Funding for vital firefighting map technology in doubt as northern Australia enters fire season

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Funding for the Northern Australian Fire Information Service's fire map is set to end by July, as northern Australia enters its peak fire season. The mapping service is used by Indigenous ranger groups, pastoralists and firefighting agencies across four jurisdictions, for both planned burns and fighting bushfires. The manager of the service is urging the next federal government to secure the map's funding after the election, while the national disaster agency says the group should consider seeking private money.

Transcript

00:00At a tiny outstation in the NT Outback, the Arnhem Rangers gather to plan their burn.

00:08Ancient fire practices meet modern tools to keep fire under control across a vast and

00:13rugged landscape.

00:14These people are really good, the tracks are in their mind, they know exactly where

00:19they are at all times.

00:21Nowadays you've got chopper that you can burn from, you know, the helicopters, you've got

00:26the drip torch that we use.

00:27Back then we used to rub the sticks together, you know, make fires.

00:31The Jarwin, just one of 11 ranger groups here, manage a land mass almost as large as Tasmania,

00:38so accurate fire mapping is crucial.

00:40The maps for us is really helpful for us as well, so it holds the data for us.

00:47Live satellite fire maps provided by a service known as NAFI help the rangers track their cool

00:52burns and later in the dry season to help fight wildfires.

00:56We want to protect our bush medicine, bush tucker and all the rare animals.

01:04Rather than just running out to every single fire we see, we can pick and choose the priorities.

01:10But the future of the live NAFI maps is now under threat, with federal funding due to run

01:15out at the end of June.

01:16The parcelists who use it, the park rangers who use it, they suddenly, you know, the service

01:22they use will run out of funding.

01:24The NAFI service has been mostly federally funded, until now, under short term deals.

01:30In a statement, a spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency said that they appreciated

01:36the value of the maps, but that NAFI would need to look for private investors or money from

01:41state and territory governments to continue its work.

01:44We need to get the funding sorted reasonably quickly after the election is over.

01:53Before then, the rangers have to cover a huge area.

01:56Taking care of the country, doing what my ancestors do, sharing knowledge with young generations

02:03and new rangers.

02:05Traditional knowledge in a modern world.

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