Hidden clues in colonial journals reveal why Tasmania’s remote west keeps burning
- Written by David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania
In 1830, the Palawa people were in the midst of their guerilla war against the British colonists taking their land in what is now Tasmania. After flaring in the mid-1820s, intensifying violence had claimed hundreds of First Nations and settler lives. In response, the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, Sir George Arthur, commissioned the preacher...





