bushtracks Bush Heritage Magazine | Winter 2020

Six months on Seeds of change The firebirds Yourka Reserve is buzzing with A burning program in the Mimal Rangers in Arnhem life once more after a severe Kimberley brings new hope for Land are burning country the bushfire in December 2019. Gouldian Finches and other right way, with a fire-spreading seed-eating species. raptor at their side. Bush Heritage acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the places in which we live, work and play. We recognise the enduring relationships they have with their lands and waters, and we pay our respects to Elders, “Through all of this, your unwavering support past and present. has been staggering. It has allowed our staff to continue doing their vitally important work and for that I cannot thank you enough.”

CONTRIBUTORS Amelia Caddy Eliza Herbert Kate Thorburn

DESIGN

Viola Design 1 Liffey Valley Reserve, Tas. Photo by Annette Ruzicka

COVER IMAGE A Mareeba Rock-wallaby (Petrogale 2 n March this year, our Bunuba partners in the There have been many silver linings to the past mareeba). Photo by Dave Watts/ Kimberley region of Western Australia were few months, too. Across the globe, from Venice to naturepl.com Six months on I due to start a project that had been a long time Los Angeles, the environment is benefitting from coming: bringing back right-way winthali (fire) to humankind’s newfound stillness. Pollution and parts of their country that hadn’t been walked on greenhouse gas emissions have dropped and wild for many decades. But when COVID-19 arrived it animals are reclaiming urban spaces, proving that threw a spanner in the works. nature can bounce back when given the chance. This publication uses 100% post-consumer 6 Through all of this, your unwavering support has waste recycled fibre, made with a carbon In ‘Seeds of change’ (p. 6), you’ll learn how, been staggering. It has allowed our staff to continue neutral manufacturing process, using Seeds of change with determination and some creative thinking, doing their vitally important work and for that I vegetable-based inks. Bunuba ultimately were able to push ahead with their winthali project and we’re privileged to be cannot thank you enough. supporting them in that work. In much the same BUSH HERITAGE AUSTRALIA With care, way, our staff have been finding ways to ensure that T 1300 628 873 our reserves – particularly those affected by the E [email protected] 8 Black Summer fires – are still being protected and Heather Campbell W www.bushheritage.org.au looked after. Through all of this, the health of our Chief Executive Officer Bush Heroes staff, our supporters, and of course the bush, has Follow Bush Heritage on: been foremost in our minds.

Adapting to change has been a consistent theme of 2020 so far. Whether it’s learning how to home school, stay connected with loved ones, or plan a 10 burning program in the Kimberley under social distancing guidelines, this year has taught us all The firebirds how to adapt and operate in different ways.

1 7 Tiger Hill on Yourka Reserve, Qld. Photo by Martin Willis

ne summer’s night halfway through December 2019, a lightning strike hit Bush O Heritage’s Yourka Reserve on Jirrbal and Warrungu country in far north Queensland.

Yourka is no stranger to lightning. This is the Einasleigh Uplands, where the summers are hot and humid and storms are a dime a dozen. Typically, lightning will strike a tree, causing a fire that will burn 20 metres or so, get rained on and self-extinguish.

That night in December however, the rain didn’t come.

Suffering from a string of dry months, the reserve was, in the words of long-time Yourka Reserve Manager Paul Hales, “basically cardboard”. He estimates that Yourka’s ‘cure rate’ – a measurement used to assess grass flammability– was close to the maximum of 100 percent.

For the first time in Bush Heritage’s 11-year history of protecting Yourka, a lightning strike had started a bushfire.

By the next morning, the fire was burning hot and fast. It swept up and over Yourka’s eastern foothills including Tiger Hill, where a population of diminutive Mareeba Rock-wallabies live amongst the granite outcrops. Wind at its back, the flames continued westwards.

Paul, other Bush Heritage staff, units from the Queensland Rural Fire Service, neighbours and contractors would spend the next 10 days containing the fire, responding to the last active ground burning on Christmas Day. It would take another 12 days of patrolling and mopping up to completely Six months on extinguish the blaze. All up, 18,800 hectares of Yourka burnt – approximately 43 percent of the reserve or an Silver linings shine as Bush Heritage’s area roughly 10 times the size of tourist town Port Douglas. After that first, intense day however, the Yourka Reserve in far north Queensland blaze moved at a slower pace, allowing animals time regenerates following a significant to escape and causing minimal long-term damage to vegetation. bushfire last year. For many of us, fire invokes fear. Yet in northern Australia, fire is part of the furniture. This is a STORY BY KATE THORBURN landscape of extremes where ecosystems not only endure burning, but often also benefit from it.

