Over 287,000 hectares of public land was burnt in the devastating ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires of 7 February, 2009 in Victoria, Australia. This included almost 100,000 hectares of national and state parks and nearly 170,000 hectares of state forests and other reserves. The most severely affected parks were Kinglake National Park, Wilsons Promontory National Park, Bunyip State Park, Cathedral Range State Park and Yarra Ranges National Park.

In the two-and-a-half years since that tragic day, government agencies, environmental and community groups and volunteers have been working hard to bring life back to scorched parkland, and rebuild morale in devastated communities. This article gives an overview of the work done by Parks Victoria to work with local communities to restore the state’s parks and reserves, particularly Kinglake National Park, one of Victoria’s oldest and most loved parks which was almost completely burnt out in the fires.

The Black Saturday fires destroyed or damaged many national park visitor sites and forced the closure of many more parks and state forests. They also put at risk threatened plant and animal species, and affected indigenous and post settlement heritage sites.

Recovering from such widespread damage needed more than could be provided by a single government agency. Since that catastrophic day, Parks Victoria has been working closely with local communities, volunteers and its government counterparts to rebuild and reopen areas and protect the state’s natural and cultural values. Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of people and the regenerative power of nature, remarkable signs of recovery are appearing in fire-ravaged areas across the state, including at Kinglake National Park.

Kinglake devastation
The fires burned over 22,100 hectares (96 per cent) of Kinglake National Park, which is comprised of four blocks of parkland. The park office was destroyed, mammal numbers were vastly reduced and park staff were part of the tight-knit communities of Kinglake and neighbouring towns that were severely personally impacted by the fires.

Although some animals survived the fire in pockets of unburnt or less intensely burnt areas of bush, the lack of vegetation cover after fire was immediately recognised as a key factor for native species becoming more vulnerable to introduced predators. Consequently, a number of targeted predator control programs were implemented shortly after the fires to protect many native species. As the park slowly recovers, these programs have continued to ensure that returning animals and re-emerging plants are protected from foxes, cats, deer and goats.

In the longer term, staff at Kinglake National Park have focused on providing a safe habitat and secure food supplies for animals to return to. Many of these efforts have relied heavily on the work of volunteers, and the response from the community has been overwhelming.

Volunteer support
After the fires Parks Victoria staff teamed up with Green Corps volunteer crews from the not-for-profit group Australian Conservation Volunteers, to perform a range of native species protection programs across the state. The team based at Kinglake National Park installed silt traps and other erosion control measures, collected eucalypt seeds for revegetation programs and installed nest boxes for native birds, small possums and gliders.

In an effort involving more than 1,000 volunteer hours, over 4,000 trees have been planted by community groups, friends groups and local residents from the Kinglake area to create a biological link at Watsons Creek. The Watsons Creek site connects the unburnt Warrandyte-Kinglake Nature Conservation Reserve with the adjoining Kinglake National Park. Over 80 hectares of former farmland has been revegetated to provide a corridor of continuous vegetation to lure the native inhabitants back into Kinglake National Park and facilitate their recovery. Park staff say it will take two to three years to assess the success of the project, but so far it’s looking positive.

Signs of life
Despite initial fears that the fires wiped out most of Kinglake National Park’s animal populations, there have been many signs of life in recent months. Parks Victoria Project Officer Tony Fitzgerald says locals started calling in reports of animal sightings as soon as a year after the fires – a reminder of the incredible resilience of Australian plants and animals. The list now includes koalas, goannas, wallabies, Brush-tailed Phascogales, the Large-footed Myotis – a rare bat species that is small enough to fit in the palm of a person’s hand – the Eastern Bent-wing Bat and an anecdotal sighting of a quoll, which was last officially spotted in the park in the 1980s.

An annual survey undertaken by volunteers and Parks Victoria staff in July 2010 has confirmed the Superb Lyrebird is also still at home in Kinglake National Park. The Ranger in Charge of Kinglake National Park, Ion Maher, believes the birds, who can’t fly very far, survived the fire by getting down into logs, wombat burrows and gullies.

Most of Kinglake National Park has a cover of eucalypt forest, and in recent months many of the trees are showing a green flush of new growth along their trunks following the fire. Grass trees have sent up their tall flowering spikes and tree ferns are bright with new growth. Gradually other species will regerminate including wattles, bush peas, cassinias, heath, tussock grass and orchids. Park staff have largely confined replanting efforts to areas that weren’t planted before to connect the national park with areas of unburnt forest. In the park itself, aside from some planting of understory species in gullies, they’re leaving the rest to nature.

Planning for the community
The devastation of the park after the fires prompted Parks Victoria and partners to reassess how the park was being offered to the community to use. Following extensive onsite analysis and community consultation over 12 months, a draft Master Plan for Kinglake National Park was released for public comment in June 2010. The plan sets out a 15-year framework for protecting the important conservation and recreation values of the park and strategically replacing visitor facilities. It also recognises the need for easier access between the four separate park blocks and to make better connections with nearby town communities. Local residents and visitors were invited to have their say on various actions proposed in the draft Master Plan, and their comments were incorporated into the final plan, which was released in October 2010.

Heritage consultants have also commenced fieldwork at Masons Falls Picnic Ground, for the development of a Cultural Heritage Management Plan. The works are being carried out in consultation with the Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Cultural Heritage Council.

A priority of recovery for those working at Kinglake National Park has been the engagement of the local community – many of whom have a strong attachment to the park. Parks Victoria and the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) have adopted a number of strategies to consult with local communities in the recovery process, including attendance at regular community meetings; radio and television interviews; ongoing distribution of a community newsletter; and regular updates on the Parks Victoria and DSE websites.

Park staff point to a number of initiatives that were particularly successful:

- Storyboards were installed at each of the park’s visitor sites in late 2009, to keep visitors and locals up to date with progress with the rebuild. The storyboards are updated every six months.

- A Community Day was held in October 2009, to bring people back into the park’s premier visitor site, Masons Falls Picnic Area, which is still closed to visitors. A botanist was engaged to lead walks to talk about how various plant species respond to fire, and Parks Victoria staff sought feedback on the Master Plan concept.

- Parks Victoria staff conducted a number of recovery walks from December 2009 to May 2010. These walks enabled locals to reconnect with Masons Falls as part of their personal recovery. Maher says the walks were often an emotional experience, particularly for those participants who had grown up in the area.

In October 2010, the park’s first two rebuilt visitor sites were re-opened to the public. The Gums and Island Creek have been completely redesigned to meet new visitor demands in a new environment. They provide walking tracks, picnic and camping areas, barbeques, additional campsites, a new car park and a new toilet. A number of walking tracks have also been reopened and Masons Falls Picnic Area is being rebuilt and is expected to re-open late 2011.