists, rangers, military personnel, hunters, fishers, remote area police and health workers, artists, Bush Fire Brigade, Royal Flying Doctor Service, tour guides, miners, those in the construction industry, public servants, staff of Aboriginal community controlled organisations, those who do the lonely jobs like checking bores and fences and those crazy people who harvest crocodile eggs. 

Then there are all the ways we play in our environment: fishing – both salt and fresh water - must be close to the top of the list, bushwalking, ballooning, hunting, bird watching, nature photography, amateur explorers, fossicking, swimming (carefully, in the Top End), scuba diving and one of my favourites, star gazing. 

It would be great to think that Green Snaps photographers could capture the images of a good cross section of Territorians in the NT environment, at home, at work or at play, as part of a record for the future. 

Time goes by quickly and our environment and our way of life is changing quickly too. 

I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t acknowledge some of the negative impacts of people on the NT environment.

Erosion is a side-effect of many ways of making a living out bush – farming, fencing, clearing land and mining, for example. 

On the larger scale, climate change from the activities of people en masse is a world wide concern, even if not yet admitted by all. 

There are some who think we are not yet affected here, but I know, for example, that the people at Numbulwar have been concerned for years about the rising of the sea, the loss of their beach and the decreasing amount of sea grasses for the dugong there.

Other ongoing concerns are connected to accidental spills or leaching of acids, metals and salts from the waste rock dumps and tailing dams of various mines. 

These are never intentional but serve to show that we do not have fool proof safeguards in place. 

Another area of concern is where we have used an environmental resource over a long period of time without being aware of the impact. 

An example is sand mining on the Howards Sand Plains about 30 km east of Darwin. 

This started out small but kept increasing to supply the construction industry with sand for concrete.  The practice went on for years before it was noticed that it was threatening the local habitat including some quite rare carnivorous plants. 

The ongoing debate about Coal Seam Gas and hydraulic fracturing in the gas and oil industry is another area in which we need to keep ourselves informed. 

Personally I subscribe to the Precautionary Principle approach to risk management:

When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. 

That could mean don’t start until there is definite and high quality evidence that the activity will cause no harm to people or the environment.  Or, if an activity has already commenced, and there are concerns about its impact, we should not wait until there is conclusive evidence of harm before adopting appropriate mitigation measures.

The Precautionary Principle does not advocate a "no risk" policy but it does require a greater weight to be given to environmental and public health protection in the all too common situation where there is insufficient scientific information available upon which to base decisions.

I don’t want to leave here tonight with only thoughts of the negative impact of people on the NT environment. 

There is much good done on the other side of the balance. 

Look at the work of Parks and Wildlife and Landcare and Indigenous Ranger groups – they spend their working lives looking after land and sea, plants and animals. 

There are many volunteers who also do this in their spare time – Katherine Wildlife Rescue and the Bush Firies are a couple. 

We shouldn’t forget the work of the researchers who often work with these groups collating data and keeping an eye on the big picture of what is going on.

The NT of Australia occupies a space of nearly 1,350 squares kilometres and we have the smallest population of any state or territory in Australia, with less than 250,000 people. 

That works out to a rough average of 185 people per square kilometre - so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a Territorian to photograph in the NT environment! 

So the theme of ‘People in the NT Environment’ provides plenty of scope to record yourself, your family, your work mates as they live and work in the NT environment today.

So get snapping – no need to wait for next year, start now!