Samantha Lloyd, South East Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium

There was a buzz in the air as the South East Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium (SEQFBC) Annual Fire Forum began at the 2018 annual ESA conference. With an impressive line-up of engaging and skilled speakers, the Forum was well supported by SEQFBC partners and ESA attendees alike, and there was much chatter and swapping of business cards and numbers after the event.

Working with ESA, the SEQFBC coordinated the half-day Forum, providing the opportunity for SEQFBC Forum attendees to experience an ESA conference, and for ESA members to attend a SEQFBC Fire Forum as part of the conference program. The Forum was very well received and resulted in over 160 registrations from SEQFBC partners and friends, who would not otherwise have attended the ESA conference. Attendees were surveyed post the forum with overwhelmingly positive comments, including “interaction with ESA attendees” and “networking with both Forum and ESA attendees, and opportunity to see ESA talks”. Such responses clearly demonstrate the success of the event and the benefit attendees gained from the partnership with ESA.

Speaker summary

With a focus on fire management and private land conservation, the SEQFBC Annual Fire Forum sought to showcase projects that support successful partnerships between private landholders and public land managers (or other stakeholders) for improved fire management outcomes:

“The key is working with private landowners who own the vast majority of bushland in Australia and face an ever-increasing threat from bushfire. There is an enormous amount of knowledge out there in the community, and as scientists and land managers we need to get a lot better at building trust and initiating partnerships that empower landowners to better manage fire risk for the protection of life, property and the environment” – Dr Sam Lloyd, Manager, SEQFBC

Speakers at the Queensland Fire and Biodiversity consortium included PhD students, local government, and land managers. Credit: Samantha Lloyd.

Keynote speaker Richard Geddes (National Bushfire Manager, Bush Heritage Australia) inspired us with his breathtaking landscape photos and discussion on the contrast between devastating unplanned wildfire and carefully managed planned burning. He discussed some of the challenges facing private land managers, including working to improve fire regimes by reducing the extent and severity of large unplanned fires, which may take years and not initially align with ecological objectives or political funding cycles. He highlighted partnerships with indigenous land managers and how traditional aboriginal burning practices were essential to success.

City of Gold Coast demonstrated how local government can undertake meaningful fire-associated flora and fauna monitoring (including invertebrate pitfall trapping and identifying ants to morphospecies), showcasing a meticulous fire monitoring project in Austinville Conservation Area with some very interesting results, including variation in species composition between burnt and unburnt sites.

A favourite presentation of the day was a partnership spanning 40 years between private landholder Di Collier (Connondale Ranges, Sunshine Coast), Sunshine Coast Council officer Michael Reif and Land for Wildlife Program Manager Deb Metters. Di was a vibrant and engaging speaker, who moved the audience with her journey from someone who initially “hated” fire (because of the mismanagement she had experienced firsthand) to someone who utilises fire as a land management tool:

“The strategic use of fire as a property management tool has been the element that has put the icing on the cake as far as rehabilitating my property. Over time, as my land has changed, I have become a changed person too, where I feel more connected to the landscape and in conversation with it, listening to its gentle whisperings” – Di Collier

Another favourite was the presentation by Kerry Jones and Lyndon Davies, Kabi Kabi First Nations decedents of Bunya Bunya Country Aboriginal Corporation (BBCAC) and Susie Chapman of Healthy Land and Water (HLW). Again showcasing the value of collaboration, they spoke about the successful partnership between BBCAC, HLW and Stockland at their Caloundra South development, Aura. Kerry and Lyndon spoke about the value of reintroducing traditional fire management practices into the landscape, the importance of Stockland’s willingness to partner and some of the innovative work they have been leading.

Program Manager at Queensland Trust for Nature, Tanya Pritchard, provided the perfect ending to the forum, reflecting on the value of fire as a land management tool, the challenges facing private land managers and closing the gender gap between men and women as active fire managers.

The essence of the event was perfectly captured by indigenous fire practitioner Lyndon Davies:

We’re still here today and we’ve all got a job to do. The plants and animals don’t care who does it…if the land’s happy the fellas are happy too”.

Dr Sam Lloyd and the SEQFBC would like to extend their gratitude to the ESA for supporting an event that illustrated the value of practitioner and stakeholder engagement, and celebrated partnerships and whose success provided a multitude of benefits for attendees and organisers alike. We hope to see similar events at ESA conferences in the future.

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The Consortium was a great success and attracted a wide and varied audience. Credit: Samantha Lloyd.