Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Collaborative mind map

30 minutes

Find Out: Case studies

25 minutes

Take Action: Become an expert!

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore the interactions between fire and flood and how they impact landscapes.

Students can:

discuss Australian First Nations landscape management for fire and flood
identify sustainable land management practices.

Tune In: Collaborative mind map

Ensuring psychological safety and inclusivity:

Before beginning this lesson, it is essential to account for the experiences of any First Nations students in your class. It is important not to isolate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in how the material is taught. Some First Nations students may have important insights or contributions which should be welcomed. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students should not be expected to contribute any more than other students.

Step 1

On a whiteboard or similar, write the following prompt question in a bubble: ‘How does fire and flood change landscapes and ecosystems?

Step 2

Allow students one minute to reflect on the prompt question and encourage them to write any thoughts, feelings or ideas in their exercise book or similar. You may want to divide the class into two groups, with one group responding to changes from ‘fire’ and the other, ‘flood’.

Step 3

Model to students how to respond to the prompt question by writing one of the below example responses on the whiteboard.

Fire:

Habitat destruction: Fires can destroy habitats by burning vegetation and altering the landscape, resulting in the loss of critical habitat for plants and animals.
Loss of biodiversity: Depending on the severity and frequency of fires, they can cause the death of plants and animals.
Erosion: Fires remove vegetation that holds soil in place, which increases the risk of erosion that can impact water bodies, ecosystems and water quality.
Regeneration and succession: Fires play a natural role in ecological regeneration. Some plant species have adapted to fire and may rely on it for germination and growth.
Air quality: Large-scale fires release significant amounts of smoke and particulate matter into the air, impacting air quality and human health.
Carbon cycling: Fires release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, which contributes to the carbon cycle.
Wildlife behaviour: Fires can influence wildlife behaviour, movements, and population dynamics. Some species may flee the area during a fire, while others may take advantage of post-fire conditions such as increased food availability or open habitat.
Economic and social impacts: Fire can have significant economic and social impacts, including damage to property and infrastructure (e.g. roads, power or water), sites of cultural significance, loss of crops, displacement of communities, loss of life or injuries, mental health impacts and disruption of transportation and commerce.

Flood:

Habitat modification: Floods can modify habitats by altering the flow of rivers and streams, reshaping riverbanks, and depositing sediment in new areas.
Displaced species: Floods can displace terrestrial and aquatic species, forcing them to seek refuge in different habitats. This can disrupt ecosystems and lead to changes in species’ composition and distribution.
Nutrient redistribution: Floodwaters can carry sediment, nutrients and organic matter downstream, redistributing them across the landscape.
Water quality: Floods can impact water quality by carrying pollutants, sediment, and debris into rivers, lakes and wetlands. If water sources are contaminated, water quality degrades, aquatic organisms are harmed and human health is harmed.
Sedimentation: Floodwaters can deposit sediment into riverbeds, floodplains and coastal areas which alters the physical characteristics of these landscapes.
Economic and social impacts: Floods can have significant economic and social impacts, including damage to infrastructure (e.g. roads, power or water), sites of cultural significance, loss of crops, displacement of communities, loss of life or injuries, mental health impacts and disruption of transportation and commerce.

Step 4

Invite your students to approach the whiteboard to participate in the collaborative mind map using whiteboard markers. Allow each student to respond to the prompt question in one to two sentences.

View the example below:

Step 5

Ask students to return to their seats and discuss the key themes between the written prompt and student responses. If you need assistance in this discussion, refer to the model responses. You may like to ask students to elaborate further or provide their insights into key themes.

Find Out: Case studies

Step 1

Provide each student with a double-sided copy of the Student Worksheet. Explain to students that they will read and respond to three case studies that focus on fire and flood land management practices from three First Nations groups.

Step 2

You will lead the students in reading each case study (see below and on Student Worksheets). Please ensure you pause where necessary to unpack vocabulary if students need further clarification. Begin reading Case Study 1 and allow students time to respond to the comprehension questions. Repeat this step until students have completed all case studies.

