Title: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VEGETATION, FIRE AND MAN IN THE
Abstract:The vegetation cover of sand dunes and sandplain country in a part of Central Australia is aperiodically destroyed by· fire, caused by lightning and Aboriginal activities. Subsequent mobilisation, tra...The vegetation cover of sand dunes and sandplain country in a part of Central Australia is aperiodically destroyed by· fire, caused by lightning and Aboriginal activities. Subsequent mobilisation, transportation and redeposition of sand by wind suggests that these vegetated sand dunes are currently unstable. The aims of this paper are threefold: to suggest that the vegetated sand dunes and sandplains around the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia are in the process of active development; to outline the causes of vegetation removal; and, by implication, to suggest that other sand dune and sandplain areas in Central Australia commonly regarded as stable may also be unstable due to similar causes. The idea that sand dunes in arid Australia are largely stable, though often with an active crest, recurs throughout the literature (refer Dury's 1968 review; and Mabbutt, 1968, for recent examples). It is considered by these and other writers that the dunes were formed during an earlier, more arid phaf;e or phases. Since there is little positive evidence of changes in wind directions, strengths· and:! or frequencies (such evidence would, admittedly, be very difficult to obtain), the apparent stabilisation of the sand dunes is generally attributed to an increase in vegetative cover following a decrease in aridity. Yet the vegetative cover in an extensive area - mostly Aboriginal reserve - around the Warburton mission is by no means permanent under contemporary conditions. Whilst drought undoubtedly plays a part in reducing the effectiveness of vegetation as a barrier to wind erosion, by far the most important destructive agent is fire. The two major causes of fire are lightning and Aboriginal activity. Of these two causes, little needs to be said of the former. Thunderstorms are common in the area, sometimes unaccompanied by rain, and lightning-induced fires have been observed. Clearly this process is very much a part of the natural environment of this area. Aboriginal activity has increased the 'natural' incidence of fires [it should be noted that the Western Desert people studied (refer Acknowledgement) - apart from the few living at the mission - exist as close to their natural conditions as will be found anywhere in Australia; indeed, one group of ten people was first contacted by Europeans only late in 1969, living approximately 350 miles northwest of Warburton]; yet the literature on the geomorphology of arid AustraliaRead More
Publication Year: 1971
Publication Date: 1971-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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