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Ed Hatherley, Kimberley Region Fire Coordinator with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), throws light on the recent fire season. |
| There is a coordinated effort between stakeholders in the Kimberley to mitigate the effects of large hot fires that occur in the late dry season.
The majority of the DEC prescribed fire program is aimed at creating patchy mosaics of burnt and unburnt areas across the landscape by lighting smaller scale fires in the early part of the dry season when the fire intensity and spread is greatly reduced.
Scientific studies are indicating that this fire management technique is considered to be better for biodiversity as there are still patches of vegetation for native animals to seek refuge and recolonise along with areas that are protected for longer periods from the impact of fire and remain unburnt.
The aim is to limit the scale and intensity of the fires that occur later each year and enhance the landscape by providing a longer range of fire frequencies.
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While fires in the Kimberley are very large in relation to southern Australia, there is less threat to people as it is not densely populated. Even so, people who do live in the region are also protected from any fires.
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In some areas prescribed fires are lit adjacent to roads or natural geographic barriers such as creeks and rock outcrops to create buffers, these also assist in managing late fires. The Kimberley is a very popular tourist destination, and as such there is significant tourism related infrastructure across the Region. Protection for the traveling public, built and cultural assets from the impact of fire is also a major part of the DEC fire program, prescribed fire is implemented along some areas of the Gibb River Road, a major route through the Region as well as in other National Parks and Conservation Reserves in the Kimberley.
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| In 2008, the early fire preparations proved to be worthwhile when intense and widespread lightning strikes began last October.
The fiigure (left) of North Kimberley - Mitchell River National Park, lightning strikes 2008. illustrates the density and widespread nature of lightning strikes.
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Dry lightning storms associated with the annual “build-up” to the wet season started a large number of wildfires as monsoonal troughs come down from the equator. Prior to the October storms some 5 million hectares of the Region were affected by early fires (see below left, Kimberley fire history June 2008). |
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This then doubled to 10 million hectares in just a few weeks (see below right Kimberley fire record end October 2008). This escalation was the resultof abnormally high presence of lightning strikes and the absence of the typical rain in the storms that build up behind the lightning clouds. |
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Lightening is a natural occurrence; however most of the previously burnt patches did not burn again thus reducing the scale and impact across the landscape. The early burnt patches may also provide refuge to animals from the impact of the later fires. Another fire in August on the Mitchell Plateau which began as a 4,500 hectare fire was contained to 48,000 hectares as a result of early burning, using a network of access tracks and the successful implementation of a Suppression Response Plan. Even though the wet season brings some 1400 millimeters of rain to the North West Kimberley, generally between March and June the vegetation dries out, this is known as the curing cycle, and it is monitored carefully.
This year the eastern part of the region was very dry by March, and the western part did not cure until May. During these months the bulk of the early prescribed burning program is implemented, along with training and development for DEC staff. District Fire Coordinators, Nature Conservation Officers, National Park Rangers, and Aboriginal rangers all work together with Ed Hatherley to plan and implement the fire program each year. They take maps and discuss previous fires with traditional owners as well as areas that are proposed for the coming season, this resulted in approximately 700,000 hectares of land across the Region treated with the mosaic burns in 2009.
It is a coordinated approach that provides great benefits to a vast community. Images from Ed Hatherley and Paul McQueen
Text: V.B. August 2009
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