Source: Ward et al. (2001). Grasstrees reveal contrasting fire regimes in eucalypt forest before and after European settlement of southwestern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management. Vol 150. p 327.

THE DECLINE OF FIRES IN AUSTRALIA

Fires per decade

INDIGENOUS FIRE MANAGEMENT?

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• ABORIGINES MANAGED COUNTRY BY BURNING IT - IN 3 WAYS – FREQUENTLY, REGULARLY & OFTEN

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• A RESEARCHER FROM THE TROPICAL SAVANNAS CRC EXPRESSED IT THIS WAY - “ABORIGINES LIT FIRES ALMOST ANYTIME IT WAS NOT RAINING”

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• IN HIS BOOK “TRIUMPH OF THE NOMADS” GEOFFREY BLAINEY WRITES “WITHOUT THOSE (ABORIGINAL) FIRES THE GRASSY WOODLANDS THAT OCCUPIED MUCH OF THE FERTILE CRESCENT IN SOUTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA WOULD HAVE BEEN SCRUBLAND OR FOREST”

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• ------“A PERIOD OF 50 YEARS WAS SUFFICIENT TO CHANGE THE CHARACTER OF THAT SAVANNAH COUNTRY IF NO FIRES BURNED------. THE WIDESPREAD RINGBARKING THAT WAS CARRIED OUT AT THE TURN OF THE (20^TH) CENTURY OCCURRED IN THE REGROWTH. THE LANDHOLDERS WERE ATTEMPTING TO RE-ESTABLISH THE ORIGINAL GRAZING CAPACITY”!

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• LIKEWISE, THE NATURALIST KARL DOMIN CONCLUDED IN A 1911 REPORT THAT THE FORESTS IN ALL PARTS OF QUEENSLAND WERE NOT A NATURAL ASSOCIATION, BUT A SECONDARY ONE, CHANGED THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF ABORIGINES, MOSTLY BY MEANS OF BUSHFIRES.

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FIRE – SAVIOUR FROM THICKENING’?

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• IN “THE CRY FOR THE DEAD” JUDITH WRIGHT WROTE THAT BY THE LATE 1800’S “INSPECTORS OF STOCK NOTED - THAT THE GREAT GROWTH OF BRIGALOW AND WATTLES WHICH ENCROACHED ON THE PASTURES HAD FOLLOWED THE ABANDONMENT OF THE USE OF FIRE – WHICH, AS THE OLDER SETTLERS KNEW, HAD BEEN ANNUAL IN THE EARLY DAYS OF QUEENSLAND WHEN - THE ABORIGINES STILL CARRIED OUT THEIR DUTIES”!

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• IN HIS 1955 BOOK “GROWTH HABITS OF THE EUCALYPTS” PROF JACOBS OBSERVED THAT “HUNTING FIRES WERE LIT BY THE ABORIGINES AND THE WHITE MAN HAS CONTINUED TO BURN THE WOODLAND TO GET RID OF THE COARSE GRASS AND OBTAIN A GREEN SHOOT MORE FAVOURABLE TO CATTLE. THESE REGULAR FIRES KEEP REGENERATION OF EUCALYPTS IN CHECK. IF FIRES WERE CONTROLLED THE EUCALYPTS WOULD MAKE A MUCH CLOSER FOREST IN THE FAR NORTH OF AUSTRALIA”.

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• BUT THEN IN 1970 GRAEME ALEXANDER, DAN DALY AND MAX BURNS ADVISED THAT “WHERE DROUGHT IS A RECURRING THREAT TO ANIMAL PRODUCTION THE NEEDLESS OR AUTOMATIC BURNING OF ALL MATURE HERBAGE EACH YEAR IS NO LONGER WISE, SINCE EVEN LOW QUALITY HERBAGE CAN BE USED TO MAINTAIN CATTLE, IF SUPPLEMENTED WITH UREA-MOLASSES LICKS”!

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• AND NOW ROD FENSHAM & RUSSELL FAIRFAX HAVE CONCLUDED FROM A 2006 STUDY OF THE DISAPPEARING GRASSY BALDS OF THE BUNYA MOUNTAINS THAT “EVEN WITH BIENNIAL BURNING, UNDER OPTIMAL CONDITIONS, EUCALYPT FOREST WILL REPLACE GRASSY BALDS WHERE THEY ADJOIN”.

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