CULTURAL burning is helping foster local relationships and nurture the land.
The Mununjali Men’s Group, Maibin Jahyilah Yahgilah Inc, organised traditional burns around Beaudesert and toward Canungra in August, in a joint exercise with the Firesticks Alliance and Queensland Parks.
The three days of cultural workshops in the region with Victor Steffensen from Firesticks rounded out a traditional burn training program.
The program ran over two years through state and federal bushfire recovery funding secured by Dale Anderson from the men’s group.
The training program covered fire science, behaviour, fire ecology and fire in the Australian landscape, traditional reading of country (seasons, plants, animals and weather), strategic, operational and tactical fire ground planning, forest ecology plant and tree identification, practical fire planning, permits, safety and preparation and traditional burn practice.
Dale, a Kurnai man and retired scientist and farmer with experience in burning country, said he and Mununjali man Germaine Paulson selected locations for the workshops.
“To plan these three days, we selected four possible properties and locations, hoping conditions would be ok,” he said.
“I also called my friend Wil Buch (Lamington National Park Ranger in Charge) and suggested a joint burn to build relationships with parks, this had never been done before.
“Nindooinbah was too dry and dangerous, Minjelha Dhagun (at Barney View) was okay to burn following 4mm of rain the day before, the next day it was too dry and dangerous to burn, Round Mountain wasn’t ready, toodry and hot and Snake Ridge (near O’Reilly’s) was absolutely perfect.”
Dale spoke with passion about the whole exercise, particularly the burn at Snake Ridge, on Wangerriburra Country.
“It was in my opinion the most surreal and culturally significant burn I’ve ever experienced,” he said.
“The fire was slow and cool, all of us moved in and about and through and over the fire as it burned, we were part of the fire, we cleaned debris from significant trees, we laughed and yarned, rangers and mob, listened and learned, all the while right in and on the fire ground. We became part of the fire itself and the country sang its fire song to us and spoke to it.”
