Fire a valuable friend in Indigenous burning

Much of their 40,000 years of knowledge has been lost in the region, but the Kiewa Catchment Landcare Groups have conducted a project to bring the idea back.

The groups joined with Indigenous people, Border landowners, North East Catchment Management Authority and the CFA for a collaboration, which ran from 2013 to 2015 with $45,000 in federal government funding.

The project last week won for community-led prevention and preparedness at the Fire Awareness Awards.

Landcare secretary Belinda Pearce said it was exciting the groups found common ground in a sometimes controversial area.

“One of the aims was to try to reintroduce Aboriginal burning regimes back to our area,” she said.

“With the number of fires increasing, it's never been more important.”

Fire was used as a land management tool on two trial sites in Talgarno and one in Baranduda to reduce fuel and rejuvenate native grass.

Previous attempts at fuel reduction burns were considered risky and a promoter of weeds.

Ms Pearce said Indigenous elders believed the Europeans had a fear of fire, but they used it as a friend and a tool.

Their method was cool, mosaic burns.

“It should be so slow that ants could get out of the way,” Ms Pearce said.

Alongside the community award, the Landcare groups were also awarded $5000.

“For this to be recognised in this way is wonderful,” Ms Pearce said.

She said it was unexpected and members would use the prize money to continue their work.

“We're really keen to get young Indigenous people doing work on the land,” Ms Pearce said.

“Historically, this land was never just let go, it was actively managed by the Aboriginals.”

When members assess vegetation last year, they found burning had increased native grass species.

Field trials were continuing to measure how the program worked.

“It's really just putting the subject on the agenda and saying ‘this is something we should be talking about’,” Ms Pearce said.