Case Study 1	Questions
This case study gives an example of First Nations land management practices from Kalarabirr Djowkkeng (Kunwinjku language of the Bininj people) Boggy Plain, Kakadu in the Northern Territory. The family has reintroduced fire into the wetlands of Boggy Plain to re-create a more diverse mosaic of vegetation types. Large amounts of grass began accumulating soon after the removal of water buffalo in the 1980s, reducing waterfowl populations and making it difficult to hunt for turtles. In 1988, a high-intensity fire was put through the floodplains to clean the Country. Sandra remembers the high flames, huge amounts of smoke in the sky, and the creation of a mini tornado in the heart of the fire. She saw for the first time large paperbark (Melaleuca spp.) trees burning down on the floodplain. The following year saw carpets of paperbark seedlings sprouting in the burned area, with native rice and a range of water lilies and sedges emerging during the following wet season. Hunting for geese and ducks returned to the area, and to this day it is very productive for magpie geese, water lilies, lotus seeds and turtles.The primary motivation behind Aboriginal wetland burning is to improve availability and access to food resources. The wetlands are important hunting grounds for waterfowl, goannas, turtles and file snakes, and provide a variety of edible water plants. Fire management is integral to the hunting and gathering of these resources. Much like buffalo disturbance, frequent fire prevents the development of a Hymenachne monoculture (this is a restricted invasive plant under the Biosecurity Act 2014. It must not be given away, sold, or released into the environment). Thereby promoting habitat diversity and providing the full range of food resources for Aboriginal people. In addition, fire clears the grass to improve access and mobility, and to reduce the risk of snakes and other dangers. Fire also plays a particular role in maintaining populations of favoured prey items, such as almangyi (the long-necked turtle). These turtles hibernate under the mud throughout the dry season and come out of hiding once the floodplain is inundated following wet season rains. However, if the floodplain remains unburned for several years, the turtles will lie dormant within the accumulated dead grass and therefore be susceptible to burning when fire does occur. The turtles also need mud to lay their eggs in. Source: Indigenous Wetland Burning - Conserving Natural and Cultural Resources in Australia’s World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park	The grass Hymenachne was introduced in the 19th century as food for buffaloes. How might this grass and the buffaloes have affected the ecosystem of Boggy Plain? Describe what happened to the floodplain landscape of Boggy Plain after the high-intensity fire. You can use direct quotes from the case study. What are the environmental and social benefits of wetland burning for the ecosystem of Boggy Plain? What will occur if the floodplain remains unburned for several years? Use evidence from the case study in your response.
Case Study 2	Questions
This case study gives examples of First Nations land management practices from Dja Dja Wurrung and Bangarang/Yorta Yorta Country in north-central Victoria. Destructive colonial actions radically changed the landscape character and functions of the Central Murray-Goulburn region since the 1830s. The millennia-evolved complex mosaic of floodplain, forest, open woodlands, scrub, heathland, grassland and sedgeland which Aboriginal people had managed, was replaced by simplified, homogenous and even fragmented landscapes of large croplands, sheep and dairy farms.The objectives of planned burns led by Traditional Owners within the Joint Fuel Management Plan consist of modifying the vegetation abundance across the planned area, to assist the promotion of native grasses - nodding saltbush (Einadia nutans ssp. nutans), wallaby grass (Rytidosperma caespitosum), bluebells (Wahlenbergia stricta) - and to restore cultural and ecological landscapes such as riverine woodland, treed swampy wetland, alluvial plains grassland, ironbark, dry forest and foothills forest. Aboriginal fire might also be planned for the control of invasive species and to reduce the speed and intensity of bushfires.In this study, we have shown that cultural burning can contribute to wildfire risk mitigation in the contemporary environment by creating a resilient landscape less prone to catastrophic fires (Atkinson et al., 2023). Source: Reconnecting Fire Culture of Aboriginal Communities with Contemporary Wildfire Risk Management For more information about cultural burning, take a look at this Factsheet: What is Cultural Burning?	What might be the impact of a homogeneous landscape on the spread of fire? Why is it important that Traditional Owners lead planned burns on their Country? How can cultural burning help reduce the risk of catastrophic fires in our present environment?
Case Study 3	Questions
This case study gives examples of First Nations land management practices from Madjedbebe, Mirarr country, northern Australia. Recent excavations at Madjedbebe have extended the duration of human occupation of Australia to 65 thousand years ago. Vegetation burning is used as a tool in the Mirarr country for a multitude of functions, includingto hunt, including trapping or driving macropods and flushing smaller vertebrates and invertebrates out of their burrowsto produce economically important vegetation communities, such as perennial grasses attractive to wallabies, and geophytic floodplain speciesto protect other economically important vegetation communities, such as monsoon vine forests, woodland yam patches and fruit treesto clean up and clear pathways and campsitesand, to reduce the build-up of dangerous fuel loads.Vegetation burning is also a seasonally mediated practice, with burning beginning as vegetation communities cure, first in upland environments and then progressively downslope, with the beginning of Yekke and the dry seasons. If left unburnt, the vegetation mass grown in the wet seasons fuels large and dangerous conflagrations in Kurrung. The lighting of small, low-intensity fires as vegetation cures in Yekke (May and June) to decrease fuel loads and protect economically important vegetation patches (e.g., fruit trees and lowland monsoon vine forest patches) from high-intensity conflagrations in Kurrung (September and October); and the burning of floodplains to promote the growth of middle- and high-ranked geophytic species (e.g., Cyperaceae spp. tubers and Nelumbo nucifera, whose root tubers are eaten raw or cooked and can be pounded into flour to make bush bread), over that of seed-regenerating species. Source: 65,000 years of changing plant food and landscape use at Madjedbebe, Mirarr Country, Northern Australia	Given the evidence of 65,000 years of First Nations peoples’ inhabitance in Australia, do you think that First Nations peoples experienced a range of climate conditions? Provide evidence for your response. How is vegetation burning timed seasonally by the Mirarr people, and why is timing important? Why do the Mirarr people use small-intensity fires during Yekke (May to June) and the prevention of high-intensity fires in Kurrung (September and October)?

Take Action: Become an expert!

Step 1

Divide the class into two groups. Students will need access to the internet for research purposes. Each group is responsible for researching a separate topic.

Group 1: How is the ecosystem impacted when a fire occurs on a floodplain?
Group 2: How is the ecosystem impacted when a flood occurs on a floodplain?

Students should note their findings in dot-point format on the Student Worksheet.

Step 2

After 15 minutes, ask students to pair up with a student from the opposite group. Allow students to teach their partner what they’ve learnt and write this new information in the relevant column on the Student Worksheet.

Extension opportunity: Research Task

Invite students to write a newsletter article showcasing their local community methods for land management. Students should research how fire and/or flooding are used in their community as an integrated part of land management. Advise students to identify where traditional knowledges are incorporated into the land management strategies and ask them to identify aspects of land management in their local community, where working with traditional knowledges would build capacity and connections.

Reflection

Prompt a discussion with students using the question below. Invite students to use evidence from their research when sharing their responses with the class:

What have you discovered about floodplain and fire management strategies? How does the connection that First Nations peoples have with the land influence the way they handle fire and floods in their Country?

Fire, Floodplains and First Nations Peoples

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Summary

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