Wirrinyah Pty Ltd
The 2019 bushfires devastated a number of properties in the Lockyer Valley region. The extent of the damage was significantly influenced by the high fuel load on the properties, often as a result of incorrect and neglectful land management practices.
With almost $168,000 in funding from the Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery Grants, Wirrinyah Pty Ltd will reintroduce cultural burning as an ancient land management practice which had been applied to the Lockyer Valley region for thousands of years. These are aimed at keeping the fuel loads down, creating biodiversity and keeping the land healthy.
This project is a follow on from the Lockyer Valley Regional Council’s series of cultural burn workshops where Traditional Custodians, the Indigenous Firesticks Alliance, Local Council representatives, Landcare groups and landholders came together to observe and participate in cultural burning demonstrations.
This project will include a series of cultural burns across several private properties in the Lockyer Valley as training sites for Wirrinyah staff. Some parts of the Lockyer Valley have not had a cultural burn since before colonisation. Without the right fire, it is very hard to know what native seeds are in the ground, and what the country SHOULD look like. It is exciting to think that after a cultural burn we can imagine what the landscape is meant to be, and the wildlife can enjoy their natural habitats again.
Managing Director of Wirrinyah, Lynda Maybanks said, ‘When the right fire is applied to country, it ignites a memory within the country, the animals and in the Traditional Custodians. It is more than a land management tool, it is a form of ritual, a special practice older than any other’.
‘This project is not just about reviving cultural burning on country, it is also about reviving ancient relationships between Yugara peoples and their neighbours, and sharing this journey with the wider community’.
https://wirrinyah.com.au/