Strategy to remove red tape that hinders Aboriginal cultural burning

Dan Morgan uses a cultural burn to thin out the understorey of wattle growing back after a bushfire. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

The NSW government has released its first Cultural Fire Strategy, which commits to removing barriers that have hampered cultural burning across the state.

The strategy was created in response to the recommendations of the 2020 NSW Bushfire Inquiry.

The strategy commits to resolving issues around regulations and approval processes, insecure funding and insurance costs over the next two to three years.

Southern Yuin cultural fire practitioner Dan Morgan guides a gentle fire through bushfire-scarred forest at the Murrah on the NSW far south coast.

"After the bushfires that we've been getting, you need a little fire like this to protect the biodiversity of the landscape," he said.

Dan Morgan says a cultural burn will not harm the soil or native grasses. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

Standing a few metres away is property owner David Dixon, who first became interested in cultural burning a few years before the Coolagolite bushfire destroyed his home and scorched thousands of hectares of surrounding forest in October 2023.

David Dixon watches the cultural burn on his property. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

"I'm on a very steep curve of learning," he said, watching the knee-high flames trickle through his heavily forested property.

Three years of good rainfall have brought green back to the landscape, but wattle has begun to dominate the understorey.

Dan Morgan says a thick understorey of wattle adds a dangerous fuel load to the forest as it recovers from bushfire. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

Left untreated, it will double in size in another two to three years and link up to the tree canopy, adding an explosive fuel load to the forest.

According to Mr Morgan, a small fire now will thin out the wattle without damaging the soil and native grasses.

Dan Morgan says a gentle cultural burn will help thin out the understorey of wattle. (ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)

"It's just a gentle fire at the right time, in the right conditions and the plant species that are meant to be here, it doesn't affect them," he said.

While Mr Dixon is committed to using cultural burns to care for his property, beyond his boundary lies National Parks and State Forest land, where regulations designed to protect native vegetation have limited access for cultural fire practitioners.

Under current environmental planning laws, areas of coastal forest on public land where a bushfire or hazard-reduction burn has oc