If you make fire in the hot and dry season, it's much more likely to transform into a raging uncontrollable wildfire. First Australians are very careful about when they use fire for terraforming. They choose a time of year and a time of day when the risk is low, and they examine the soil to check on the microbial conditions. An Elder who's experienced in traditional practices can look at a handful of dirt and tell you how hot the fire will burn.

When they light the fire under the right conditions, the temperature is very low, as fire goes. It's easy to control. It'll burn away the fallen leaves and the scrub, but it will leave the older trees untouched. Before they light the fire, they'll warn the animals and give them a chance to retreat. The insects will climb up the trees and be safe up there. See, western domestication is about controlling animals, but in Australia, the animals have evolved over tens of thousands of years to listen to the people. The insects know when to climb the trees to get away from the fire because the people tell them.

Until recently, Indigenous people near white cities were prevented from doing their traditional burning. So the scrub grew out of control, and when a fire happened by accident because of teenagers or lightning or shards of glass, the wildfires were out of control. Still are, in some places. So in recent years, white people have started listening to the First Australians about the traditional burnings. Because they don't want their houses to burn down.

But traditional burning is about much more than just stopping wildfires. It's a tool to shape the landscape. When the European invaders first arrived here, they wrote about how the land was like a garden estate. It was paradise. Grassy plains with scattered trees providing shade and fruit for humans and animals alike. That environment isn't an accident, it was engineered to be like that. Using fire. It's what an Indigenous farm looks like.

So you can imagine how angry the Indigenous people got when the whities showed up, built fences through their farms, banned traditional burning, and let their sheep and cattle poop in the water supplies.