SO much of Australia is needlessly and brutally incinerated every summer. News reports focus on homes and lives and the brave fire crews. But, what about the native fauna and flora? It wasn’t always this way, and it shouldn't be so. As West Australian David Ward explains...
“BEFORE Europeans arrived, Noongar people managed our south-west dry forests and woodlands very well without fire trucks, water bombers, helicopters, television journalists, concerned politicians, the Conservation Council, hundreds of firefighters, or the Salvation Army to give them all breakfast. They did this by burning frequently, in most places as often as it would carry a mild, creeping fire.
Even where there were no Noongars, most of the bush would have burnt frequently by unimpeded lightning fires, trickling on for months. Such large lightning fires continued up to the 1920s, before there were any Bushfire Brigades. They could travel a hundred kilometres before autumn rain doused them. Most of the landscape would have burnt as often as it could carry a fire. Fire suppression and exclusion are unnatural, new fangled notions.
Frequent fire made the bush safe, and promoted grass for yonka (kangaroo), and a host of bush tucker plants. It produced byoo, the red fruit of the djiridji, or zamia. Frequent light smoke germinated seeds, and provoked flowering of kangaroo paws and balga grass trees.
Kangaroo paws and byoo are increasingly rare, under a muddle headed advocacy which claims that we should exclude fire from large bush areas for long periods. This phoney idea makes the bush very dangerous, as we have recently seen. Fire cannot be excluded indefinitely, and the longer it has been absent, the fiercer, and more damaging it will be.
Ecomythologists claim that, left alone, the litter will all rot down to enrich the soil. The truth, as any Perth Hills resident will testify, is that there is some decay in winter, but the summer blizzard of dead leaves, bark, and capsules is far greater, so litter builds up. After twenty years or so, there is a mulching effect, and build up ceases. However, by then most wildflowers are smothered and straggly, and most of the nutrient is locked up in dead matter. Frequent, mild fire releases the nutrients, sweetens the soil, and prunes the plants. Gardeners will appreciate that.
In the 1840s, the early West Australian botanist James Drummond wrote, “When I was a sojourner in England, I never remember to have seen Australian plants in a good state after the second or third years and that, I think, is in a great degree owing to their not being cut down close to the ground when they begin to get ragged; how for the pruning knife and a mixture of wood ashes in the soil would answer as a substitute to the triennial or quaternal burnings they undergo in their native land, I am unable to say, some of our plants never flower in perfection but the season after the ground is burned over…”
There are many historical references to frequent, widespread burning by south-west Noongars. In 1837 Lt. Henry Bunbury mentioned “…the periodical extensive bush fires which, by destroying every two to three years the dead leaves, plants, sticks, fallen timber etc. prevent most effectually the accumulation of any decayed vegetable deposit… being the last month of summer… the Natives have burnt with fire much of the country… ”
In 1975 Mr. Frank Thompson was interviewed about his memories of fire near the south coast, before the First World War. He said “You see, the Natives …they used to burn the country every three or four years… when it was burnt the grass grew and it was nice and fresh and the possums had something to live on and the kangaroos had something to live on and the wallabies and the tamars and boodie rat …It didn’t burn very fast because it was only grass and a few leaves here and there and it would burn ahead and… sometimes there'd be a little isolated patch of other stuff that wasn’t good enough to burn the time before, but as it burnt along perhaps there might be some wallabies or tamers. Those animals didn’t run away from fire, they’d run up to it and you’d see them hopping along the edge of the fire until they saw a place where the fire wasn’t burning very fierce...”
It is hard to imagine wallabies hopping along the flame front of the recent Karagullen fire, looking for a way through. Long fire exclusion is causing fires of unprecedented ferocity, and many avoidable wildlife deaths. The longer fire has been excluded, the longer the bush takes to recover when it is eventually, and inevitably, burnt.
