REKINDLING CULTURAL BURNING

Cultural burn lowers fire risk

Community rekindles cultural burning on Country in Cowarra State Forest.

One of the significant changes post-Black Summer was the recognition that standard methods of fire risk mitigation could sometimes worsen rather than improve the situation. During that awful season, failed backburns in the Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains destroyed homes in Balmoral, Bilpin and Mount Wilson.

Traditional owners spoke up during the post-fires analyses, reminding investigators that they had been practicing cultural burns as part of their land management for thousands of years, and that the practice was highly applicable to many of the NSW and Victorian forests that had been affected.

Forestry Corporation of NSW was listening. Recently it participated in the Bunyah and Biripi cultural burn on Biripi Country in Cowarra State Forest, near Port Macquarie. It is the first of several cultural burns in NSW State Forests being led by Aboriginal communities under the Fire, Country and People program.

Bunyah Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) community firefighters led the cultural burn, marking a significant milestone in the return of traditional Aboriginal fire practices to State Forest management.

The burn brought together 15 community members, Elders, knowledge holders and young people, working alongside Forestry Corporation fire crews, to apply traditional fire knowledge passed down through the generations.

Amos Donovan, local Biripi man and CEO of Bunyah Local Aboriginal Land Council, led the burn, in partnership with Forestry Corporation.

He said: “This is not a hot burn, it’s a slow-moving, cool burn in the right conditions. Cultural burns do not harm the environment or wildlife.

“Each time our rangers do a cultural burn they are learning and the knowledge we hold is being passed down to our young firefighters.”

The Cowarra State Forest burn forms part of the Fire, Country and People: Aboriginal Community Disaster Ready Partnership Project, a three-year, $2.96 million initiative funded under the Australian Government’s Disaster Ready Fund with $1.48 million provided by the Australian Government and $1.48 million from the Forestry Corporation of NSW.

The project has been co-designed with Aboriginal communities, including the Bunyah LALC, to ensure community aspirations for cultural burning, disaster readiness and land stewardship are central to all activities.
John Shipp, FCNSW’s Aboriginal heritage and partnerships manager, said cultural burning plays an important role in caring for Country and building long-term community resilience.

“Cultural burning aims to apply fire to the landscape in the right place, at the right time and under the right conditions,” he said.

“Fire is applied at a scale that thins out mid-storey plants, without burning broad areas all at once as we see in high intensity bushfires.

“Burns are carried out when conditions allow for a low intensity, slow-moving and cool fire, allowing people and animals to move safely away from the flames, minimising harm to the forest canopy and maintaining healthy landscapes. The landscape can’t be too damp or too dry, and the burn may be deliberately patchy with some areas left unburnt to provide shelter and habitat for fauna.

“Burns are timed for when Country may trend toward being unwell if it is not treated through the re-introduction of traditional fire,” he added.

TEACHING OLD METHODS

Enews has been reliably informed that a group of environmental activists descended on the Forestry group during set-up for the burn, insisting that the area was now part of the Great Koala National Park and that FCNSW should not be working there.

FCNSW workers tried in vain to explain that the park was yet to be gazetted, there was no harvesting taking place, and that part of the transition program for the area involves continued fire management of the State Forests. It wasn’t until one of the Aboriginal Elders appeared and explained that it was a cultural burn that the embarrassed activists retreated.

Ecological benefits of cultural burning include reducing heavy fuel loads, opening the forest understorey, promoting grass growth and encouraging the return of native plants and animals not seen on Country for many years.

Traditional lighting methods are commonly used, including hand lighting with matches or traditional firesticks, particularly in open grassy forest types along ridges and mid-slopes.

Burn plans are prepared under Reviews of Environmental Factors or the Bushfire Assessment Code, with cultural context and knowledge added by each community. Cultural burn sites are prioritised with communities often along traditional pathways based on proximity to fire-affected communities, public infrastructure, important cultural locations and existing protection zones.

A formal research program is being established to build an evidence base for traditional Aboriginal fire management and its influence on the intensity and extent of bushfires. Photographic monitoring will be used to track changes in forest condition over time.

More than 60 Aboriginal people across the north coast have already received accredited fire training through the program, with dedicated cultural burning contracts negotiated with Aboriginal partner organisations to support employment and economic participation.

The partnership represents formal recognition that traditional fire knowledge has a critical role to play in managing Country, protecting communities and building resilience to major bushfire events.

Members of the Bunyah LALC Community have committed to returning to Cowarra State Forest on a seasonal basis to continue treating Country through ongoing cultural burning, ensuring the practice remains a living cultural tradition and an ongoing land management responsibility.

Uncle Bill O’Brien, who was part of the event, said, “Cultural burning has been happening for thousands of years, and we need to make sure it continues on, under the watch of future generations.”

MAIN PIC: Cultural burns are slow and leave areas of unaffected growth for wildlife. All images: Forestry Corporation of NSW