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Image of a group of people conducting cultural burning in Australian bushland during a workshop in Queensland's Scenic Rim.

Cultural burning: Fighting fire with fire

Each year bushfire season is accepted as part of our Australian experience, with wildfires devastating communities and vast areas of bushland. Right now this may seem unlikely after all the floods in Eastern Australia this year, but the fall out is that all the rain will generate significant bushland growth, providing a lot of potential fuel as we head into bushfire season.

This is the prediction of Leeton Leigh, the South East Queensland Coordinator for the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation who said that within his region, post all the recent rain, the landscape was “gearing up” to have the same potential risk as the devastating 2019/20 bushfires.

The Firesticks Alliance provides Indigenous leadership, advocacy and action to protect Country through cultural fire and land management practices, which have reduced bushfire risk in Australia for 50,000 years.

50,000 years of effective land management

We were privileged to be Welcomed to Country by Traditional Owner, Lakota Thompson and witness a cultural burning workshop led by Leeton to learn about the practice and get a closer look at how this fire method helps prevent uncontrolled bushfires.

Leeton was working alongside Traditional Owners from Wirrinyah Conservation Services on Yuggera Country near Boonah, Southern Queensland. Those attending the cultural burning workshop spanned local property owners, Landcare representatives, and workers from Bunya People’s Aboriginal Corporation.

Attendees were keen to build on their own skills and learn more about this practice that has been an integral part of Aboriginal culture for tens of thousands of years.

Like vacuuming the forest floor

Through the workshop, Leeton stepped through what happens before, during and after a cultural burn. Leeton lit a number of small patches of grass and talked about how this will help revive native plants to flourish and push out introduced species.

The small fires are designed to burn slowly enough to allow insects and animals to escape and wildlife like birds recognise the practice and hang around to be rewarded with an opportune meal. He said cultural burns were like giving the forest floor a good vacuum to allow the right vegetation to grow, that in turn also brings native animals.

He also reaffirmed that the timing of the burn was so that the bushland holding so much moisture had time to dry out – these burns are often called “Storm Burns” as they take place after a storm or significant rain event has taken place.

Jake Anderson from Wirrinyah also helped facilitate the workshop. He demonstrated from the previous day’s burn where flames were kept low so the tree canopy did not ignite and only the outside of the bottom bark of the trees was burnt. Both Jake and Leeton spoke of the importance of how cool burning supports soils to improve, retain all the essential native seeds and enables them to hold more moisture.

Soil is everything

Linda Kimba from Boonah Landcare who was part of the day’s workshop also reaffirmed the importance of cultural burning for the preservation of the soil.

“Soil is everything, with cultural burns or cool burns, the essential microbiomes in the soil, that are so vital to everything, are not lost.”

She explained that with cool burns, all the life giving seeds and elements of the soil were kick started by a cool burn which then boosted native habitat and attracted wildlife.

Linda also spoke about the importance of the workshops and the work that Leeton and Firesticks do to increase the number of Indigenous fire practitioners around the country. She explained the importance of cultural burns as an ongoing practice and that a land clearing burn once every 10-20 years does not help communities prepare bushland at risk of bushfires.

Black Summer Bushfire beckons

Leeton also emphasised that as we live in a country regularly at risk of bushfire and with our experience of the Black Summer Bushfires, how important it was to prepare for bushfire season.

He hoped that after such devastation, loss of life including wild life and habitat that governments, businesses and land owners turn to land management techniques that have been used for tens of thousands of years to maintain and care for our beautiful country.

Ongoing bushfire recovery

The Black Summer Bushfire Grants Program is helping communities recover and build back better after the devastating 2019-20 bushfires. This includes providing funding to the Firesticks Alliance to share cultural knowledge and deliver training, jobs and business development in cultural burning. Through this project, Firesticks Alliance is reviving cultural burning which plays an important role in reducing risk and preparing Australia for future disasters.

Related articles: Knowing The Australian Fire Danger Ratings Could Save Your Life