Fieldwork diary: The far North
By Valeria Mendez
In July 2026, I wrapped up my final fieldwork on the North Coast of Western Australia, marking the end of one year of data collection on people's attitudes and perceptions of protected area accessibility. I have now officially been everywhere. From the white beaches of Esperance to the red earth of Broome, I've witnessed how people across Western Australia relate to their national parks. I spoke about vibrant coral reefs with visitors at Ningaloo, watched fishers setting their gear in Albany, listened to FIFOs (Fly-In Fly-Out workers) on their lunch breaks in Port Hedland, chatted with surfers at Leeuwin-Naturalist National Park, and shared tea with “grey-nomads” in the caravan parks of Onslow and Shark Bay.
I'll admit I was both excited and nervous about heading North. The remoteness of Broome, Port Hedland, Karratha and Onslow presented real challenges such as limited survey participants, sparse sampling locations, and minimal transportation options. My cheerful companion on this trip, Arthur Blackwood, and I had to improvise most of our logistics as we went. But we made it work, and the data collection was ultimately successful.
More importantly, we learned so much about this region and witnessed firsthand how communities relate to their environment.
The north coast encapsulates the fundamental tension in Western Australia's approach to nature governance. This state has built its economy on natural resource extraction, creating genuine prosperity and shaping modern history and culture. Yet at the same time, Western Australia is home to some of the most remote and ecologically intact ecosystems in the world, landscapes of extraordinary beauty, scientific value and aboriginal heritage.
Travelling through the Kimberley and Pilbara, not only I got to feel this tension but also to witness how this articulates for the people connected to these places. Standing at the roadside, you can see pristine natural landscapes on one side, while the other side is shaded by industrial establishments sprawling with their engineered infrastructure, congested truck traffic, angry chimneys. This dichotomy is not only a tangible part of the experience of being up North, but it also expressed in how people think about nature conservation.
The challenge we face, in Western Australia as globally, is not simply finding a balance between economic development and nature conservation. It is recognising that in most political and economic decisions, that balance is already tilted. Public goods like nature rarely have a seat at the table. They do not generate quarterly returns, they do not have lobbyists, and their loss is often invisible until it is irreversible. In the North, I watched this play out in real time. Landscapes of extraordinary ecological and cultural value sit quietly alongside industries that move fast and speak loudly. The window for protecting what remains is narrower than most people realise.
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