Cultural Burn Protects Endemic Orchid

Cultural burns, while holding cultural significance, can also be effective ways to protect plants that are not only native...
Cultural Burning Benefits Fauna in Spinifex Deserts

A team of Traditional Owners from Indigenous Knowledge and researchers from Australian National University have shown how cultural burning...
New Guidebooks on Protecting Owls Released

Continuing its mission to monitor and protect essential large forest owl populations, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW’s (NCC)...
NSW Fire History Data Released on Web Viewer

The NSW Rural Fire Service has just released fire history data in NSW to the public in September. Mapping...
Native Vegetation Regulatory Map – a tool for landholders

The NSW Government has released a Draft version of their new Native Vegetation Regulatory Map interface. This is a...
New Fire Management Guide for Namoi Landholders

The Hotspots Fire Project has just released the updated Namoi region “Managing Fire on Your Property” booklet, the latest...
Impact of Bush Fires On Platypus Revealed

Using a unique method of monitoring “environmental DNA,” researchers have been able to identify the effect of bushfires not...
Researchers Anthony Dosseto and Katharine Haynes from the University of Wollongong along with Leanne Brook and Victor Channell from...
The Digital Atlas of Australia, a new initiative by the Australian Government (2023) allows users to easily look at...
The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) gained a lot of attention in 2020 for “actively herding” animals that needed help...
Transport for NSW has launched a new Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes Project across the state to support Indigenous land management...
New Planning Process for Managing Bush Fire Risk in NSW

The NSW Rural Fire Service is currently rolling out a new planning process for managing bush fire risk in...
Understanding Fuel… and Fire Behaviour

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW and the NSW Rural Fire Service, as part of the Hotspots Fire Project,...
Bushfire Mitigation – Fire Wise Project

The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife has developed the Fire Wise project, which advocates for community engagement across...
Video Update – Safe Havens Large Forest Owls Project

Click on the video below to hear from the Safe Havens Project Coordinator Angus Underwood and Pete Knock the...
National Indigenous Disaster Resilience Summit proceedings

Fire to Flourish, a Monash University iniative hosted a summit in August 2023 on disaster resilience for Indigenous Australians....
Conversations with Children about Bushfires

How do we talk with children about bushfires in an age-appropriate and constructive way? Bushfires are a natural &...
High-intensity fires pose risks to wildlife. Beyond causing direct mortality, severe bushfires can cause indirect threats to wildlife through...
Based on best available science and operational knowledge, the Hotspots Fire Project delivers workshops and resources to landholders and...
WATCH – NCC Bushfire Conference 2023 Recordings

Nature Conservation Council hosted our 13th Biennial Bushfire Conference Managing Bushfire Together: Applying science, skills and stories” on the...
Are you a landholder interested in upscaling your land management skillset? As part of their commitment to supporting the...
Applying science, skills and stories at Ku-ring-gai, Sydney

Directly following and complementing NCC’s 2023 Bushfire Conference, Managing Fire Together: Applying science, skills, and stories, NCC’s Bushfire Program...
NCC Bushfire Conference 2023

NCC’s 13th biennial Bushfire Conference, “Managing Bushfire Together: Applying science, skills and stories”, took place on the 24-25th May,...
Are You Taking Part in This Year’s Great Glossy Count?

Have you read our article on citizen science? If you have, you’ll know how important contributions to public citizen...
Measuring Soil Health & the Impacts of Fire

Would you like to measure multiple aspects indicating the health of your property’s soil, without spending a fortune on...
The Climate Council is an independent organisation which uses the latest science on climate to help tackle one of...
Koalas and DPE guidelines for planned burning

We’ve all heard about koala populations declining in numbers in recent years due to multiple threats such as land...
If you’re curious about how Indigenous cultural burning from around 10,000 years ago has implications for current land management,...
Drones – The Future of Bushfire Management?

A recent article in the Guardian has explored the use of remotely piloted drones in order to facilitate the...
An Introduction to Citizen Science

Citizen science databases can be an excellent tool for getting to know the flora and fauna present within your...
Protecting Hollows With Citizen Science

Around the country, communities are using the power of citizen science to help protect a highly ecologically valuable and...
Thinning Forests for Bushfire Management – Does It Work?

