SOUTH west producers and rural fire services have called for a formal fire and biodiversity organisation be established following the conclusion of five years of research and data in the Queensland Murray Darling Committee’s Fire Project.
About 40 graziers attended a field day at Tooloombilla on June 14 to hear of the findings of the QMDC Fire Project and the Mitchell and District Landcare Association Biodiversity Project.
It was the first time in the Maranoa that the use and findings of local burns were recorded over five years in the Fire Project something producers agreed needed to continue.
It was unanimously agreed that a collective of landholders and agencies needed to be formed, similar to the South East Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium, which provides best-practice recommendations for fire management and conserving biodiversity.
QMDC Climate Change Officer Rhonda Toms-Morgan said fire frequency in the Maraoa region was different to the northern season making it even more important to continue to record information.
She said with no funding for fire scar information on the North Australia and Rangelands Fire Information website it was vital that fire data and information continued to be collected.
“When we started the project there was a bit of institutional barriers that were limiting peoples use of fire,” she said.
“They were responding to information that could be misinformation, they might have had a bad experience while some said, ‘I’ve been here 30 years and I don’t know how to use fire.
“Not all fires have to be big hot fires and that awareness and allowing people not to use fire and be seen as criminal is important.”
Rural Fire Service Roma Area Director Inspector Goetz Graf welcomed the idea of a south west group and said it could add value to the region.
“The use of fire when applied at the right time, is an economic way to reduce weeds, reduce thickening of regrowth and can stimulate and increase the growth of native, protein rich grass as valuable fodder for livestock,” he said.
“Years of drought have changed the landscape, fuel load and fire behaviour in the region.”