Mosaic Map: NRM funded projects
Key
site specific
region wide
Using the home computer to fight fires
Examining maps at Property Fire Planning meeting
UHF fire monitoring tower being erected at Astrea Station
Woodland fire near Weipa
Landholders on remote properties along Cape York are using satellite images on their computers to find out if fires are on their land and where.
Administered by the Cape York Peninsula Development Association (CYPDA) the Cape York Peninsula Sustainable Fire Management Project aims to provide landholders with information to help them work together to manage fires on the Cape in a sustainable way.
Funding
The project received $320,000 in Australian Government funding along with support from the State Government.
Activities
Peter Thompson of CYPDA has been with the initiative since it began in 2000.
"When we started many landholders hadn't even seen a computer," he said "We went around and told them, 'there's information available out there and you can use it to manage fires better if you hook up to the net'. Now about 85 per cent of landholders on the Cape use the website information on a regular basis.
"Much of the project's early stages involved developing computer capacity in Cape York."
He vividly remembers realising the potential of the mapping.
"I was at a property 400 kilometres northwest of Cairns and just wanted to show them the sort of imagery we were talking about," he said.
"I managed to hook up my laptop, get through to the website and download a rough image. It was only two hours old and it showed a fire. We realised it was on their property, but they knew nothing about it.
"They just said, 'we have to go fight that fire', got up and went out to deal it."
The website now shows recently burned areas as well as thermal hotspots. This helps people see how fires have affected their particular area progressively during the year and in previous years. The aim is to better plan prescribed burning activity and to reduce hot, long-lasting wildfires by encouraging early low temperature prescribed burning.
Some changes are already evident, with fewer Cape wildfires recorded in the last six years. And landholders are cooperating more on fire management as the imagery clearly shows the effects of fire on neighbouring properties.
Landholder response to the project is expressed succinctly by one who said, "We'd be stuffed without it."
More information
- Peter Thompson, CYPDA: (07) 4031 3432, or peter@cypda.com.au
- North Australia Fire Information
- Cyplus Online - Fire on Cape York Peninsula
See also
Key
Links to another web site
Opens a pop-up window