Comments on: The burning question for Australia’s politicians https://www.openforum.com.au/a-burning-question-for-australias-politicians/ Open Forum offers an independent platform for Australian debate Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:24:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.25 By: Amelia https://www.openforum.com.au/a-burning-question-for-australias-politicians/#comment-4761 Tue, 27 Mar 2018 00:18:46 +0000 http://www.openforum.com.au/?p=13079#comment-4761 The aborigines didn’t live in harmony with their environment, they exploited it with the technology they had just as ruthlessly as European settlers. They used fire for hunting which changed the landscape and hunted the megafauna into extinction. Australia once had huge flightless birds, wombats the size of cars, marsupial lions and nine foot tall Kangeroos. All gone. Some vanished soon after human arrival, others co-existed for thousands of years before growing human populations took their final toll, but this ‘noble savage’ view of Aborigine life does them a disservice. Just as the Māoris wiped out the Moas in New Zealand and early humans in the Americas wiped out the megafauna there, the first people in Australia wreaked havoc in environment just as surely as we are today.

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By: Alan Stevenson https://www.openforum.com.au/a-burning-question-for-australias-politicians/#comment-4760 Tue, 27 Mar 2018 00:07:36 +0000 http://www.openforum.com.au/?p=13079#comment-4760 Maybe we should take note from history. The aborigines treated the land with respect, using fire when they thought necessary to clear the ground for better use. We tend to clear hundreds of acres for one type of crop, forgetting the rest of the environment. I have great respect for the attention to detail that the aborigines have to the land and its needs. Sure, we have to produce more food for the ever growing population of the world, but maybe we focus too much on profit and not enough on long-term management.

The story of the game reserve manager from South Africa who bought a farm in New South Wales springs to mind. He observed that the game ate a percentage of the fodder, then moved on. He introduced this practice into his farm by dividing it up into smaller allotments and constantly moving his cattle around. The result was that they did not eat the paddock completely; the grass remained strong and he could carry 25% more head per acre.

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