Fire Histories and Rainforest Aboriginal Archaeology in the Wet Tropics Bioregion, North Queensland

Unlike the dominant Australian savanna‐sclerophyll vegetation, tropical rainforests do not burn easily. Any evidence of fire in Australian rainforests therefore invites explanations of its source. Analysis of 187 radiocarbon dates that include selected charcoal fragments from 23 soil pits and 7 archaeological sites from the Wet Tropics Bioregion (WTB) in far North Queensland, suggests a strong relationship between natural and cultural firing regimes over many millennia. The magnitude and frequency of fire represented in the charcoal chronology challenge previous arguments that rainforest experienced a reduction in firing through the Holocene. The results throw new light on the origin and continuation of isolated eucalypt forest pockets within Australia's tropical rainforest.