Talking Fire – the conversation starts tomorrow!

Maldon area; fire, ecology, people - can they all co-exist?
Maldon area; fire, ecology, people – can they all co-exist?

Don’t forget – our community conversation Talking Fire starts at 10am on Saturday at the Newstead Community Centre. Everyone is welcome – come for the weekend, for a day or a session – and its free.

Talking Fire is about our local community, and fire in our local landscape. How can we work better as a community to reduce the risk to us – to our homes, families and friends – as well as protect our forests, wildlife and cultural sites?

Saturday will start at 10am with a welcome to Country, short talks on cultural burning, ecology, local fire experiences and fire myths with speakers Trent Nelson, Professor Andrew Bennett, Joan Sartori and Sam Strong.  If you are coming on our field visit to look at the landscape (11-30am – 3pm Saturday) don’t forget your lunch, water bottle, sensible shoes and mossie repellent!

Or head to the Community Centre and record your experience about fire with Gordon Dowell – do you remember the 1981 fire? did you set your haystack alight? or stories passed don from your forebears about fire?

On Sunday we start at 10.30 with a focus on risk: landscape-scale fire planning from Alison Boak (DELWP), community planning around risk from Steve Pascoe, and vegetation and fire from David Cheal, fire ecologist, and then we’ll look at how local planning could reduce risk.

After lunch, provided by Newstead Men’s Shed and Community Garden, Jinette de Gooijer will facilitate an exploration of ideas and options on how we might respond – as a community – to what we have learnt over the weekend.

What will come out of Talking Fire? Come along and share your ideas – that’s what its all about. Register via our website – talkingfire.org – it only takes a minute and it’s free, or drop in.

Thanks to Mount Alexander Shire Community Grants, Maldon & District Community Bank (Bendigo Bank), and the Norman Wettenhall Foundation for funding support, and to all the local organisations and individuals who are helping make Talking Fire a reality.

Talking Fire is for everyone!

Come along to Talking Fire, 12-13 November. It’s free and you can come for the whole weekend, or drop in for a day or a session.

Maldon area; fire, ecology, people - can they all co-exist?
Maldon area; fire, ecology, people – can they co-exist?

Talking Fire is about our local community, and fire in our local landscape. How can we work better as a community to reduce the risk to us – to our homes, families and friends – as well as protect our forests, wildlife and cultural sites? Talking Fire won’t be anything like the standard annual fire briefing!

Saturday will start at 10am with a welcome to Country, short talks on cultural burning, ecology, local fire experiences and fire myths with speakers Trent Nelson, Professor Andrew Bennett, Joan Sartori and Sam Strong.  Then we’ll head out to Mt Tarrengower to hear from long-term fire spotter Peter Skilbeck. Then we will visit the Muckleford Forest to look at how the forest has recovered after the 1981 fire and the more recent planned burns, with guides Paul Bates (DELWP), Tanya Loos, David Cheal and others. Instead you can drop into the Newstead Community Centre and record your fire stories with Gordon Dowell, or map favourite places that you’d like to see protected from fire. Everyone will come together at 3.30 to share what we have learnt, and set the scene for Sunday.

Sunday morning starts at 10.30, and our focus will be on risk. We’ll hear about landscape-scale fire planning from Alison Boak (DELWP), community planning around risk from Steve Pascoe, and vegetation and fire from David Cheal, fire ecologist. Turning to the local scene, representatives from our local brigades and the Shire will look at how local planning could reduce risk.

After lunch, provided by Newstead Men’s Shed and Community Garden, Jinette de Gooijer will facilitate an exploration of ideas and options on how we might respond – as a community – to what we have learnt over the weekend.

What will come out of Talking Fire? That is in the hands of everyone who comes and contributes! So come along. Register via our website – talkingfire.org – it only takes a minute and it’s free.

Thanks to Mount Alexander Shire Community Grants, Maldon & District Community Bank (Bendigo Bank), and the Norman Wettenhall Foundation for funding support, and to all the local organisations and individuals who are helping make Talking Fire a reality.

Maldon, Newstead and places in between – Talking Fire

Join us in a conversation to better understand fire in our landscape at the Newstead Community Centre over the weekend of 12/13 November.

‘Talking Fire’ will discuss what fire means for our local communities and the environment. The aim is to bring local expertise and knowledge together with outside experts in the field of fire behaviour and fire ecology, so that the community can talk about and better understand, plan, and live with fire.

Some of the questions driving our conversation are:
– What is the history of fire in our area?
– How have the landscape, community & fire policies changed?
– How can we protect what we value?
– How can we respond to fire risk, now & in the future?

You may have other questions, ideas or solutions.

We are also seeking local knowledge and stories. Do you have a “fire experience”, direct or indirect, to share? As a part of the weekend Gordon Dowell will be recording the stories and histories of locals. The Newstead CFA Auxiliary are amongst those we will be keen to hear from.

We hope that from the weekend our local landscape can be seen anew, through the eyes of scientists, fire experts and long lived locals alike, and through a wider, “landscape lens”, not just from a household or property viewpoint.

Whether you live in Newstead or Maldon town, or the bush and farmland surrounds, we invite you along to ‘talk fire’. Come to any or all sessions. The event is free, but we need bookings to help our caterers, the Newstead Preschool, Primary School and Mens’ Shed, provide enough for all.

Thanks to Mount Alexander Shire, Maldon & District Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) and Norman Wettenhall Foundation for supporting the event. Many more supporters are contributing in non-financial ways. See our website http://www.talkingfire.org and to book.

Talking Fire pics

Join in the conversation

Major Mitchell passed this way.... and noted the landscape in his diary, now Joyces Park. Joan Butler was farming at Sutton Grange on the family grazing property before she joined the Butler dynasty. Her husband John was the 4th generation Butler and their sons Tim and Tony jointly run the family farm, with their children making it 6 generations of Butlers on the land. Joan has experienced massive changes in her time on the land.
Major Mitchell passed this way … A changing landscape (image: Janet Barker)

What is the place of fire in our landscape? Friend, foe or just part of living here?

Join us in a Community Conversation about fire in our landscape on November 12-13, 2016 at the Newstead Community Centre.

Through our Community Conversation we will learn about fire in the Newstead-Maldon landscape: the history of fire, local ecology, fire risk and community-based approaches to better landscape planning and management to protect what we value.

During the weekend there will be talks, displays, biodiversity walks, visits to the sites of past fires, and a chance to record your memories of local fires. Supported by community and external experts, the weekend will be a chance to learn about more and share ideas across our local communities. This event is for those in Newstead, Maldon and everywhere in between and close by.

Put the date in your diary. Watch for updates via The Echo, Tarrangower Times, the Newstead Community Facebook page and other local media.