Our Burning Shores

Implications for fire management on the Kimberley coast

October 2012 Richard Costin & Annabelle Sandes

Kimberley Media

Fire has been an integral part of the

Kimberley’s environment for millions of years

and has modified the biodiversity of the flora

and fauna in the region. Natural fire patterns

across the land have been modified since

the arrival of man.

Aboriginal people used fire as a tool to

open up access, to hunt, to cook , for

communications and to limit the impact

of fire on their clan estates. Burning was

a normal pastime that was carried out

12 months of the year and in response

to changes in seasons and the nesting

and breeding times for birds and animals.

Aboriginal occupation over 40-50,000 years is

also bound to have had a significant impact

on the landscape.

When European settlers occupied the land,

many of the traditional owners were moved

from their country. In modern times, severe

fires have raised community concerns about

how best to limit the impacts of fire on the

region’s biodiversity and productivity of the

active pastoral leases.

Prescribed burning is being used to create

a mosaic of burnt and unburnt patches

throughout the country. There is a broad

acceptance that “cool” fires help to reduce

fuel loads in the bush and limit the impacts

of fire on the biodiversity of the rangelands,

and broad acceptance also that “hot” fires

are damaging to country.

The severity of fire is linked to a number of

factors that include the fuel load, ambient

temperature, moisture content of the fuel,

wind speed, slope of the country and

vegetation type and composition.

Natural fires from lightning strikes and

prescribed burns during and towards the

end of the wet season are quite often

cool burns that have a minimal impact on

the country, and allow for an immediate

recovery of the vegetation.

Once the dry season settles over the land,

the fuel dries and the prevailing easterly

winds kick in, making it difficult to predict

the extent and severity of the fires. Land

managers in the Kimberley are faced with

the difficult task of deciding when to burn

and how frequently to burn.

Fires along the Kimberley coast are now

changing the landscape and threatening

the biodiversity of the rangelands and rivers

of the region.

Successive fires from prescribed burning,

arson, mining exploration and lightning

strikes are modifying the plant communities

along the coast. Beautiful stands of

Eucalyptus trees and Cyprus pine have been

decimated over the past 10 years.

These changes are not a response to

climate change but a response to changes

in fire managment practices. Shorter

intervals between fires no longer allow for

Mt Hart Station, wet season 2004

the regeneration of many of the tropical

woodlands along the coast.

These changes in manangement are now

driven by a new savannah burning initiative

that provides commercial opportunities for

land managers across the north of Australia.

No commercial incentives have been

suggested to manage these tropical

savannal woodlands as carbon sinks by

excluding fires in suitable areas or increasing

the intervals between successive fires.

Small pockets of woodland on the mainland

and islands have been overloooked by

fire managers over the past 10 years, and

provide us with a stark and refreshing

reminder of what the coastal vegetation

should look like under natural conditions.

The new Savannah burning initiative has

the potential to inject millions of dollars

into land management in the Kimberley,

so is being strongly supported by most

political parties, the Kimberley Land Council

and the Department of Environment and

Conservation.

This is promoted as the new economy

for indigenous communities across the

Kimberley. The question remains as to

how this will be managed and what will

be the ultimate cost to the biodiversity of

Kimberley’s rangelands?

Collaborative broadscale fire management

projects such as Ecofire in the Kimberley and

the West Arnhemland fire abatement project

in the Northern Territory are providing some

of the answers to these questions.

Fitzroy Bluff, wet season 2003

East Talbot Bay 4 th August 2011

Successive fires over the past ten years have destroyed Savannah woodland once dominated by Eucalyptus miniata along the shores of East Talbot Bay and in many other areas along the Kimberley coast.

Horizontal Falls fires 29th May 2011

Successive dry season fires around the Horizontal Waterfalls in Talbot Bay are changing the landscape.

Horizontal Falls fires 29th May 2011

Fuel reduction burning in May 2011 opened up the landscape for mining exploration around the Horizontal Waterfalls

The stark contrast between one of the Traverse Islands in the foreground and the mainland in the background reflects their different fire histories over the past ten years.

The Traverse Islands (foreground) and the adjacent mainland (background) in this photo have the same soill type, aspect, climatic conditions, rainfall and cyclone history. Changes in vegetation composition and structure are clearly evident and are the direct result of completely different fire regimes over the past ten years.

East Kingfisher Island 6th September 2012

East Kingfisher Island is another jewel of the Kimberley coast which hardly ever gets burnt. Old stands of Eucalytpus miniata and spinifex dominate the landscape. Cyclonic winds strip the trees of all their leaves every 2-3 years but they recover in a short period of time.

