Researchers working with the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation reconstructed 1,000 years of vegetation and fire history at Purghagoolah, a lake in Croajingolong national park in Victoria’s Gippsland region. Using analysis of pollen and charcoal particles from sediment cores, the team documented how the landscape changed following European colonisation and the removal of the Gunaikurnai people from their Country.
The findings, published in Nature, showed a significant transition from open woodland to dense forest after colonisation. This vegetation shift corresponded with the loss of cultural burning practices—low-temperature fires traditionally used by First Nations peoples to maintain productive and safe landscapes. The research indicates that these land use changes, which occurred more than a century before climate change impacts became pronounced, created conditions for increasingly intense fires.
According to Michael-Shawn Fletcher, the study’s lead author and a professor at the University of Melbourne, the shift in vegetation density created a problematic cycle. Dense shrub growth following the cessation of cultural burning practices led to hotter fires, which in turn triggered eucalypt recruitment and further forest expansion, perpetuating the cycle. Fletcher stated the research provides scientific evidence supporting the integration of Indigenous knowledge into modern fire management strategies.
Prof David Bowman from the University of Tasmania, who was not involved in the study, characterised the research as significant and contributing to growing awareness about landscape changes resulting from the loss of Indigenous fire management. He noted that while other factors such as introduced animals and plants have also exacerbated changes, the elimination of traditional fire management represents a particularly significant alteration to ecological processes. Bowman highlighted the importance of long-term records for understanding how fire regimes have changed and continue to respond to climate drivers.
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