Reconciliation Action Plan News 

Respect Around the School – Caring for Country

On Tuesday the Aboriginal Studies class had the opportunity to put some of their classroom learning into practice with the beginning of our 2021 Cool Fire Burning Programme. 

The practice of burning Country with small controlled fires dates back more than 65,000 years in Australia, in fact evidence of the controlled use of fire is the oldest indicator we have of First Nations peoples and predates stone tools and rock paintings. Aboriginal people worked alongside fire, inviting it to help them care for country, rather than fighting it or being afraid of it. A cool fire doesn’t destroy the environment, in fact it does the opposite, it helps clear dangerous fuel loads, particularly at the base of trees and opens the soil to sunlight, rain and germinating seeds. Practiced over many seasons, cool fire burning creates and sustains a strong, balanced forest and grassland ecology and protects the environment from extreme flooding and hot bushfires. 

We were fortunate to have Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Field Officer Mr Trent Prouse accompany us on the day, and he was able to explain to us how Tasmanian Aboriginal people used fire and demonstrated the importance of mosaic or patch burning. This is the deliberate leaving of patches of grass and leaves around a burnt area and some branches and sticks within it, so that animals, reptiles and insects still have some habitat to live in and are able to remain in the area. In this way Aboriginal people kept their food source present but also kept the soil and undergrowth healthy and balanced.

It was a great day, with perfect conditions, followed by a good amount of soft rain! Throughout Term 2 we will continue to invite fire to work with us and we hope to begin restoring this special part of the bush, full of significant plant and animal species, back to a healthier, safer and more balanced environment.