Representatives from Bunyah, Coffs Harbour and Birpai Aboriginal Land Councils attended the training at Wauchope on Monday, July 20.

The training will support Aboriginal communities to carry out hazard reduction burning, using traditional low-intensity practices.

Uncle Bill O'Brien from the Birpai Local Aboriginal Land Council said he'd like to see a move back to traditional burning.

"Get more Aboriginal communities involved in that process," he said.

In traditional times, controlled burning was conducted in cooler winter months.

This was carried out to reduce the huge build-up of fuel, which is believed to be a big factor in causing current bushfires.

Ray Donovan from Bunyah Aboriginal Land Council is pushing from a move back to seasonal burning, which he said is dependent on the weather.

In 2019 the men said there was very limited opportunity to do any cultural burning, due to the dry conditions throughout winter.

"When you start to look at years before there was nothing being done either," Mr O'Brien said.

Mr Donovan said more regular burning off would reduce excess leaf litter, a big factor in the catastrophic 2019/2020 bushfire season.

Daniel McKechnie from Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Land Council wanted to be involved in the training so he can learn more about cultural practices, as he didn't get the opportunity when he was growing up.

Mr O'Brien said thankfully there are still elders who hold the knowledge and can pass it down to the younger generation.

Dave Hitchcock is the chief executive officer of Dorrigo-based company FIREGROUND and attended the training in Wauchope.

He believes it's a no-brainer to involve Aboriginal Land Councils in the future management of fires.

"We have to go to the grassroots of connecting people with the country... to use fire for the purpose of managing landscape, rather than just continually reducing the hazard for the sake of it," he said.

The process has become very political over the past 10 years, according to Mr Hitchcock.

"While the politicians say we haven't been doing enough burning, in actual fact we've been doing more burning than ever before but it's the level of burning that has changed and the way it's carried out," he said.

Mr Hitchcock said hazard reduction burns in the past have been done at moderate to high intensity, rather than low intensity.

This creates a hazard because it results in more vegetation growth and more leaf fall, so the dynamic of the forest changes.

Mr Hitchcock said the Forestry Corporation is integrating the governance of forests with the community.

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