Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, bushland is a blanket term for land which supports remnant vegetation or land which is disturbed but still retains a predominance of the original

floristics Floristics is the study of plants of geographical regions. It is a branch of phytogeography, which technically makes it a branch of botany, geography, and a subbranch of biogeography. Harvard University has a history of research with early contr ...

and structure. Human survival in bushland has a whole mythology evolving around it, with the stories of Aboriginal trackers and

bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...

s deeply entrenched in Australian folklore. Bushland has been a traditional source of wood for fuel and

bushfood Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and historically eaten by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora, fauna, or fungi used for culinary or medicinal ...

. Bushland provides a number of

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the various benefits that humans derive from Ecosystem, ecosystems. The interconnected Biotic_material, living and Abiotic, non-living components of the natural environment offer benefits such as pollination of crops, clean ...

including the protection of water quality, stopping erosion, acting as a windbreak, and trapping nutrients. Bushland is prone to

bushfires A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

. This presents a challenge to authorities as infrastructure and habitations encroach into bushland areas.

Preservation

Until recently Australia had a very high rate of

land clearing Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About ...

, which resulted in the destruction of bushland. Since 2006 the rate of land clearing has declined significantly. This is partially attributed to legislation that placed a ban on broad scale clearing of mature bushland in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in 2006 and an expansion of those bans to regrowing bushland with a high conservation value in 2009. In

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

bushfires cause the greatest destruction of bushland, followed by land clearing for crops, grazing, road and buildings. Bushland preservation has become the focus of some conservation efforts. In Brisbane, the Brisbane City Council has established a Bushland Acquisition Program, which is funded by a small levy paid by rate-payers. The program began in 1990 and aims to protect

koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

habitat from urban development. It is estimated that the koala population in the area had declined from 6,240 in 1996 to 1,500 in 2012.

References

{{Reflist Vegetation of Australia Rural culture in Oceania

Preservation

See also

References