Visitors From The North East
Posted on 29 May, 2015 by Connecting Country
Brendon Kennedy is the state-wide Aboriginal Landcare Facilitator for Victoria, based with the North East Catchment Management Authority in Wodonga. He will be coming to Castlemaine on the 19th June 2015 to talk at the Mount Alexander Landcare Forum.
Brendon will be joined by local ecologist Paul Foreman to talk about a project that they have both been part of, which is trialing the use of traditional fire knowledge to manage native pastures in north east Victoria.
An article about the project appeared in the Autumn edition of the Victorian Landcare Magazine and is reproduced below.
There are still places available at the forum so please register your place with Max (max@connectingcountry.org.au) if you would like to learn about this innovative project, and others, at the Forum in June.
New approaches to sharing ancient fire knowledge
Written by Belinda Pearce.
‘Landcare groups in parts of north east Victoria are partnering with Traditional Owners to revive the use of traditional fire knowledge. The partners are using fire as a land management tool to reduce fuel loads and are conducting field trials to rejuvenate native grasses, train young Indigenous men and regenerate healthy ecosystems.
News of this innovative work is spreading through trial burns, public forums and the production of films that capture and share experiences. As a result farmers, natural resource management agencies and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) are now involved.
Responding to the 2006 fires
Cape York Traditional Owners (left to right) Peta-Marie Standly, Dorothy Pootchemunka, Dawn Koondumbin and in the foreground Joel Ngallametta, inspect native grass species at Bonegilla as part of a traditional fire knowledge exchange program.
Traditional Owners became involved in the revival of traditional fire knowledge in the north east following devastating fires in the region in 2006. Traditional Owners from Cape York in far north Queensland were saddened by the tragic events and offered to share their knowledge with countrymen in the south.
Traditional Fire Revival coordinator Peta-Marie Standley said “It hurt our hearts up here (Cape York) when you guys had those horrible fires because it doesn’t need to happen.”
Over the next four years Cape York Traditional Owners visited the north east, talking at Landcare events, participating in an Indigenous fire forum in 2013 and talking to the local Aboriginal community. As a further sign of support, the group invited local people to attend workshops in the Cape where traditional burning is an annual event.
Over this period, Landcare networks in the north east identified that local landholders were interested in learning how to better manage and preserve threatened Grassy Box Gum Woodlands ecosystems on their properties, particularly where fuel loads were increasing and creating a potential fire risk.
Previous attempts at fuel reduction burns were considered risky and a promoter of weeds. In 2013 the Kiewa Catchment Landcare Groups secured Caring for Our Country funding to start undertaking fire trials in the region.
Establishing trial sites
Native grass regrowth after fire compared to unburnt dry grass (at right).
The group selected three trial sites, two in Talgarno and one in Baranduda, and a project ecologist [Paul Foreman] was appointed to set up the trial design. The aims of the trial were to measure the impact of fire on weed and exotic species, provide local guidelines on how traditional fire knowledge can be incorporated into land management practices and provide opportunities for Indigenous people to undertake cultural practices on country.
Two of the trial sites are located on grazing properties (beef and sheep), so a graze/no graze component was included at these sites. Overall, the four treatments were burn/no burn and grazed/ungrazed. The ungrazed plots were fenced out to prevent grazing.
Each treatment plot was 10 metres by 10 metres in size and treatments were replicated three times to add some robustness to our results. This meant a total of 30 plots were assessed in January 2014 for species diversity and abundance. There were 81 plant species across the sites – 40 native and 41 exotic species. The most common native species were weeping grass and slender wallaby grass and the most common exotic species were flat weed, sheep sorrel and soft brome.
The plan was to undertake burns once the autumn break had arrived. The break came very early in 2014, resulting in considerable soil moisture, damp litter and greening of vegetation.
Early break produces cool burn
In May 2014 the group attempted to burn but found that the conditions were too moist. Only one of the trial sites had enough dry matter for the burn to take hold.
Vegetation assessments undertaken in November 2014 showed that the burn plots had an increased number of native grass species and a reduction in the abundance of exotic cover compared to the no burn plots. It was felt that a more marked response could be obtained had the fire been hotter.
The Landcare groups are aiming to learn from the experience and are looking forward to undertaking burns at the three sites this autumn.
One of the real highlights has been the partnership between landholders, Landcare groups, Traditional Owners, CFA volunteers and the North East CMA. Each component partner has been vital to the success of the project.
To view a short film about native grasses and the fire trials go to www.youtube.com/northeastcma (CLICK HERE), or visit www.burraja.com/films/ (CLICK HERE) to view a film on traditional burning knowledge.
Belinda Pearce is the Landcare Facilitator with the Kiewa Catchment and Upper Ovens Valley Landcare Groups. For further information email Belinda Pearce at belinda.pearce@landcarevic.net.au
Thank you to Belinda and the Victorian Government for allowing us to reproduce the article.
I would like to come to this talk and to bring one friend. Please confirm location and talk details. Thank you.
Sarah Austin
Hi Sarah,
Great to hear that you and your friend can make it.
The location is the Campbells Creek Community Centre in Elizabeth St, Campbells Creek. There is more information about it on the Connecting Country website here:http://connectingcountry.org.au/landcare/mount-alexander-landcare-forum-2015/
Look forward to seeing you there.
Cheers,
Max