20 president's address. 



I had a similar experience in North Queensland, on the 

 rolling downs country, where the natives set fire to the spini- 

 fex ridges on the head of the Gilbert River, and sent twenty 

 miles of flame through the long grass. Giles constantly refers 

 to this habit : "To the north, west, and south-west the natives 

 were hunting, and, as usual, burning the spinifex before 

 them." Again, he says, speaking of the intense heat at 

 Uder: "Nevertheless, the natives were about, burning, ever 

 burning, one would think they were the fabled salamander 

 race, ancl live on fire instead of water." 



Before the advent of white men, the greater part of the 

 surface of Australia was fire-swept towards the end of the 

 summer, even the coastal parts being sometimes burnt out ; n 

 large areas, as happened on the historic Black Thursday, 

 when, in 1851, the greater part of Victoria and New South 

 Wales was one great bushfire. 



We can now consider the most striking changes that came 

 with civilisation, and the passing of the aboriginals as a 

 nation of hunters, the first of which was the enormous in- 

 crease of the indigenous animals and large birds, not only 

 caused by the disappearance of the native, but also by the 

 partial extermination of the dingos and wild dogs, both of 

 which lived upon the. native fauna. The laying of poisoned 

 baits by the squatters, for these pests, killed off large num- 

 bers of carnivorous birds, which also checked the undue in- 

 crease of wild game. 



This remarkable increase of marsupials, in particular, was 

 very noticeable even in the early fifties. Wheelwright, in 

 his "Bush Wanderings," when speaking of game, says that 

 his party of kangaroo-shooters killed 2,000 in the season 

 within thirty miles of Melbourne. And all over the forest- 

 country, kangaroo-drives were the only way of keeping the 

 larger marsupials within bounds. In both New South Wales 

 and Queensland, Acts were passed, making it compulsory for 

 the squatters to destroy kangaroos ; an assessment per capita 

 was made on all sheep and cattle, inspectors were appointed, 



