KANGAROO ISLAND
FIRE RECOVERY
Flinders Chase National Park
,
SUMMER 2019 - 2020
BUSHFIRES
Fire is an ever-present part of the ecology
of much of Australia. The scale of fires was
unprecedented and especially so on
Kangaroo Island. These images document
the ecological resilience and tell the story
of nature’s recovery.
,
The landscape laid bare
reveals a stark beauty. It
shows the underlying
geology previously
masked by thick
vegetation.
,
The window to see this is
closing fast as the plants
are rapidly returning.
,
Within days, dormant
buds burst to life on
Eucalypts, returning
energy to the trees and
providing food for insects
and herbivorous animals
,
Within weeks, flower
spikes emerged on the
Grasstrees
,
These provide a critical
food source for nectar-
feeding insects, birds and
animals across the
landscape
,
,
Fire-dependant plants
like Banksias have
dropped countless seeds
into deep ash beds
,
...resulting in enormous
numbers of new plants
germinating across the
Island
,
After a few months,
ancient Sugar gums
develop a lush cover of
leaves up their trunks
,
Echidnas, goannas,
kangaroos, wallabies,
koalas, sooty dunnarts,
heath rats and many
birds have been observed
with the fire ground
,
Beyond any reasonable
expectation, Sooty
Dunnarts (tiny marsupial
carnivores) survived in
areas severely burned.
This shows the camera
lines deployed to assess
wildlife survival
,
Glossy black-cockatoos
survived the fires by flying
to unburned areas
,
Deep in Flinders Chase
National Park,
endangered Cape Barren
geese are nesting in their
usual spots
, ,
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