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Message from the Executive Director
It seems as though 2022 has flown by, but when I reflect back on what we have achieved we sure pack in a lot during the season. Brigades have commenced their AGMs and these will continue throughout January and February. I would like to pass on my thanks and appreciation to the outgoing and new committee members and all the other volunteers who work behind the scenes to support the active firefighting volunteers. I also want to give a big shout out to the Fire Wardens who at this time of year in the Top End are in high demand by landholders for permits. This work is really valuable so thank you from us all.
This year’s Top End bushfire season saw a great effort by volunteers, contractors and staff. We have an amazing organisation and punch well above our weight and I am proud to be a part of the Bushfires NT family.
We have had a few staffing changes this year and this will continue into 2023. In recognition of the increased fuel load in Central Australia, I have positioned the Assistant Director of Regions in Alice Springs. Nathanial Staniford is undertaking this role for 12 months and providing a higher level of support to the Katherine team in 2023.
This time of year many of our staff and volunteers take a well-earned break over the festive season. On behalf of my team I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and safe and Happy New Year.
Warm regards Collene
The Administrator visiting HQ
The Administrator of the Northern Territory, her Honour the Honourable Vicki O’Halloran visited the HQ for the last time to deliver a delicious Christmas cake, to thank everyone for their hard work this year. We wish her all the best on her new adventure.
Grass fuel load observation volunteers needed
The new fire danger ratings went live on 1 September 2022. One requirement of the system are visual observations of the grass fuel curing, continuity and condition which is then used to calculate the fire danger rating for any given day.
What is Grass Curing?
Grass curing is the process by which grasses die or become dormant and then dry out. Curing is measured as the percentage of dead material. This is done visually using increments of 10% with 0% meaning there is no dead material present and a curing value of 100% means all the grass is dead.
What is condition?
Condition is the amount of fuel present which will burn readily in a fire. This is measured as the height of the fuel in three categories:
Eaten Out <10cm
Grazed/Slashed
10-50cm
Natural >50cm
Volunteers alongside are needed to help with the observations right across the NT. Observations take only 5 mins to complete once a week. Measurements are entered straight into the web-based portal or taken back to your home or office and entered using a computer. All observers are provided free training with observations taken once a week leading up to and during fire seasons.
If you are interested, please contact us on bushfires.nt@nt.gov.au or call 8922 0844
Finniss river catchment group meeting
In early December Bushfires NT staff attended the Finniss River Catchment Group Meeting, hosted by Territory Natural Resource Management (TNRM). The group meet twice a year, it provides landholders and stakeholders the opportunity to discuss their weed and fire Management Plans and any issues and concerns with industry professionals. Bushfires NT’s role is to provide advice and assistance to stakeholders around fire management and maintain relationships. This year marked the 10th anniversary for the group, which has continued to expand as landholders continue to join. The group was initially established, when a landholder was chasing advice on the management of Mimosa, the meeting now addresses a very wide array of issues and opportunities including management of feral animals, carbon farming projects, management of gamba grass and Siam weed and fire management. There were 32 attendees at the meeting.
Daly River weed and fire meeting
In November, Bushfires NT attended the biannual Daly River weeds and fire meeting, where more than 7 Ranger Groups, members from the Northern Land Council, Indigenous Land Council, North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd, Bureau of Meteorology, Biosecurity and Territory Natural Resource Management.
The group supplied a debrief on fire management for the year, discussing what worked, what didn’t and how to progress next year. The group also identified areas they plan on burning into the early dry season as part of carbon farming projects most of which are still in their development stage.
BFNT provided strategic and technical advice around planning fire management objectives, strategies and tactics as well as discussing their legal requirements as the landowners/occupiers.
The meeting provided great networking opportunities and the opportunity for BFNT to support the community fire management capacity.
IMT junior staff members
A big thank you to Kiara Baker and Hayden Schultz for your assistance in the Incident Management Team during the bushfires season, we hope to see you again next year.
Alice Springs office
Welcome to David and Simon who will start in the Alice Springs Office in the New Year.
Lee Gleeson, David Hanley, Nathaniel Staniford, Kaitlyn McCubbin and Simon Casey
Vehicle servicing and restocking First Aid kits
For our brigades in the Top End, the rain has started falling and we can sit back, enjoy the storms and watch the grass grow! It’s also time to get brigade vehicles serviced, checked over ready for next year.
