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Abstract:
Fire is a regular and widespread feature across many Australian landscapes, including the vast desert regions. Its occurrence and impact within the desert regions is as variable as the region itself and attitudes towards fire vary both locally and regionally, between and within community groups. During the three-year period 2000–02, fires were common in the central and northern regions of Australia’s desert lands, following a period of above-average rainfall that created exceptional grass growth and fuel production. This raised the awareness of fire but has also led to conflicts among sectors of the rural community. The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC) attempted to address some of the key issues in managing fire in desert Australia through an initiative called ‘Desert Fire’. Desert Fire was a collaborative project. It involved key partners of the DKCRC, including the Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts (NRETA; participating divisions included Bushfires Council NT, Biodiversity Conservation Division and Parks Division), the Central Land Council (CLC), Charles Darwin University (CDU) and Adelaide University, as well as key stakeholder groups and collaboration with the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (Project B2.1) and the Australian National University (ANU). Desert Fire was made up of 10 projects under three subproject headings. These subprojects were linked together to meet the common goal (developed at the Arid Zone Fire Research & Management Workshop held at the DKCRC on 28 August 2003) to ‘adapt and maintain appropriate fire regimes and their management based on robust research, planning, review and communication to support the diverse users and managers of desert lands to achieve a balance of their ecological, social and economic priorities’.
