Policy and Management

How Aboriginal people experience fire crisis

How Aboriginal people experience fire crisis

The experience of Aboriginal peoples in the fire crisis is vastly different to non-Indigenous peoples. Colonial legacies of eradication, dispossession, assimilation and racism continue to impact the lived realities of Aboriginal peoples. These factors compound the trauma of these fires.

Fires push 20 species closer to extinction

Fires push 20 species closer to extinction

These fires have significantly increased the extinction risk for many threatened species. It has been estimated that up to a billion animals have perished and scientists estimate that most of the range and population of between 20 and 100 threatened species will have been burnt.

It's miraculous: owners say cultural burning saved their property

It's miraculous: owners say cultural burning saved their property

Three weeks ago, Phil Sheppard and other owners were forced to evacuate their property, helplessly watching online as the Gospers Mountain fire converged with the Little L Complex fire and appeared to engulf the property. To his amazement, when he returned two days later, traversing the long gravel driveway on foot after fallen trees blocked vehicle access, most structures remained perfectly intact. Owners say the property was saved by the traditional Indigenous technique of cultural burning conducted on their land three years ago.