As Paul puts it, “this country has burnt before and it will burn again”.

3 bushtracks

“All the burnt country is heavy with grass...The Cockatoo Grass is at shoulder height, the Giant Speargrass almost double that, the big trees look happy.”

“That’s ideal habitat for arboreal mammals like Six months on and Yourka is buzzing with life. Greater Gliders and Possums.” Thanks to 500 millimetres of late summer rain that arrived five weeks after the blaze, major creeks are Another upside; easier visibility of and access to flowing clean and clear. It’s as if a green film has been infestations of Siam Weed and Lantana – two of the placed over the landscape. biggest ecological challenges at Yourka.

“All the burnt country is heavy with grass,” says Paul. And another; a lot of weeds don’t like fire so Paul’s “The Cockatoo Grass is at shoulder height, the Giant betting on their seedbanks being depleted. Speargrass almost double that, the big trees look happy. Pretty much everything is coming back.” A heart-stopping moment

“It can be hard to imagine after weeks of exhausting And the Mareeba Rock-wallabies? work fighting fires that the country will spring back so incredibly, but it has,” adds Leanne Hales, Paul’s Paul and Leanne visited Tiger Hill a few weeks after wife and Bush Heritage Volunteer Coordinator for the fire went through. As they clambered up the northern Australia. craggy granite outcrop to set up monitoring cameras, unsure of what they would find at the top, a flash of Like much of far north Queensland, Yourka struggles movement caught their eyes. with woody thickening, a phenomenon whereby trees grow close together. The shade produced by this A Mareeba Rock-wallaby bounced out, followed by crowding suffocates the growth of grasses, herbs and another and another. Four healthy animals were shrubs critical to the diets of animals like Rufous spotted that day, and images collected from the Bettongs, Brown- and Long-nosed Bandicoots, camera traps since have confirmed more, including Melomys and other native rodents. joeys and babies in their mother’s pouches.

“The problem is that you end up with a monoculture… “We were both extremely relieved,” recalls Paul. which is hard to reverse,” says Paul. “Those key “There was a big question mark over that population species like Cockatoo Grass and Kangaroo Grass, so we were happy to see them and see that they were that’s what we’re trying to restore and that’s what will none the worse for wear.” help all those ground-dwelling mammals.” “The Rock-wallabies are a symbol really,” says Leanne. Addressing woody thickening is one of the main aims “They’re a symbol that the country bounces back.” of Yourka’s fire plan. For up to eight weeks each year, The silver linings shine. Bush Heritage staff and contractors put in controlled, cool burns to help prevent woody thickening and reduce the severity and size of dry season bushfires.

December’s fire helped to thin out the trees on Yourka to the extent that in some parts of the reserve, daylight is hitting the ground for the first time in 25 years; good news for that all-important understorey. 8 “This fire will hopefully flick the switch the other Yourka Reserve Manager Paul Hales. way so those big old hollow-bearing trees like Photo by Martin Willis 3 Stringybarks and Bloodwoods might be able to Grassy woodlands on Yourka Reserve. replace themselves over time,” explains Paul. Photo by Martin Willis 7 xx 4 Seeds of change

Fire can be as harmful as it is essential in the Kimberley of Western Australia. Maintaining that fine balance is at the heart of the Bunuba Rangers’ fire program, bringing right-way winthali back to country.

