The Minderoo Foundation, via its ‘Flourishing Oceans’ initiative, has commissioned research leading to the collation of a visual and oral history archive of recreational fish catches in Perth metropolitan waters. Understanding of long-term change in marine environments is often constrained by the limited temporal range of modern ecological monitoring activities and other conventional scientific datasets, despite strong anecdotal evidence of significant declines in fish populations resulting from human fishing pressure. This contributes to the problem of ‘shifting baseline syndrome’, or the tendency for understanding of what constitutes healthy or pristine ecosystems to slide inexorably towards more degraded states on inter-generational levels. Historical research can address this problem, especially when combined with the methodologies of historical ecology, although existing documentary archives will typically yield only limited information on recreational fishing, despite it being a major driver of change in many marine environments across time.

This project is designed to create a new archive that can be used to establish baselines to inform public and scientific discussion and debate around monitoring programs and conservation strategies for some of Perth’s iconic coastal and inshore environments.  

This oral history project has been commissioned by the Environmental Protection Authority of Western Australia to record, share, and provide insight into the changing operation of state involvement in environmental protection in Western Australia.

The interviews are focused on four key themes: the changing social, political and policy context within which the EPA has operated; the changing nature of environmental issues and concerns; key EPA achievements and outcomes; and major challenges facing the EPA. The interviews are being conducted by Julia Wallis, with academic oversight by Andrea Gaynor.

To date one of six interviews has been completed. When all interviews are complete, the collection of interviews and transcripts will be deposited with the State Records Office of Western Australia, as well as with the EPA. Ethics approval for the project was obtained from the UWA Human Research Ethics Committee on 5th September 2023. The project is due for completion in 2024.