Firestick Farming

Aboriginal farmers in Australia control the possibility of larger fires by starting small fires. This is firestick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning. This burns out all dead vegetation which quickly regrows. This has been taking place for thousands of years.

They "clean up" the country with a burn after excess vegetation growth following the monsoon. 2019 -2020 saw the worst bushfires recorded with 3 billion native animals dead (33 humans). The cool burning started by aboriginals allows controlled smaller burning so controlling the possibility of larger fires. With many of the aboriginals displaced from their land, these smaller fires are no longer happening as much, allowing the vegetation to get into a state where there is a lot of dead 'tinder' around. With cool burning done regularly only some of the vegetation has cured enough to be flammable and so fires do not burn with the same heat and intensity as they would later in the season, had no cool burning occurred.

Cool burning also encourages the growth of fresh shoots of grass. This makes it easier for graziers to locate their cattle, who are drawn by the fresh grass.

Ecosystems across Australia have become fire-resistant and fire adapted. Many plant species are used to fire and reliant on regular burning to seed and regrow. However if a large fire happens late in the season, everything is anailated.

Cape York has a fire-adapted landscape because of the continuity of aboriginal burning practices. Aboriginal people have been in Cape York for an estimated 37000 years.

The First Fire

It is told in a short Aboriginal Dreamtime story how the first fire came into existence. The First Fire tells how two sky people inadvertently brought fire down to earth while hunting for possums. Our lives changed forever.

Colonisation of the Continent

Over the last 250 years, indigenous people have regularly fired the landscape producing a "humanised and culturalised landscape". European settlers arrived in late 19th century and violently transformed the life of indigenous people, excluding people from their land and curtailing their ability to access resources.

Many aboriginal people are now employed in the so-called "green collar" industries eg rangers.