TANYA CUTMORE: My name is Tanya Cutmore, I'm the manager for Banbai Business Enterprises, and we're at Booderee National Park.
Banbai Business Enterprises manages Wattleridge IPA.
Wattleridge IPA is the Indigenous Protected Area Program and we're an Aboriginal-owned and operated organisation. We came down to Booderee National Park because the young people are really interested in fire management
and we wanna keep that interest keen. So, yeah, we brought them down here to get some insight on fire management.
MAN: The two main things that we'd like to show you is a recent burn that we did.
And in going there, we'll actually be going to a burn that we did the year before that got away.
So it's interesting to see that bit of bush that's had two years to regenerate - and a very hot fire in parts
as opposed to a much more controlled burn which was done a couple of weeks ago.
TONY CARTER: I think the main difference between our park here at Booderee and other areas is it's a jointly managed park and it's Aboriginal land.
So we have a real input of what areas and how they're burnt.
TANYA CUTMORE: Fire management is a tool that we can use and it's traditional knowledge that has been practised thousands of years ago.
So we've learnt a lot of information from the way they participate in fire management in the park. They do sectional burning and we're hoping to take that back to Wattleridge.
Wattleridge shows evidence of Aboriginal occupation and we need to protect that area.
We also have cave paintings and so we'll do burns around there to protect the artwork that's there.
TRAVIS PATTERSON: I travel on a bus every Monday to Guyra from Glen Innes - it's about 40 minutes' drive
and stay there for the full week and then go home on weekends to see the family. It's pretty hard actually.
Like, you know, being away all week and then spending two days with the family.
It's good to learn different stuff every day. And I like working in the bush, you know?
And looking after sort of stuff, like the sites and all that, Aboriginal sites and all their artefacts and that, we find.
TONY CARTER: I think fire management in a traditional way, it's totally different in the areas you go.
From our visitors that are here now, to our Indigenous brothers up in Arnhem Land and Kakadu, the fire regime is totally different.
We have some special plants that we have in this area and they're not as common as others.
Particularly some rainforest species.
They're not fire-tolerant and pretty much, if fire goes through them, they're destroyed.
We actually identify where these species are in the park and we'll actually go out and do pre-burns and take fuel away.
TANYA CUTMORE: Wattleridge is host to many endangered plants and wildlife.
We have the black grevillea and the glossy black cockatoo.
The glossy black cockatoo likes casuarinas and we need to maintain that.
Casuarinas don't like fire so we need to manage that so their environment is sustained.
LESLEY PATTERSON: We need culture burns so we can sort of regenerate the earth we've got.
Like, it's important for managing our culture, puts us back to our own roots.
It helps our community, it helps our environment, it helps our endangered species.
The young kids, we need them 'cause I reckon it's better that every generation knows everything there is about cultural burning or even burning.
STUART JAMES: Protecting cultural heritage is similar to protecting other assets.
We try to avoid fire impact. So we may burn around specific sites,
if there's wildfire coming through, to protect those sites from wildfire impact.
MAN: Pretty much all areas are unique in their own way.
I've spoken to some of the younger boys that are down
and I've just really hit home on them about the importance of training and keeping it up.
YOUNG MAN: When we learn stuff from here and back at home, I can, hopefully, teach that to the younger generation
coming up so they can learn how to control fires as good as we may be able to.
OLDER WOMAN: If you don't teach your kids now, you're never gonna pass down anything.
TRAVIS PATTERSON: That's of real importance to me, like, just learning about what the old people
and that used to do with their time they had there and yeah, that's what I like doing. Yeah.