FOR thousands of years Aboriginal people have burnt Ngurambang (country).The cooler months, when the dark clouds come together, are a great time to do this cultural activity. Fire these days is still used to clean up the country for walking, hunting, ceremonies and to assist plant and animals to thrive. Wiradjuri men burnt patches to give the landscape a mosaic pattern of different aged grasses.

With the falling of rain, fresh growth would shoot in the newly burnt areas. Patch burning created good habitat for small game balugan (animals) such as mice and wuba (native rat) and walarru (wallaroo). These balugan (animals) hide in the old grasses and feed on the new grasses.

In the desert country to our north, one of the major contributors to desert animals being endangered today is the lack of this traditional burning. Research has proven that remaining populations of bilbies occurring close to Aboriginal communities are at their healthiest in areas where communities are actively managing the land. Fire stick farming is the traditional way Aboriginal people looked after the land and created fire breaks to ensure large destructive summer fires were not a threat. With the land burnt, new growth was promoted and food became abundant.

In the ash and soil there is magnesium and potassium and, if burnt just before rain, the phosphorus, nitrogen and sulphur that goes up in smoke comes down with the rain. Many trees rely on cultural burning. Our Northern mobs’ bush tucker like desert raisin, bush cucumbers and potatoes grow much better after burning has occurred. Grasses and acacias develop seeds for making bread and the fresh grass attracts big game such as wambuwuny (kangaroo) and dinawan (emu).

This week a few of us will attend a cultural fire program in Sydney as part of our training course. We will bring back information to our local Rural Fire Brigades (where we are volunteer fire fighters) regarding the use of cultural burning techniques. Modern and ancient fire stick burning working together to heal our Ngurambang (country).

- Mark Saddler

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