A Ten-Year Study of the Effectiveness of an Educative Programme in Ensuring the Ecological Sustainability of Recreational Activities in the Brisbane Ranges National Park,South-Eastern Australia

Managing the spread of cinnamon fungus, an exotic root-rotting pathogen which kills a wide range of native plants, is an over-riding management concern in the Brisbane Ranges National Park of south-eastern Australia. Parks Victoria has implemented a suite of approaches for informing recreational users about the disease and its ecological impacts. To assess longitudinal changes in the effectiveness of the educative programme, recreational users were surveyed in 1993 and in 2003. 81% were not aware of cinnamon fungus dieback in 1993; the proportion in 2003 was almost unchanged at 83%. Despite the lack of awareness of cinnamon fungus dieback, a large majority (76% in 1993; 74% in 2003) of respondents replied that they had viewed information boards in the park or read visitor guides with information on the disease and its ecological impacts. When recreational users were informed of the impact of infection, there was unanimous support for track closures for quarantine purposes. Our findings indicate that current methods of educating recreational users about cinnamon fungus dieback are not effective. Recommendations are made to improve the penetration of the educational and interpretive information, including the incorporation of affective and cognitive approaches.