15 March 2002
Emergency Services Minister Mike Reynolds has launched a new book
"Savanna Burning - understanding and using fire in northern
Australia", at a Rural Fire Council conference in Townsville.
The book, from the Tropical Savannas CRC (Cooperative Research
Centre for Tropical Savannas Management), provides for the first
time a practical and comprehensive guide to managing fires in north
Queensland and tropical Australia.
"Many Australians associate bushfires with southern Australia
such as those that ravaged the NSW South Coast recently," Mr
Reynolds said.
"But north Queensland faces just as many challenges. Every year
in the north thousands of square kilometres of grasslands or
‘savannas’ can go up in flames.
"The book has a uniquely northern Australian perspective," he
said. "It should be a valuable source of information for those who
need to manage fires in the north, such as rural fire agencies and
fire volunteers and graziers."
Mr Reynolds said the books’ 40 contributors had a wealth
of experience in managing and researching fires right across
northern Australia, including Queensland, the Northern Territory
and the Kimberley.
"They include rural fire agency staff, fire and weed
researchers, graziers and Aboriginal fire managers."
Dr Gordon Duff, CEO of the Tropical Savannas CRC, said that the
book brought together much of the research and knowledge of fire in
northern Australia in a concise and readable way.
"It uses practical case studies from land managers as well as
collating the findings of researchers on fire from north Queensland
and across northern Australia," he said.
"The CRC is one of the few bodies that could have produced this
book because of our links to research and government agencies
throughout the north."
The book:
- examines the benefits and the damage caused by fire;
- outlines how can land managers use fire more effectively to
manage grazing and weed invasion
- explores how fire affects wood thickening;
- discusses fire operational and monitoring techniques and
- looks at future pressures arising from global warming and
carbon trading.
Price: $30.00 within Australia; $45 overseas (postage, handling
and GST incl.)
See contact details and links to our Publications Section to order
the book below.
Innovative book on fire brings research and practice
together
10 May
FORMER NT Senator Bob Collins launched the Tropical Savannas CRC
book on fire in Darwin on Friday, 10 May.
Savanna Burning: Understanding and Using Fire in Northern
Australia, is a new book from the Tropical Savannas Cooperative
Research Centre that provides for the first time a practical and
comprehensive guide to managing fires in the most fire-prone region
of Australia.
A problem that faced the editors was the great variety of people
who might be interested in this book. Bushfires affect almost
everyone in north Australia: different land mangers use fire in
different ways, and are affected by it in different ways; town
dwellers and tourists don't use fire much but are affected by smoke
and the sight of blackened landscapes.
The book deals with this variety by taking an innovative,
multi-faceted approach to fire management in that it combines
information from a range of authors that are as varied as fire
management itself:
- CSIRO fire researchers describe the basic ecology of fire in
north Australia. They explain how it interacts with climate and
savanna ecosystems to produce a range of different types of fire -
from creeping grass fires to raging wildfires.
- Various experienced ecologists describe the impact these
different fire types have on the plants and animals of northern
Australia.
- Aboriginal land managers relate how they manage country using
traditional burning techniques
- Primary industries researchers and pastoralists describe how
fire can be used to manage pastures and woody weeds.
- Fire Agency staff describe how to control wildfires, the nuts
and bolts of planning fire management strategies and the laws
relating to fire management.
- Remote sensing specialists, and various land managers explain
how to use satellite images, aerial photographs and other
observations to monitor fire management strategies.
What emerges from this collection of experiences is that one of
the most effective ways to manage fire in north Australia is to use
fire.
Once a destructive wildfire starts in the sparsely populated
landscapes of the north, it tends to keep spreading until a barrier
in the landscape—a road, a river an area of reduced
fuel—a firebreak, stops it. The most effective way for
someone with few resources to create a firebreak over large areas
of land is to burn it. The evidence also suggests that the plant
and animal communities of the tropical savannas have adapted over
tens of thousands of years to a patchwork of such
firebreaks—created by Aboriginal people who used fire for
various purposes, particularly for hunting.
An important feature of the book is that it values the knowledge
and experience of land managers as well as the insights of
researchers. The Tropical Savannas CRC is one of the few
organisations that could have brought this group of authors
together with its links to 16 partner agencies and land managers
across northern Australia.
Savanna Burning has something for everybody—different
readers can choose to read the particular section they are
interested in - it is also designed to encourage readers to look at
fire from different perspectives. Ultimately, effective management
of fire in north Australia will require widespread cooperation. It
may be cooperation between neighbours—for example between a
cattle station and a national park—to reduce the chances of
wildfires spreading from one to the other, or it may be cooperation
between urban and rural communities to frame effective fire
management legislation. By allowing people to see how fire has a
range of different impacts on different people - and to hear the
different voices associated with fire management, Savanna Burning
attempts to encourage this cooperation.
Queensland Emergency Services Minister Mike Reynolds launched
the TS-CRC’s book on fire management at a meeting of the
Queensland Rural Fire Service on March 15.