Particularly following the 2019-2020 bushfire season, various techniques to lessen the severity of bushfires have been discussed in great...
Watch the final showcase of the Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub as their initial works draw to a close....
How a NCC community workshop in Kangaroo Valley connected people through nature

We are all familiar with the severe and extensive bushfires of 2019-20 which impacted the lives of so many...
We’ve all seen the current effects of climate change. As bushfires become larger, more sever and more frequent the...
Ever wondered who your fury, scaly and feathered neighbours are? What lives in your local bush or your backyard?...
Have you ever wanted to know more about your environment and how it is changing? Monitoring is a powerful...
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) has developed a booklet on cultural burning, collating Aboriginal stories...
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment have released an app for android users that allows you to explore...
Watch – Ecological burns: a Council perspective

Martin Roberts from Macedon Ranges Shire Council explores ecological burns from a Local Government perspective in a presentation for...
Book Review – A Wide & Open Land: Walking The Last Of Western Sydney’s Woodlands by Peter A. Ridgeway

As one who enjoys long bushwalks and studying nature, I was very keen to grab hold of a copy...
‘Business as usual won’t cut it’: The Conversation

Two years on from the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, this Conversation article analyses the current state of fire management...
The Hotspots Fire Project, jointly delivered by the Nature Conservation Council and the NSW Rural Fire Service, has released...
Empowering Indigenous leadership in bushfire recovery, burning and land management

The Threatened Species Recovery Hub conducted research to better understand key Indigenous aspirations for cultural burning and bush fire...
Conserving Australia’s threatened native mammals in predator-invaded, fire-prone landscapes

Inappropriate fire regimes are a key threatening process for native mammals in Australia. Predation by feral animals such as...
Protecting threatened species and ecological communities before and during bushfire

Understanding how to protect threatened ecological communities from intense fire events is critical as the effects of climate change...
The Gumbaynggirr people of the mid-north coast have instigated a new initiative that combines traditional ecological knowledge and western...
In association with its 12th Biennial Bushfire Conference Cool, Warm, Hot: the burning questions, the Nature Conservation Council of...
Watch – NCC 2021 Bushfire Conference

Over three days in May 2021, the Nature Conservation Council’s Bushfire Program hosted their 12th Biennial Bushfire Conference Cool,...
NSW Fire and Environment Report

Do you want to better understand the effects of the 2019/20 fire season on the NSW environment? The Department...
AABR: Assessing priorities for post-fire bush regeneration

The Australian Association of Bush Regenerators (AABR) has produced three short videos to assist bush regenerators across the state...
Climate, Fire and Biodiversity webinar series

The Threatened Species Recovery Hub hosted a four part webinar series in August/September (2020) on climate, fire and biodiversity....
Old Growth Forests: when giants fall….

Kim Stephan, ecologist and NCC representative on the Far North Coast Bushfire Management Committee, shares her insights on the...
Northern Rivers Koala Habitat Restoration webinar

Friends of the Koala hosted a 2-hour webinar focusing on koala habitat restoration in the Northern Rivers region of...
How to add data to NSW BioNet Atlas

The Department of Industry and Environment has produced a series of short videos to demonstrate how to add data...
WATCH – NSW Bushfire Inquiry Research Projects

NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub hosted five webinars in September (2020) on the research projects undertaken to assist...
WATCH – Big Scrub Landcare: Saving Our Rainforests from Fire

Renowned ABC journalist Kerry O’Brien hosts the first of two panel discussions run by the Big Scrub Landcare group...
The devastating bushfire season of 2019/20 affected 5.5 million hectares of land in NSW alone, 26 people lost their...
Simtable modeling has given the Ku-ring-gai local council an innovative way of explaining fire danger to their local residents....
The Conversation: Flora, Fauna, Fire

The Conversation covered a range of topics from 2019/20 bush fire season. This latest blog-style feature piece tells the...
WATCH – Prescribed Burning Atlas launch

A new website designed to help fire and land managers “compare the risk reduction benefits and costs from different...
WATCH – Flames in the Rainforests webinar

