Batchfire levels up with Wildfire Response Training 

Several of Batchfire Resource’s site team members recently completed a Wildfire Response Training Course, delivered by Fire Management Training, enhancing site-wide preparedness ahead of the summer fire season. 

The course involved a number of desk-based modules, covering injury prevention, fire response, communications and equipment, maintenance and testing of equipment, and WH&S policies and procedures in forest and product operations.  

Following the theory modules, a two-day training course was provided on-site that involved practical application of skills and a controlled burn near Trap Gully at Callide Mine.  

The course provided our on-site teams with the skills and knowledge to safely comply with requirements under the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Act S.67, which states that the occupier of land must extinguish or control fire (on land they occupy), regardless of who lit the fire (or which land area the fire came from). 

“The reason for this training is that there is a risk to infrastructure during wildfire season, and it’s also just good land stewardship to help manage grasses and overgrown areas,” said Batchfire Resources Environment and Community Advisor, Natasha Hutchings. 

“There was a big focus on active fire management, and learning how to do proper backburns, which is a real skill. Anyone can light a fire and control it, but doing it properly involves a lot more than that and the team was thankful on the day to learn how to do it more precisely.” 

While Batchfire Resources has crew members on-site that are trained to handle structural fires, Natasha explains that active fire management in grassland and bushland is another area of expertise entirely and offers an array of benefits. 

“The team already knew how to work the fire gear, because they’re trained for structural fires, but to do active fire management involves actually lighting the fire yourself,” she said. 

“We learnt how to create a control zone for a fire, and how backburning can improve the native environment. There’s a lot of native grasses for example, which handle a nice gentle burn a lot better than the grazing grasses. So done in the correct way, controlled burns help the environment as well.” 

Backburning, or controlled burning, plays an important role in biodiversity, while also protecting our staff members, neighbours and the wider community from bushfires by reducing dry debris and plants (fuel).  

One of the reasons that controlled, low-intensity fires help the native habitat is that they reduce weed populations, allowing the local plant species to thrive –as the seeds and nutrients in soil are not harmed. 

“This forms part of our land management, because we obviously have tenure over a very large area, and the wildfire skills are now one of the tools in our toolkit,” Natasha said. 

Batchfire Resources is proud to work with many neighbours and other stakeholders to resource and prepare for the management of wildfire risk. 

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