Sale River, Storr Island 22nd August 2011

Fire-scorched landscape around the Sale River. Industrial burning practices along the Kimberley coast using helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to drop thousands of incendiaries every year are changing the landscape. Most of the Kimberley coast is inaccessible by road so there is no opportunity for any on ground fire control. Dry season fuel reduction burns become wildfires that can burn for weeks. The intensity of these fires varies, but strong easterly winds at this time of year ensure that many of these destructive fires are hot burns.

Augustus Island

Augustus Island, satellite image

Augustus Island is the largest island on the Kimberley coast. There are 2,633 islands which have been recognised by the WA Conservation Commission as comprising “the least impacted part of one of the world’s last and largest tropical wilderness areas”.

The Commission has also recognised “their varied and often spectacular landscapes and eco-systems which include sandstone and volcanic escarpments, rainforest patches, mangrove forests, freshwater creeks and swamps, savannah woodlands and beaches, harbour a wide variety of animals and plants including some that occur nowhere else and that are threatened with extinction on the mainland. These islands should be regarded as the jewels of the Kimberley coast.

The Commission has recognised that the “conservation of biodiversity on Kimberley Islands deserves a much higher priority by government than has been the case in the past”. The Commission has recognised that “there is an opportunity to include all or almost all of the Kimberley islands in the State’s protected area system using mechanisms such as conservation reserves that are jointly managed by the state and Tradional Owners.

Tern and Frigate Bird

The Kimberley coast is a rich marine environment that supports a diverse fish and bird population. The adaptations that have enabled corals and molluscs to survive in this unique environment are poorly understood and need further investigation. Current fire management practices in the Kimberley may be having serious unintended consequences on the biodiversity of the marine environment.

Fire scar map of the Kimberley (refer previous page)

Source - Landgate.

Fire scarring January to October 2012.

Fire has been part of the Kimberley landscape for millions of years. This landscape has been modified by traditional burning for the past 40,000 to 50,000 years.

Fire management practices have changed dramatically since European occupation. Land managers in modern times are aware of the need to reduce the impact of fires. In 2012 fires primarily from prescribed burns modified at least 10,352,500 ha of the Kimberley rangelands between January and September.

The 2012 fire scar map for the Kimberley clearly demonstrates a desire by land managers to conduct fuel reduction burning in the early dry season. The total area burnt for 2012 could be more than 12 million hectares, greatly reducing the region’s capacity to store carbon during the dry season, and making a substantial contribution to Australia’s Greenhouse emissions. Many of these dry sesaon fuel reduction burns are hot fires that burn out of control for weeks at a time.

Average annual rainfall iin Australia

In the tropical north of Australia in areas that receive more than 600mm of rain per annum (long term average), land managers will be able to claim carbon credits for reduction of greenhouse gases through early dry season Savannah burning. These credits can then be sold to the big industrial polluters.

Scientific studies in the Northern Territory have shown that early “cool” dry season burning will reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions released by fire into the atmosphere compared to hot fires.

No baseline studies have been conducted along the Kimberley coast.

Australia’s big polluters such as the offshore oil and gas industry will now be able to offset their carbon emissions by investing in “approved” Savannah burning schemes across the Top End of Australia. This high risk approach may have serious unintended consequences for Australia’s Greenhouse gas emissions and the biodiversity of the native flora and fauna of northern Australia.

Poulton Creek, Horizontal Waterfalls, Talbot Bay

Poulton Creek, Horizontal Waterfalls, Talbot Bay

The biodiversity of the Kimberley coast and islands is unique and deserves high priority protection underpinned by rigorous science.

The commercialisation of Savannah burning practices in the Top End of Australia could shift the focus away from the protection of biodiversity.

Photographic evidence suggests that current practices are already having a devastating impact on the country. In 2006 the WA EPA recommended that there should be a precautionary and adaptive approach to fire management in the Kimberley.

There needs to be an urgent review of currrent and planned fire management in the Kimberley.

The new short interval fuel reduction fire regime that is being imposed on the Kimberley rangelands is promoted as based on traditional, low impact fire stick farming. Industrial burning practices that rely on aerial incendiaries cannot replicate the historic fine scale fire management by Aboriginal people.

All images © Richard Costin & Annbelle Sandes | Kimberley Media 2012Fire scar mapping and information © Landgate 2012