In the time before Cook, the control and appropriate management of the environment was always an issue for Indigenous peoples. Places were connected to creation, education followed, and survival ensured. Redford (1993 p11) noted that "Indigenous peoples posses extensive and intensive knowledge of the natural world."

Control and appropriate management of the environment is still a major issue amongst Indigenous peoples. With the words 'terra nullius', came cultural genocide (Fox 1978). Thorpe et al. (2003) connected cultural genocide to; the loss of traditional language; land; traditional food and medicines; spirituality and practice; education and the sites associated with that education. To draw a short bow, so to speak, terra nullius was the catalyst for the omission of Indigenous peoples from all things; especially the process of consultation.

Consultation is a process whereby discussion should involve all parties in an attempt to construct partnerships that are conducive to efficient and effective approaches to the creation of cultural awareness (McConnell 1993). In the case of Indigenous Australians, this has not been the case, most of the time. For too long, Indigenous peoples have been omitted from policy writing and the development of management regimes for their own heritage. For too long their connection to their environments have been impacted upon without their input and without their knowledge.