Aboriginal Australian fire-stick farming

Timeline

1. c. -10000–1000Australian interior and coasts · AustraliaIndigenous communities lit low grasses with fire-sticks during the dry season, controlling fire spread, clearing dense scrub, promoting tuber and pasture sprouting, and maintaining open hunting grounds; pollen and charcoal deposits show human-caused fire frequency long exceeded natural wildfires.
2. c. 1171–1180Kakadu region · Northern TerritoryIn the 1170s, various groups timed burns according to Dreaming narratives and seasonal calendars, demarcating burning territories and coordinating firebreaks; post-burn regrowth attracted kangaroos and birds, forming a sustainable hunting-gathering economic cycle.
3. c. 1175–1780Southwestern Victoria · VictoriaCommunities such as the Gunditjmara in the southeast used fire-sticks to maintain grasslands and wetland edges, promoting taro and other tuber growth and preserving open landscapes; the 'park-like' woodlands later described by European colonists were in fact the product of long-term fire-stick management.