Steve Hopper

They're right on top of how to burn safely.

And it's highly localized areas.

And Lynette Knapp describes the best time as being the second opening rain in April, May.

So you have the first rain that dampens down all the dry stuff.

and gives you better control.

And then the second rain comes.

And the other thing, they revere old things.

So we're all aware that elders are revered and treated, you know, as godlike almost.

Well, old eucalypts, it's the same.

So the worst possible thing you could do if you're applying fire to the

is kill old trees.

It's okay to take out young ones and open up spaces that way, but it's really almost a spearing offence if you kill old trees.

So that's the second thing we've learnt.

And the third thing we've learnt is that fire wasn't uniformly applied anywhere in the landscape.

It was focused on the younger parts of the landscape.

along the edges of rivers, around lakes, along the coast.

And some places were never burnt because they were full of sacred spirits and they were usually elevated places like the hilltops.

So those three insights about how you apply fire...

would transform the Eucalypts and the broader Australian landscape into friendly country, not the huge risk with which it's regarded now because the scale of contemporary burning by and large is just way off the planet.

It was a big step for us.