Australia's bushfire crisis linked to colonial land use change

Research has found that colonialisation drove cascading changes in the landscape: increased fire temperature, a four-fold increase in eucalypt cover, transformation from an open woodland to forest, and increased soil erosion

Reconstructing the past 1000 years of vegetation, fire and erosion in Southeastern Australia, researchers and Traditional owners found  that landscapes were more prone to burning, amplifying the influence of climate change and propelling Australia’s bushfire crisis

X-ray fluorescence scanning at ANSTO was one of the many methods used in the research 

Forest expansion and thickening after British colonisation has created landscapes more prone to burning, amplifying the influence of climate change and propelling Australia’s bushfire crisis, a new study finds. 

ANSTO has supported research published yesterday in Nature by University of Melbourne researchers, in collaboration with Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Corporation, that reconstructed the past 1000 years of vegetation, fire and erosion in Croajingolong National Park in East Gippsland, one of southeastern Australia's most fire-prone forests.

The researchers found that colonialisation drove cascading changes: increased fire temperature, a four-fold increase in eucalypt cover, transformation from an open woodland to forest, and increased soil erosion. 

Lead author, University of Melbourne Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher, said the research provides scientific evidence for the value of cultural burning and the need to integrate Indigenous knowledge into contemporary fire management strategies.

“When Country is cared for, climate does not dictate wildfire,” Professor Fletcher said. 

“For thousands of years, Gunaikurnai people cared for Country in what is now Croajingolong National Park through cultural burning, keeping much of the landscape as open woodland.