Gidgegannup Small Farm Field Days: Landowners learn how to create FireWise properties

A presentation by sustainable land management expert Chris Ferreira on how to create a “FireWise” property was a big hit at the 17th annual Gidgegannup Small Farm Field Days. Attendees on Sunday learnt about the key principles of designing a property to help withstand the increasing threat of fire in a drying climate, and ensuring their assets are more likely to be defendable in an emergency. Mr Ferreira, an adjunct lecturer at Murdoch University and director of The Forever Project, said design was the most important factor when looking at protecting your property. “Its about learning to choose the right plants, in the right place and for the right reason,” he said. Mr Ferreira said the concept of a FireWise garden was currently where the Water Corporation’s waterwise campaign was 35 years ago. While many people are aware of the waterwise gardening approach, understanding how to design a property that is defendable needs to become a bigger focus for landowners, he said. “Considering the impact of fire in the WA landscape needs to be at the front of the queue now,” Mr Ferreira said. “We have to talk about it and the impact climate change is having on our environment. “You need to meet the fiireys halfway . . . you need to design a property that is defendable.” Mr Ferreira said he considered rural landowners as “stewards of your land” and creating a safe, productive and sustainable property was possible. “Healthy soil is the basis of anything you are trying to do,” he said. “People think you just need to clear the landscape to be fire safe. Green frameworks can help protect you from fire. “Where do people get evacuated to in a fire? Sometimes to a local oval. Productive, well-maintained pastures can act basically like an oval.” Mr Ferreira said making sure plants were well hydrated was key to creating a fire retardant garden. He said after the 2009 Black Saturday Fires in Victoria, the royal commission into the disaster found certain homes had significantly higher chances of being defendable and it was not just “luck”. “Lush gardens were a key finding, you can forget this in WA unless you use grey water,” Mr Ferreira said. He said with watering restrictions in place in WA, as well as declining rainfall, a grey-water system could provide in the vicinity of an extra 100,000 litres of water a year just from waste laundry and shower water used by an average family. “Grey water is 95 per cent usable and can mean your garden is well hydrated and much less likely to burn,” Mr Ferreira said. He said addressing water repellency in soil also needed consideration with many WA soils needing wetting agents to help draw water into the soil and keep plants hydrated. Winning the war on weeds was also a focus on keeping properties FireWise as these were most likely to dry off in summer and add to fuel load on properties during fire season. He said property owners needed to think of a 20m to 40m area around their house as the “asset protection zone”. This area needed to be well maintained which meant getting rid of fuel loads such as grass, twigs and everything dead or dying. Managing bushland beyond this area was also key to creating a FireWise property; this did not mean a blanket burn off but a “mosaic” approach, enabling the bush enough time to regenerate between burns but not build up its fuel load. Choosing the right mulch in the asset protection zone also needed thought, with recycled construction and demolition (C&D) waste the safest choice. He said while wood mulches created a beautiful humus layer, they had no place close to the house as they could cause underground fire. “Rubble doesn’t burn,” Mr Ferreira said. “Think about embers from an approaching fire falling in your asset protection zone, you need to have them on a starvation diet. “This means designing the area with things that don’t burn such as water, metal, succulents, cottage plants and natives.” He said artificial turf had no place near your home and asset protection area. “Artificial turf can get up to 85C in a heatwave, it is madness to put in,” Mr Ferreira said.