NCC’s Bushfire Program hosted a 1hr webinar on June 2nd with three leading experts who delved into the impacts...
Dr Ross Peacock from Macquarie University answers audience questions following the live webinar Flames in the Rainforests: bushfire impacts...
Conservationist Dailan Pugh answers audience questions following the live webinar Flames in the Rainforests: bushfire impacts and restoration in NSW hosted...
Ask the expert: Dr Tein McDonald

President of the Australian Association of Bush Regenerators Dr Tein McDonald answers audience questions following the live webinar Flames in...
WATCH – Rainforest expert Dr Robert Kooyman on the 2019/20 fires

Gondwana rainforest expert Dr. Robert Kooyman has shared his analysis of the devastating 2019/20 bush fires that affected 54%...
WATCH – Large Forest Owls Project

NCC’s Healthy Ecosystems team has produced a series of 12 short training videos on the monitoring work being carried...
Professor David Lindemayer and associates have released an article in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal outlining their findings...
The Conversation has published a thought-provoking article about the role of fungi in helping ecosystems recover after fire. Written...
Professor Philip Gibbons from the Australian National University was preparing to speak at NCC’s Bushfire Conference in May, however,...
Response to large-scale ecological disaster The Threatened Species Recovery Hub (part of the National Environmental Science Programme) has produced...
Ancient rainforests lost to the blaze NCC ecologist Mark Graham was invited to talk on the ABC radio program...
In light of public health advice on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) we are unfortunately postponing the Nature Conservation Council...
Lessons from the AABR forum NCC Bushfire program staff attended the Seeds for the Future Forum on the 8th...
A study on the long-term effects of fuel-reduction burning and logging in dry-schlerophyll forests on bat populations in south-eastern...
Looking into the eye of the fire: Some astonishing footage has been captured within two prescribed burns by the...
Protecting Our Hollows Fact Sheet

A four-page fact sheet on the importance and value of hollows as habitat for wildlife has been created by...
An educational video on four factors that affect wildfire has been created by research fellow Hamish Clarke. Hamish Clarke...
This series of training videos is designed to provide training to individuals in the use of several online tools,...
The Project In November 2018, the Nature Conservation Council in partnership with the Coffs Harbour and District Local Aboriginal...
The Nature Conservation Council attended the Climate Change and Bushfire Roundtable hosted by Cities Power Partnership in Katoomba. This...
Ever wonder what the top bushfires myths commonly believed throughout society are? Created by the Climate Council just before the 2018 bushfire season, this relevant guide clarifies how a changing climate influences wildfires and the impacts they could have on you. Download your guide here.
Site Assessment and Monitoring – A guide for landholders

The Hotspots team have produced a practical guide ‘The Ecological Site Assessment and Monitoring of Bush Fire Management- A guide...
NCC ecologist, Mark Graham recently helped run a Fire Ecology Field Day at Bonnells Bay, Lake Macquarie. This transcript...
Mark Graham: thinking about small mammals and fire regimes

NCC ecologist, Mark Graham recently helped run a Fire Ecology Field Day at Bonnells Bay, Lake Macquarie. This transcript...
In our June 2018 newsletter a story about protecting the Monaro bark eating Koalas received lots of attention and...
This series of training videos is designed to help environmental volunteers and staff effectively use online environmental platforms to...
Mark Ooi speaks on fire, seasonality and germination

Germination expert Dr Mark Ooi, a plant ecologist from the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW...
Walking along the Royal National Park coast track south of Sydney provided an opportunity to snap some images of...
North Sydney Council Interview Part 2 – Burn implementation and post-burn site care Read Part 1 of this article...
North Sydney Council Interview Part 1 – Site selection and Preparation On the 21st of September 2017 part...
BMAD Review – Final Report Now Available Bell miner associated dieback (BMAD) is listed as a key threatening process...
The Upper Coldstream Biodiversity Project (UCBP) was a four-year Australian Government funded project implementing key actions to protect and...
Fire and Wildlife in the Mallee – insights for conservation and management LaTrobe and Deakin Universities conducted their Fire and Wildlife...
Fire and Weeds – Landholder Booklet from Hotspots
The Interaction between Fire and Weeds: A booklet for landholders in NSW This booklet is a welcome addition to...
Box-Gum Grassy Woodlands – managing ground-layers

Jewels in the Landscape This guide published by CSIRO in 2015 aims to help land managers recognise, understand and...
Interview: Flame Weeding to Support Restoration

