Landcare - Patch Burning Workshop > Report

Prepared by: M.W. Last.
Pitjantjatjara Council
November 89

Introduction:

Photo of an effective patchburn on a cool day. Slow moving fire moving back into the wind. These fires usually self extinguish at night. Trees are not destroyed.

On 12th, 13th and 14th of September 1989, a "Patch Burning " workshop was held in the Pitjantjatjara Homelands area which included Walytjitjata, Pipalyatjara, Wingellina, Kanypi, Nyapari and No. 16. People came from as far away as Blackstone in Western Australia, Anilalya Homelands (Ernabella), Uluru (Ayres Rock) and Alice Springs. The workshop was conducted over a three day period beginning at Waltjatjata with a day meeting and some practical burning experience late in the day (5-6 pm). On day two we continued with more practical burning work under the guidance of anangu from Mutitjulu and invited guests from Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service (ANPWS), Conservation Commission of the NT (CCNT) and CSIRO. On day three everybody prepared to go home. The workshop concluded with some discussions on the impact of animals eg. rabbits, on the lands. The workshop was very stimulating and anangu have a renewed confidence in burning the vegetation without destroying vast amounts of country side.

Background:
In 1988 the rainfall in Central Australia during the month of March was very high resulting in good regrowth of vegetation including grasses. Similar high rainfall was experienced in the same month of 1989. These rains isolated many communities for many weeks and some roads are still wet with soakage from the hills. The end result of good rainfall is the production of large amounts of vegetation which, when dry, burn very quickly.

People were becoming concerned that the summer of 1989-90 could be a time of hot wild fires burning out the country. During the month of June 89, I was visiting the homelands around Wingellina and Pipalyatjara as well as the Pitjantjatjara homelands with Con Boekel of ANPWS, Canberra. Con had previous experience working in the National Park at Uluru and he commented about the lack of young mulga (acacia aneura) in areas where the dead timber remained standing after being destroyed by fire. His concern added to our concern of having to endure fires during the coming summer season. After our travelling around the homelands, we had talks with local advisers including the adult educator at Pipalyatjara. We talked about patch burning as a method of controlling these hot wild fires which stimulated discussion about the possibilities of having a workshop on the lands so people could re-consider this method as an option for looking after the lands. Pitjantjatjaras were very concerned about the threat of these summer fires.

On returning to Alice Springs I had some discussions with Barney Foran (CSIRO) at the Pitjantjatjara Council nursery. I asked Barney who he thought were the best people to involve in a patch burning workshop. The end result was that Graham Griffin (CSIRO) and Grant Allan (CCNT) were able to come to the workshop which was help on 12th, 13th and 14th of September 1989. Con Boekel had also suggested that Lyn Baker, a ranger from Uluru would be a very useful person to include in the program. Lyn was very happy to be involved and the Pitjantjatjara people she worked with in the National Park were very keen to come as well.

The Workshop:
The style of the workshop was to be informal and it was finally decided to hold it at two homelands, Waltjatjata and Kanypi. The workshop was to include the people from the homelands between Wingellina and Tjurma homelands (Amata). Invitations were sent to all communities in the Pitjantjatjara Council area which included Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people. Hence some people from Blackstone and Anilalya homelands (Ernabella) attended.

The workshop began before lunch on the Tuesday with the Mutitjulu people talking about their patch burning story which they managed in the National Park and the Peterman Reserve. After lunch a discussion period was planned involving everybody and at the end of the day some practical patch burning was organised.

On day two the plan was to move the workshop over to Pipalyatjara before lunch and then to move it on to Kanypi after lunch so some practical patch burning could be done there. Day three was reserved for any final discussions that would arise out of the workshop proceedings before going home. An Aboriginal Airline aeroplane was chartered so I could fly with Graham and Grant to Amata and then fly low level out to Pipalyatjara via No. 16, Kanypi and Waltjatjata. The purpose of this flight was for them to see the country and have some idea of the vegetation and fuel load across the land.

The team working at the Pitjantjatjara Council Nursery in Alice Springs came by road and included Simon, Brett Deborah, Brian and Vincent. Peter Hay came from Tangentyere Council, Mark Burslum from Central Land Council (CLC), Stephie Rainow and Warren Tunkin from Nganampa Health Council.