If you haven’t done so already, please make contact with Adrian McKenzie (see details below) to organise with an authorised contractor to have all your brigade vehicles serviced over the next couple of months.
Another thing to note is that most of Bushfires NT Grass Fire Units (GFUs) registrations are due for renewal on 31 March 2023 so vehicles will need to be inspected in the lead up to that date. Please make contact with Adrian to coordinate this.
Adrian is currently working through a review of the brigade fleet Territory wide. As part of that, he’s looking at the age and condition of vehicles. To assist can you please forward odometer readings of all the vehicles in your brigade to Adrian on the email below?
We will also organise to have a stock of refreshed vehicle First Aid Kits on hand to switch out with your old ones (including an extra Burn module and bandaging for snake bite).
Similar to last year, we’ll only have so many in stock at a given time, so please contact BFNT staff at the front desk and on the details below to arrange a time to come in and swap them out.
Adrian McKenzie
Assets and Capabilities Manager
08 8922 0838 / 0417 273 993
BushfiresNT.fleet@nt.gov.au
Vehicle and site security
As some of you may be aware, both our regional offices in Alice Springs and Katherine have been targeted in recent months by people trying to steal our vehicles. Damage was done to buildings, vehicles and other assets; luckily no significant damage or loss occurred during these incidents.
This is a timely reminder to make sure keys to all vehicles are kept in a safe location (not in the vehicle), preferably in a locked safe and all buildings and depots are secured when members are not on site.
Some brigades have installed combination key locks and safes as a good way to increase security at their site; if you haven’t already, please look into these options.
Talk to staff at Bushfires NT if you want to discuss this further.
Arnhem Land Fire Abatement meeting
An entirely Aboriginal-owned and not-for-profit carbon farming business, Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Pty Ltd (ALFA) support traditional owners and Ranger Groups to manage carbon abatement projects across an area of more than 80,000 square kilometres. Encompassing vast savanna regions, rugged sandstone escarpments, monsoon rainforest, intact river ecosystems, floodplains, and remote coastal areas, the projects create employment on country for Aboriginal People and ensures good land management through best practice fire management.
On Thursday 1 December, ALFA members and stakeholders met at Nitmiluk National Park for their annual general meeting and end of season fire meeting.
The car park at the Gorge Visitor Centre was full of ranger vehicles, mostly Landcruisers. Each vehicle peppered with dust after travelling from all different corners of Arnhem Land. Sure makes it easy to find a Ranger meeting!
Bushfires NT staff from Katherine and Darwin were invited to attend and present to the Rangers at the fire meeting. Tony Fuller (Director (Operations) and Chief Fire Control Officer), Nathaniel Staniford (Assistant Director (Regional), Natalie Chester (Senior Risk Planner), Tommy Garnett (Savanna Fire Management Officer) along with Clinton Rioli (Senior Ranger - Tiwi Land and Sea Management) and Catherine Whitehead (Program Manager - Tiwi Land and Sea Management) attended.
We arrived just in time to hear the Mardbalk (Warruwi) Rangers being accepted as members of the ALFA group with their new carbon project underway in 2022 and a round of applause rang out across the gorge. A great achievement for the ALFA team.
Tommy and Natalie delivered a presentation about Bushfires NT’s 2022 fire season and the new Australian Fire Danger Rating System.
Rangers then divided into their individual groups where they examined a series of maps supplied from Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research (CDU) depicting the 2022 fine scale fire scars and recent fire frequency and history for their management areas. All maps showed a patchwork display of highly successful early season burning, especially due to the lack of late season fires shown on their maps.
As the group discussions began, it quickly became clear a great sense of achievement that was shared by all the ranger groups for 2022. Each team were keen to explain the work they had done this fire season, their successes, failures and areas of improvement. A number of Ranger groups were sure that 2022 had been the most successful early season burn program ever executed by ALFA.
