To remedy so alarming an evil it will be proper to oblige all persons holding farms adjoining waste and uncultivated land to keep plowed up so much … as shall be adjudged sufficient to stop the progress of the fire. From then, the government sought to limit Aboriginal and settler use of fire as an agricultural tool.ĭuke of Portland (Home Secretary) to Governor Hunter, 1798: As Aboriginal people were driven off their land, their regime of low-intensity fire management went with them, and bushfires became more prevalent. The first bushfires in the colony were reported in 1797. European settlers, who were afraid of bushfires, brought their own ways of using fire.Īt first they used fire to clear land but as they put up fences and buildings, raised crops and increased their herds, uncontrolled burning became a threat to life and property. Frequent burning reduced the fuel load of dead leaves, branches and grass, and lessened each fire’s intensity.įrom 1788 those fire practices began to change. Over many millennia, these controlled burns have altered the continent’s environment, favouring the survival and spread of fire-resistant plant species and creating open grassy woodlands. Across country they adapt the heat and intensity of fire to individual environments to burn off grass and bush, to keep trails clear, promote new growth that will attract kangaroos and other prey, and to drive animals towards waiting hunters. Aboriginal people have used fire as a complex land-management tool for tens of thousands of years.
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