In recent years the global community has been feeling the impacts of climate change on an increasingly frequent basis. Most notable is the increased intensity of fire events, which are burning bigger, hotter and for longer. This fact is doubly true for Australia, with catastrophic fire events occurring in 2025-26 (approx. 950 destroyed structures), 2023-24 (approx. 96 million hectares burnt) and 2019-20 (approx. 3000 structures destroyed, 24 million hectares burnt & up to 3 billion vertebrates directly impacted). The Southern Downs is not immune from this emergent threat, with the region experiencing extreme bushfire events in 2019 and 2023.
It is for this reason that local landholders are encouraged to research and conduct sustainable fire management strategies on their land.
Australia’s native vegetation has been managed through sustainable fire regimes for tens of thousands of years, with aboriginal groups conducting cultural burning to promote forage for prey species, and to clear existing pathways of encroaching vegetation. However, European settlement changed the landscape, with the suppression of these fire management strategies, the introduction of farming practices and the rise of invasive weed species.
Contemporary research has now shown that the fire management practices of the past have a viable role to play in the environmental management practices of today. Historical cultural burns are shown to reduce the prevalence of high biofuel grasses and thin out understory shrub and scrub (subsequently 'cooling' fires and reducing the likelihood of hotter uncontrolled fires occurring in the future) and also help control introduced weed species when done in conjunction with other established treatment strategies. Some of these susceptible weed species are Lantana (Lantana camara), African Lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula) and Giant Rat’s Tail grass (Sporobolus pyramidalis).
When these monoculture weed species are removed from an environment it allows native vegetation to reestablish and in turn provide habitat for native fauna, which can have an immensely positive impact on ecosystem health, and by extension, area biodiversity.
If you are interested in conducting cold burns on your own property, your local fire warden can help with best burn practices for your area's vegetation, geography, area specific weather and other fire related subjects.
Find your warden by consulting the interactive map on the Queensland Fire Department website - https://www.fire.qld.gov.au/safety-education/using-fire-outdoors/fire-wardens
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