I could not agree more. I'd elaborate, particularly about the disappointment of the MARTU, but anyone interested enough to follow your research suggestion will need learn a great deal more than I could address here, and would then need little encouragement to do the right thing.
There are two problems- too many people, and too many ill-prepared and careless irresponsible people- present company excluded :-)
I like to say that it is very easy for anyone these days to learn how to get to these
places, due to to sites such as this one and others, but many of the people who travel to these place do not do the right thing. I too have noticed over the last 35 years a general decline in what I call "the standard of person" one encounters on these tracks. I am aware of how that statement sounds- it sounds horribly elitist, but I am sorry to say that the evidence is there on the ground, and in comments on these
blogs and in the
forum. I of course believe that most of the people who spend time on a site like EO are more likely to be the better, more informed traveler and respect culture and place, as
well as the rights of other travellers. So there must be a great deal of other people traveling because I encounter some of the worst examples - surprisingly on the
Canning Stock Route, not so surprisingly on
Cape York.
It is a great suggestion to do what we can to clean up fuel dumps etc. Assisting with protection of culturally significant sites is a great idea, but not one that is likely to succeed except for those who have earned the trust of the traditional owners. Despite my contacts, the assistance of my sister who is a nationally renowned native title lawyer, my ability to speak a little bit of a few indigenous languages, my contributions in the past to preservation of some significant areas, I too am now locked out of many
places due to the work of a few who were trusted and did the wrong thing. Still we should do everything we can to turn the tide of destruction.