In a first of its kind, rangers, fire ser­vices and local organ­i­sa­tions came togeth­er last week to car­ry out a con­trolled burn of two areas of land at the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct. The exer­cise, part of Batch­e­lor Institute’s Con­ser­va­tion and Land Man­age­ment course, aimed to equip over 40 rangers from six groups with the skills to car­ry out such burns them­selves, reduc­ing the fuel load on the land from inva­sive species such as buf­fel grass and there­fore low­er­ing the risk of poten­tial wildfires.

The first day was over­seen by the NT Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice, ensur­ing the safe­ty and effec­tive­ness of the oper­a­tion. By day two, the rangers were tak­ing the lead, apply­ing their new­ly-acquired knowl­edge under expert instruc­tion from Batch­e­lor. They used blow­er-vacs to pro­tect the iron­wood and cork­wood trees, ensur­ing the health and integri­ty of the local ecosys­tem was main­tained. No trees were harmed in the process.

Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia worked with Batch­e­lor Insti­tute to organ­ise the exer­cise, bring­ing togeth­er six groups, includ­ing Cen­tral Land Coun­cil (CLC) Indige­nous rangers from Apat­u­la (Finke), Atit­jere (Harts Range), Tjuwan­pa (Ntaria- Her­manns­burg), Ti Tree, Lytenye Apurte (San­ta Tere­sa), and the Cen­tre for Appro­pri­ate Technology.

The Desert Knowl­edge Precinct is a hub for col­lab­o­ra­tive learn­ing and edu­ca­tion, sup­port­ing research and com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives of this kind. Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia, who man­age the Precinct, have been work­ing to reduce buf­fel grass across their 73-hectare site. It’s hoped the burn will act as a test site in how to cre­ate buf­fel-free areas of land where native plants and flow­ers can thrive. Buf­fel grass was offi­cial­ly declared a weed by the NT Gov­ern­ment in July this year.