Black Saturday bushfires

It found colonization resulted in increased fire temperature, eucalypt cover, and soil erosion.

Researchers say dangerous fire weather, such as that seen during Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday, occurred in the region repeatedly before colonization, yet open landscape maintained by cultural burning protected the land from catastrophic fire.

They say their findings prove the value of cultural burning and the need to integrate indigenous knowledge into fire management strategies.

A five-year collaboration between the CSIRO and pharmaceutical company Moderna aims to strengthen Australia's biosecurity capability.