Two years of work and more than 1500 hours of hand tree culling has gone into an ecological burn in Lake Macquarie on Thursday.
Lake Macquarie City Council organised the controlled burn of more than five hectares of coastal bush near Jewells with the aim of unlocking a "mystery box" of native plant species. It came after investigations revealed the need for fire to germinate native seeds that may have laid dormant for decades.
"What's really exciting is that some of the stuff in the seedbank hasn't popped up out of the ground for a lifetime, so we might even come across a new species by doing this," Lake Macquarie City Council senior natural assets officer Dominic Edmonds said.
The blaze was the most extensively prepared ecological burn held in Lake Macquarie, Mr Edmonds said. It took place on an old sand mine that had been aerial seeded with coastal tea tree after sand mining ceased in the 1970s.
An ecological burn at Jewells to germinate native seeds that have laid dormant for decades @newcastleherald@lakemacpic.twitter.com/LYJ7UF5Iys
— Sage Swinton (@sageswinton) September 9, 2021
But Mr Edmonds said because of a lack of fire in the area since, the tea tree had dominated the site and suppressed other biodiversity.
"So the aim of this burn is to try and re-stimulate that seed bank in the soil," he said.
"We want to restore that coastal heath community that was once here for more diversity. The more species rich outcome, the better."
But before they could set fire to the site, crews had to go through and pull the tea tree down by hand before spreading it across the ground - a process that started more than two years ago.
"It makes it safer to burn because one it's quite dangerous to burn a full tea tree forest but also getting it on the ground gets the intensity in the soil and stimulates that germination," Mr Edmonds said.
The project also doubled as a hazard reduction burn, with about 45 firefighters from Fire and Rescue NSW as well as Rural Fire Service crews conducting the blaze.
"This area hasn't burnt for 35-plus years so at the same time that we're getting ecological outcomes, we're trying to prevent broader fire runs coming through this part of the bush that have the potential to impact the assets on the outskirts."
Fire and Rescue NSW inspector Mark Cavanagh said the burn was initially planned for last Friday, but the wind direction meant there could have been smoke impacts on residents along Fencott Drive and possibly the Pacific Highway.
Mr Edmonds said insect and invertebrate populations would reach a peak at the site two to three years post fire as the new plants grew.
Council officers will return to the site after three, six, nine and 24 months to monitor regrowth progress.
"We're certainly hoping to do more ecological burns," Mr Edmonds said.
"This will be a really good case study for restoring ex-sand mining sites."
A fire also broke out at Redhead on Thursday.
Fifteen fire engines and a water bombing helicopter were deployed to fight the blaze near Kalaroo Road, which is being investigated. The fire did become out of control at one stage, but no properties were threatened.
