Impacts of Colonization on the Australian nature

Ondra Kubík

The Aboriginal people prior to colonization were not only a simple 'hunter gatherer' culture. After thousands of years of adaptation the native people developed an agricultural strategy to manage the environment and increase the fertility of the soil which is fairly low in Australia. The 'fire-stick farming' is based on detailed burning plans.

This fire regime deliberately shaped grass, trees and scrub into patterns. Small cool fires were used to create these 'mosaics' in the landscape. This ensured that only small areas were burnt at once to not destroy the environment completely. It prevented bigger, much more destructive fires from happening. This landscape layout was organized so people knew where the animals were and could hunt them more easily. The forest free areas also allowed to travel by horse and cart.

In the end of the 18th century the European settlers had arrived and begun to create their own infrastructure and imported their own agricultural methods suitable for the European climate. As a result of smallpox epidemics among the native people, the disruption of their traditional environments and the need of the settlers to protect their infrastructure, property and from then on permanent settlements, the indigenous agricultural methods were less and less applied. This resulted in more damaging fires that kill a lot of wildlife because there are large areas without the mosaic system so the organisms have no space to repopulate from.

Also the introduction of non-native animals such as rabbits, foxes, cats and later camels caused massive damage to the small to medium sized mammals. Also the imported strains of seeds debilitated the soil.

Currently the government agencies are trying to return the way of fire environmental management which has many similarities to the traditional Aboriginal one. The main objective is to support and protect the fire dependent ecosystems and species.