Now blame the British for Australia’s bushfires: Colonisation ‘pushed out native people whose ‘cultural burning removed flammable vegetation’, researchers claim
- Nottingham University researchers say British settlers are to blame for bushfires
- Native Australians used ‘cultural burning’ which removed flammable vegetation
- British settlers pushed the native people out in 1788 which allowed fires to become more violent and uncontrollable in recent years
British colonisation of Australia more than 200 years ago may be to blame for recent bushfires there, as well as climate change, UK scientists say.
Researchers at Nottingham University say that after 1788 British settlers pushed out native people whose ‘cultural burning’ removed flammable vegetation with controlled fires.
Study leader Dr Michela Mariani said: ‘The increase in shrubs provides a connection from the ground to the forest canopy which allows fire to spread with ease, and this has led to the unprecedented fires we have seen in recent years.’
One 2019 fire alone burnt an area almost twice the size of England.
One 2019 fire alone burnt an area almost twice the size of England in the former British colony
Researchers extracted fossilised grains of pollen from 52 wetland and lake bed sites and found shrub coverage rose by up to 48 per cent after colonisation.
The academics have suggested that Australian fire management agencies should now be working with indigenous people to bring back their historic practices.
Dr Mariani added: ‘We know from historical reports that much of the landscape in early colonial southeast Australia was similar to an open savanna with grassy areas and large gaps between trees.
‘This was described by an early English explorer as ‘a gentleman’s park’, very much reminding him of England.’
Indigenous people historically practiced a method of fire management called ‘cultural burning’ which involved managing flammable vegetation with small, controlled fires. According to the researchers, they were forced to stop this when the British settled in Australia in 1788, resulting in dense, flammable shrubbery returning.
The study found there was a 12 per cent increase in shrub coverage after British settlement – with some areas seeing as much as 48 per cent increase.
Dr Mariani said: ‘Climate change is undoubtedly having an impact on the intensity and scale of these bushfires, but forest management plays a big role too.
‘Our research offers supporting evidence for implementing fire management practices more aligned to Indigenous cultural burning, in order to better manage forests and in turn to help manage fire behaviour in the future.’
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