Emily Chan
Over 41,000 years ago, the first inhabitants of Tasmania used fire to modify and manage the landscape.
The occurrence is the earliest record of humans using fire to manipulate the Tasmanian environment. It predates previous estimates by about 2,000 years.
A team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Australia conducted an analysis of charcoal and pollen found in ancient mud to come to this conclusion.
Around 41,600 years ago, there was a sudden increase in charcoal that happened at the same time as a change in vegetation, suggesting that Aboriginal Tasmanians used fire to shape their surroundings. They cleared dense, wet forests to create open spaces for their own activities.
During the early part of the last ice age, early human migrations from Africa to the southern area of the globe were already taking place. Humans reached northern Australia around 65,000 years ago.
When the first Palawa/Pakana (Tasmanian Indigenous) communities arrived in Tasmania, it was the furthest south that humans had ever settled.
These early communities used fire to alter the landscape, as evidenced by charcoal in the ancient mud.
The mud was taken from islands in the Bass Strait, which is now a part of Tasmania. But back then, it would have been part of the land bridge that connected Australia and Tasmania during the last ice age.
The land bridge allowed humans to reach Tasmania on foot. It remained until about 8,000 years ago when rising sea levels separated Tasmania from the rest of Australia.
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