It then came time for the ranger groups to present to their peers. Bawinanga, Warddeken, Adjumarllarl, Mimal, Jawoyn, Arafura Swamp Rangers (ASRAC), South East Arnhem Land Rangers and Yirralka (Layhnapuy). One by one the groups took the stage and proudly presented a summary of their fire abatement program for the year. They shared achievements, stories from the fire season and fielded questions from the crowd. It was insightful for all attending Bushfires NT staff to learn about the different challenges and considerations that come from fire management in the varying ecosystems across Arnhem Land.
Presentations from fire management stakeholders Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research, Indigenous Carbon Industry Network, Australian Wildlife Conservancy and Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation showcased how important it is for North Australian fire managers to collectively share knowledge using the “Two Toolbox approach” of merging western science and traditional Aboriginal land management.
These meetings provide a great opportunity for Aboriginal Ranger Groups, fire managers and field experts to meet together and share knowledge for fire management in the Arnhem Land region. It was an opportunity to celebrate the 2022 successes of the ALFA program and for all Rangers to support and encourage their peers. One key factor attributed to ALFA’s continued success has been the willingness of the rangers to share knowledge and expertise; coupled with an eagerness to learn from one another’s experience. Bushfires NT would like to thank ALFA and all Ranger groups for the opportunity to learn from one another and we are looking forward to the Savanna Fire Forum in February 2023!
Chief Ministers Aboriginal and Torres Strait volunteer of the year award
- Winner Roque Lee – Cox Peninsula VBB
Chief Ministers Volunteer of the Year Award
- Nominated Squizzy McIntosh – BART VBB
Emergency Services Volunteer of the Year Award
- Winner Cindy Holden – Berry Springs VBB
Excellence in Volunteer Management Award
- Nominated Natalie Chester- Acacia Hills VBB
INPEX Community Volunteer Organisation/ Team of the Year Award
Nominated
- Berry Springs VBB
- Edith Farms VBB
Certificates of Appreciation
- Deborah Kakoschke, Acacia Hills VBB
- Edward Murphy, Lambells Lagoon VBB
- Graeme Owen, Berry Springs VBB
- Greg Howard, Livingstone VBB
- Ian Tibbits, Milne VBB
- Janet Kenyon, Manton
- Joanna Atkins, BART VBB
- Laurie Fisher, Point Stuart VBB
- Marni Brisbane, Daly River VBB
- Natasha Smith, Darwin River VBB
- Pamela Wanrooy, Cox Peninsula VBB
- Ray Nicholls, Darwin River VBB
Overall NT volunteer of the Year
- Cindy Holden
Critical incident discussion exercise
In October 2021, the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security (DEPWS) Governance Board identified a strategic risk: ‘failure to meet health and safety obligations to employees and other persons’ at the high risk level. One of the risk treatment options was for the agency to develop a critical incident plan to provide guidance to an Incident Management Team (IMT) and the chief executive officer during a critical incident affecting the department or a division.
A critical incident is any event occurring in the workplace or arising out of the course of work with the potential to cause trauma to employees that have experienced or witnessed that event. These events can cause a significant disruption to employee’s sense of safety at work. Some examples of a critical or traumatic incident include:
- serious workplace accidents
- near-miss where a person/s could have been injured or killed
- death in the workplace (e.g. heart attack, accident)
- violent confrontations (e.g. assault, sexual assault, robbery, siege or armed hold-up)
- deliberate and harmful behaviour in the workplace by one employee to another
- natural disasters (e.g. floods or bushfires).
Critical incidents are highly stressful events that have the potential to overwhelm an individual's usual coping abilities. These are extreme events which fall outside the range of normal experience.
A draft critical incident plan was reviewed by the DEPWS Emergency Management Committee who recommended that the Governance Board and members of the committee be taken through a discussion exercise. The exercise would ‘test’ the usefulness of the plan, highlight any gaps and importantly familiarise members of the Governance Board with the proposed arrangements for a critical incident.
A discussion exercise was developed and facilitated by Tony Fuller, Director of Operations Bushfires NT with members of the Governance Board. Overall feedback from participants was positive with some great feedback on improvements to the plan and recommendations to undertake more exercises across the department in the future.
Christmas closure period
Bushfires NT offices will be closed from 23 December 2022 to 3 January 2023.
Please report any fires to 000. If you require a permit to burn, please contact your local Volunteer Bushfire Brigade.
We wish you all a safe and happy festive season and look forward to seeing you all in 2023.
