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Bushfires rage out of control across Australia's east

4 Comments
By DAVID GRAY

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Australia is synonymous with bushfires. This decade's droughts have considered greatly to the problem.

These is another cause that is often overlooked. The indigenous Australians burned the forests regularly for hunting and to gain access to new areas over the 40,000 years or so they were isolated. The burning was so regular that many Australian tress evolved to need fire to germinate. This regular burning of the forests also meant the leaf litter would not build up on forest floors. However, since European settlement the regular burning has been stopped. This has resulted in large build ups of fuel on forest floors. This combined with extreme drought, strong winds and the fact that eucalyptus tree oil is highly flammable have created this tinder box for super fire storms.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Good luck everyone. Scary stuff. Have some extra emergency plans, and stay safe.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The situation seems to worsen year after year. Soon whole towns will disappear in disasters, or a major city.

More needs to be done to increase ability to fight fires and to keep available fuel for fires at a minimum, especially around towns and cities.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Plenty of “Seachange” types who have precious little understanding of and even less direct experience of the worst that nature can throw at them. It’s almost criminal that on such a dry continent, with frequent bushfires, civil preparedness is not far more proactive than it is.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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