With Their Land In Flames, Aboriginals Warn Fires Show Deep Problems In Australia

Before Britain started sending convicts to the continent in the 1700's, Aboriginal Australians used fire to manage brushlands and forests across the continent.

Noel Butler — who's known even to the fire crews at the end of his road as "Uncle Noel" — and his wife, Trish, used to run the Nuragunya Aboriginal culture and education camp deep in a forest in the state of New South Wales.

But last week, an inferno swept through their canyon.

"That's what's left of our house," Butler says, pointing at a pile of charred timbers, ash and twisted sheet metal. "That was a two story A-frame house which I built."

The inferno torched his house, the camp, his workshop and the surrounding woods for miles. The ground is covered in powdery ash. Every tree trunk is charred black. Some of them still smolder.

"Not a single thing is left. It's all absolutely, completely destroyed."