Mia Dalby-Ball, from Kingfisher Urban Ecology, was interviewed on the renewed use of an old technology, the flame weeder....
A day in the field at North Head

A day in the field at North Head Fire, Fauna, Weeds & Ferals Linked with the 2017 Bushfire Conference...
2017 NCC Bushfire Conference – Proceedings now available

2017 NCC Bushfire Conference Fire, Fauna & Ferals: from backyards to bush The Nature Conservation Council hosted their 11th...
Fire, Ferals and Weeds Consortiums – expressions of interest sought

Consortiums to improve integrated management Background: At the recent Nature Conservation Council Bushfire Conference 2017 – Fire, Fauna & Ferals: from backyards to bush, as...
A day in the field at North Head Fire, Fauna, Weeds & Ferals Bushfire Conference Participants are invited to...
NCC’s 2017 Bushfire Conference – Fire, Fauna & Ferals Sydney 30-31 May with a field day 1 June Conference...
Council Collaborations – Asparagus, BMAD, Koalas and Powerful Owls

Councils link with volunteers to protect wildlife and restore bushland Lake Macquarie, Campbelltown and Sutherland Shire Councils have been...
Fire and Fauna Project The Burning Hotspots – Gondwana Threatened Species and Fire project in the Northern Rivers region...
Fire Supporting Recovery from African Olive Invasion A field experiment conducted at Mt Annan Botanic Gardens in Western Sydney...
Fire and Fauna Protection
Land for Wildlife in South East Queensland has produced an informative note on the way planned fires can impact fauna. This note outlines how a range of species from the region respond to fires and provides advice for landholders managing fire on their properties. Link to the PDF file.Fire interval guidelines – what’s missing? In this video from NCC’s 2013 Bushfire Conference Dr Belinda Kenny (NSW National Parks and...
PhD Scholarship – flammability natives vs exotics

PhD Scholarship A fully funded PhD position is available to work in the Murray Ecology Lab in the School...
This blog is maintained by Bronwyn Hradsky, of University of Melbourne’s School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences. The blog...
Bushfire Conference 2017 – Call for Abstracts

Call for Abstracts NCC’s 2017 Bushfire Conference and Registration Now Open The Nature Conservation Council of NSW is proud...
Interview with Felipe Aires – Fire, Flammability and Woody Weeds Felipe Aires completed his PhD in 2015 at the University...
- Some studies show that more plant and animal species live in landscapes with a high diversity of fire histories, while others show no such relationship.
- The variation in fire regimes that will promote plant and animal conservation depends on the type of ecosystem.
- Fire management will be most effective when it is guided by local knowledge of plants, animals and and the habitats they depend on.
Wattleridge Fire and Seasons Calendar featured on the Atlas of Living Australia website. The calendars represent annual seasonal changes as...
A Conference on Restoring Ecological Processes, Ecosystems and Landscapes in a Changing World February 5-9 2017, University of New England,...
Ecological Restoration – what standard are you working to? Ecological restoration and rehabilitation seeks to transform humanity’s role from...
In the third part of our interview with Tein McDonald we discuss current projects on the NSW North Coast restoring Forested...
Planned fire, wildfire and restoration

In Part 2 of our interview with Tein McDonald we discuss some insights from her thesis work in the 1990s and...
Over the past 30 years, Tein McDonald has been interested in trialling the use of fire to assist with...
African Lovegrass – fire and weeds in the Cumberland Plain

African Lovegrass – an integrated approach to fire and weed management in the Cumberland Plain Integrating fire into Cumberland...
Cultural burning podcast
This ABC podcast shares experiences from Cultural burning projects in central western NSW, discussing how burning can contribute to caring for country and caring for communities. Listen here (28 minutes).The Fire Ecology and Biodiversity Group at the University of Melbourne is offering three PhD projects within two research...
This year’s conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA) & the New Zealand Ecological Society (NZES) will...
NCC’s 11th Biennial Bushfire Conference will be held 30-31 May 2017 with a field trip proposed for 1 June. More...
African Lovegrass – integrated treatment trials
African Lovegrass treatment plots 2015 Using Fire to Manage Priority Weeds in Cumberland Plain vegetation: African Lovegrass This project conducted in...