The Pure State of Nature - 9780367719883

Taylor & Francis

'Aborigines did not cause the extinction of the megafauna . . . and it is unlikely that they have caused the extinction of any element of the fauna and flora.'\n\n'If you want to practise control burning in order to protect houses or farms, then do it in the same way as you would use a bulldozer to clear a firebreak, but don't pretend that you are doing anything but damage to the environment.'\n\n'If you commercialise an environmental resource you do so to make money. Don't pretend that it also benefits the environment.'\n\nSpanning fifty thousand years and an entire continent, The Pure State of Nature presents a passionate account of the Australian environment. The myths that abound in popular and scientific writing, the 'theories' and fancies about the place of humans in the ecology of this vast landmass, are subjected to scrutiny. In particular, the author demolishes the widely accepted orthodoxy about the use of fire by Aborigines and their supposed part in the extinction of the .