" I'm in the business of useless beauty " Tim Winton
When one is not an enthusiastic participant in ‘squeezing a buck out of Country’ one has to justify their dissenting actions in Australia. The ’bulldozer of progress’ monetises all landscape and heritage.
Image: Coastal crinum flower on Sea Tulip (Pyura spinifera) on dotAtelier textile, NSW
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"Researchers found the shift from open woodland to dense forest after 1788 led to more intense fires, consistent with loss of cultural burning practices."
"The shift from open woodland to dense forest after colonisation led to more intense fires, changes consistent with the loss of cultural burning practices and the removal of traditional owners, the Gunaikurnai people, from the land. Prior to colonisation “this was a cared for and managed landscape”."
“Other factors have exacerbated these changes, [such as] the introduction of non-native animals, non-native plants in some cases. These are very complex ecological processes, but taking out traditional fire management is a very significant thing to have happened.”
"Prior to colonisation “this was a cared for and managed landscape."
Fletcher, MS., Romano, A., O’Shea, C. et al. Australia’s current wildfire crisis linked to colonial land-use change. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11097-z
Image: Catastrophic wildfires, Bellingen artist