Islands on the Edge: Exploring Islandness and Development in Four Australian Case Studies

Residential and tourism developments affect places and people across the world ‚Äö- their sheer number, their scale and intensity, and their capacity to displace existing traditions, values and practices are especially problematic. In this work, I examine the particular impacts of such developments on islands, places where geography has created or otherwise influenced certain political, economic, environmental and social conditions. In broad terms, islands may include oceanic landforms and landforms on continental shelves. Some islands are extremely isolated from continental influences; others are subject to strong continental influences. The focus of this work is on islands near metropolitan centres which are readily accessible and thus subject to various development pressures1 that may threaten ecological, social and economic well-being. In an era where the basic principles of sustainable development are now given, and the intrinsic value of place is acknowledged, for those who live on, govern or care for islands, such pressures are often understood (however partially) in terms of sustainability and in relation to their effects on what is known as sense of place.