Predator-proof fences are an imposing form of conservation infrastructure. Their material and discursive power has been used by governments and ENGOs to reinforce the spatial fix of conservation protected areas. Yet, predator-proof fencing is also a project concerned with buying time. This work will explore how the material semiotics of fencing enables stories of troubled histories overcome and futures to be salvaged. Through the case of Wilsons Promontory National Park in Australia, I unpack how predator-proof fencing promises to hold back the Anthropocene, its conflicted status as temporary but permanent infrastructure and how fencing rhetoric of redemptive futures helps to avoid engaging with the messy present.

Bio:

Associate Professor Ben Cooke is a human geographer who teaches in the Sustainability and Urban Planning discipline group at RMIT. Ben’s research interests focus on the social and political dimensions of nature conservation, land management and environmental governance. This interest encompasses urban natures, protected area conservation, human-environment relations and cultural landscape management.

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