THE RED STEER
Late yesterday afternoon the red steer was released into our dry grass land. The red steer is an Australian colloquial expression for fire. Just as cattle could slowly eat out grass land, a fire will clear the land quickly. Fire, used wisely, an excellent tool. The Aboriginal people of Australia didn’t have matches to start a fire, but they possessed the skill of rubbing two sticks rapidly together until the wood heated and began to smoke. Then a little dry grass was added to smolder and burst into flame. The original inhabitants of Australia were nomadic people who never established permanent homes or cultivated the land. Instead they hunted for food. The men would regularly burn small areas of grass land when it was dry enough to burn. The heat would draw up moisture from the soil and green grass shoots would sprout. Meanwhile the women would follow after the men to find any scorched lizards or other small animals they could use for food. After a week or so when the country had greened the men would return to hunt and spear wallabies or kangaroos grazing on the fresh green grass. The eucalyptus trees evolved the ability to adapt to fire and will quickly recover from any burning of bark or leaves. Other Australian plant species need smoke to cause them to open their seed pods, enabling the seed to drop into the rich ash a day later. Fire is a natural part of the Australian ecology.
A cold fire
The definition of a cold fire is one that crawls along the ground. A hot fire races up the bark of a tree and sometimes ignites the eucalyptus leaves and then roars through the tree tops. Such wild bush fires are now common in Australia.
In my earlier posts about eucalyptus trees I’ve mentioned how, thanks to pollination by the introduced European bee and the lack of regular Aboriginal style burning, young eucalyptus trees have sprung up like woody weeds and flourished across the rough and hilly country of Australia. I believe that this is one of the reasons that bush fires have become such a serious hazard for many rural regions.
It is possible for farmers to obtain permits, under strict conditions, in which they have the right to conduct their own burn offs of to minimize the risk of wild fires, which could be started by lightening strikes during spring storms. In recent times the Rural Fire Brigades, comprised or volunteer workers, has been equipped by our State governments to combat bush fires. However, they appreciate donations to cover fuel and other expenses. Thus, they offer to assist older people like myself to burn our farm land, in return for a donation. This then means that our dwellings and other structures are protected by a firebreak should a wild fire occur.
Rural Fire Brigade
Fireman ignites dry grass.
The sun had set and the air was cold. There was no risk that the fire could get away. This morning I took my Jack Russell terrier dog, Trixie, and set our to survey our burned property.
Our entrance sign
This photo shows the Das Helwig Haus B&B sign at our entrance from Mt. Stirling Road, Glen Aplin.
Our river water tank
It is with good reason that this district is known as the Granite Belt as the rocky hillsides are strewn with granite boulders, exposed when the grass is burned. Our water tank is perched on a large boulder on our high land land above the house, from where I can gravity feed the water back to the house garden.
Wild ducks on the Severn River
It is from this water hole in the Severn River that I pump water to irrigate my garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B and the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies. I now have a young man from South Korea, called Jin, a member of WWOOF working with me.
Jin thins poppies
Yesterday Jin was thinning poppies and weeding the Remembrance Field. Today he is stick-picking small branches of dead wood, not burned by the grass fire, and stacking them against dead trees which have fallen across our paths around the farm.
Burning a fallen tree.
Book cover
Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.
This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.
To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au
Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=
http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary
http://books.google.co.uk/
