[HN Gopher] From devastation to wonder as Kangaroo Island bushfi...
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From devastation to wonder as Kangaroo Island bushfires lead to
cave discoveries
Author : speckx
Score : 85 points
Date : 2025-12-15 21:01 UTC (6 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.abc.net.au)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.abc.net.au)
| ehnto wrote:
| That was a great read. I visited Kangaroo Island some months
| after the fire mentioned in the article, and the regrowth was
| something to behold. Vast sweeping hills of blackened tree
| trunks, all covered in winding regrowth in vivid greens, with
| flowering undergrowth spreading across the forest floor. The
| devastation was clear, but just as evident was that the ecosystem
| has the capability to withstand and thrive after a wildfire.
|
| It was an incredible trip, and the locals were very excited to
| have tourists supporting the economy there. I can highly
| recommend it, especially for anyone with a lean towards exploring
| nature. The free flight raptor show was very cool, you get to see
| a whole bunch of unique Australian birds in a fairly relaxed
| environment for the birds, sometimes they decide not to be part
| of the show and just fly away for a while.
|
| The landscape is indescribable, even for Australia which is
| already quite unique.
| gorfian_robot wrote:
| we did a christmas vacation there one year. spoke to the
| neighbors and the next thing you know we were jumped into the
| local christmas potluck celebration. my nephew even got called
| up on stage to see santa and get a present!
| larusso wrote:
| Just teaches you that wild fires, maybe not as devastating than
| that one, are parts of nature. They have a great exhibition at
| Wind Cave NP in South Dakota. They show a series of photos
| explaining how the prairie recovers after a wild fire. Seeing
| the number of days between the Fotos and how fast nature can
| recover at least visually is awesome.
| prawn wrote:
| I've been there several times including one memorable time
| after the fires, and like you said, the colour of the new
| undergrowth was remarkable - quite lurid and alien even. The
| fire prompted the grass trees to almost all throw up their
| flower spikes simultaneously which was stunning.
|
| I threw a few of my photos on Imgur in case anyone is
| interested. https://imgur.com/a/hERMF9O
| kris_golden wrote:
| Great photos! Thanks for posting this.
| inshard wrote:
| Nice page design and even nicer photography.
| achow wrote:
| Curious about the bushfire and recovery there after, found this
| from Lonely Planet (2023)..
|
| A dangerous mix of hot weather, highly flammable eucalyptus oils
| in the air and strong winds meant that flames quickly scorched
| their way through the vegetation, burning almost half of the land
| in the process.
|
| Australia's native flora and fauna regenerates and even thrives
| after burns; in fact, some seeds will only germinate after a
| fire.
|
| Kangaroo Island has turned out to be astonishingly resilient.
| Just 48 hours after the flames died down, a rock-like fungus
| started growing on the ash.
|
| As the fungus digested the ash, it changed the pH levels of the
| soil, allowing other microorganisms and eventually plants to take
| root. Some of the plants, says McKelvey, hadn't been seen for
| decades. Unlike on the Australian mainland, there were no rabbits
| to eat the new growth - meaning there was nothing to hold back
| the regeneration.
|
| It helped that donations flooded in from all over the world after
| the fires. This money helped to eliminate some of the feral pigs
| and cats that had been damaging the local ecosystem and killing
| endangered wildlife.
|
| Three years on, Flinders Chase National Park is as lush as ever,
| with thick undergrowth providing shelter for the island's camera-
| shy wallabies.
|
| The only reminder of the fires that ravaged this land? The
| blackened branches of eucalyptus trees poking out from the
| greenery below, giving the landscape an eerie, post-apocalyptic
| air.
|
| Providing a nesting ground for birds and habitat for insects,
| even these uncomfortable reminders will disappear in a couple of
| years, as they get swallowed up by the island's resilient
| vegetation.
|
| https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/kangaroo-island-south-aust...
| verisimi wrote:
| > Australia's native flora and fauna regenerates and even
| thrives after burns; in fact, some seeds will only germinate
| after a fire.
