First Nations team helps Victorian firefighters preserve landmarks.
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00:00Surrounded by blackened tree husks, Jake Goodes and Damien Scurry fear the worst, as they
00:16approach the Billimena Rock Art Shelter.
00:25But amazingly, the art is unscathed.
00:28Wow, how does that not have a scurry on it, like a mark, nothing?
00:36It's an encouraging start to the cultural surveys the two men are carrying out, after
00:41bushfires that decimated more than 80% of the Grampians' Garryward National Park,
00:46where for the first time, on-country experts were officially included in the firefighting
00:51effort.
00:52We've been able to, like I said, gather and protect a lot of those sites when time has
00:57allowed us to do that, but also, I guess, provide a lot of, I guess, direction and
01:03support to the operational, I guess, people on the ground around where sites might exist,
01:10why we need to protect it.
01:11The specialised team did delicate manual labour, wrapping big trees in sheets of silver foil,
01:18removing smaller vegetation by hand, and pruning shrubs.
01:21Guys put some Thermaguard around it to protect this tree, it's practically insulation with
01:26a foil coating on it that repels heat.
01:29It's only sort of new technology stuff at the moment, but we definitely see the benefits
01:35of using it in the protection of culturally modified trees or scar trees.
01:40Using any kind of heavy machinery in here would be devastating, particularly because
01:45of the art site and the landscape.
01:50100 kilometres away at the Little Desert National Park, more than 93,000 hectares were
01:56burned.
01:57Seeing the damage these bushfires have caused in the Little Desert National Park makes you
02:01realise just how important this work is in protecting the region's cultural heritage.
02:07These on-country experts hope this fire season, while devastating, can become a blueprint
02:12for firefighting strategy.
02:14The first time in 20 years working for around, you know, not just Parks Victoria, but Fire
02:19Forest Management Victoria, that I've got to do this in such a big way with a big team.
02:27Authorities say culturally sensitive firefighting is still highly misunderstood among Australian
02:33firefighters.
02:34One day I hope to see them taking lead roles in our fire operations, not just be a cultural
02:39heritage department as a bolt-on to our overall operations, but really integrated and lead
02:46what we do and how we do it.
02:53It's hard to watch the landscape burn, but, you know, to be out there, you know, to be
02:59the first responders, it feels, you know, I guess sort of empowering.
03:04The future of firefighting, using lessons from the past.