By: John of Brisbane

John of Brisbane — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:01:21 +0000

Erwin,
Back in the 80s I worked as a consultant with the Western Australian Dept Conservation and Land Management on how the Pintupi used fire pre European contact. There were many interesting findings but significantly there are more wild “hot” fires these days because people no longer burn off the bush as they once used to do when living off the land. A cool fire was handy in revealing animal tracks, encouraging the germination of certain bush tuckers and attracting certain game after the green shoots emerge following rain.
The best way to manage fire risk in Australia is to use controlled fire to reduce fuel loads. My recollection is that one of the WA researches went as far as to say Australia is the only continent on the planet that relied on fires to maintain and ecological balance.

Comments on: Bushfires an even bigger heartache when they are started by fools

By: John of Brisbane