Colonisation, not climate change, first primed these forests to burn

Darrian Traynor, Getty Bushfire season is here.

The Bureau of Meteorology expects the declared El Niño to be strong to very strong .

Southeastern Australia is bracing for a long run of dangerous fire weather.

Weather is only part of a catastrophic fire.

Another factor is fuel – combustible vegetation.

Our new research, published today , shows the current fuel load in some Australian forests is not “natural”.

It is a product of colonisation, which loaded Australian landscapes with fuel a century before human-made climate change began.

Consider Croajingolong National Park , in Victoria’s far east.

It has every level of protection possible: national park, designated wilderness area and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

It’s also one of the most repeatedly incinerated forests in Australia: the 2019–20 Black Summer fires alone burned through 90% of the park.

The reprieves between bushfire have collapsed, from roughly 40 years in the late 1800s to about five years in the most recent decade.

Reading a natural archive We conducted this research in partnership with the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation , coauthors of the study, on GunaiKurnai Country in the Croajingolong National Park, which takes its name from the Krauatungalung people of the GunaiKurnai.

Our archive is Purghagoolah, called Lake Elusive by colonial mapmakers, a deep lake inside the park.

Our data were pollen, charcoal and sediment.