Proceedings of the Workshop:

I arrived with Graham and Grant at Pipalyatjara mid-morning and was met at the airport by our team from Pitjantjatjara Council. After morning tea at Peter Solley's house we travelled to Waltjatjata where people were gathering.

The meeting began before lunch and I gave a short talk on how the workshop arose including the concern everybody had about the hot wild fires that could occur in the forthcoming summer. Everybody was in agreement and then I explained how the Mutitjulu people had come to talk about how they controlled hot wild fires.

While waiting for the Wingellina people some informal discussions began about the idea of patch burning. Local people talked about burning small patches of grass or spinifex without burning all the country side.

The Mutitjulu people talked about burning around their houses and the need for some basic equipment like a water truck or tanker trailer and a pump.

Lyn Baker then spoke about the fire burning work which was away from the houses and roads and how this type of burning had to be done "anangu way". This type of burning had already been done by people over many generations and it involved a number of skills which would be demonstrated at this workshop.

This Photo shows that effective backburning has not destroyed the Mulga trees or cattle feed.

After lunch Graham Griffin spoke about how he had learnt from anangu and the early explorers' journals about how patch burning was used by anangu as a means of hunting. Small patches of country would be burnt and when the new grass grew, animals would come to feed on it. This was a necessary practice for survival and because the country had little patches burnt all over it, hot wild fires could only burn very small areas. This presentation stimulated further conversation with people expressing their concerns again about the problem of hot wild fires. Ivan Baker from Kanypi talked about the problems he envisaged if something wasn't done to manage the high fuel load on the lands. Then the Mutitjulu people displayed their map showing the pattern of burning across the National Park at Uluru and including the Peterman Reserve.

There were further discussions about the need for a program to help protect the homelands. Extra staff would be required to facilitate a program and finance would be needed to conduct it. The purpose of this workshop was to discuss the potential of patch burning as a tool to be used as part of a land management strategy on Aboriginal lands and to conduct some practical patch burning at Waltjatjata providing the meeting was in agreement. Before incorporating patch burning into land management policy, local people needed to re-establish the practice of patch burning again. Many people had grown up in communities where it wasn't necessary to pass on this skill. The people who had come from Mutitjulu to the workshop, had begun the practice again and were keen to pass on their skills to those who hadn't used them. They began to show local people how to use the drip torch for lighting fires quickly and how to use the rake hoe to control these fires. People began milling around and talking about "Old times" when this type of equipment was used at Ernabella and Fregon.

The meeting broke for a late cup-of-tea and resumed before 5:00 pm for some practical patch burning demonstrations. Everyone was enthusiastic and Jimmy Kanari was quick to show everyone how to use a drip torch. The grass around Waltjatjata was too green so the workshop moved out to the old airstrip where a much better burn could be demonstrated. Many people became involved, each lighting small fires which were fanned by a gentle breeze. Long strips of grass were burnt leaving unburnt grass in between for the protection of small animals. The workshop ended at 6:00 pm. Many stayed on and camped at Waltjatjata while others returned to their communities.

After the workshop finished for the day, there was time to talk with homelands people and get some feed back about the workshop. Ivan Baker from Kanypi was apprehensive about the idea of patch burning because he was concerned that big winds may catch the fire and burn out the country side. However he could see from the demonstration how easy it was to use the cool of the evening to control the fire. We asked him if he would like some practical burning demonstrated around his homeland at Kanypi the next afternoon and he was happy for this to be done.

The next morning (Wednesday) it was blowing a gale so it was decided not to burn the spinifex to the west of Waltjatjata. It was agreed to move the workshop to Pipalyatjara for further discussion about patch burning. The wind subsided about half way to Pipalyatjara so it was possible to burn a long patch of spinifex along the side of the road. There was a gentle breeze blowing from the east, so a line of fire was started east of the road and allowed to burn up to the road. This was a good demonstration of burning spinifex which contains a lot of fuel and resin. Therefore it's wise to burn small patches of it.

February 2001 - Part of a community patchburn to protect store building and diesel fuel. All done to protect from hot wildfires.

