Anna Clark

Anna Clark is a highly regarded historian based at the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney. The Professor’s extensive research and writing focus on various aspects of Australian history, which includes the recreational and commercial fishery in Australia. Clark’s passion for fishing is evident in her book “The Catch: The Story of Fishing in Australia,” first published in 2018, and about to be re-released by Penguin.

This book chronicles the earliest known Indigenous fishing practices and the encounters of European settlers with the country’s abundant waters. Clark explores the evolution of fishing techniques, the introduction of trout and fly-fishing, and the ongoing challenges in balancing the needs of commercial and recreational fishers. Through captivating storytelling and illustrations, she captures the enduring allure and cultural significance of fishing in the Australian context.

In this episode, Anna walks us through a number of these major events on the historical timeline of fishing and how it has shaped modern Australia.   

Anna challenges the mainstream misconception that Captain Cook was the first ‘fisherman’ to enter Australia’s waters, highlighting a number of other indigenous cultures who ventured to the Great Southern Land as a source of seafood, from Australia’s First Nations fishers to Makassan trepang fishers.     

She also reveals that the environmental movement is not new in Australia – far from it with a Royal Commission investigating the impact of over-fishing in the late 1800s. 

And she also shoots down the theory that Australia had a seemingly limitless supply of fish when the European colonists first arrived. Yes, they netted huge hauls on occasions but she’s adamant that the fishing ecosystem has always been in a precarious state due to Australia’s unique climate. 

The episode then follows the early colony on its next few months in Australia as they encounter not only new fish and habitats, but the different techniques and methods the First Nations peoples would use to catch their fish.  

Bringing her personal passion for throwing in a line, Anna celebrates the role of women in fishing, and shows how this is one of the biggest changes we have seen in the evolution of fishing.   

Anna details the rapid decline of our waterways since those first few days of European settlement. Habitat degradation, over-harvesting and lack of education punctuate Anna’s accounts of the fishing in this country, but it is not too late if we learn from the mistakes of the past to ensure history doesn’t repeat. 

  This OzCast uncovers: 

• The types of catches that were seen in the late 1700’s.
• The first time we noticed a declining fishery in Australia.
• The traditional roles of men and women when it came to fishing.
• The dynamics between the Indigenous and European settlers.
• The types of habitats that have suffered most due to Australia’s expansion and urbanisation.