Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

How quickly do we forget the past? We have failed to learn from Australia’s traditional land managers and we have not learned from our early explorers. We spend huge amounts of money being reactive instead of being proactive. Our post incident inquires make recommendations but we continue to ignore common sense and reasoning.

Roger Underwood shares the following historic accounts:
Endeavour journal, 19 July 1770

Joseph Banks was with Captain Cook in 1770, camped at what is now Cooktown while The Endeavour was being repaired after hitting a coral reef. The sailors had angered the local Aborigines by taking turtles (without permission and without offering to share) and revenge took place by the Aborigines setting fire to the grass around the camp. Banks recalled in his journal:

I had little idea of the fury with which grass burnt in this hot climate, nor of the difficulty of extinguishing it when once lighted: this accident will however be a sufficient warning for us, if ever we should again pitch tents in such a climate, to burn every thing around us before we begin.

The National Bushfire Disgrace

Never before in Australian history has bushfire fuel management fallen to such a low level that the majority of the countryside is classified as having “dangerous” fuel levels.

Never have our bushfire authorities placed such heavy reliance on firefighting as the answer to the bushfire threat, eschewing the “preventative medicine” approach of fuel management that was successful in the past. They ignore the fact that the suppression approach almost always fails when most needed.

Victor Steffensen – Its pretty simple really

Victor Steffensen – Its pretty simple really

We live in a country that needs fire and what happens is that we’ve stopped evolving with fire.
Our fire culture in Australia is totally flawed to nothing.
As before, even if you go back 100 years, pastoralists and people who were historically a part of land can tell you themselves there used to be fires all the time and even indigenous people would work in with them and burn country regularly, but we’ve backed up to a point of regulations, land tenures.
I sit at home and I watch the news and I see masses of country just going and it brings a tear to my eyes to see that country just being annihilated.

Who is to blame?

Is it the power company’s fault?

Is it the land managers fault for not reducing the fuel near the powerlines?

Is it the councils fault for not allowing sufficient fuel reduction?

Is it the Green’s fault for influencing the publics perception of bushfire mitigation?

What about lightening strikes, should we sue God for fires that are started by lightening? or

Is it time that we had a good hard look at ourselves and our environment and we get back to sound land management practices that include fuel reduction (quality burns)?

Our country needs to burn more – Indigenous fire manager

Our country needs to burn more – Indigenous fire manager

Indigenous burning is very distinctive, in purpose and method.

While Western cultures tend to focus on aftermath, its focus is on prevention: managing fuel loads and reading the land to ensure flora and fauna stay healthy.

Indigenous burning is cool: temperatures remain low so flames never reach the canopy.

“The canopy is whole other world,” says Steffensen. “The canopy is so important to us because that’s the life of the flowers, the fruits, the birds, the animals … that top canopy is very, very sacred and the simple rule is that it never burns.

“If you burn the canopy, then you have the wrong fire. Fire should behave like water, trickling through the country so it doesn’t burn everything.”

Traditional burns are also started from ‘fire circles’ and patterns that allow the fire to spread out in a 360 degrees radius. This allows animals to escape as they smell the smoke and keeps temperatures down, with only one fire front to manage.

Steffensen says this kind of fire knowledge has been lost over the centuries, both as a result of colonisation – the diffusion of knowledge throughout the stolen generations, the introduction of non-native weeds that spring up when the canopy burns – and of our migration towards cities. Even European pastoralists knew how to manage the land with fire, he says.

Line of Fire – SBS News

Line of Fire – SBS News

Congratulations to SBS insight for producing a brilliant program that is a “must see” for all Australians that want to see our environment protected.

By SBS Insight
Airdate: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 – 20:30 (click the read more button to view this program online)
Channel: SBS

I urge everyone to take the time to watch this program.

Feel free to add your feedback and comments below, we will publish any appropriate comments for the positives and negatives.

What would nature do if we weren’t here?

What would nature do if we weren’t here?

“Hotter temperatures, reduced rainfall in key seasons and worse fire weather, are all consistent with what is projected with climate change, particularly under a high-emission scenario,” said Michael Grose from the CSIRO.

David Bowman from the University of Tasmania said. “If there was something simple that could be done, it would be done.”

Indigenous Australians managed the land without bulldozers, large aircraft and huge budgets.

In terms of bush firefighting, a wise man once said “The only fires that humans can put out are the ones doing some good”.

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