THICK WHITE SMOKE billows skyward from an unruly understorey of spinifex and dead branches. Fire takes hold in the wattle trees, generating shimmering walls of heat and crackling flames within metres of rock art that could be 30,000 years old. "This place hasn't been burnt for years," says Aboriginal ranger Dean Yibarbuk, gesturing over what is part of Kunbambuk estate in the stone country of western Arnhem Land. "If it'd been left any longer the fuel load would've been heavier and those paintings might not have survived a wildfire."Dean is a ranger with Warddeken Land Management, set up by traditional owners to manage conservation work in the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) - 13,950sq.km of stone-and-gorge country on the Arnhem Land plateau. Dean was bequeathed Kunbambukfrom the last survivor of the Barradj clan. He and his family — many of whom are also rangers - have been brought here by helicopter to camp for a week, map rock-art sites and burn the country. Regular controlled burns help protect the landscape from fires, which generate intense heat and are one of the biggest threats to ancient records of history.
展开▼
