Ancient Australian culture - the traditional skill of cool burning

European culture and its battle with nature

Spraying invasive weeds is an annual battle to protect remnant grassland plants

As an ecologist and a manager of flora and fauna reserves I seem to spend a lot of my time battling against the forces of nature. For example each of the three reserves that I help to manage has problem weeds that have to be suppressed with herbicides each year. This is to prevent them from spreading and over running the remnant native plants. Ironically the spraying kills some of the native grasses and herbs that we are trying to protect. Spraying is also very expensive ($1000/day) but we seem to be locked into an endless annual cycle of herbicide spraying in a fight with nature, from which there appears to be no retreat.

Since the beginning of white settlement in Australia, battling nature has been our chosen way of life.
Richard Howitt wrote in 1845 in 'Impressions of Australia Felix';

   "Day after day it was no slight army of trees against which we had to do battle. We had to  fight hard with them to gain possession of the soil, for the trees in those days were giants"

Howitt was describing the beginnings of 170 years of clearing trees from the Australian continent which sadly is still going on full steam ahead in some states. There is no doubt that many Australians still see the environment as an enemy that has to be beaten into submission or at least subdued.

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The First Australians partner with nature

An 1874 image of the Barwon River at Fyansford by Edward Paxtman Brandard showing patterns of trees created by indigenous burning. Gammage explains how this design was both ecologically sensible and aided hunting. State Library of Victoria

It makes more sense to work with nature than to do battle against her. Becoming a partner with the most powerful force on earth has clear advantages, but is it possible?

T0 the First Australians nature and nurture are inseparable. Partnering with nature is so deeply embedded in their culture that it is impossible for them to feel whole as people without maintaining a tangible connection. This connection with 'country' goes far beyond the love and empathy for familiar places that I often feel for the place I live, it's a deep and complex spiritual connection that sadly goes well beyond my powers of comprehension.
 
Bill Gammage on page 131 of 'The Biggest Estate on Earth' quotes Strehlow to give some insights into this spiritual relationship;

"the overwhelming affection felt by a native for his ancestral territory - mountains and creeks and springs and water-holes are to him not merely interesting or beautiful but the handiwork of ancestors from whom he himself has descended. He sees recorded in the surrounding landscape the ancient story of the lives and deeds of the immortal beings whom he reveres. The whole countryside is his living age old family tree."

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The ancient art/science/spiritualism of cool burning

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