Judge Stretton & Lane-Poole.
The 1939 Stretton Royal Commission transcripts reveal debate amongst foresters and graziers about the extent, impact and purpose of pre-colonial Aboriginal burning – a debate occurring decades before current academics and the media popularised their understandings of Aboriginal cultural burning to broader Australia.
Charles Edward Lane-Poole, renowned forester and Inspector-General of Forests for the Commonwealth stated that the nature of pre-European bushfire patterns was “one of the most important investigations” being examined by the Commonwealth’s Forestry Bureau.
Lane-Poole presented evidence of tree ring growth patterns and pollen particles found in lake sediments to argue that “fires in the Blackman’s country” were less intense and less frequent than those following the arrival of Europeans.
Importantly, Judge Stretton noted in his final 1939 Royal Commission report about the lasting impact of frequent hot bushfires caused by early settlers and graziers. (Chapter II).
The Condition of the Forests.— When the early settlers came to what is now this State, they found for the greater part a clean forest. Apparently for many years before their arrival, the forest had not been scourged by fire. They were in their natural state. Their canopies had prevented the growth of scrub and bracken to any wide extent. They were open and traversable by men, beasts and wagons. Compared with their present condition, they were safe. But the white men introduce fire to the forests. They burned the floor to promote the growth of grass and to clear it of scrub which had grown where, for whatever reason, the balance of nature had broken down. The fire stimulated grass growth, but it encouraged scrub growth far more. Thus, was begun the cycle of destruction which cannot be arrested in our day. The scrub grew and flourished, fire was used to clear it, the scrub grew faster and thicker, bush fires, caused by the careless or designing hand of man, ravaged the forests; the canopy was impaired, more scrub grew and prospered, and again the cleansing agent, fire, was used. And so today, in places where our forefathers rode, driving their herds and flocks before them, the wombat and wallaby are hard put to it to find passage through the bush.
Stretton’s comments support the observation that in most Victorian foothill forests, removing or damaging the overstory tree canopy with a very hot fire lets the sunshine reach the ground which can lead to a pulse of understory regrowth. In no time, the leaf litter, surface, elevated and ladder fuels return which has a major impact on overall fire hazard. Although, bark fuel can take 10-20 years to return.
Repeated low intensity patch burning does not have the same effect on the regrowth of a shrubby understory as a frequent hot fires that damage or destroy the tree canopy.
Many assume (or at least I have) that, just like the North American forests, the bush changed and the understory thickened because of…
- disruption to the extent and frequency of deliberate low intensity indigenous burning.
- the forests became disturbed by mining, farming, settlement, frequent hot bushfires and timber harvesting once Europeans arrived and were not able to stablise and grow old as they may once have.
- active suppression of all bushfires, including those caused lightning, by the Forests Commission and Country Fire Authority (CFA), following the 1939 bushfires. (See: Let Burn Policy).
- reduction in the area of low intensity landscape fuel reduction burning.
- a reduction in the number of fires lit by mountain cattlemen and other landholders after the 1946 Stretton Royal Commission into forest grazing and its impacts on soil erosion and the environment.
- an increase in the area and frequency of hot bushfires.
https://www.voltscommissar.net/docs/Leonard_Stretton-1939_Bush_Fires_Royal_Commission_Report.pdf
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 