Cultural Burning: Reviving Indigenous Land Management in Australia

Video created by Matt Urmenyhazi, Tour Guide at Sydney Guided Tours

What If Fire Wasn’t the Enemy?

When you hear “fire in the bush,” you probably picture chaos — walls of flame, smoke choking the sky, lives torn apart. Fair enough. That’s what we’ve been taught to fear.

But here’s the thing: fire isn’t always the villain. For thousands of years, it was the doctor. The medicine. The tool that kept this continent ticking over.

That’s the story of cultural burning — Aboriginal knowledge, passed down for millennia, now clawing its way back into the spotlight.

And it might just be the difference between a bush that thrives and a bush that dies.

What Is Cultural Burning?

Cultural burning isn’t about torches and terror. It’s about cool, calm, careful fire. Low flames moving slow, cleaning up the junk, letting new life breathe.

It feeds kangaroos, keeps koalas in trees, and saves Country from the monster fires that rip everything apart. This isn’t guesswork. It’s a system — tested, proven, and perfected over thousands of years.

Then colonisation showed up, terrified of fire, and stamped it out. No burns. No balance. And the bush has been paying the price ever since.

Why It Matters Today

Remember Black Summer? Millions of animals dead. Forests turned to ash. And now we pat ourselves on the back because a bit of green has popped up? That’s not recovery. That’s denial.

The land is sick. You can’t just throw water at it and hope. Without the right kind of fire, we’re sitting ducks.

Cultural burning works. It reduces fuel loads, prevents mega-fires, and heals ecosystems from the roots up. Ignore it, and we’ll keep playing Russian roulette with a loaded climate.

Voices of Ancient Science

Let’s be blunt: this isn’t myth, and it isn’t “folklore.” It’s science. Real, hard science. Not from labs and white coats, but from thousands of years of lived experience.

It’s knowledge gathered by people who actually listened to the land — instead of trying to bully it into submission. Colonisation interrupted it, sure, but it never killed it. And thank God it didn’t.

Because right now, it’s the lifeline we need.

A Practice for All Australians

I see it every week as a guide: people don’t just want selfies with kangaroos. They want to understand what makes this place work. And cultural burning is the answer they don’t even know they’re looking for.

Yes, it must be Aboriginal-led. Always. But if the rest of us don’t back it, support it, and learn from it, then we’re as blind as the blokes who banned it in the first place.

This isn’t token culture. This is survival. For wildlife. For people. For Country.

Watch, Learn, Share

This video is my small way of saying: wake up. Cultural burning isn’t a quaint tradition. It’s a blueprint for the future. Every cool burn is a step towards balance. Every time we ignore it, we dig the hole deeper.

For more information on Cultural burning contact Yarrabin Fire Cultural Burning

This video was filmed in conjunction with Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary