Anthony Moore 153588 CRS100 Major

Introduction

Fire, or more specifically wildfire, is a critical and ever-present force affecting the majority of Australian terrestrial landscapes. As such, the issue of fire has great influence in the lives of Australians.

During the 1900’s, wildfire management in Australia generally involved the prevention and putting out of all fires, a policy built on a common perception that all fires are negative and damaging (Jurskis 2005). This view is increasingly recognised as false and dangerously misguided; high quantities of flammable fuels build up in the absence of fire, leading to unmanageable, destructive fires of extreme intensity when they inevitably do occur (Miller 2005). These events have manifested both here and overseas in the wake of fire-exclusion policies.

While westernised fire management practices have been in place across much of the country for years, remote indigenous lands are managed in very different ways. In these lands, fire is recognised as an essential part of the landscape and is intertwined with indigenous people in a social, cultural context. In contrast to the common western view, indigenous people do not make innate negative associations with bushfire; essentially it is used to cleanse the bush, increase abundance of desirable plant and animal food species, as well as driving game when hunting (Morris 1996).

This website is an investigation of the current status in Australian wildfire management, with particular regard to the interaction between western science and traditional indigenous knowledge in shaping future management policies.