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 partnerships

Aboriginal communities across NSW are working with Forestry Corporation to integrate cultural burning into government bushfire management frameworks.

These local partnerships, under the Federal Government-funded program Fire, Country and People, aim to strengthen community resilience to major bushfire events and improve land management practices across traditional Aboriginal lands.

As part of this initiative, members of the Western Bundjalung, Yaegl, Gumbaynggirr, Bunyah and Birpai communities have attended fire training sessions at Jubullum, Grafton and Port Macquarie over the past year.

This has occurred under partnerships with the Western Bundjalung community’s Ngullingah Jugun Aboriginal Corporation, the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Land Council, the Birpai Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Bunyah Local Aboriginal Land Council.

The Fire, Country and People project is a three-year $3-million program funded by the Australian Government and jointly supported by Forestry Corporation.

Delivered by fire training specialists Fireground, the training has provided accredited firefighting qualifications to members of the Northern Rivers, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie/Hastings Aboriginal communities.

The program equips participants with essential firefighting skills and fosters collaboration between Aboriginal communities and government agencies, combining traditional cultural burning methods with modern firefighting techniques.

The Fire, Country and People project will include a research component to build a scientific evidence base around cultural burning, investigating its impact on bushfire intensity and spread.

This approach supports the integration of Indigenous knowledge into broader fire management frameworks, contributing to sustainable and culturally informed land stewardship.

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