Prehistoric aboriginal impacts on Australian vegetation: an assessment of the evidence

SUMMARY

To what extent were Australian vegetation patterns in 1788 a product of human activity? Pollen and charcoal evidence which addresses this question is reviewed. I discuss the nature of the evidence, particularly the difficulties involved in establishing relationships between charcoal and fire history, and between fire history and human activity. I then address the broader question from the perspectives of both time and space by examining three key periods which might be expected to provide relevant evidence: (i) the time of initial human colonisation of the continent; (ii) the late Holocene, when Aboriginal population densities are thought to have increased substantially; and (iii) the last 200 years, when Aboriginal influences on the landscape have been mostly removed. Impacts are likely to have been different in different environments, with vegetation types vulnerable to fire showing the most marked changes. I conclude with a discussion of ways alternative interpretations have been utilised by competing groups in land management debates.