Go spinifex! (But watch your back).

By Dave Richards

Since white settlement the value of the inland has always been assessed by the terms and values of the new arrivals – cattle, minerals and scenery. But the tide. it seems, is beginning to turn.

Spinifex is one of the most abundant grasses in Central Australia and other parts of inland Australia and with its sharp spear-like blades has been mainly a nuisance to white people, especially when trying to climb hills.

To the original inhabitants, spinifex, however, has been incredibly useful: as a building material, a source of resin used as an adhesive in making spears and other tools, and a fuel for firestick farming, in which people burned patches of spinifex in order to flush out animals in the hunt. It was also used for medicinal purposes.

Paul Memmott

Renowned architect and Queensland University academic Paul Memmott is working with the indigenous Myuma group in north-western Queensland to explore the potential of spinifex as a mainstream building material – in much the same way that Aborigines used it: as a resin and a form of insulation.

ABC reporter Melinda Howells reported on today’s program of the ABC current affairs show The World Today that reported that Plant Ecology Associate Professor Susanne Schmidt was investigating wherher it would be “ecologically sustainable” to harvest spinifex.

”Spinifex burns regularly,” she told Howells . ”I mean, that’s part of the natural cycle of regeneration so it’s not just the Spinifex but also other species that regenerate.”

”It’s difficult to really understand exactly what the different species require in order to grow well and in order for the other species to also grow well and for the animals that live on these plants to use them as food sources, as shelter and so forth.”

Coincidentally, two Stanford University reseachers, Douglas and Rebecca Bird,  working with the Martu people in Western Australia, have recently released a paper that explores how Aboriginal people have used spinifex fires in firestick farming, and how that has shaped the nature of the rangelands. A lot of the findings are familiar to people who have explored the land management systems of Aboriginal people, but are worth reiterating.

Reports Stanford University in an on-line article about the research: Despite growing awareness of the role that fire plays in wild space, many Australians have been slow to accept Martu burning practices, Rebecca Bird said. “They see it as a destructive force. It’s in line with the thinking of most ecologists who view humans as a disturbance of the natural equilibrium,” she said. “The Martu perspective is much more that humans are part of it all.”

Meanwhile, however, the new human on the block are doing their bit to change “it all.”

The biggest threat to spinifex, whether it’s for firestick farming or as a state-of-the-art building material, may not be unsustainable harvest, but another grass that’s competing with spinifex.

Buffel (centre, with mauve flower) taking over a Central Australian hill. The grass in the foreground is a native.

Buffel grass, which is gradually overtaking many parts of inland Australia as the dominent grass, is an import, valued for its tenacious and edible qualities by pastoralists. Buffel burns hotter than other grasses.

According to an official NT Environment Department paper online : Buffel grass can recover quickly from a fire and will out compete other plants to become dominant. The rapid build-up of buffel grass fuel has increased the fire frequency in many areas and long-lived woody species, such as river red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), corkwoods (Hakea species) and beefwoods (Grevillea striata), are suffering from the frequent fires.

This is what the federally-funded Tropical Savannahs Co-operative Research centre says about spinifex:

Spinifex provides a flammable fuel that will burn at most times of the year. Though top-killed by fire, most Spinifex plants resprout. Three to five years after a fire, the plants recover to such an extent that fires can again be carried. Fires are neither as frequent nor extensive as they are in the grassy woodlands of northern Australia, where tussock grasses dominate the ground layer.

And this is what it says on the same information sheet about buffel grass:

Buffel Grass, promoted for its pasture value, is also spreading through native vegetation. This invasion is most advanced in the Gidgee woodlands, which had a naturally sparse ground layer, and in eucalypt woodlands on the richest soils. However, Buffel Grass is now also replacing Spinifex. Wherever Buffel Grass is established, the diversity of the ground layer decreases, and even regeneration of trees and shrubs may be suppressed. In most of northern Australia where introduced pasture grasses have replaced native species, there has been an increase in fire frequency and intensity. However, where Buffel Grass replaces Spinifex, the reverse can be true. The resultant disruption of natural fire cycles may suppress the regeneration of fire-dependent species.

Go spinifex – but watch your back!