Impact on environment

European settlement severely impacts on environment. NSW Surveyor-General Major Mitchell writes “the omission of the annual periodical burning by natives, of grass and young saplings, has already produced in the open forest lands nearest Sydney, thick forests of young trees, where formerly a man might gallop without impediment and see miles before him”. (Bennett 1969)

  • Even by 1810 Koori people could no longer hunt near the inner harbour; courtesy Mitchell Library