A study examining 1,000 years of vegetation and fire history at a Victorian lake site found that European colonisation fundamentally altered the landscape in ways that increased bushfire risk in south-east Australia. Researchers from the University of Melbourne, working with the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, analysed sediment samples to reconstruct how fire patterns and forest composition changed over time.
The findings revealed that the removal of the Gunaikurnai people from their traditional lands and the cessation of cultural burning practices led to a shift from open woodland to denser forest vegetation. This transformation created what researchers describe as a “catastrophic wildfire loop”—as shrub cover increased without traditional management, fires became hotter and more intense. These intense fires then triggered eucalypt recruitment, which further increased fuel loads and promoted even larger fires.
Michael-Shawn Fletcher, the lead author of the study published in Nature, emphasised that the landscape changes predated climate impacts by more than a century. He noted that the research provides scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of cultural burning, a practice that First Nations people use to maintain safer, more productive landscapes through low-temperature, strategically timed fires. This approach differs from conventional prescribed burning undertaken by government agencies.
Fire scientist David Bowman of the University of Tasmania, commenting on the research, characterised it as significant in demonstrating the lasting effects of losing Indigenous fire management systems. He noted that while other factors such as introduced species have also influenced ecosystems, the elimination of traditional burning practices represents a particularly substantial change. Bowman highlighted the importance of long-term historical records for understanding how fire regimes have shifted and how they respond to climate factors, describing the research as opening dialogue about landscape management approaches needed as fire risks intensify.
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