Representatives from Local Land Services, Rural Fire Service, NSW Parks and Wildlife, NSW Forestry, Local Aboriginal Land Councils attended the workshop, facilitated by Rodney Mason of Cobargo and Victor Steffensen of North Queensland.

The workshop visited three sites at Wallagoot, Bermagui and Narooma, belonging to their respective LALCs.

Mr Steffensen has spent years understanding cultural burning practices and implementing them along the eastern Australian coast.

“It’s a big job to do here, I can see the bush is dense with native invasive species, and there’s not much diversity on the forest floor,” he said.

“But it’s not just about the burning, look at the way it pulls a community together, you can really feel that here today, so many people from so many paces are really excited to see this happen.”

Mr Mason has over 16 years experience conducting burns in the Monaro region.

“I call myself an oxygen farmer, I’m producing fresh breathing air with burning,” he said.

“A big part of our work in the Monaro was partnerships with firefighters, National Parks and land owners.” 

“For the land owners, we were like the voice for their land, letting them know what it needed.”

Mr Mason said burning is a way to reboot and refresh the land, improving it so it can be passed on to new families and generations.

The assessment site at Wallagoot already has some mosaic burns conducted by the Bega LALC Koori Work Crew.

Peter Dixon, Cameron Thomas and George Aldridge have been maintaining a dozen sites Wallagoot and another dozen at Tathra since last year.

“What we do is burn in smaller patches and work in a circular pattern,” Mr Dixon said.

“It keeps the trees keep healthy, but that way you’re also giving the bugs and the lizards a chance to get out.”

Gavin Brook, Vic Channell and Leanne Barford from Ulladulla LALC drove three hours to take part in the workshop on Thursday.

They’re hoping to learn about cultural burning so they can implement it further north up the coast.

“We’re brand new to this, so it’s really exciting for us,” Mr Brook said.

“We can get involved in our culture, learn more about the bush and what my people did to maintain the land.”

Mr Channell described the workshop as a “lived cultural experience.” 

“I base my life on cultural knowledge, sharing what I know with others and then coming here to learn from others,” he said.

“It might be the first time for us, but our ancestors were doing this thousands of years ago, so the history is alive.”

Aboriginal community support officer at South East LLS Dan Morgan said the workshop was in partnership with the Biamanga and Gulaga Boards of Management, and each site offered something unique. 

“Each place is going to show us something a little different because they’re all different vegetation types,” he said.

The workshop will be followed up with a four-day burn demonstration scheduled for Autumn.