Aboriginal fires in monsoonal Australia from historical accounts (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal of …, 2003
The extent to which use of fire by Aboriginal peoples shaped the landscapes and biota of Australia is a contentious issue. Equally contentious is the proposition that attempts should be made to support and reestablish customary practice. Some dismiss Aboriginal practice as little more than culturally endorsed pyromania, and consequences for land, vegetation and wildlife management as incidental and unintended outcomes. We argue that this view of Aboriginal practice is at odds with available evidence regarding motivations for use of fire, and detailed and sophisticated descriptions of the consequences of poor fire management for the maintenance of important resources. We suggest that misunderstanding arises, at least in part, from the contrasting views that (i) objectives of Aboriginal land managers and the values they seek to extract and maintain in savanna landscapes are or should be similar to those of non-Indigenous land managers; or (ii) the notion that their goals are inherently and entirely incompatible with those of non-indigenous interests. We illustrate our argument with examples that include assessments of ecological consequences of 'prescribed' Aboriginal practice, statements from Aboriginal people regarding their objectives in applying those prescriptions, and the level of active organisation required for their effective implementation. Finally, we propose mechanisms for wider application of Aboriginal prescriptions in tropical landscapes to meet a range of land management objectives.
Fire in the Australian Landscape
Australia is a fire prone landscape which has been subjected to wild and planned fire for millennia. The European settlement of Australia changed fire regimes in the landscape by imposing European landscape values to very different ecosystems. Prescribed burning can provide key aspects of the natural disturbance regime under human management (Boer et al 2009). In the last century, land managers have learnt the importance of prescribed burning to protect people, property, and to regenerate fire-prone ecosystems. This review will examine the historic fire regime in Australia, especially Mediterranean-climate regions, and the precedent for fire from Aboriginal management. It will broadly include contrasting management values of Aborigines, early Europeans, conservationists and foresters. Prescribed burning must be used effectively and efficiently to protect things we value; a summary of the literature which discusses these issues will be presented. Finally, limitations and suggested improvements for prescribed burning practices will be discussed and evaluated.
Pre-European Fire Regimes in Australian Ecosystems
Geography Compass, 2008
We use multiple lines of evidence, including palaeo-environmental, ecological, historical, anthropological and archaeological, to investigate pre-European fire regimes in Australia, with particular focus on the extent to which the use of fire by Aboriginal peoples since their colonisation of the continent at least 45,000 years ago has impacted on the Australian biota. The relative roles of people and climate (including past climate change) as agents driving fire regime are assessed for the major climate-vegetation regions of the continent. Both historical accounts and evidence from current land-use practices in some areas support the argument that Aboriginal peoples used fire as a land management tool. Evidence for pre-European fire regimes suggests that while large areas of savanna woodlands in northern Australia, and dry forests and woodlands in temperate southern Australia, were subjected to increased fire under Aboriginal land management; others were not. Areas where fire regime was controlled primarily by 'natural' climate-fuel relationships probably included those that were difficult to burn because they were too wet (e.g. rainforests), fuel levels were usually too low (e.g. desert and semi-arid rangelands), or resource availability was low and did not support other than transient human occupation (e.g. some shrublands). Scientific studies suggest that many fire-sensitive woody species would decline under more frequent burning, so that the use of a small patch size, frequent fire regime-such as may have existed over large parts of Australia in the pre-European (Aboriginal occupation) period-may have harmful biodiversity conservation outcomes if instituted without careful consideration of individual ecosystem and species requirements.
Aboriginal fire-management practices in colonial Victoria
Aboriginal History, 2022
Through a close reading of particular episodes and a focus on the minutiae of action and context, this article adds to the literature on the customary use of fire by Aboriginal people in southeastern Australia by highlighting the historically significant role Aboriginal people played in toiling alongside colonists and fighting fires during the colonial period. By scrutinising the written colonial records it is possible to reveal some of the measures that Aboriginal people used to help the colonists avoid cataclysmic fire. Lacking many direct Indigenous sources due to the devastation caused by rapid colonisation, we do this for the most part through a detailed examination of sheep and cattle graziers’ journals, newspapers and government records. The article commences with an overview of colonists’ observations of and attitudes regarding Aboriginal practices in relation to fire with specific reference to the region now referred to as Victoria and New South Wales. It concludes with an examination of the few recorded instances in which Aboriginal people tutored colonists in fighting fires, educating them how to use fire as a management tool, and the significant value they placed in Aboriginal knowledge relating to fire.
