Spinifex, fire, and fate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5877416 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Morton (0009-0006-7156-9626), Stephen Morton (0000-0001-7122-0201, Charles Darwin University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 685-696 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geographical Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1745-5863 • E-ISSN: 1745-5871 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1745-5871.70017 |
| OpenAlex | W4410972587 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 63 |
Bushfires occur regularly in inland Australia because of the flammability of spinifex (Triodia species). Spinifex and fire are tied together by infertility: the plant is of limited palatability to consumers and accumulates into fuel. Spinifex regrows with cumulative rainfall, and fires recur every couple of decades. Aboriginal people burnt spinifex to foster food gathering, thereby creating a seral mosaic. Commentators conclude that this mosaic is important in limiting bushfire incursion, although Aboriginal people regarded that effect as fortuitous. Interpretations often assume that loss of this mosaic has been ecologically problematic because now bushfires are uncontrolled; nevertheless, evidence of negative effects is equivocal. Suspicion of bushfires appears to arise from societal norms-destruction of human interests is equated with destruction of ecosystems, though this is not true of fire-prone vegetation types such as spinifex. Drought, flood, and fire impose themselves intermittently on inland Australia, with identical roots in uncertain but sometimes prolific rainfall. Culturally, it is now accepted that drought is an inherent feature to be prepared for, and attitudes to flood similarly are becoming accepting. However, bushfire remains difficult for settler Australians to accept, such that we continue to think of burning as a disastrous rupture in the order of things. We are fated to wrestle with a force that in certain places is untameable while longing for control. Contributions to society by fire practitioners, scholars, and scientists will be more useful as they become more nuanced according to geography and more accepting of bushfire as a natural force
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Conservation or Co-evolution? Intermediate Levels of Aboriginal Burning and Hunting Have Positive Effects on Kangaroo Populations in Western Australia
Coexisting with Fire? A Commentary on the Scale Politics of Adaptation
Reframing responsibility-sharing for bushfire risk management in Australia after Black Saturday
Dynamics of Acacia aneura—Triodia boundaries using carbon (14C and δ 13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) signatures in soil organic matter in central Australia
Insights into the indigenous-managed landscape in southeast Australia during the Holocene
Mosaics of fire and water
Too hot to handle
Burning Back with the Snow’
Digging for Fire
Black Lightning
Different Ways of Knowing How to Coexist with Fire
A Landscape Architecture of Fire
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |