IN PHOTOS: CULTURAL BURNING TRANSFORMING COUNTRY AND FOSTERING RELATIONSHIPS IN QUEENSLAND

In response to the devastating 2019-20 bushfires, WWF-Australia launched the Australian Nature and Wildlife Recovery Fund (AWNRF). Thanks to the generous contributions from supporters and partners worldwide, we raised $51 million for wildlife and nature recovery.

This fund supported over 250 projects and allowed us to partner with more than 75 Indigenous organisations and communities as they worked to regenerate Country, many through cultural burning projects such as the Cultural Fire Management for Grazing Landscapes project.

Transforming Queensland grazing country with right-way fire

An extraordinary partnership between NQ Dry Tropics, the Firesticks Alliance, WWF-Australia, Gugu Badhun Traditional Owners and local graziers is harnessing the power of Traditional Knowledge to heal the land, unite communities, and pave the way for a more sustainable, nature-positive future. After the 2019-20 bushfires, the NQ Dry Tropics Traditional Owner Management Group, which provides the organisation with cultural guidance, was concerned that the region was unhealthy because right-way fire was not being practised. Furthermore, the skills needed to bring back cultural burning needed to be recovered.

What is cultural burning?

Cultural burning (also known as cool burning) is a Traditional Aboriginal land management practice that has been used for over 60,000 years to reduce fire hazards, encourage new growth of culturally significant species and protect native wildlife already living on Country. Traditional fire management generates far less heat than standard hazard reduction burning, and is carried out more frequently during certain times of the seasonal calendar.

(Source: Watarrka Foundation)

The evidence-based benefits of cultural burning led NQ Dry Tropics to partner with the Firesticks Alliance and its co-founder Victor Steffensen, a cultural burning expert and Tagalaka descendant. With more than 80% of the region grazing land, the project has focussed on improving pastures on cattle stations using Indigenous Knowledge and rebuilding those skills among Traditional Owners. Since 2022, Jervoise Station near Greenvale has hosted workshops to show graziers the benefits of cultural burning and to mentor and teach young Indigenous Australians.

Using right-way fire can be a friend to grazing land rather than a foe.

"We started with landscapes on Jervoise Station that were totally choked up and unviable," Uncle Victor explains.

"We've opened up those areas, brought back grass and reclaimed the land in a way that makes their livelihood a lot more fruitful."

It’s not just people and habitat that benefit from cultural burning - native species do too.

Sensor cameras on Jervoise Station have captured images of thriving native wildlife, including black stripe wallabies, common wallaroos, emus and swamp wallabies – all benefitting from the restored habitat.

We are seeing more conservation efforts benefit from the inclusion and codesign of First Peoples, as their knowledge and leadership significantly enhance the impact of protecting and restoring Country.

Our mission is clear: Together, we will restore and regenerate areas of Sky, Country and Saltwater in ways that will allow nature to heal. With the knowledge and traditions of First Peoples and local communities, we can bring change on a global scale for climate, nature and people.