Traditional and ecological fires and effects of bushfire laws in north Australian savannas
International Journal of Wildland Fire, 2007
Landscape fires are common and frequent across the north Australian savannas, and are arguably an essential component of regional ecosystem dynamics. Seasonal biases in fire regimes and the high frequency of late dry season fires in a large proportion of the region have been presented as an impediment to appropriate land management. Legislation regulating the lighting of fires applies to the whole of the savannas. The legislation seeks to control the lighting of fires, provides for permit systems to operate in each jurisdiction, and is supported by policies and guidance manuals. The present paper argues that the legislation fails to address prescribed burning, the biophysical and social realities of contemporary regimes, and management needs. The policies and legislation are in need of some fundamental changes, including recognition of the concept of prescribed burning, mechanisms to promote regional fire management strategies and plans, and recognition of indigenous traditional practices.
International Journal of Wildland Fire, 2003
Considerable research has been undertaken over the past two decades to apply remote sensing to the study of fire regimes across the savannas of northern Australia. This work has focused on two spatial scales of imagery resolution: coarse-resolution NOAA-AVHRR imagery for savanna-wide assessments both of the daily distribution of fires ('hot spots'), and cumulative mapping of burnt areas ('fire-scars') over the annual cycle; and fine-resolution Landsat imagery for undertaking detailed assessments of regional fire regimes. Importantly, substantial effort has been given to the validation of fire mapping products at both scales of resolution. At the savanna-wide scale, fire mapping activities have established that: (1) contrary to recent perception, from a national perspective the great majority of burning in any one year typically occurs in the tropical savannas; (2) the distribution of burning across the savannas is very uneven, occurring mostly in sparsely settled, higher rainfall, northern coastal and subcoastal regions (north-west Kimberley, Top End of the Northern Territory, around the Gulf of Carpentaria) across a variety of major land uses (pastoral, conservation, indigenous); whereas (3) limited burning is undertaken in regions with productive soils supporting more intensive pastoral management, particularly in Queensland; and (4) on a seasonal basis, most burning occurs in the latter half of the dry season, typically as uncontrolled wildfire. Decadal fine-resolution fire histories have also been assembled from multi-scene Landsat imagery for a number of fire-prone large properties (e.g. Kakadu and Nitmiluk National Parks) and local regions (e.g. Sturt Plateau and Victoria River District, Northern Territory). These studies have facilitated more refined description of various fire regime parameters (fire extent, seasonality, frequency, interval, patchiness) and, as dealt with elsewhere in this special issue, associated ecological assessments. This paper focuses firstly on the patterning of contemporary fire regimes across the savanna landscapes of northern Australia, and then addresses the implications of these data for our understanding of changes in fire regime since Aboriginal occupancy, and implications of contemporary patterns on biodiversity and emerging greenhouse issues.
