A personal observation related to Aboriginal use of fire:
On the western scarp of Tamborine Mountain (a few km inland from the Gold
Coast) there is a tiny National Park established to preserve a sample of the
original (pre-European settlement) vegetation - eucalypt forest, in which
the ground vegetation was dominated by very large numbers of the Cycad,
Lepidozamia peroffskyana.
When I first knew the area in the 1930s it contained a remarkable specimen
with three heads (even two heads is extremely rare) which was about seven
metres high. Tragically, it was cut down by some vandal, but scattered
through the area were a number of tall (3 m +) specimens with single heads.
Over the decades that followed, all were killed - indirectly as a result of
fire.
Their trunks have a very thick corky 'outer-wall' and a fire could go
through the area and kill all the leaves on an individual, and it would
survive and simply put out new leaves in due course. But what I noticed
happening was this: a succession of severe fires eventually burnt away
enough of the corky exterior of the trunk to allow the entry of fungi. The
resultant rot eventually weakened the trunk to the point where it broke off,
even though the plant was fully alive and carrying a normal crown of leaves.
These cycads could easily cope with the regular light fires lit by the
Aboriginal people, but when European settlement stopped that activity, the
absence of fire allowed a large build-up of fuel and then when eventually a
wildfire did occur, it would be very severe and the trunks were damaged.
I proffer no opinion as to whether it would be desirable or undesirable, but
reinstate regular fuel-reduction burning in that area, and in a hundred
years or so there would again be very tall specimens, though not any
triple-crowned ones, I surmise.
(There's a fine photo of that three-header on p. 68 of the book "Gymnosperms
- Structure and Evolution", C. J. Chamberlain, U. of Chicago Press, 1935,
though back then, the taxonomists hadn't changed the name from Macrozamia
denisonii. Sorry I can't attach the photo to a b-aus message.)
Syd
> From: "John Leonard" <>
> Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 13:06:24 +1100
> To: Birding-aus <>
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] fire in the landscape
>
> There was a thread recently on fire in the Australian landscape.
>
> Here's an interesting paper on Aboriginal use of fire in the Western Desert
>
> http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/09/19/0804757105.full.pdf+html
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