“Astonishing catastrophe”: Fears one of two WA endangered numbat populations wiped out by prescribed burn

A former WA Scientist of the Year has slammed the McGowan Government after a prescribed burn in the South West decimated one of only two habitats for wild numbats in the State. Curtin University Professor Kingsley Dixon is calling for changes to the way prescribed burns are carried out after the Department of Biosecurity, Conservation and Attractions scorched almost 1900ha of land in Perup, east of Manjimup, on March 25. The blaze is now under review after the fire is believed to have wiped out almost the entire population of numbats in the area, while leaving habitats destroyed and requiring animals to be euthanised because of their burns. One local farmer, Bill Smart, said he had been photographing numbats for years and believes nearly all of 65 in the area were now dead. Professor Dixon said the fire was a “tipping point” for prescribed burning in the South West, which has “never experienced” a blaze of such “intensity and magnitude”. “It’s been the most astonishing catastrophe ... a crematorium for animals,” he said. “There is no place for wildlife to escape. The numbat going left or right sees a fire and gradually the fire grows in intensity. Imagine if there were two thousand lightning strikes across an area, that’s what happens with aerial incendiaries.” Premier Mark McGowan said there was no evidence numbats were killed or affected by the burn. But Mr Smart, who lives just 25m from the affected area, said Mr McGowan should come and see the destruction for himself. “If Mr McGowan had of came and had a look and seen what I’ve seen, they wouldn’t make such a stupid statement because virtually nothing could have survived this fire ... there was no where for them to shelter,” he said. “I’ve found dead kangaroos, dead possums, little bits of bones in the ash and not a sign of anything living.” Mr Smart said the whole bush “turned into an inferno” within two hours. “The helicopter was dropping fire bombs everywhere and each little fire was converging into a huge fire, there was no escape for those animals ... it was just tragic,” he said. “Inside the burn was total devastation. All the logs that numbats used to live in were gone.” Professor Dixon called on the Government to move away from a prescribed burning target for the sake of the “whole of the South West ecology”. “A target for target’s sake is an accounting practice, it’s not an ecological practice,” he said. “The Government needs to listen to the voice of the scientists and Indigenous people and begin the process of change, or there will not be a future landscape. “Every time people look and see that brown sky and breathe the smoke from prescribed burning — that is our biodiversity.” South West Greens MLC Diane Evers also condemned the DBCA’s practices, saying burns should focus on environmental impact rather than saving money. “They have key performance indicators so it determines how well they are doing their job right,” she said. Ms Evers said she was “not going to hold her breath” over whether the DBCA blunder was going to spur any changes when it came to the prescribed burning process. “They say ‘we’ll do an inquiry into it but it just turns out the ground was a bit drier than we expected’,” she said. In a statement to the Herald, a DBCA spokesperson said management of numbats and their habitat was “carefully considered” during the process. They said the burn was intended to minimise the likelihood of a severe summer bushfire, but admitted some areas experienced “higher levels of fire intensity than anticipated”. “DBCA considers that the underlying soil dryness in portions of the burn area may have been a contributing factor and lessons learnt from the review will be incorporated into future operations,” they said. There is estimated to be less than 1000 of the endangered numbats left in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Foundation, with the termite eating marsupials found in Dryandra Woodlands near Narrogin and the Perup Nature Reserve.