Journal of Biogeography, 2002
Aim To compare ®re behaviour and ®re management practice at a site managed continuously by traditional Aboriginal owners with other sites in tropical northern Australia, including the nearby Kakadu National Park, and relate those observations to indicators of landscape condition. Location Dukaladjarranj, a clan estate in north-central Arnhem Land, in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia. The site abuts a vast sandstone plateau that is an internationally recognized centre of plant and animal biodiversity. Methods Ecological assessments included: (1) mapping of the resource base of the estate from both traditional and ecological perspectives; (2) aerial survey of the extent of burning, distribution of the ®re-sensitive native pine Callitris intratropica, rock habitats, and a range of macropod and other fauna resources; (3) fauna inventory; (4) detailed ecological assessment of the status of ®re-sensitive vegetation; and (5) empirical assessment of the intensities of experimental ®res. Ethnographic information concerning traditional ®re management practice was documented in interviews with senior custodians. Results Experimental ®res lit during the study were of low intensity compared with late dry season ®res reported elsewhere, despite weather conditions favouring rapid combustion. In contrast to other parts of the savanna, fuel loads comprised mostly leaf litter and little grass. We found that (i) a large proportion of the estate had been burned during the year of the study (ii) burned sites attracted important animal food resources such as large macropods (iii) important plant foods remained abundant (iv) well represented in the landscape were ®re sensitive vegetation types (e.g. Callitris intratropica Baker & Smith woodlands) and slow growing sandstone`heath' typically dominated by myrtaceaous and proteaceous shrubs (v) diversity of vertebrate fauna was high, including rare or range-restricted species (vi) exotic plants were all but absent. Traditional practice includes regular, smaller ®res, lit throughout the year, and cooperation with neighbouring clans in planning and implementing burning regimes. Main conclusions We attribute the ecological integrity of the site to continued human occupation and maintenance of traditional ®re management practice, which suppresses
Evidence of altered fire regimes in the Western Desert region of Australia
2006
The relatively recent exodus of Aboriginal people from parts of the Western Desert region of Australia has coincided with an alarming decline in native mammals and a contraction of some fire sensitive plant communities. Proposed causes of these changes, in what is an otherwise pristine environment, include an altered fire regime resulting from the departure of traditional Aboriginal burning, predation by introduced carnivores and competition with feral herbivores. Under traditional law and custom, Aboriginal people inherit, exercise and bequeath customary responsibilities to manage their traditional country. Knowledge of the fire regime during an estimated 30 000 years of Aboriginal occupation of these lands and the involvement of Aboriginal communities in contemporar y land management are important issues to be addressed if conservation lands are to be managed appropriately. As part of this process, Pintupi Aboriginal men were inter viewed and obser ved in the field to obtain information about their traditional use of fire and to obtain their views on how country could be managed with fire. Of particular interest were the reasons for burning country and the temporal and spatial variation in the size and distribution of burnt patches. This valuable but largely qualitative oral information was supplemented with a quantitative study of fire scars in a chronological sequence of early black and white aerial photographs and more recent satellite imagery. The study focussed on a remote region of the Western Desert, an area from which Aboriginal people living a traditional lifestyle had most recently departed. The earliest aerial photographs (1953) were taken as part of a militar y rocket development project over an area that was occupied by Aboriginal people living in a traditional manner at the time of the photography. The photography revealed a landscape mosaic of small burnt patches of vegetation at different stages of post-fire succession. This pattern was consistent with information provided by Pintupi men; that fire was used purposefully, frequently and regularly across the landscape for many reasons but mainly to acquire food. Analysis of satellite imagery since the early 1970s, and since the cessation of traditional burning practices, revealed that the fine-grained fire mosaic has been obliterated in recent times and replaced by a simpler mosaic consisting of either vast tracts of long unburnt and senescing vegetation or vast tracts of vegetation burnt by lightning-caused wildfires.
Rainforests, Agriculture and Aboriginal Fire-Regimes in Wet Tropical Queensland, Australia
Australian Geographical Studies, 2000
This paper challenges the hypothesis that Aboriginal fire-regimes in the coastal wet tropics of north Queensland have been responsible for significant rainforest decline in the past, and rejects the narrative that recent rainforest expansion is the result of the disappearance of Aboriginal people and their fire practices from the area. Mapping of vegetation in the Mossman district in c. 1890 from surveyors’ plans, and in 1945 and 1991 from aerial photography demonstrates that the expansion of rainforest since 1945 represents a recovery following extensive rainforest destruction associated with sugar cane cultivation in the first 70 years of European occupation. Kuku-Yalanji Aboriginal people continued to occupy their traditional lands, and participated in the sugar industry, throughout this period. They adapted their fire management practices to the changed economic and social circumstances. Management of fire by the Kuku-Yalanji people prior to European occupation ensured the presence of extensive rainforest cover, whilst also providing access to fire-prone forests and their cultural resources.