• Assisting landholders to reduce the threat of bushfires to life and assets on their property, while protecting and enhancing native ecosystems

    Assisting landholders to reduce the threat of bushfires to life and assets on their property, while protecting and enhancing native ecosystems

  • Increasingly being recognised as a premier non-government organisation for progressing effective fire management outcomes across the State

    Increasingly being recognised as a premier non-government organisation for progressing effective fire management outcomes across the State

  • Increasing the awareness and capacity of private landholders and public land managers in the role of fire in the Australian bush

    Increasing the awareness and capacity of private landholders and public land managers in the role of fire in the Australian bush

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Category: Spotlight on some of our activities
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Spotlight on fire

The nation’s focus on fire has been brought to the fore, following the devastation of the bushfires which ravaged large areas across South East Queensland and eastern Australia over the 2019-20 period.

"During the crisis, Healthy Land and Water played a critical role in providing regular updates to our local governments and stakeholders, with staff also responding to and assisting in several disaster response situations across the region.  The technical assessments provided by Healthy Land and Water during and following the fire events have been very well received by our stakeholder network.  Following the crisis, the demand for information to better prepare for future fire seasons continues to be strong."

- Julie McLellan, Healthy Land and Water, CEO


Healthy Land and Water continues to focus on the fire response through ongoing engagement and collaboration with government agencies, stakeholders, and communities to prioritise recovery activities, planning, and mitigation initiatives to build landscape and community resilience. Many of our recommendations to government have been supported and we look forward to making further announcements during the coming year regarding implementation.
The resources and services, including sought-after community fire information events, fire management planning workshops, training, resources, and research support continues to be provided by Healthy Land and Water, through the Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium (QFBC), which is increasingly being recognised as a premier non-government organisation for progressing effective fire management outcomes across the State.

Strong demand for awareness and capacity building workshops

The Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium continues to increase the awareness and capacity of private landholders and public land managers in the role of fire in the Australian bush, fire management planning, and the use of fire as a land management tool.

Private landholders, public land managers and other stakeholders require tools and support to enable them to balance fire safety, property productivity and land management with biodiversity conservation. Fire management planning is a tool that landholders can use to reduce bushfire risk, improve property resilience and ecosystem health.  

The Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium’s combined Fire Information nights and Fire Management Planning workshops are a flagship service, aimed at increasing the understanding and resilience of private landholders in better preparing for the risk of fire. Workshops are specifically designed for private landholders and delivered in partnership with local government, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES), and other key stakeholders, including Traditional Owners, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Powerlink, the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Seqwater.  

The workshops assist landholders to reduce the threat of bushfires to life and assets on their property, while protecting and enhancing native ecosystems and with considerations for primary production. Workshop topics include the role of fire in the landscape, recommended fire regimes, plant and animal responses to fire, fire and soil erosion, fire trails and mitigation zones, fire preparedness and mapping. On completion of a workshop, landholders will have developed a fire management map and action plan tailored to their individual property, priorities (i.e. primary production and/or conservation) and circumstance.

In the 2019/20 year, the Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium delivered 12 Fire Information nights and Fire Management Planning workshops, engaging over 650 participants, in partnership with over 14 organisations and in seven different local government areas. Further planned events were postponed due to COVID-19 government restrictions.

Unique approach

Healthy Land and Water, through the Consortium’s distinctive collaborative approach, empowers landholders to prioritise their actions for fire management with property and biodiversity values and improve resilience within the community. A resilient community is one that is understood and provided with opportunities to participate and collaborate with neighbours and key government departments.

"Healthy Land and Water and the Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium have been empowering communities to better balance bushfire risk with land management and biodiversity outcomes for over 20 years."

- Sam Lloyd, Manager – Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium

 

Healthy Land and Water, through the Consortium’s distinctive collaborative approach, empowers landholders to prioritise their actions for fire management with property and biodiversity values and improve resilience within the community. A resilient community is one that is understood and provided with opportunities to participate and collaborate with neighbours and key government departments.

 

We conducted a short survey which revealed the most common reasons preventing workshop attendees from conducting fire management actions on their property. The leading reasons given were lack of relevant or adequate knowledge (62.5%) and lack of relevant or adequate skills (41.7%).


Figure 1: Survey responses - reasons landholders identified as restricting their ability to conduct fire management actions on their property, including prescribed burning.