CYCLE OF FIRE
STEPHEN J. PYNE
“Cycle of Fire” is a suite of books that collectively narrate the story
of how fire and humanity have interacted to shape the Earth.
“Cycle” is an apt description of how fire functions in the natural world.
Yet “cycle” also bears a mythic connotation: a set of sagas
that tell the life of a culture hero. Here that role belongs to fire.
Ranging across all continents and over thousands of years,
the Cycle shows Earth to be a fire planet in which
carbon-based terrestrial life and an oxygen-rich atmosphere
have combined to make combustion both elementary and inevitable.
Equally, the Cycle reveals humans as fire creatures, alternately
dependent upon and threatened by their monopoly over combustion.
Fire’s possession began humanity’s great dialogue with the Earth.
“Cycle of Fire” tells, for the first time, that epic story.
World Fire: The Culture of Fire on Earth
Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told through Fire,of Europe and Europe’s Encounter with the World
Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire
Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia
The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica
“Cycle of Fire” is part of Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books,
published by the University of Washington Press
under the general editorship of William Cronon.
A complete list of Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books
appears at the end of this volume.
“Mr. Phipps and Bowman engaging the blacks who attempted to burn us out, March 15, 1856, Depot Creek, Victoria River,” by Thomas Baines. Courtesy Royal Geographical Society.
BURNING BUSH
A Fire History of Australia
STEPHEN J. PYNE
With a Foreword by William Cronon and a New Preface by the Author
University of Washington Press
Seattle & London
Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia by Stephen J. Pyne has been published with the assistance of a grant from the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books Endowment, established by the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation, members of the Weyerhaeuser family, and Janet and Jack Creighton.
Copyright © 1991 by Stephen J. Pyne
First published by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., New York
Paperback edition published by the University of Washington Press in 1998
Foreword and Preface to the University of Washington Press
paperback edition copyright © 1998 by the University of Washington Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 0–295–97677–2
Maps by Barbara Trapido
TO SONJA, LYDIA, MOLLY—
tolerant pynes who made room for gums
Contents
Preface to the 1998 Paperback Edition
Preface to the Original Edition: Firestick History
2. Unimaginable Freaks of Fire: Profile of a Pyrophyte
3. Red Centre: Fire Regimes of Old Australia
6. Firestick Farmer: Profile of a Pyrophile
8. Smokes by Day, Fires by Night: Fire Regimes of Aboriginal Australia
9. This Wonderful Depository of Fire
11. Reconnaissance by Fire: Education of a Pyrophile
15. Burning Off: Fire Provinces of European Australia