Fire planning workshops and how to conduct a burn

This video shows a small scale example of a controlled early dry season burn to protect life and assets from late dry season fires. Might helpful for training staff.

Fire Planning workshops have been taking place around the Top End for the past month and a half. 37 people attended a workshop in the Gulf yesterday, 27 people attended a workshop at Douglas Daly Research Station last Friday, and in early March Roper River Landcare Group drew in 28 people. I spoke to Roper River’s facilitator Ian Rowbottom about their workshop.

“I think we got a lot out of it. Just getting people to talk to their neighbours and having other land users like NLC involved. It’s not an exact science, but at least we got the ball rolling with a bit of planning. It was good to see the turnout.”

Bushfires NT opened the workshop by asking what they can do to support management and how neighbours can work together so that prescribed burning is carried out early and people aren’t spending all their time fighting fires in the late dry season.

Bushfires officer Steele Davies said “Seeing so many people here shows that people are committed to fire management and are concerned about getting good outcomes with programs and working together. For example, we talked about where grading can work, where each other’s burns can help one another, considering neighbours before lighting a match, and making sure everybody gets an full understanding of their property. Hopefully these meetings can help to mitigate some of the wildfires we had in the Gulf Savanna last year.”

Garry Riggs from Lakefield Station said “It’s always beneficial when neighbours talk about fire management. It’s good to let Bushfires NT know where we need help and get neighbours working together.”