The Pure State of Nature

Allen and Unwin, $19.95

Aborigines are accused of causing the extinction of megafauna by the use of fire that converted rainforest to grassland so as to ‘farm’ kangaroos. It sounds a good story, but according to Dr Horton there are better explanations to fit the facts that the megafauna died out and the vegetation drastically changed over the last 50 millennia.

In my reading, the book rebuts the "fire-stick farming" theory. The doctrine of Terra nullius has been taken by many to imply that if you didn’t farm the land, you didn’t deserve to keep it. In response to this doctrine of resource appropriation, anthropologists have argued on the behalf of Aborigines that the landscape is an artefact of Aboriginal endeavour, hence "fire-stick farming". This popular theory also supports the new right’s thinking that you can conserve and protect the environment by developing and exploiting it. If the bush is an artefact of human endeavour, then why shouldn’t farmers, graziers and foresters or even miners manipulate it?

Dr Horton rejects this, arguing that Aborigines didn’t cause extinctions, and these extinctions didn’t cause a change in vegetation that led to the adoption of fire-stick farming, as Dr Flannery claims.

Dr Horton considers that there is a critical difference between farmers and hunter-gatherers that has to do with process, not ranking, for they have fundamentally different ways of interacting with the environment. The relationship difference is between ‘interferers’ and ‘observers’. Farmers interfere with plants, soils and climate. Hunter-gatherers observe and develop a detailed knowledge of climate and native plants and animals. The hunter-gatherers' system remains stable because the observations are designed to detect surplus, and there is little interference in the process that generates the surplus.

The book argues that Aborigines worked to conserve ecosystems and that such management did not permit the development of farming native wildlife through the use of fire. There are doubts as to the extent of Aboriginal fire practices in temperate forest areas. In 1997, JS Benson and PA Redpath claimed that there is no evidence to support the thesis that Australia was "a vast grassland". These plant scientists claim that fire frequency has increased since the coming of Europeans and was rare in the escarpment forests of 60,000 years ago.

The assertion by Horton that drought was the cause of the extinction of the megafauna is well supported. The megafauna of the inland, forced to retreat to a few remaining waterholes, weakened by hunger and thirst and unable to reach the still-flowing rivers of the east, would have been subjected to predation by the Aborigines and at risk of extinction.

Dr Horton further explains that these extinction theories have political implications that are crucial to the concept of wilderness. For if people substantially altered ecosystems and caused extinctions prior to colonisation, then wilderness is an artificial construct with no reality independent of people. If nature has no independent reality then there is no wilderness. Of course, this is an extreme view that overlooks the responsibility of the current generation to manage what’s left of the least undeveloped lands for nature, that is as wilderness set aside from development.

The Pure State of Nature may not be a best seller, but it challenges conventional theories on fire and Aboriginal land use. Testing theories on Aboriginal land use, regardless of whether they are considered politically correct, helps us to advance toward a better understanding of our environment. For anyone interested in these issues the book is essential reading.

Keith Muir

Wild Guide – Plants & Animals of the Australian Alps

Envirobook, 96 pp, pb

This guide is a handy pocketbook suitable for taking along on walks or car trips in our alpine parks. The book, of some 96 pages, includes sections on geology, climate, habitats, animals and plants. The information is well laid out and the photographs are generally of high quality. Notes on the species included are informative and cover interesting facets of the plants or animals' lifestyle. The book is directed at the amateur with an interest in the natural history of the mountains.

Those wanting to identify the scrub species through which they are battling up Pugilistic Creek will be disappointed, as will those seeking to identify each species of blowfly attacking them as they walk over the Main Range in summer. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to cover everything! It will, however, assist hut carers to identify the native rats and Antechinus which they are providing shelter for and may prevent some of the carnage when these critters invade campers' food supplies.

Take this book in your pack on your next trip to the alpine parks!

Roger Lembit