Restoring Australia's she-oaks means listening to Indigenous knowledges
In Australia, many Indigenous communities have connections and stories linked to the she-oak.
Australia's she-oak woodlands have suffered a drastic decline over the past few centuries, threatening the unique ecosystems and cultural heritage they support. She-oaks, also known as Casuarina or Allocasuarina, are wind-pollinated and fire-adapted trees that thrive in harsh Australian conditions. They produce small woody cones with winged seeds, enrich the soil with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and provide a home to various wildlife, including bandicoots and glossy black-cockatoos.
GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders have maintained these woodlands for millennia, using fire as a tool to manage the ecosystem. However, she-oaks are now the worst-hit major native vegetation group in Australia, having lost more than 40% of their pre-European range. Restoration efforts often rely on historical baselines, such as the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS), which models what vegetation looked like before European colonization.
But these baselines fail to account for the presence and influence of Indigenous people, leading to an inaccurate picture of the pre-colonial landscape. A study co-designed with the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation found that Ngarrywayt, a peninsula in Gippsland, Victoria, once held a she-oak grassy woodland that remained resilient through climate shifts and long dry spells.
Fire activity and European settlement drastically changed the ecosystem, tipping it towards flammable eucalypt forest. Integrating Indigenous knowledge into restoration plans is crucial for restoring the correct ecosystem and preserving both cultural heritage and ecological balance.
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