Kangaroo cemetery

[Warrigal]

Actually this is a cemetery for people, but with kangaroos.



The context is that this was taken during the catastrophic 2019-20 bushfire season and the 'roos were seeking food and sanctuary in the lawn cemetery.

This is when Covid struck Australia and since then there has been hardly any general discussion of global warming and its consequences. Our koalas cannot relocate as easily as kangaroos and they are now officially endangered in eastern Australia. In reality, they were endangered before, but the classification was just 'threatened' because of loss of habitat due to development. Bushfires are taking out their food trees and the fires are happening more often now and are also hotter. They consume much bigger tracts of vegetation.

 

[Mike]

I read about why the Koalas are endangered, Warrigal, the
newspaper says that it is because of the prisoners that were
deported to your land, they moved the indigenous people
away from the lands that they lived in for years, they also
"Control Burned", the shrubs, this prevented bushfires, as it
is believed that the small bushes help the wild fires to jump
into the taller trees.

This is believable as I don't suppose that anybody does any
"Controlled Burning" of anything today!

If I suggest that the Aborigines be contracted to burn the
bush, to prevent future fires, it will be considered, to be a
"Racist" suggestion, but it is a solution, offer the job to all.

Mike.

 

[Warrigal]

That's a bit simplistic, Mike. It is true that control burns do not reach up into the crowns of the eucalypt forests and every Winter the forestry staff are very busy carrying out control burns as a means of preventing fires close to towns but it's not that easy.

The fire seasons have lengthened and the time between for control burning is getting ever shorter.

Control burning cannot happen too frequently in the same place because constant burning of the undergrowth eventually kills the young trees that are needed to replace the old trees that die of disease and parasites. Control burning should be done in a patchwork fashion to avoid depleting the seed banks in the soil and undergrowth.

Cultural burning by indigenous people was always small scale and mostly used to drive food sources out into the open during hunting. The effect of this over time was to turn the ancient thick forests into open forests with more grassland for kangaroos but this does not produce ideal koala habitat.

Koalas were hunted nearly to extinction by early white settlers to use their fur to make hats. Fortunately laws were passed for their protection but the habitat was not protected and land clearing for development continues. Now that they have been declared endangered, rather than just threatened, they may be given greater consideration when developments are being proposed for approval but I have my doubts. Profit tends to trump wildlife.

The koalas face another serious danger in the form of chlamydia. Disease free koalas are being raised in wildlife parks for later release into the wild but this is a very slow process that may be insufficient to maintain their numbers.

 

[Mike]

Your information is better than the newspaper report
that I read Warrigal, I know not very much about your
country, other than what I see in the press.

I wouldn't have known any of how to "Control Burn",
till I read your words, they make a lot of sense.

Mike.