STORY BY AMELIA CADDY

1 A Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae). Photo by Martin Willis

“For the past few decades, unmanaged hot fires have unuba Elder Joe Ross can recall seeing and younger vegetation that provides habitat for many One of the areas they will be focusing on is hundreds of Gouldian Finches flying in different animals, including Gouldian Finches. miluwindi, the rocky, sandstone hills of the King destroyed the food source for B rainbow flocks across his country as late Leopold Ranges in the north of Bunuba muwayi. Gouldian Finches in that Now, Bunuba people are working to bring right-way as the 1970s. During the late dry season, when food is scarce, winthali back to their country, with support from Gouldian Finches flock to miluwindi to breed in the Snappy Gum country.” Located in the central-west Kimberley region Bush Heritage and a $250,000 Australian Heritage hollows of smooth-barked Snappy Gums (Eucalyptus of Western Australia, Bunuba muwayi (country) grant from the Australian Government. brevifolia) and feed on spinifex grass seeds. The contains ideal habitat for the finches with its seeds are critical to their survival at this time of year “The grant is continuing the work that we started with sandstone ranges and grassy savanna woodlands. – without them, they can starve. But spinifex grass Bunuba back in 2018,” says Bush Heritage National But today, these colourful birds, which were once will only produce seed if it hasn’t been burnt in the “Gouldian Finches are sort of like the canary in the Fire Program Manager Richard Geddes, who works common across most of northern Australia, last three years, so when big wildfires burn through coal mine,” says Richard. “We focus on them because closely with the Bunuba Rangers to plan when and have all but disappeared. large areas of country, it can have a catastrophic they're a really clear indicator of whether or not the where their burning will happen. effect on the birds’ food source. country's being managed well for fire.” “Since about the 80s, their population has really Over the past two years, Bunuba’s burning has been dropped off dramatically and now there are just small “Unmanaged hot fires at certain times of the year will In an average year, Bunuba Rangers – accompanied restricted to Yaranggi (Leopold Downs), one of three pockets of Gouldian Finch colonies left on Bunuba basically burn all the grass so there’s no regrowth and by Elders and young people – will aim to strategically pastoral stations that Bunuba regained control of country and elsewhere,” says Joe. no grass seeds,” says Joe. “For the past few decades, burn about 15 to 20 percent of their land through in an exclusive possession native title recognition unmanaged hot fires have destroyed the food source right-way winthali, while taking care to avoid long- in 2012. The Australian Heritage grant provides The decline of Gouldian Finches is believed to for Gouldian Finches in that Snappy Gum country.” unburnt spinifex and fire sensitive areas. be primarily due to changes in fire regimes. As the funding for Bunuba to manage fire and protect Aboriginal communities right across northern natural and cultural values across their entire Gouldian Finches aren’t the only species impacted Over the coming years, the rangers will conduct Australia were forced off their land, they were no 502,000 hectare exclusive possession native title area. by uncontrolled wildfires. Many other grass seed- regular surveys to determine the impact their work is longer able to continue their traditional burning. eating birds and mammals are in decline right across having on plants and animals. With any luck, they’ll “We're working to protect places that younger These deliberately-lit, early-dry season fires, known northern Australia, including Northern Quolls, be spotting flashes of rainbow colour amongst the generations have never been to before the project to Bunuba people as right-way winthali (fire), not Partridge Pigeons, Golden-shouldered Parrots and grasses very soon. started and the older generations wouldn’t have only reduce the extent and severity of uncontrolled Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens. bushfires, they also create a diverse mosaic of older visited some of these areas in over 30 to 40 years,” says Richard.

6 7 bushtracks bushtracks

5 Illustrations by Jessie Rose Ford Our bush heroes

The Australian bush is remarkably resilient to fire, and that’s in no small part thanks to the combined services of many native animals.

Wedge-tailed Eagles Echidnas Ants Gang-gang Cockatoos Without Wedge-tailed Eagles, we would have Our favourite spiny monotremes are constantly Small though they may be, ants are one of These distinctive parrots help the Australian a much harder job cleaning up landscapes disturbing and moving soil around as they Australia’s most important seed dispersers. In bush to regenerate after fire by facilitating the after fire. Along with other birds of prey and search for their next meal of tasty ants. After fact, they’re so vital that many native Australian spread and germination of native seeds. Found scavengers, these apex predators clear away fire, this activity is hugely beneficial to soil plants, including some native wattles and peas, throughout south-eastern Australia, Gang-gangs carcasses and help prevent the spread of health and seed dispersal. Intense bushfires actively encourage ants to spread their seeds feed on the seeds of many eucalypt and wattle disease. With fewer carcasses lying around, can bake the ground making it difficult for through nutritional benefits and chemicals. The species, as well as berries, nuts and insects. feral predators such as cats and foxes are less water to penetrate the surface. Echidnas break primary way in which ants disperse seeds is by Using their powerful, curved beaks, they crack likely to be drawn to an area. down this hard surface as they scratch and prod carrying them back to their underground nests open hard casings and crush the seeds within around with their long beaks and clawed feet, and this industrious work proves incredibly before distributing them all over the landscape in Wedge-tailed Eagles help the bush regenerate increasing water permeability in the process and important following fire. Not only does it reduce their droppings. As they forage, Gang-gangs will in another important way, too – through a cycling top layer nutrients into the soil beneath. the amount of surface seed eaten by other also knock seeds from stems, cones and flower mechanism known as energy transference. After They also collect and eat soil and seeds along animals such as native rodents and wallabies, it heads to the ground, which further promotes feeding, Wedge-tailed Eagles cycle nutrients with ants, and then spread them through the also distances seeds from their parent plants and the regeneration of the bush. back into the environment through their landscape in their faeces. These small, ecosystem protects them from fire and harsh temperatures. droppings, allowing energy to be spread more services all add up to aid in the recruitment and Ants can also be credited with creating holes in evenly through the landscape. regeneration of native plants after fire. the top layer soil post-fire, thus helping increase its permeability to water.

