Fire in the Tasmanian landscape

Fire in the Tasmanian landscape is unique, we're blessed with such a diverse range of habitats; from wet rain-forest to dry sclerophyll forest, plains of button grass and a bounty of everything in between. Each ecosystem has it's own needs, some needing fire to regenerate and others like the pencil pine stands avoiding fire for thousands of years.

Over the years Landcarers have drawn on a wide range of information, best practice and first nations fire management practices to help manage our unique landscapes for the betterment of everything that lives within them.

Photo: Friends of Bass Strait Island (FOBSI)

Tassie Resources

Here we have an incomplete list of resources shining a light into different fire management practices in Tasmania.

Red Hot Tips - A free one-stop service for farmers and rural landholders. The Red Hot Tips program educates, engages and supports farmers and landholders in rural Tasmania to actively manage their bushfire risk; encouraging collaborative vegetation fire management and ecological sustainability across the landscape. Check out the Planned Burning Manual, Risk Assessment Template, Post Burn Monitoring Template, and some case studies here.
Planned Burning Manual - Guidelines to enable safe and effective planned burning on private land.
Free Fuel Reduction Resources - from the Tasmanian Fire Service
Fire, Flora and Fauna - from the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service.
Restoring our Landscape - a basic revegetation guide for fire-affected areas of Tasmania.
Fire Ecology - Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service

Cultural Burning

Ngune Nire (Fire Good) Cultural Burning Handbook (SETAC) - This handbook outlines the Aboriginal meaning of fire in Lutruwita/Trouwerner, Tasmania, how to manage a burn and the ecological benefits of a cool fire. "Aboriginal people read the systems of fire – the grass, soil type, what animals live there and how they benefit from it. Burning styles differ depending on how “sick” the land is." "Aboriginal fire management techniques cannot be applied universally or done at scale as they are linked intimately to the landscape. What works in Arthur River will not work in the rainforests in Southwest Lutruwita or the dry Eucalyptus and Peppermint forests on the East coast."

If you are interested in cultural burning on your property, please reach out to us for the most up-to-date contact information. Cultural burning practitioners charge a fee for service. Watch this video of the South East Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation's Land management crew giving us a little insight on cultural burning and its benefits in Tasmania.

Other Handy Resources

Quantifying the Impact of Fire on Tree Water Use - from the Bushfire CRC.
Fire and Biodiversity- a chapter from Practical Conservation Biology, looking at the impact of fire on biodiversity.
Fire and Biodiversity - from the book Conservation Biology for All (chapter 9)
How Fires Affect Biodiversity - from the Australian National Botanical Gardens.
Fire in Bushland Conservation - the role of fire in the landscape and how we can manage it for biodiversity conservation. Although this uses Qld examples, a lot of the information is of general interest.
Post-fire Weeds Triage Manual - from the Victorian Dept of Sustainability & Environment. Provides information on weed responses to fire, and aims to assist with prioritising weed management after fire. Includes many species found in Tasmania.

Some reports from the Victorian Natural Values 2009 Fire Recovery Program

Community finding fauna – naturalist groups contributing to research on the response of fauna to fire.
How snow-gum forests and sub-alpine peatlands recover after fire.
Response of Orchids to Bushfire