Burning for biodiversity using fire-stick farming

It is believed the Gagadju people first settled the Kakadu area approximately 50 000 years ago. They regularly burnt woodlands, forests and grasslands to help them hunt and gather food throughout the year. This practice is known as fire-stick farming¹.

Between May and August, early in the dry season, the woodlands and paperbark forests that surrounded grasslands were burnt. Later in the dry season, from September to the beginning of the wet season in December, the native grasslands containing Mudja (Hymenachne acutigluma²) were burnt. These fires were contained, because there was little fuel for them to spread into the previously burnt forests and woodlands.

Over the years the Mudja has been allowed to spread and, as a result of the abandonment of traditional fire practices, the biodiversity in these areas has been greatly reduced.

A solution to this problem came from the combination of science and traditional knowledge and practice.

Find out how …