Specialist Indigenous firefighters empowered to save sacred sites in scorched fire grounds

First Nations team helps Victorian firefighters preserve landmarks.

Transcript

00:00Surrounded by blackened tree husks, Jake Goodes and Damien Scurry fear the worst, as they

00:16approach the Billimena Rock Art Shelter.

00:25But amazingly, the art is unscathed.

00:28Wow, how does that not have a scurry on it, like a mark, nothing?

00:36It's an encouraging start to the cultural surveys the two men are carrying out, after

00:41bushfires that decimated more than 80% of the Grampians' Garryward National Park,

00:46where for the first time, on-country experts were officially included in the firefighting

00:51effort.

00:52We've been able to, like I said, gather and protect a lot of those sites when time has

00:57allowed us to do that, but also, I guess, provide a lot of, I guess, direction and

01:03support to the operational, I guess, people on the ground around where sites might exist,

01:10why we need to protect it.

01:11The specialised team did delicate manual labour, wrapping big trees in sheets of silver foil,

01:18removing smaller vegetation by hand, and pruning shrubs.

01:21Guys put some Thermaguard around it to protect this tree, it's practically insulation with

01:26a foil coating on it that repels heat.

01:29It's only sort of new technology stuff at the moment, but we definitely see the benefits

01:35of using it in the protection of culturally modified trees or scar trees.

01:40Using any kind of heavy machinery in here would be devastating, particularly because

01:45of the art site and the landscape.

01:50100 kilometres away at the Little Desert National Park, more than 93,000 hectares were

01:56burned.

01:57Seeing the damage these bushfires have caused in the Little Desert National Park makes you

02:01realise just how important this work is in protecting the region's cultural heritage.

02:07These on-country experts hope this fire season, while devastating, can become a blueprint

02:12for firefighting strategy.

02:14The first time in 20 years working for around, you know, not just Parks Victoria, but Fire

02:19Forest Management Victoria, that I've got to do this in such a big way with a big team.

02:27Authorities say culturally sensitive firefighting is still highly misunderstood among Australian

02:33firefighters.

02:34One day I hope to see them taking lead roles in our fire operations, not just be a cultural

02:39heritage department as a bolt-on to our overall operations, but really integrated and lead

02:46what we do and how we do it.

02:53It's hard to watch the landscape burn, but, you know, to be out there, you know, to be

02:59the first responders, it feels, you know, I guess sort of empowering.

03:04The future of firefighting, using lessons from the past.