While the bushfire risk is looking much lower for the south east of the continent compared to the last Black Summer, parts of northern Australia including some of our larger reserves in Queensland, such as Edgbaston, are expected to face a significant bushfire risk by September until the summer to autumn rains roll in.
At another site, known as Prickle Spring, planned burning was undertaken to help control of Prickly Acacia and Buffel Grass, which had heavily infested the spring area.
Reserve staff and ecologists had previously prepared the area by controlling the mature Prickly Acacia thickets with careful selective herbicide and manual removal in around the spring site. The planned burn at Prickle Spring successfully cleared much of the area of Buffel grass and Prickly Acacia regrowth while allowing a low intensity burn slowly backing in to the wind which protected the mature River Red Gums and spring vegetation.
Now that we're getting rid of the prickles out of 'Prickle Spring' we can probably think of a better name for this special place where the artesian springs bubble up from the base of the Aramac range.
Maybe the Traditional Custodians can help us rename it now it's been released from its thorny manacles and its unique endemic plant and animal life can recover and flourish again.