Researchers using a 1,000-year lake-sediment record from south-eastern Australia find that British colonisation is linked to a long-term shift in vegetation and fire patterns that increases the risk of intense bushfires. The work suggests that colonial disruption reduces Indigenous cultural burning, allowing open woodland to become denser, more flammable forest.
The sources agree that this “catastrophic wildfire loop” helps explain why parts of south-east Australia are primed for today’s climate-driven fire conditions. The studies reconstruct past vegetation and fire history around a lake in Croajingolong National Park in Gippsland, with the Guardian reporting collaboration with the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, which represents traditional owners. New Scientist frames the findings as a major increase in wildfire danger following the expulsion of Indigenous communities in the 19th century. Nature reports the same core mechanism—suppression of cultural burning and transformation of forest structure—highlighting how these changes can amplify the effects of hotter and drier weather on modern wildfire crises.
