Heritage 0308_Bushfire.pdf - Australian Heritage Magazine

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Bush fire in Australia, Samuel Calvert, 1828–1913, print: col. wood engraving; 32.8 x 45.3 cm. National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an8927792. able to re-establish themselves, and at least hold their own against the eucalypts and wattles. Major Thomas Mitchell described the change in the area around Sydney as early as 1838: Kangaroos are no longer seen there; the grass is choked by underwood; neither are there natives to burn the grass... ...the omission of the annual periodical burning by natives, of the grass and young saplings, has already produced in the open forests nearest to Sydney, thick forests of young trees, where, formerly, a man might gallop without impediment, and see whole miles before him. This new, neglected bush was prime fire territory, and bushfire rapidly became a frightening part of the Australian experience. Lightning and desperate attempts by Aboriginal people to retain the fire-stick system or to burn out the invaders were frequent causes of fire, but so was European ‘burning off’, used to clear farmland, improve grazing and reveal hidden mineral deposits, along with carelessness with fire and arson. Outlying farms, where Europeans coexisted with bush to some degree, were particularly vulnerable, as blazes from the unmanaged bush outside could easily spread into farmland in periods of drought, as David Collins noted in his Journal in 1792. At Parramatta and Toongabbe also the heat was extreme; the country there too was everywhere in flames. Mr Arndell was a great sufferer by it. The fire had spread to his farm, but by the efforts of his own people and neighbouring settlers it was got under, and its progress supposed to be eventually checked, when an unlucky spark from a tree, which had been on fire to the topmost branch, flying on the thatch of the hut where his people lived, it blazed out; the hut with all the outbuildings, and thirty bushels of wheat just got into a stack, were in a few minutes destroyed. In 1838, the assigned convict, Joseph Mason, noted that farmers had learned to take precautions to protect their precious wheat crops: “Most of the settlers do not sow the headlands of their fields but leave a border all around which they plough up & suffer to remain bare so that the fire may not run in upon the wheat”. Fires of this type were a severe threat to the new Australians and their property but with a concerted effort by neighbouring farmers they were usually contained. However, after periods of prolonged drought, a particularly hot day with high winds could nurture a hellish inferno. One of the most disastrous of these firestorms broke out on the 6th of February, 1851; later dubbed Black Thursday. Numerous independent fires, probably started by humans, raged out of control in many places, killing ten people and burning up to a quarter of what would soon after become the colony of Victoria. Black Thursday was the first of a series of firestorms that burned their way into Australian history. Notable among them are Red Tuesday (1/2/1898) in which much of Gippsland was incinerated, killing 12 people and destroying more than 2,000 buildings; Black Sunday 68 Australian Heritage
(14/2/1926) where fires again hit Gippsland and southern NSW, and swept through the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, taking 31 lives; the truly appalling Black Friday fires (13/1/1939), that burnt a swathe through Victoria and New South Wales, killing 71 people; Black Tuesday (7/2/1967) in which the whole of Tasmania seemed to catch fire, taking 62 lives and doing significant damage to Hobart; the Ash Wednesday fires (16/2/1983) that burnt vast areas of Victoria and South Australia, killing 75 people; and more recently, the fires of January 18, 2003 that ripped through Canberra and surrounding areas, killing four people and destroying more than 500 homes, and the fires of January 11, 2005 on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia in which nine lives were lost. The early great fires were the trigger for the development of Australia’s fire control organisations. Fire brigades were established, initially as locally based voluntary groups, and today these operate as state authorities backed by armies of volunteers. Firefighting is their central role, but strategies of land and fire management, including the use of fire to control fire, are equally important. Incorporating fire into the firecontrol system has proved to be a complex issue. One approach favoured legislation and fire-fighting forces to totally suppress fire in the bush. Though this strategy certainly reduced the incidence of local fires, the buildup of litter would eventually fuel particularly destructive firestorms. Another system advocated regular burning as the Aboriginal ‘fire-stick farmers’ had done. Though this does serve to reduce the intensity of fires, the results are unsightly and a controlled fire can easily become an uncontrolled one. Further, the process is damaging when applied to firesensitive or degraded habitats. Bushfire is inevitable in Australia, but the question is: are big fires inevitable or can we learn how to control them in different types of landscape? Today, the management of bushfire in our various landscapes – from southern forests to the savannas of the north – is the subject of a great deal of research. The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, established in 2003, has brought together scientists, fire authorities, land-management groups and FIRE IN WET SCLEROPHYLL FORESTS As its name suggests, wet sclerophyll forest grows in wetter and often cooler areas than its dry counterpart. Though eucalypts dominate this forest, the milder conditions promote an understorey of many kinds of ferns. These forests grow in a climate that usually does not encourage fire, and there is no indication that Aboriginal people used their system of firestick farming in them. However, after periods of prolonged drought, wet sclerophyll will burn readily. Several of the truly devastating fires in Australia’s history, notably the Red Tuesday and Black Friday fires, have involved bushfire entering wet sclerophyll forest. Due to the relative rarity of fires, wet sclerophyll plants have different responses to being burnt. The mountain ash, the tallest of the eucalypts, is killed by fire. However, its gum-nuts are opened by the flames, and take root in the soil almost immediately afterwards. For this reason, most stands of mountain ash are all of the same size, all having taken root after the same fire. Though rare and destructive, firestorms are an important factor in shaping the character of wet sclerophyll forests, which, in the absence of fire, would be displaced by fire-intolerant temperate rainforest. The wet sclerophyll eucalypt pictured above has been struck by lightning. Unless the land is in drought, the fire has little chance of spreading far. Australian Heritage 69
Page 1 and 2: ‘This Continent of Smoke’ - Cap
Page 3 and 4: y eucalypts and wattles. Though the
Page 5: ABOVE: Black Thursday, February 6th

Heritage 0308_Bushfire.pdf - Australian Heritage Magazine

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