A team of Traditional Owners from Indigenous Knowledge and researchers from Australian National University have shown how cultural burning can help control spinifex in the Great Sandy Desert, preventing sever bush fire outbreaks, in a new paper published in Wildlife Research October 2024.
Spinifex is a prickly grass that dominates the landscapes of the Great Sandy Desert in north-western Australia, which, since colonization, have greatly expanded in density due to a loss of cultural burning practices. The team that published this research compared fire history and fauna survey data and found that overall frequent small burns, replicating historical cultural burns, had the best outcomes for local fauna.
Interestingly, the team have also analysed historical aerial photographs from the Royal Australian Air Force taken in the 1940s and 50s which show cultural burning practices at that time. This has allowed the Traditional Owners and researchers to better align their current fire practices and new technologies with those of the past.
See the historical aerial photographs and learn more about their fascinating work here:
Read their paper here: https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR24069
Image: Flickr
