WWF Australia pilot program on Jervoise Station involves landholders and Indigenous groups

Elliot and Ashton Smith of Jervoise Station, 35km from Greenvale, have been working with Firesticks lead practitioner Victor Steffensen for the past two years.

The project is facilitated by NQ Dry Tropics with funding from WWF-Australia, and aims to bring traditional owners and graziers together for improved land management.

Ashton's grandparents, Kerry and Gregory Jonsson, own the 77,000 acre (31,160 ha) property while she and Elliot run the cattle operation.

Jervoise Station is a breeding and backgrounding block which has an average yearly rainfall of around 800ml, and runs about 3000 head of organic Brahman cross cattle where the fats are sold to the meatworks and steers are sold privately.

Elliot said the property was river country with a lot of hills and grasses including kangaroo grass, seca, eraclea and couch.

"We've got a whole mix of country here, we've got red soil flats and black soil gullies. We've also got a lot of dry creeks which run through here," he said.

"One of the hardest things that we struggle with - because we are in this northern country and we're running cattle organically so we're not using urea or other supplements to help the cattle, we get to the end of the year and we're always looking for those little extra one per centers that are going to help us along the way.

"That's why we've been working with Victor Steffensen who runs the Firesticks Alliance. We've been working with him and killing two birds with one stone - repairing the country and also being able to regenerate different grasses which are going to be fresh later on in the year - so we're getting that gain of fresh grasses later where other country that we're using is going a little bit backward."

Elliot said the project involved an area of red soil flats next to a hay paddock which did not allow the penetration of cattle that they would like.

"There's an area of land that was previously cleared which has had a lot of thickening occurring in it so it's getting to the stage where we can't ride a bike through there any more," he said.

"So we targeted this area with NQ Dry Tropics as one of our major problem areas on the property and we've been working with them to use fire to open the land back up to how it originally should have been.

"We're going to allow the parent trees to stay there and try and thin out all the thickening which is occurring between the parent trees."

Ashton said it was really good learning all the different land types and seeing how Victor uses the trees to determine what area can be burnt at certain times of the year.

"So it's been good for us to understand our land types better and also have more confidence around fire because our previous experiences of fire was fear based," she said.

"We've never really liked fires as we've always been fighting fires so I think it's been good to get a bit of confidence around fire and using fire."

Elliot agreed that the concept of cultural burning focused on working with nature.

"Australia has grown up with fire in its land and what we're learning is how to use that fire throughout the year, and one aspect is to lower the risk of fire at the end of the year (in summer) when there's high fuel loads," he said.

Elliot said the fires were a cool burn where there was no raging fire.

"It's very calm. There's only one ignition source so we're all around one ignition source and that allows the smoke to spread around the trees and tells the animals there's a fire about to happen so it gives them a chance to walk away from the fire as it's just starting from this one sources," he said.

"And it goes out in circle as opposed to setting a big long line of fires which goes through your land.

"I'd definitely recommend people to work with Indigenous people to do these fires, I wouldn't suggest you just go out and start lighting fires from what you've read in a report or online. That on-ground experience (from Victor) has been extremely valuable for us."

Elliot said Victor uses his indigenous knowledge to tell them when the country was ready for a burn.

"It changes year on year with how much water we've had and different country types need burns at different times of the year so he's comes in and assesses the land," he said.

"We've told him the problem areas that we have and he's come up with plan to try and repair this land back to how it should be. There is roughly about 300 acres in this main patch.

"We've also been going through different spots in the country and learning land types. We've found that we're bringing back the native species so the native seeds must have been stored in the ground - even after the first burn that we had, rosella plants just sprouted up off the ground.

"They've just been stored there for a long time and what it's done it's kind of stepped the grass back into its growth cycle a little bit later than when the wet season occurs so we're getting that green grass a little bit later in the year whereas if we had of just left it it would already be dry by now."

Elliot said the goal was to bring back the native grasses and softer grasses that were naturally in the ground.

"We are not in ideal land for getting year-round rain, but we are trying to extend the growing period of the grass for as long as possible which changes season on season

Ashton said the project on Jervoise Station was ongoing and a learning process.

"It's more that they want to use this land to set up a process where landholders can work with Aboriginal people...in a partnership to fix land and they are using this as an example as to how it can work. There are still a lot of things that are still coming together," she said.