|
| Indeed. As is the case in most places where there are
| wildfires. I suppose using the word "devastation" is
| appropriate - fires create a radical change in the local
| environment - but the change is a necessary one for the local
| flora and fauna.
|
| Perhaps because humans like things to stay the same, and
| perhaps because these sorts of natural, inevitable changes
| aren't that common - most of us don't regularly see fires in
| our local environment - we label this change in an emotive way:
| devastating, despite the necessity of the thing.
| Peteragain wrote:
| There is an argument, perhaps no longer PC, that the
| indigenous population used fire to hunt, and so burnt off
| regularly. Fires these days are indeed devastating _because_
| we try to stop them. Established eucalyptus trees also thrive
| after a scrub fire; a "devastating" fire kills them.
| herdymerzbow wrote:
| Cultural burning is pretty much the current accepted
| understanding of how Australian indigenous people managed
| the land prior to colonisation.
|
| https://study.unimelb.edu.au/student-life/inside-
| melbourne/c...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-stick_farming
|
| Just want to reassure you that is not at all 'no longer
| PC'. If anything, the practice was banned by the coloniser
| - only for it more recently reintroduced.
| Peteragain wrote:
| Thanks for the confirmation!
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > Perhaps because humans like things to stay the same, and
| perhaps because these sorts of natural, inevitable changes
| aren't that common - most of us don't regularly see fires in
| our local environment - we label this change in an emotive
| way: devastating, despite the necessity of the thing.
|
| The problem is different IMHO. Humans have effectively
| terraformed our surroundings. We (i.e. everyone but the
| Romans where they had aqueducts) used to build _away_ from
| forests (or, where necessary, tear down the forests) for as
| long as we didn 't have motorized fire pumps, because it was
| simply too dangerous to build too near to forests.
|
| Nowadays? Land has gotten scarce, the only place where one
| still can get land is land that wasn't zoned for residential
| developments. And now that a lot of this land very close to
| forest boundaries has been settled, we routinely see
| devastation from forest fires.
|
| And, specifically to the US, their building style aka wood
| frames and cardboard makes the situation worse. Here in
| Europe, we had _devastating_ fires wipe out entire city
| blocks because embers flying around set other buildings
| ablaze in the long-distant past - but ever since a lot of our
| buildings were made out of brick and later on cement, it 's
| rare to see buildings on fire from a forest fire. Even in
| Croatia, where forest fires are a sad routine every summer
| (mostly from morons with cigarettes or glowing-hot DPFs
| parking illegally on dried out bush) and we got a looooot of
| questionably-legal settlement going on, it's rare that houses
| catch fire simply because the structure is so much more
| resilient.
| Peteragain wrote:
| I caved in South Australia many years ago and what is not obvious
| is that south Australian caves are predominantly horizontal and
| dry. I now live in the Peak District in the UK and caving is a
| muddy wet affair with too many ropes.
| gelatocar wrote:
| Whenever there are stories about bushfires in Australia there is
| inevitably discussion about how the regeneration is amazing and
| how fires are part of the ecosystem. While this is true to an
| extent, it is important to point out that in recent years due to
| climate change the frequency and intensity of the fires is
| causing huge ecosystem change to areas that are burnt multiple
| times before they can recover.
|
| https://connectsci.au/wf/article-abstract/25/8/831/21102/Too...
| ffuxlpff wrote:
| And on the other hand you need nature relative near where the
| life can move back to the burned ecosystem.
|
| If you only have a one plot of original nature as a kind of
| museum and that burns then it is goodbye.
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| They say this about cars, but it's true of everything else -
| "it's only original once".
| arkensaw wrote:
| what a fantastic presentation, I wish all news articles were like
| that
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| What a shitty website. I'm sure the stories and photos are
| interesting but I'm not scrolling my mouse wheel two screens
| worth to read a single sentence every time.
| evolve2k wrote:
| To be honest, it's a nicer experience on mobile as you can
| finger scroll at whatever pace works for you.
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