Researchers at Nottingham University say that after 1788 British settlers pushed out native people whose cultural burning removed flammable vegetation.
They say indigenous people removed flammable vegetation before they were pushed out by settlers. University of Nottingham researchers say while climate change has an impact on bushfires, colonisation has had a big role too. Australia has been ravaged by uncontrolled blazes over the last decade. The 2019 Black Summer disaster burnt more than 18 million
Our research, released today, provides what we believe is the first quantitative evidence that forests and woodlands across southeast Australia contained fewer shrubs and more grass before colonisation. This suggests Indigenous fire management holds the key to a safer, more sustainable future on our flammable continent.