Fire, Country and People: Aboriginal community disaster ready partnership project

At Forestry Corporation, we are proud to be leading a three-year project to bring together traditional cultural burning knowledge with government disaster management programs. This work will reduce the risk, severity and impacts of major bushfire events on the NSW Mid-North and North Coast.

The project will work to enhance the community and government response to major bushfire events on the NSW State forest estate and fulfil community aspirations for cultural burning.

The project will engage with a range of communities across the Mid-North and North Coast to design and deliver the program.

It is an opportunity for Aboriginal communities and government agencies to develop a path forward for effective and sustainable bushfire management.

This project will:

• demonstrate the use of traditional knowledge and practices in effective bushfire management
• engage local Aboriginal people in the co-design of the program
• provide training and employment for Aboriginal people in disaster readiness and response
• improve the community’s resilience to major bushfire events.

Working with Community to co-design

The 2019-20 bushfires disproportionately affected Aboriginal communities. Forestry Corporation is committed to bringing together Aboriginal communities of the Mid-North and North Coast to develop a program to reduce these bushfire risks through traditional burning practices.

Aboriginal communities will co-design this program, identifying local Aboriginal aspirations and requirements for natural disaster readiness, response and recovery. This will include how traditional ecological knowledge (such as traditional fire management regimes and practices) is integrated with forested land fire management regimes.

A Project Advisory Group, comprising Aboriginal communities representatives and other land management agencies, will be established to guide the development of the program.

Helping build the evidence base

Cultural burning has many benefits for Country and people.

A research program will be established to understand the effect of traditional Aboriginal fire management practices and regimes on the intensity and extent of bushfires.

Partnerships between Aboriginal communities, universities and government agencies will supply data on the social, cultural, economic and ecological benefits that can be achieved at the landscape level.

Helping protect assets

Communities will work with Forestry Corporation staff to identify suitable locations to conduct a series of cultural burning trial sites.

Locations will be prioritised based on criteria determined in collaboration with communities. They may include areas where there are vulnerable communities and public infrastructure, important cultural locations and values and existing protection zones.

This will help demonstrate how key community assets can be protected from major bushfire events through specific management practices.

Training and employment

Training and employment for Aboriginal communities and Rangers will be provided throughout the program, guided by the evidence base and co-design process.

This project intends to build capabilities in disaster readiness and contribute to Aboriginal communities' aspirations of land management. Together, we are working to increase employment and training opportunities beyond the project.

Find out more about our partnerships with Aboriginal communities.

Old practices rekindled in new firefighting partnership

The Western Bundjalung community’s Ngullingah Jugun Aboriginal Corporation is working with Forestry Corporation to bring together knowledge of cultural burning with government bushfire management.

A fire training course has been held in Jubullum Village, near Tabulam, made possible through Fire, Country and People, a three-year Australian Government-funded project.

Fire and incident management specialists Fireground provided the accredited firefighting training to members of the Western Bundjalung community.

Forestry Corporation’s Aboriginal Heritage and Partnerships Manager John Shipp said the fire training will improve both the community and government response to wildfires.

“This program creates an opportunity for the Jubullum community to work with government agencies to develop a path forward for effective and sustainable bushfire management,” Mr Shipp said.

“This will improve the resilience of the community to major bushfires.

“The use of fire in the environment is only one aspect of the community’s land management, which has existed for sixty-odd thousand years,” he said.

Ngullingah Jugun Aboriginal Corporation CEO Ryan Walker said the training will better prepare the community to respond to bushfires with firefighting agencies.

“Having 20 accredited firefighters in our community will build on our capacity to fight fires alongside government agencies, create work opportunities locally and give our people the ability to better prepare for bushfire emergencies,” Mr Walker said.

“With government agencies listening to our community on fire management and taking on board our approach to managing the environment this will help the broader community to avoid bushfires in the future,” he said.

Federal Minister for Emergency Management Jenny McAllister said this partnership integrates traditional knowledge with contemporary fire management practices to protect our communities.

“The Albanese Government is partnering with state governments and communities to enhance local resilience across the country,” Minister McAllister said.

Fire, Country and People will also help to build the scientific evidence base behind cultural burning.

A research program will look to understand the effect that traditional Aboriginal fire practices have on the intensity and extent of bushfires.

The $2,957,632 Fire, Country and People: Aboriginal Community Disaster Ready Project has received funding from the Australian Government’s Disaster Ready Fund and is jointly funded by Forestry Corporation.

This Fire, Country and People: Aboriginal community disaster ready partnership project received funding from the Australian Government.