Landholders in Curraweela whose properties and animals were devastated by a fast-moving bushfire in March attended a workshop last week aimed at supporting their recovery. Fuelled by 50 km/h high winds, the bushfire ripped through 4,437 hectares of the small rural suburb near Taralga in NSW.

The workshop, hosted by Upper Lachlan Shire agriculture and conservation organisations and organised by the Australian Agricultural Centre (AAC), was held on 16 June in Taralga to support and educate impacted landowners and managers. The event was run by Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala Link as part of the Great Eastern Ranges project funded through the Australian and NSW Government’s Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund.

The event covered the ecology of the landscape after a fire and the support services available to landholders for recovery and regeneration, with speakers including ecologist Lesley Peden from Ecology Consulting, Christian Wythes from South East Local Land Services and Mary Bonet from the K2W Link Inc.

The workshop was followed by a tour of affected properties, where the group learned of the experiences and challenges landholders faced in the aftermath of the Curraweela bushfire.

AAC chief executive officer Jo Marshall said, “The community needs a place to start moving forward. The attendees gained a better understanding of services available after a fire and began to think about the next steps towards regeneration. Until this workshop, residents affected by the Curraweela fire had been stuck in the black.”

Ms Marshall is continuing to work with the Curraweela residents to secure further assistance.

K2W Link project officer Mary Bonet said, “It is hard to start talking about restoring habitat for wildlife when people are still trying to get back on their feet after such a devastating event.”

“Landholders were excited about the possibilities for restoring and regenerating their land, which will culminate in linking different parts of the landscape to support indigenous plants and wildlife.

“During the tour of the affected properties, we were able to discuss the beginning of the recovery process and explore ways to promote biodiversity alongside productivity to aid in the restoration of the farm, this helped the recovery for the community and the landscape,” Mrs Bonet said.

Landowners who attended the workshop have been offered personalised recovery plans for their properties, which will help kickstart their journey towards restoration and also provide access to potential funding resources.

As part of this, Ecology Consulting is working towards developing a bushfire recovery planting guide for the Taralga region.

Ecologist Lesley Peden said there are many different approaches for managing revegetation after a bushfire and preparing zones that support the natural assets for the ecosystem to function.

“Ecosystems are also in agricultural landscapes either functioning or non-functioning and things like a catastrophic bushfire will put them into complete chaos. Living in a farming landscape, there’s a balance between forest, grassland and woodlands, and we want to achieve a balance.

“The functioning ecosystem is at the heart of all of it,” ecologist Lesley Peden said.