CULTURAL burning will play a larger role in Victoria's future fire management, a Bendigo-based fire expert has told the bushfire Royal Commission.
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Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning deputy chief fire officer Scott Falconer said there were 100 burns nominated by more than six Traditional Owner groups in Victoria.
Mr Falconer pointed to plans to make it easier for Aboriginal people to connect with country and manage it using fire as a tool by re-regulating and systemising burning into the department's current processes.
DELWP has supported 20 cultural burns since the Dja Dja Wurrung began to burn in the Bendigo area in 2017.
Mr Falconer said this was the first cultural burn on public land in probably 150 years, because Indigenous people were without access.
Read more: Rekindling tradition in central Victoria
Mr Falconer gave evidence at the nationwide bushfire Royal Commission as it addressed fuel management and Indigenous land and fire practices.
The commission was set up in response to the devastating bushfires across Australia during the 2019-2020 fire season.
Mr Falconer said the number of prospective burns showed the incredible desire for Traditional Owners to get back on country, and be part of the management practice.
"I have no doubt that this will be a much larger role in the future of fire management in Victoria," he said.
Mr Falconer said contemporary cultural burning was about self-determination and supporting Aboriginal people for DELWP.
"It will always be led by Aboriginal people, always start it with conversations and ask them what they want to do," Mr Falconer said.
"Colonisation obviously had huge impacts in this part of the world, and access to country by Aboriginal people has traditionally been very, very limited.
"It's a contemporary cultural practice that connects them to country. And you often hear the term caring for country. Fire is viewed as the tool, not as a prescription, and it's done for a multitude of reasons. And it is an expression of Aboriginal culture."
Mr Falconer told the commission DELWP had created an additional positive to review systems across all agencies, to make it easier for Aboriginal people to burn on country.
He said DELWP had employed its first Aboriginal burn planner a few years ago, and developed a cultural burning knowledge hub.
Mr Falconer said there was "vast difference" in the scope and scale of traditional Aboriginal fire management practices versus fuel reduction burns.
He said the primary purpose of cultural burning was rarely fuel reduction, but it was often an outcome.
"It's viewed as a really holistic management tool under the guise of healthy country, healthy people," he said.
"The vast majority are about promotion of food, fibre and medicinal plants. When we've gone out there and met with people and Traditional Owners, it really is about the people."
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Mr Falconer said he saw traditional practices and fuel reduction burning as complementary. He said at the request of Traditional Owners DELWP was integrating cultural burning into its fuel management program.
The Royal Commission heard from representatives from various states and territories.
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