Pre Colonial Forests & Fire – Part 2.

Colonial Art.

Early colonial art provides some tantalising glimpses into the nature and structure of the pre-European forests and woodlands and the impact of bushfires.

While some of the works are topographically and botanically accurate, others are more romanticised and impressionist to cater to the tastes of a British audience.

But these early paintings and sketches help to reconstruct the openness of the forests and woodlands of the precolonial period which had been under the influence of indigenous burning regimes for thousands of years.

Some also portray the wet forests in the mountains that seem almost impenetrable and probably had not been burnt by a hot bushfire for centuries.

In 1813, Joseph Lycett was sent to Australia as a convict after being sentenced for forgery. While in the Newcastle settlement he was encouraged by commandant of the settlement, Captain James Wallis, to paint scenes of Aboriginal life. His famous painting of “Aborigines using fire to hunt kangaroo” was done in about 1817 and the open nature of the landscape and the skilful use of fire is noticeable. Lycett painted many other landscape scenes depicting traditional cultural practices of Aboriginal people of Sydney, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

While amateur painters arrived on the first fleet, it was the famous professional artists like Eugene von Guérard who probably best depicted Victoria’s forests and landscapes. Surveyors like Robert Hoddle and explorers such as Major Mitchell also provided valuable historic sketches.

Michael Ryan (2009). Does early Colonial Art provide an accurate guide to the nature and structure of the pre-European forests and woodlands of South-Eastern Australia? ANU.

https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/46296ead-9739-4849-9932-245878fb2ea5/content