Prolonged drought, unprecedented bush fires, devastation of our unique bio-diversity has plunged the country into shock and grief. As a result many of our farmers are in crisis, many families have lost homes, and towns are running out of water.

Unlike the massive losses of two world wars, this is a crisis of nature amplified by an Anglo-Celtic culture foreign to our natural environment. But one thing Donald Horne said still holds true: We still have second-rate leaders, at least at the federal level.

Our federal leaders have ignored the warnings of climate scientists who have been warning that this would happen for at least 20 years. Those leaders that did try to do something were cut down by vested interests driven by ideology and greed. The present incumbents even ignored the fire chiefs 12 months ago of the dangers that this summer would present.

However, leadership at state government levels has been good and local communities are showing the way forward. I have come to the conclusion that long-term solutions to our climate crisis now have to be local.

Australia needs to urgently change our energy systems as children in the streets have been screaming out at us and many shire councils and states are doing. It seems the future lies in bypassing the Commonwealth government which seems to be hopelessly bogged down in climate denial and in-fighting. In such a mess they are unable to make the big decisions many people are crying out for.

Australia will survive through local, rural and regional communities and states working together in harmony to forge a way forward, so providing real leadership that Donald Horne so yearned for.

I read with some interest Bob Lee's letter (The Border Mail, January 25).

I would have to take issue with his claim that prior to European settlement the land was "rolling parkland, scattered trees and isolated scrub blocks".

This is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. He obviously has not read Polish explorer Paul Strzelecki's account of travelling through the ranges that now bear his name. He described the land "nearly impenetrable, scrub interwoven with grasses and gigantic trees, fallen and scattered in profusion".

He, like so many other people seem to be propagating the argument that Indigenous people burnt vast tracks of land. There is certainly evidence that grassland was burnt but we have no idea how frequently, to what extent and for what purpose.

There is no evidence that Indigenous people fired Alpine areas or even penetrated the dense forests. Environmental historian William Lines has stated that "Aboriginal occupation only lightly touched the environment and did not fundamentally alter the natural fecundity of the land".

No one doubts that a controlled cool burn within a limited area can be beneficial but the Aboriginal fire regime is being hijacked by those who want to increase prescribed burning and log our National parks, whilst denying that climate change is the real problem. This is the real madness.