Recapping NGT’s restoration burning season for 2025

Thank goodness for the rain we’ve received recently. Hasn’t it been wonderful to see and hear it! And why am I excited by that?

Now that the rains have arrived, we’ve also just completed our autumn burning program of seven ecological burns in the last couple of months. We couldn’t have done it without the OneFortyOne (OFO) fire team, Burrandies Aboriginal Corporation field crew, NGT field staff, and volunteers.

Of the seven burns this season, Nature Glenelg Trust properties have seen four: one at each of Eaglehawk Waterhole, Mt Burr Swamp, Mt Vandyke and Walker Swamp. These burns all had similar objectives; namely, to reduce the biomass of introduced grasses and other herbs, to enable efficient control of weeds, for planting, to encourage natural post-fire regeneration and/or to assist eradication of weeds. One additional burn at Wattle Range roadside continued the annual maintenance of a threatened native grassland site since 2021, and another collaborative burn with OFO occurred at Furner.

A successful grassland burn at Mt Vandyke Restoration Reserve was completed in May 2025, after a few false starts due to the difficult conditions. This burn aimed to enable effective post-burn weed control before direct-seeding and planting of native grasses. The first burn was attempted 5 months earlier, just before the fire season, but had to be postponed due to late spring rain and then again due to an extended fire season and dry conditions into April.

We conducted the Eaglehawk Waterhole burn on 8th May, where several small areas were burnt during calm conditions to enable control of Veldt grass, and to create new foraging opportunities for threatened birds. Improving the habitat for the Diamond Firetail, which is suffering population declines because of habitat loss, is another focus of this burn. Biomass conditions were challenging, but volunteer caretaker Andy and I managed a few moderately successful burns close to camp, which will improve monitoring opportunities for bird activity. Andy aims to spray the germinating veldt grass and report back on bird activity over the coming months.

The Wattle Range grassland burn was conducted on May 13th, led by Burrandies Aboriginal Corporation with assistance from NGT and OFO. This burn demonstrated how simple grassland burns can be when firebreaks are installed just moments before light-up. A narrow, brush-cut line was prepared and then wet-down. This wet-line technique proved very effective at this site.

The Native Vegetation Council approved the Mt Burr Swamp burn, as it was conducted in an area that includes native vegetation. With a crew of five, we carried out a low to moderate intensity burn in the Stage II area near the sandbag weir on May 23rd. This 2-hectare burn contains a significant population of Pale Vanilla-lily (Arthropodium milleflorum), and we look forward to seeing new germinants over the coming months. The burn also helped further break down the numerous blue gum stumps remaining throughout the regeneration area.

The Walker Swamp burn on May 30th was aimed at assisting with control of Phalaris and Rye Grass growing along the edges of the wetland, with follow-up spraying planned over the winter and spring.

This short video shows a summary of all the May burns. We hope you enjoy it!