Over the last decade, research in south-western Australia by the Department of Conservation & Land Management (CALM) and Curtin University into fire marks on hundreds of balga grasstrees has confirmed traditional two to four year fire in dry eucalypt areas. Ridges with pure jarrah burnt every three to four years, slopes with some marri every two to three years, and clay valleys with wandoo every two years. There would have been thousands of small refuges, in rocks or near creeks, which would have burnt less often, perhaps never. Recent fierce fires destroy these, and the fire sensitive plants they protect. The ecomythology of long fire exclusion over large areas, is destroying the very plants and animals it claims to care for. Equally guilty are those ‘talking heads’ in politics, and the news media, who unthinkingly promote ecomythology.
The oldest balga records go back to 1750, and show traditional frequent, mild fire until measles epidemics killed many Noongars in 1860, and 1883. In some places two to four year burning continued until the First World War. In others, it continued up to the 1930s, and even the 1950s. Some old Perth Hills families remember when any fire could be put out with wet bags or green branches. This is only possible when fires are in litter no more than four years old, with flames less than a metre high.
Far from destroying diversity, this frequent burning enhanced it, by creating a rich mosaic of different aged patches. Animals had both food and shelter, and wildflowers flourished. Today’s muddle headed blanket fire exclusion leads to an eventual single, blanket, fierce fire, which simplifies the ecosystem down to a single age.
By insisting, through our political representatives, that CALM burn the bush more often, and more patchily, we will make it safer, see more wildflowers, avoid most animal deaths, and avoid dense, choking smoke from fierce wildfires. We will have to live with occasional light smoke from prescribed burns. If most litter were less than five years old, smoke would be minimal, and arson would be futile. All it could cause would be a mild, creeping fire, which would benefit the bush.
Think of the savings and benefits by working with nature, instead of fighting it. No more squadrons of aircraft, anxious home owners, and choking smoke for a week or more. The police could get on with catching burglars. More young Noongar people should be employed by CALM to help manage the bush with fire, restoring their culture and healing their self esteem.”[1]
Since David Ward shared that article with us in April 2005, historian Bill Gammage has published his book ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth’ in which he explains in more detail how the South West of WA was managed intensively and systematically through fire-stick farming and that a similar philosophy once extended to the management of the entire Australian continent.
According to Mr Gammage the aboriginal religious philosophy of totems basically meant that all things were responsible for others of its totem and their habitat. So, emu people must care for emus and emu habitat, and emus must care for them. The entire continent was managed under the same aboriginal law for similar biodiversity purposes; hence the idea of Australia being essentially managed as one big estate.
Indeed for indigenous Australians wilderness offered no cause for fond nostalgia, it represented a tract of land without custodians.
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1. Noongars Knew Best by David Ward was first published at https://climatelab.com.au/2005/06/noongars-knew-best/
The image is of a Zamia palm with ripe fruit.
Thanks for the sane words, Debbie. I sometimes suspect that sanity is a rare and endangered commodity in our society - er - sorry - social and political environment.
If Jaycee is really interested in fire and Kangaroo Grass, there is some excellent work by Dr Ian Lunt in Australia, and by several South African scientists (they call it Red Oat Grass or Rooigras). Search by Google scholar.
Jaycee,
I have to agree with David.
You are introducing information outside of the specific topic of this post and then pretending that if people ask questions or offer information. . .that means they don't 'care' enough.
It's also known as introducing a 'straw man' argument.
The points made by David re the management of bushfire risk are practical and valid for much of Australia and do indeed include concerns about native flora and fauna.
I have not noticed him advocating 'scorched earth policy' as a farming technique anywhere at this thread. . .which BTW does NOT happen anywhere, anymore in Australia anyway.
Your comments about water and SA's reliance on the Murray River are entirely irrelevant in relation to this thread and David's area of interest and expertise.
However, there are plenty of us here. . .including the owner of this blog. . .who do have an interest and expertise in that area.
Jaycee,
We seem to be the only ones left on this thread, so I will call it a day. Neither sharks, nor climate, nor water problems are in my field of expertise.
