Community Voices

From poetry to personal testimonies, these are the lived experiences of people affected by “controlled” burns in WA’s southwest.

180 Giants Estimated to have Fallen

By Uralla Luscombe-Pedro, Environmental Science Student

“I surveyed the Giants East block after a summer ‘controlled burn’ and estimated 180 fallen giants. This was not a safe fire. It was devastation.”

Uralla walked through the Giants East prescribed burn area within Walpole-Nornalup National Park in January 2025 after a WA government-approved burn by DBCA on 18th December 2024. This was during the ‘prohibited burning period’ for the rest of the Shire of Denmark, but DBCA still get exemptions to burn during this time.

She found ancient tingle, karri, and marri trees collapsed like matchsticks, massive roots exposed and burning root channels underground, hollows burned out. Many of these were irreplaceable 300-400 year old trees, gone in one prescribed fire.

Uralla’s account and report are available here:

ABC News: Landscape Torched, DBCA documents reveal damage to rare forest after hundreds of trees felled by controlled burn

WA Forest Alliance Media Release: Ancient Tingle Forest Devastated

“I’m Burning”

By Shirl Sutherland, shared on FaBWA Facebook

Inspired by a prescribed burn, this voice captures the suffocation and fear of watching cherished forest go up in smoke. Poetry isn’t data—but it communicates what no bar graph can: pain and loss.

They’re burning my home

Will anybody care

As I race, hell for leather

Choking on acrid air?

They’re burning my home,

Greenery crackling loud

Sending smoke plume billowing

Like monsterous noxious cloud

Bird friends drop soundlessly

Choked beyond their voice

No defence to save themselves

And no bloody choice

Lizards run or burrow

Desperate to stay alive

Not making it to cooler ground

No matter how they strive

Marsupuials, frogs insects

Panic as they flee

The only thought in their minds

Exactly as in me

They’re burning my home

My lungs now aflame too

Will anybody give a damn

That I didn’t make it through?

By Shirl Sutherland 30/3/2023

Source:
Facebook Post

It’ll Come Back More Flammable

Local observer of Red Tingle forest prescribed burn, Tingleview (FRK_073)

“Another four to six years and it’ll be an impenetrable thicket again—more flammable than before.”

Shared after seeing Tingleview FRK_073, this local explained how prescribed burns are not reducing risk, but resetting forests into a vicious cycle. Instead of stable, moist, mature stands, fire turns them into scrubby tinderboxes primed for the next blaze.

Source:
Facebook Post

License to kill

Daniel Jennings, FaBWA member & Wooly Enterprises

The Blue Holes prescribed burn (FRK_074) was lit by DBCA on 31st October 2024 on a peninsula surrounded by the Southern Ocean, Nornalup Inlet and the Frankland River (Kwakorillup – place of the quokka) in Walpole-Nornalup National Park. This burn was ignited in spring and caused the tragic death of wildlife and severe habitat destruction with flame heights soaring far above the tree canopies. This National Park is home to numerous threatened animal species including quokkas and Black-cockatoos and threatened ecological communities.

Sources:

*Warning, graphic animal harm content in the video link below may be disturbing to viewers.

Prescribed burns underway in South West WA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMnZZYzKPg8

DBCA – License to kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC7kQ9cvSkc

Your Story Belongs Here

Have you lived through a burn? Seen smoke choke your valley, lost animals, walked through blackened giants? Share your experience – words, photos, video, or even art. Your story helps others see the truth behind “controlled” fire.

These Stories Must Become Action

Together, these stories tell the truth: WA’s prescribed burns are destroying lives, forests, and futures. Don’t just read—share them, act on them, and demand change.