Hi Some friends and i are starting a project in the northern territory. We have a 250 acre block fairly deep into the bush and it is mostly surrounded by wilds existing as public, crown and private land. The back of the block leads away into a big wilderness full of billabongs waterfalls and valleys. It leads to parts very remote. We have adapted the abundant proportion of zone 5 into our design. My friend came up with a brilliant idea, basically to grow all kinds of things that ferals love to raid, and essentially work the boundary like a trapyard. We are also getting a micro abbiotar up and running, things are going quite well with the licensing and all that stuff, the government fellow is quite enthused! But all this zone 5 has had me thinking and i am going to put it out there: human rewilding into zone 5, to some extent. I know that it would be yet more ferals, but i was thinking that the whole area is chock full of ferals doing harm, maybe the addition of one more could help bring the whole into balance. An example could be where we have enormous problems throughout the area with gamba grass, it grows about twelve to fifteen feet high in the wet season, and then left ungrazed it drys out in the dry season and then when it burns it reaches temperatures around 1500c. This kills all of what little soil life developed over the wet and boils the bark in trees, it creates conditions where only more gamba can thrive. The fire cycle up there has gone nuts, full of shocking feedbacks, creating a desert of gamba and eucalypt. A speargrass fire is a mild inconvenience by comparison. Some semi/seasonally nomadic humans could exist herding and mobbing cattle on the gamba where it responds well and grows nice sweet shoots and is little threat in the dry. Learning and mastering of low stress stock handling and setting could see all those scrubbers replaced with managed herds and the function of keystone species put into play, stopping those extreme fires. If the right methods were used and the permaculture ethics were followed, could it be done with a net positive effect?
ferals what? feral people? feral cattle? ... scrubbers? seems possible. would wonder about how such people would respect structures or fences in the areas closer to your homes and more prime grazing areas if you are trying to raise gardens or crops for market.
Hi songbird There are ferals of all kind, pigs, cattle, cats, wild pig dog mongrels, many introduced pasture species etc. Scrubbers refer to wild cattle, they go bush and without an apex predator, their grazing patterns arent effective in keeping those introduced mega tropical grasses in the life cycle they're evolved for, so they burn very hot and gas off biomass in tonnes, killing nearly everything. As far as feral humans go, you make a good point, it would be inconvenient to have them become another pest and break fences and raid crops. Maybe that could be something they can address with the permaculture ethics, like don't overbreed and go bugging the domestics, they could maybe write that stuff into their songs and stories. The big thing is that the land - to me anyway, still remains the country of traditional owners, and they have the say on what happens there, and they wouldn't like another pest.
crazyideas I am curious as to where you are and your ideas. I know this is a old post but if you get it please contact me as my family and I live up north. thanks. luke [email protected]