I suspect that your early storm-trooper farmers found that the only way they could maintain the grazing was by doing what the Aborigines did for the kangaroos, that is, burn country as often as it would carry a fire. For Kangaroo Grass this is every 2-3 years. It crackles very nicely, so was fun as well as a source of food. Perhaps there are some old grasstrees in your patch which would tell an interesting tale. All you need is an angle grinder, and a good mask. Go for it - you might win the Eureka Prize.
David Ward....1837 !!...indeed it was an early observation, considering the colony was inaugurated in c. 1836.
As to how widespread that "kangaroo grass" is...I wouldn't know...not being a botanist, I would have to Google it...perhaps "Neville" ?...
But I will tell you one little snippet of "lost info"...those "farmers" that were encouraged to the colony to clear and "farm" the land...were certainly no farmers in the true sense of the word...they were more like environmental storm-troopers...in that they used a "scorched-earth" policy which is 'bearing fruit' tragically, in these times.
I am in the midst of looking at the water problems in our area...and I find that it is not only here that there is a problem...if one was to look closely at the draw upon the Murray River, you would see that almost the entire regional farming and town areas of Sth' Aust' is heavily reliant on the Murray. Now with the reinstatment of water allocations upstream...??
Jaycee,
You are right, I don't know much about South Australia. I did note once that James Backhouse, an early Quaker visitor from England, made some comments on your state. In a book, 'A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies' (1843), he wrote:
p.511 "We walked a few miles... on a plain...Some of the Kangaroo-grass was up to our elbows, and resembled two years' seed meadows, in England, in thickness; in many places, three tons of hay per acre, might be mown off it." December 1837, near Adelaide, South Australia.
p.519 "Some of the hills, like the plains below, are covered with red loam, on which there is fine Kangaroo-grass, that is green, notwithstanding the thermometer has, several times lately, risen to 107 degrees in the shade." December 1837, Mt Lofty Range, South Australia.
p.522 "The surface of Kangaroo Island is woody, with grass, in some places." December 1837, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra) grows around the Indian Ocean, from Africa to Australia. Some people believe that it was introduced to Australia, long ago, by fire using humans. It needs burning every few years to maintain it, otherwise it smothers under its own thatch. Up to WW2 there were large areas of it in WA, but it has almost disappeared now. Pity, it's a beautiful grass.
Is it still widespread in SA? There must be elderly people in SA, including Aboriginal Elders, who have memories, perhaps from parents or grandparents, of its former prevalence, and how it was maintained.
Some delinquent lit it...evidently...I heard today that a young fellow had been caught...but how much is true..I don't know...it did appear to have been deliberately lit, as there were three locations near eachother!....although one CFS. official said he thought it was a "spot-fire"...but I doubt it.
Jaycee,
How did that scrub fire you attended start?
Ps. I am not aware of YOUR "political orientation", Dr. Ward, but myself, being a communist by inclination would welcome you and any here into a comraderie of union!
Hello Dr. Ward...I think we may be at either end of the rope as we seem to be at geographically different locations...I am in the SA. mallee. As you are probably aware, there has been so much clearing done in the mallee, the scope for "slow-burn" management is severely limited. Those here who seem to be forever seeking out the oracle or worshipping the idol want to lump all forestry in together.
The sth-west West Aust' still has vast (well, it did the last time I was there!) areas of native forest that may just be suitable for "slow-burn" tactics. Here in the mallee, there is discussion about re-seeding road verges with native grasses to replace wild oats and phalaris(sp.?) grasses, as the natives carry much less fuel-load per hectare.
Myself, having just last week attended a scrub-fire nearby, I have taken photos of the flora damage and will follow through on regrowth in three-monthly stages...I expect the mallee to regrow, despite severe damage to the boles...however, the total destruction of the understory, means the micro-fauna and flora has been devastated....and there not being any great amount of remnant forest about (it is an old cropping area) I think they will take some time and may be of a more exotic composition.
Climate-change has hit this area hard, being so close to the Goyder Line, the shift in average rainfall from a seasonal pattern to a more erratic pattern over the last several decades has made much marginal farming land now redundant....there is "nothing in the bank" as they say..and the chances of that improving are just that : chance.