Indigenous Fire Management

One Hell of an Inferno explores how indigenous people throughout Australia have used fire to modify the vegetation to their advantage for thousands of years.

Fire has been used as both a tool and a management activity, with burns used to encourage grass by preventing scrub from taking over, and to protect the tree canopy.

Wild fires burn hot and burn everything, are unpredictable, and can be uncontrollable. By comparison, traditional Aboriginal burns use cool, detailed, slow-burning fires to burn only the grasses.

While hot wildfires once every few years encourage strong regrowth and more scrub, a frequent, cool, slow burn promotes native grasses and discourages scrub.

There is now a resurgence of traditional burning techniques being reintroduced by the Aboriginal community in Tasmania to manage land in order to discourage weeds and minimise wildfire.

Above, you can view a video exploring indigenous fire management, featuring interviews with Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania Chairman Clyde Mansell and Andry Sculthorpe from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and footage of traditional burning techniques being used in the state.