Catastrophic bushfires sweeping across southeastern Australia are rooted in the 18th-century dispossession of Indigenous custodians and the subsequent overgrowth of eucalyptus forests, according to a scientific study published on October 7 in the journal Nature.
British Colonization and the Displacement of the Gunaikurnai Nation
The transformation of the Australian landscape began roughly 250 years ago with the arrival of James Cook, followed fifty years later by intensified settlement. British colonists killed and displaced Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. For centuries, Aboriginal groups maintained open woodlands through targeted burning and clearing. When British authorities removed these custodians, the abandoned tracts naturally filled with dense vegetation, establishing the fuel loads that now feed catastrophic fires.
Lake Sediments Reveal a Millennium of Landscape Change
To reconstruct historical fire regimes, researchers examined sediment cores from Lake Elusive in Croajingolong National Park in southeastern Australia, located within the traditional territory of the Gunaikurnai people. Lake sediments function as natural calendars, preserving pollen grains over millennia. The thousand-year-old samples showed that trees covered only about ten percent of the area until the end of the 18th century, meaning fires prior to European colonization were far less intense than modern blazes.
University Researchers Point to a Self-Sustaining Fire Cycle
“As a result of this destruction caused by British invasion, the subsequent violence and expulsion of the Indigenous population, there has been a change in the wildfire regime,” said Michael-Shawn Fletcher, professor of biogeography at the University of Melbourne. Fletcher noted that fire-affected areas experience rapid and dense regeneration of eucalyptus trees, creating an abundance of flammable material for subsequent seasons. He emphasized that addressing the problem requires acknowledging the density of modern forests rather than treating climate change as the sole driver.
Restoring Indigenous Land Management Practices
Scientists advocate thinning Australian forests and returning to traditional management techniques as the most effective remedy.
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