In 1959, two papers that laid the foundations for the modern perspective on Australian rainforest ecology were published. Webb (1959) published the first systematic classification of Australian rainforest vegetation across its geographic range from Tasmania to the monsoon tropics. His project highlighted the enormous variability of Australian rainforest, notwithstanding that he excluded the transitional or ecotonal vegetation that often separates rainforests from sclerophyll vegetation from consideration. Coincidentally, Gilbert (1959) explored the dynamics of a peculiar Tasmanian forest type that was transitional between Nothofagus cunninghamii rainforest and tall Eucalyptus regnans forest. Gilbert's study was important in crystallising our perception of the importance of fire in Australian forest ecology in general and in the dynamics of Nothofagus rainforest boundaries in particular.

A decade later, two influential papers advanced this early work. Webb (1968) considered the environmental forces that limit the distribution of Australian rainforest. Although emphasizing a multiplicity of forces, Webb identified the fundamental importance of fire in influencing the distribution of rainforest throughout its range. In the same year, Jackson (1968) integrated a large number of ideas about the dynamic response of western Tasmanian vegetation, including Nothofagus rainforest, to landscape fires. Two important concepts were developed in this paper: the evolutionary relationship between fire and vegetation, and the effect on secondary successions of the variation in the interval between successive fires.

In 1969, Jones published a paper which articulated the view that Aborigines had intentionally modified their environment, including rainforest, using fire.