WfHC - cover page (not to be used with pre-printed report ... - CSIRO

to manage vegetation and game, or from the fire regime in the main pastoral period when
smaller mosaic fires were lit as soon as the country would burn in order to concentrate cattle
on the regrowth, and when access by non-pastoralists was extremely rare. The lack of
permanent Indigenous and pastoral presence on and access to the country around Oriners
and Sefton over the last 15 years, especially in the early-dry season, could have influenced
the dominance of these uncontrolled late-dry season fires.
A thorough investigation into vegetation changes over the last 50-100 years at Oriners and
Sefton is needed to understand the ecosystem changes associated with altered fire regimes
and the changes in Indigenous presence on the landscape. The earliest air photographs for
the area are from 1955, and these photos serve as an important historical baseline for
woodland vegetation conditions. As a preliminary example near the Oriners Station
homestead, the 1955 woodland vegetation (Figure 77) on the Eight Mile Creek floodplain
was much more open and grass dominated compared to the 2004 photograph (Figure 78).
The exact causes of this thickening are unknown, but are likely related to fire regime
changes, changes in human management following European settlement especially since
1955, the dynamics of tree and grass competition, and the frequency and magnitude of
flooding. The presence and influence of traditional Aboriginal groups in the remote
Oriners/Sefton forest country like declined dramatically following the 1920‟s, with subsequent
changes to the fire regime and slow adjustments in vegetation community dynamics. More
detailed analysis is needed at this and other locations and habitat types in the Oriners area.
In 2012, a major joint effort between the Oriners mob (Kowanyama Rangers), the
Queensland Fire and Rescue Service (QFRS), and Cape York Sustainable Futures (CYSF)
has resulted in dramatic change in the recent typical fire regime at Oriners. During June and
July and August 2012 (predominantly July), over one-half of Oriners and Sefton Station were
proactively burnt using cool-winter burns ignited by ground crews based at Oriners and aerial
incendiary crews from QFRS on fixed wing aircraft (Figure 79). These early burns have reinstated
more traditional burning times and will provide major fire breaks to prevent hot, lateseason
fires from migrating across large expanses of the western Cape (Figure 75; Figure
76). Future efforts will be need to maintain, fund and expand these efforts for the decades to
come, along with detail field monitoring of vegetation, soil erosion, and biodiversity outcomes
in order to inform an adaptive management program to create appropriate fire regimes for
the region.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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