THE first all-women team of Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers - many of whom are Quandamooka women - lead a special planned burn on North Stradbroke Island this week.
The burn was held at the culturally significant site of Brown Lake (Bummeira).
Quandamooka woman and joint management ranger Kathryn Crouch regarded Bummeira as a special place with great personal significance.
"When I was a girl, we used to go there to pick the wildflowers whenever they were in bloom. It was fun and that's one of the strongest memories I have, being with my grandmother and my family.
"Brown Lake was always a place that we were taken for picnics and to swim and this was the last place we gathered as a family to spend time with our grandfather before he died," she said.
Ms Crouch said the purpose of the burn was to reduce underlying fuel for wildfires and allow for some of the culturally significant plant species to recover.
"A planned burn will reduce the amount of fuel that is lying on the forest floor which could later be fuel for a wildfire," she said.
The planned burn team was supported by an all-women team of QFES auxiliary firefighters and a female Rural Fire Service firefighter, along with staff from Minjerribah Camping and SEQ Water.
Redlands MP Kim Richards said traditional owners had been conducting controlled burns for years and to have an all-women team, many of whom were first nations people, at a place of cultural significance was a special moment that deserved to be honoured and recognised.
"For Quandamooka people, Bummeira on Minjerribah is a culturally significant place where women have gathered over time and conducted important ceremonies," she said.