8 9 bushtracks

7 Karrkanj the Brown Falcon (Falco berigora). Photo by Greg Oakley 4 Mimal Rangers Lydia Lawrence and Anne Kelly. Photo courtesy of Mimal Land Management

n the heart of Arnhem Land, there is a very And while at times Karrkanj has been a little special bird. Karrkanj, it is called; the Brown troublemaker - jumping firebreaks and starting Firebirds I Falcon, the firebird. unwanted wildfires that need to be put out - he is also a friend. Across cascading river waters and wetlands (djula The Mimal Rangers of central Arnhem Land are and wah), grassy plains (ruwurrno and rorrobo), and “We have a partnership with that bird. We mainly woodlands (berrhno and mininyburr), Karrkanj can work together, the bird and us,” says Annette. looking after country the right way, preventing sometimes be seen soaring overhead carrying a “Mimal means fire andKarrkanj is a firebird, damaging wildfires and reducing emissions, smouldering stick in its talons. so that's how it goes. Mimal and the firebird.” with a fire-spreading raptor at their side. On the move from one fire, it drops the stick to start The Mimal Land Management area spans nearly another. As small reptiles and mammals scuttle 2 million hectares in central Arnhem Land. It is home to a whole range of species that depend STORY BY ELIZA HERBERT away from the newly lit flames,Karrkanj becomes the hunter, swooping in to pick up its meal. on appropriate fire regimes to keep their habitat healthy, including the Emu, Northern Cypress This raptor is one of three birds in Northern Pine, Gouldian Finch and Northern Bandicoot. Australia known to spread fire – the Brown Falcon, Black Kite and Whistling Kite – and it is very significant to the Rembarrnga and Dalabon people of the Mimal Land Management area where Bush “On the move from one fire, Heritage has a partnership with the Mimal Rangers. it drops the stick to start For Mimal Rangers, fire is a part of life. It is a another. As small reptiles and part of the culture and the story of their land and mammals scuttle away from is a reason that Traditional Owners are needed on country, looking after it the right way. the newly lit flames, Karrkanj becomes the hunter.” “I saw with my own eyes, that Karrkanj collecting firewood from where we made fire to go and burn other grass,” says Annette Murray, a board member on Mimal Land Management. “Our people used to say that bird is the firebird because when our people used to go and burn, he’d go and do it for them.”

For tens of thousands of years before pastoralists and miners came to the area, Rembarrnga and Dalabon people used fire for hunting and rejuvenating bush tucker plants. Burning country was, and still is, an important tool for land management.

Expert knowledge passed down through generations is used to strategically light a mosaic pattern of small, cool fires during the early dry season to prevent hot, damaging wildfires later in the season.

“In the past, our Elders and our old people had the knowledge. We didn't have calendars at that time, but we read the stars, the moon, and the weather changes,” says Annette.

“We had names of all of those things; for when the rain’s coming, when the dry or wet is coming, and our Elders knew exactly when to burn and when not to.”

11 12 Pictures Northern Cooke/ Peter by Photo burn. aright-way conduct Mimal 1 Photo by Claire Thompson Raptors 1

approach, combining traditional traditional combining approach, modern tools like geographical tools geographical modern like “With “With Rangers Robert Redford and Norrie Martin Martin Norrie and Redford Robert Rangers hunt around the edges of a burn. aburn. of edges the around hunt rangers use atwo-toolbox use rangers knowledge and skills with with skills and knowledge information systems...” information Karrkanj on their logo, on their

