Fire Has Shaped Australia's Landscape, Flora And History

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Australia probably more than any other country has been shaped by fire. Nineteenth-century visitors in their sailing ships (before the invention of steamships) could tell they were approaching Australia because they could often smell the bushfire smoke wafting out to sea.

Fire has shaped the country's landscape, flora and history. Some Australians have forgotten this legacy and over estimate the skill of humans to somehow tame nature.

Australia is well known internationally for the risk of bush fires. They often occur naturally, where there is plenty of dry wood, leaves and forest to burn. Australian bushfires are particularly Shoes Online severe because eucalyptus tree leaves contain large amounts of oil that burn very quickly. Most bush fires occur between October 1 and March 31 each year.

The areas particularly at risk are in the country's southeast corner west of Adelaide ...
... in South Australia across to the Tasman Sea through Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory containing Canberra. Also at risk, broadly on the same latitudes, is Western Australia's grain belt in the country's southwest corner.

Heavy rains encourage vegetation growth. They are followed by a lack of rain and so the vegetation dries out. Lightning strikes or arsonists then provide the deadly spark. Ironically, nature sometimes needs bushfires because some plants require heat and smoke to release their seeds. Vegetation often recovers quickly after a bushfire.

For example, just over four weeks after the deadly firestorm that swept over King lake, north of Melbourne, among the many signs of life returning to the area is the new growth appearing on some of the trees burnt by the February fire. After a year or so, signs of a fire in the natural environment will often have gone. Nature is back in its cycle again.

One of the controversial themes in Australian history arises out of the speculation over the Indigenous Peoples' use of fire to clear the land. There is a lack of evidence one way or another. On the one hand, Indigenous Peoples may have used fire to clear the land, trap prey and wipe out the mega-fauna.

The giant animals none of which have been seen by Europeans did leave skeletal remain. In other words, Indigenous Peoples wiped out much of the continent's earlier environment. On the other hand, to try to save the reputation of Indigenous Peoples as custodians of the ancient land, it could be argued that the mega-fauna had perished before they arrived.

But that then creates another problem because they claim to have no ancient stories of their arriving in Australia - they have always been in Australia and certainly geneticists have not been able to link them back to other Asian, African or American peoples.

As the Europeans moved across Australia in the nineteenth century, herding sheep and cattle, so they found a risk of bushfires and grass fires far greater than they knew from Europe. They arrived with European expectations Discount Shoes of fires, for example, tame localized heather fires in Scotland. These provided no experience of what could happen in Australia.

The Europeans were used to freezing temperatures, floods and storms. The harsh wind-driven bushfires charging rapidly across the countryside were completely new to them. The dry climate and low humidity along with the hot dry winds to fan flames all made rural life exposed to the risk of fires.