When we arrived at Pipalyatjara everyone had decided to burn an area to the west of the community along the old road to the airstrip past the rubbish dump. Everybody moved to this area and although it wasn't late afternoon, the conditions were satisfactory for a burn. All the guests had a late lunch under a tree while local people learnt more about using a drip torch to patch burn their country. Several large areas of grass were burnt creating a safe area which couldn't be burnt by hot wild fires later in the season.

After lunch everybody left for Kanypi arriving there in the mid-afternoon. Everyone met under some desert oak trees across the main road to the south of the community. People made tea while waiting for our host, Ivan Baker to arrive from Pipalyatjara.

There was a large area of spinifex to the south east of the homeland and it was decided to burn it and provide some protection around the community from the possibility of summer fires. Everybody began to light fires and the spinifex began to burn slowly because the wind wasn't quite strong enough. This was a good demonstration because spinifex is known for its ability to burn. The air was probably a little too moist and cool. When the air is dry and hot, vegetation is much easier to burn. The art of patch burning is to know how to use these two parameters. The aim is to burn the fuel load without destroying every tree and shrub within the area being burnt. Mulga (acacia aneura) and witchetty bush (acacia kempeana) need to be isolated because if they are burnt, they usually die. These two species need to be protected, not destroyed as fire is their worst enemy.

Everybody had a good time at the workshop and as well as seeing their friends from Mutitjulu. Once again they were confident to use the skills of patch burning around their homelands and communities. The Mutitjulu people were very effective at communicating their skill and everybody was grateful for their input.

That night we camped in a patch of umbrella bush (acacia ligulata) across the road from the community at Kanypi. Next morning we had some campfire discussions with Lyn Baker about possible follow up work. She was happy to talk to colleagues back at the National Park office at Uluru and arrange for the men to return in 2 or 3 weeks to help people with more patch burning. The previous day we had discussed the need for an animal survey to be conducted on the lands as part of the wider land management program. The need for this survey work would become more obvious as the patch burning program progressed through the next winter season (1990).

On Wednesday we travelled on to Nyapari as the workshop was nearly finished. Graham showed us some prints of patch burning work he had been involved with elsewhere. We talked about the differences between burning spinifex and grasses. On occasions grasses can be very volatile and dangerous to burn. This was certainly confirmed by many at the workshop.

After our talk, Graham tried to burn a patch of grass around Nyapari and although the wind was very strong it was too green to burn. If the grass was dry it would have been very dangerous to burn under the prevailing wind conditions. We left Nyapari for No. 16, a homeland much closer to Amata.

There was nothing to burn around No. 16 and the reason we stopped was to talk about the rabbit problem and need to control them. There was no grass or spinifex around this homeland, only ruby dock (rumex vesicarius) covering many hectares of land. This vegetation provided an excellent home for rabbits allowing them to increase in number and cause much damage to the more permanent vegetation around the homeland. It was becoming clearer why animal survey work was important because if one species increases in number, they displace other animals. Graham went on to explain how rabbits love to eat the young mulga seedlings (acacia aneura) which grow after good rains. Several weeks later I saw how the rabbits had stripped the bark off the lower trucks of young mulga trees around Umuwa. Tony Gooden the Tjurma Homelands adviser and Henry Tjamamali the chairman, were both with us at No. 16 as this was Henry's homeland. They were able to appreciate some of the finer points of land management work.

It was about mid-day when we arrived at Amata. Simon and the Pitjantjatjara Council team were returning to Alice Springs by road so they left us with Tony Gooden. We had lunch on Tony's verandah and some further talks with him before flying out for Alice Springs before mid-afternoon. Graham and Grant were pleased with the results of the workshop and were happy to help in whatever way they could within the boundaries of their own work areas. Lyn baker was also positive about further land management talks at a later date. It maybe possible for people from the lands to visit Uluru National Park next season and take part in some of their patch burning programs.

The period of October through to March presents itself as a time for planning further patch burning work whereas the period of April through to September is a time for conducting major patch burning programs. During this summer season homeland communities need to think about how they may initiate and monitor patch burning programs in their areas. The information presented in the workshop and the practical demonstrations showed how essential patch burning methods are in land management programs.