Spinifex, fire, and fate

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.