Quote:
Originally Posted by dikman
I recall seeing somewhere that when the aboriginals came to this country 60 - 70,000 (?) years ago the country was quite different, a lot greener and wetter overall. Their penchant for lighting fires is what changed the country, plants that couldn't tolerate too much burning died out, leaving those which actually rely on burning left. Look at what we've got here, most of the native flora re-shoots pretty quickly after a fire, in fact some of it needs fire (and smoke) to regenerate.
As for the aboriginals being "masters of controlled burning"....  . Are you saying that before lighting a fire they looked at their topographical maps (pretty good for a race that never had a written language), consulted their meteorological experts so that they would know which way it will burn, figured out where they would need to be to stop it spreading and moved their firefighting equipment into place, just in case?
Or, (and yes, this is probably a politically incorrect idea these days) being your basic stone-age hunter-gatherer people who kept moving in order to survive they simply decided we need to kill a beastie for food, lets light a fire to chase something out, easier than having to hunt something. All they had to do was make sure they walked away from the fire.
Which idea makes the most sense...... |
Actually, it's a little more complex than that & you can freely read up on just how they managed areas should you choose to...