It is widely believed that Australian Aboriginals utilised fire to manage various landscapes however to what extent this impacted on Australia???s ecosystems remains uncertain. The late Pleistocene/Holocene fire history from three sites within the Sydney Basin, Gooches Swamp, Lake Baraba and Kings Waterhole, were compared with archaeological and palaeoclimatic data using a novel method of quantifying macroscopic charcoal, which is presented in this study. The palynology and other palaeoecological proxies were also investigated at the three sites. The Gooches Swamp fire record appeared to be most influenced by climate and there was an abrupt increase in fire activity from the mid-Holocene perhaps associated with the onset of modern El Ni??o dominated conditions. The Kings Waterhole site also displayed an abrupt increase in charcoal at this time however there was a marked decrease in charcoal from ~3 ka. Lake Baraba similarly had displayed low levels of charcoal in the late Holocene. At both Kings Waterhole and Lake Baraba archaeological evidence suggests intensified human activity in the late Holocene during this period of lower and less variable charcoal. It is hence likely that at these sites Aboriginal people controlled fire activity in the late Holocene perhaps in response to the increased risk of large intense fires under an ENSO-dominated climate. The fire history of the Sydney Basin varies temporally and spatially and therefore it is not possible to make generalisations about pre-historic fire regimes. It is also not possible to use ideas about Aboriginal fire regimes or pre-historic activity as a management objective. The study demonstrates that increased fire activity is related to climatic variation and this is likely to be of significance under various enhanced Greenhouse scenarios. There were no major changes in the composition of the flora at all sites throughout late Pleistocene/Holocene although there were some changes in the relative abundance of different taxa. It is suggested that the Sydney Sandstone flora, which surrounds the sites, is relatively resistant to environmental changes. Casuarinaceae was present at Lake Baraba during the Last Glacial Maximum and therefore the site may have acted as a potential refugium for more mesic communities. There was a notable decline in Casuarinaceae during the Holocene at Lake Baraba and Kings Waterhole, a trend that has been found at a number of sites from southeastern Australia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/187130 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Black, Manu, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Manu Black, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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