bush tracks “As an Indigenous person, the love that you for have love that the person, “As Indigenous an with That's project. the with burning early “We do the Indigenous as using been we've aphrase “There’s 1900s, traditional burning stopped and wildfires wildfires and stopped burning traditional 1900s, (ACCUs) for the carbon market and creates funding funding creates and market (ACCUs) carbon for the With With This generates Australian Carbon Credit Units Units Credit Carbon Australian generates This develop to initiative an ago, decades two nearly Then, your land, it's unexplainable. It doesn't get any better better any get Itdoesn't unexplainable. it's land, your For John Dalywater, another Mimal board member, board Mimal another Dalywater, For John But when many Rembarrnga and Dalabon Dalabon and Rembarrnga many when But Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) Project to to Project (WALFA) Abatement Fire Land care together. This is what Australians do together in in do together Australians what is This together. care reduce Owners, Traditional under working Rangers, offset program. Owners Traditional with activities for country caring Now, with the increasing threat of climate change, change, of climate threat increasing the Now, with In 2006, Mimal helped pioneer the West Arnhem West Arnhem the pioneer helped Mimal 2006, In greenhouse gas emissions from late season wildfires wildfires season late from emissions gas greenhouse are lost, without your country.” country.” your without lost, are that sure making and country the across people and geographical like tools modern with skills and for the Mimal Rangers. Rangers. Mimal for the by doing traditional burning in the early dry-season. dry-season. early the in burning traditional by doing information systems (GIS), trucks and helicopters helicopters and (GIS), trucks systems information people: caring and sharing,” says John. “We share, we we “We share, John. says sharing,” and caring people: damaging and ecology the altering predominated, the in country their moved off were people reinstate traditional burning through an emissions emissions an through burning traditional reinstate suppression, and protect country. protect and suppression, led to the establishment of the Mimal Rangers. Mimal of the establishment the to led landscape. of the tracts large than that. I have got no other one. Without it, you it, Without one. no other got Ihave that. than land.” the how after we look “It's on. goes he ASRAC,” and Warddekken rangers, neighbouring the other.” for each caring ideas, sharing thing; this generation. next the onto passed is knowledge neighbours both with together working means this wildfire and burning controlled undertake to knowledge traditional combining approach, toolbox important. so been never work has this Karrkanj on their logo, rangers use atwo- use rangers logo, ontheir first colour to appear after the country has burnt. burnt. has country the after to appear colour first the It’s rains. flooding and cyclones by wildfires, battered gets that alandscape in wellbeing and of strength feelings Itevokes hue. particular this for reverence why such Ihave wondered often I’ve ( Grass Kangaroo of native on atussock growth new and air clean by sunlight, life to brought be only can – it onapalette aphoto mixed or in captured be quite never can that it’s acolour luminescent, and muted Icall ashade is silver and grey green, blue, between it’s Somewhere acolour. place, a of Yourka not actually is part my favourite But muddy banks. the tickle curtains callistemon and pools tannin-stained across yawn paperbarks monstrous where River Herbert of the bars sand wide the to bed, rock conglomerate the in caves and basins carves water blue milky the where Creek of Sunday reaches upper the From enjoy onYourka Reserve. and explore to places special many so are There Themeda triandra Themeda My happy place happy My ). ). Themeda

Green Lives onYourka Reserve Volunteer Coordinator Parting shot Parting . Both . Both Leanne Hales bush tracks Yourka Photo Reserve. by Leanne Hales Themeda 5 represents. it that but for all beauty for its not only colour I love the of blue-green-grey. shade my favourite in celebrated her, support to place in practices management the and for nature Atriumph pressure. grazing and erosion weeds, from territory its reclaimed has Grass Kangaroo the onYourka where places are There stability. and peace of sense a with me fills it and ecosystem whole for the foundation a solid understorey, ahealthy signals colour The woodland. the through off stretching Green of Themeda carpet avast seeing than happier me makes nothing reserve, onthe Iam where No matter renewal. and shelter, resilience of and food promise the with earth ashen the from emerges Green Themeda

Green in the grassy woodlands on on woodlands grassy the in Green

Yourka Reserve

13

Yes, I want to help the bush recover from a season of devastation. Bush Heritage is a national not-for-profit organisation. Title First name Last name Our work relies on the support of generous Address State Postcode and passionate people like you.

Please tear off and return this coupon to: Email Phone Date of birth Bush Heritage Australia Reply Paid 329 I will give $ via: Cheque/money order (enclosed) Visa MasterCard AMEX Diners Flinders Lane VIC 8009 You can also donate online at: Card no. Expiry Date bushheritage.org.au/donate

DM WINTER2020 bushtracks Cardholder’s name Signature

Please send me information about including a gift to Bush Heritage in my will. All donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible. Bush Heritage Australia

Bush Heritage is an independent not-for-profit conservation organisation that buys and manages land, and partners with Aboriginal people, to protect our irreplaceable Australian landscapes and native species.

Founded by Bob Brown in 1991, we have since grown to protect and help manage over 11 million hectares - that’s more than all of Tasmania. These landscapes span from rainforests to woodlands, savannas to deserts, and everything in between.

Our work would not be possible without the support of people like you. We gratefully acknowledge the estates of Pamela Driscoll and Dorothy Searle, as well as the many other people who have recently donated.

Looking for more stories? Find us on:

Help the bush rise up and recover from a season of devastation.