Dryandra Woodland - Department of Environment and Conservation ...

7. Monitor known fungal disease infections. Develop a comprehensive description of each
infection, including information on species affected, vegetation association, infection area,
rate of spread, soil profile, topography and threat to ground and surface waters. Use this
information to update predicted hazard ratings for vegetation associations in the Woodland.
8. Investigate possible disease control and eradication procedures, while ensuring that they do
not place other areas or values at risk.
19. FIRE
BACKGROUND
Introduction
The management of fire in Dryandra will need to be flexible to achieve the multiple objectives of
management. During the term of this Plan there will be an on-going requirement for the protection
of life, property, and the commercial Brown Mallet plantations, and an increasing emphasis upon the
maintenance of habitat and species diversity.
Fire History
We do not have a complete understanding of the fire regimes of the wheatbelt area prior to European
settlement. In other south-west areas, however, especially the coastal plain, it is well known that
Aboriginal people used fire to modify their environment and increase the availability of food
resources. This activity has commonly been termed fire stick farming. The object of fire stick
fanning in wooded areas was probably to favour or attract game, and to improve access to food
sources such as rivers and swamps (Hallam 1985). The present vegetation types have evolved under a
fire regime that was influenced by Aboriginal burning and occasional lightning fires.
Since records have been kept, there have been very few wildfires which have started in Dryandra. Of
the nine wildfires started in Dryandra between 1938 and 1985, the largest burnt 260 ha of the
Woodland and the average area burnt was 40 ha. Clearing for farmland has led to further
fragmentation and a reduction in the area of native vegetation over this period (see Map 2). To date,
no wildfire has burnt out of Dryandra into private property. Over this same period, there were
approximately 69 wildfires in surrounding farmland within a 20 km radius of Dryandra fire tower.
The period 1946-1970 was the worst in terms of numbers of wildfires and total area burnt by
wildfire. This was due to the clearing of vegetation and associated burning which took place after the
Second World War. There have been considerably fewer wildfires since the 1970s following the
reduction in land clearing.
These records suggest that Dryandra is under greater threat from wildfires burning into the
Woodland than vice versa, and that the fire risk is lower than for the forests in higher rainfall areas of
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