Western Australia’s Shire of York Council has been awarded $28,000 by the National Disaster Risk Reduction (NDRR) 2022-23 Competitive Grant Program, to deliver a Traditional Aboriginal Mosaic Burning Program on Ballardong Country.
Council says the project will re-introduce Aboriginal cultural burning to enable the Ballardong community and local Elders to re-connect with Country and acquire practical mosaic burning skills and cultural knowledge.
It will fund a two-year program and will include:
- A specialist Ballardong Noongar Cultural Burning Consultant trainer to provide Traditional Mosaic Burning cultural knowledge;
- DFES Training in Firefighting Skills and Bushfire Safety Awareness for participants;
- Bushfire Personal Protective Clothing for participants;
- Support for practical mosaic burning activities on Wongborel/Mt Brown and along the Gogulyar Bilya/ Avon River in appropriate seasons;
- Documentation of the project as a Pilot Case Study report “Reintroducing Traditional Aboriginal Cultural Burning on Ballardong Country in the Shire of York”.
The Council says outcomes from the program will include:
- Trained, appropriate, skilled, knowledgeable people to undertake Traditional Aboriginal Mosaic Burning in the Shire of York;
- Involvement of the Ballardong community in Caring for Country;
- Reduction of fuel loads in difficult terrain near townsite;
- Safer public open spaces;
- Protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage sites;
- Improvement of the environment;
- Increased community resilience.
“We are delighted that York will be delivering this innovative and important project to support our local Traditional Owners and boost our resilience to natural disasters,” said Shire of York CEO, Chris Linnell.
