The fire retardant quality of wattles has been known for many years. Suggest that you see what your state forestry department recommends.

I like the idea of planting retardant spp (trees and understory) along a swale/s upwind of property; also perhaps as an interface between house and bushland.

It’s probably well known (excuse me!) that many (fire resistant) spp. e.g. most eucs do burn well and can disseminate sparks and glowing leaves, twigs and bark. Also their litter will burn fiercely whereas litter from retardant spp. I believe burns slowly/ not at all depending too on moisture content. However, typically the burnt fire-resistant spp recovers, if necessary from lignotubers, seeds etc, and regrows.

I think the ideal body to disseminate this kind of information would be the rural fire brigades. Just called my local office, the staff member is going to have a look for any publication on the topic. She said there used to be a good one but thinks it hasn’t been reprinted/ updated. Brigades often have trouble recruiting volunteers...not everyone can/ wants to be a firie, or an executive officer, or do catering....here's another job, relatively undemanding at that. Production of a regular newsletter and planting schemes an ideal topic.

We also agreed that good information on labels could provide nurseries with a marketing tool. This person has heard that local nurseries have enquiries from people moving to acreage about just this topic.

Thankfully haven't had personal experience of house/ garden wildfires in cQ but do have rules at the acreage about eucs etc. None close to the house and none on the side of the prevailing wind. Dry rain forest species have been used in a long row to the east and ideally these would be given a supplementary watering every 2-4 weeks depending on need and the dam level. Nature up here commonly grows dry rainforest species among rocks where the inflammable fuel load from grass is low. Rocks make a good mulch, from the point of view of the plant!

Cheers
Rose

Jackie French has a good discussion of fire retardance generally, though few natives are mentioned by name, at
http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s778007.htm

su.edu.au/ASGAP/fire.html has the best list I could find.

The site http://www.global-garden.com.au/burnley/feb00dte.htm has a short list.

P/APOL15/sep99-14.html#ignite has an interesting discussion of a trial of the ignitability of leaves of some natives, and gives us the names of a few good ones. It is particularly interesting with the suggestion that the mineral content of the leaves was more relevant to fire retardance that water content, which gives hope to those of us who just can't manage to water their plants, when drought and fires come together.

The trouble is that there are a lot of sites that I have difficulty in trusting. I found a fact sheet – a copy of a glossy government publication - at
http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/publications/firewise/gardens.pdf but it was disappointing. More introduced than local plants, and included Koelreuteria which is an environmental weed in Toowoomba. (Not "declared", so the council is still planting them, but they behave like an environmental weed – the privet of the future. The list of 7 suggested native trees included four Eucalypts, which does not give me confidence in the pamphlet as a whole.

I’d be interested to hear of other sites. There is still a lot of research, obviously, needing to be done on the subject, which is why I am interested to hear of ordinary gardeners’ personal stories about fires. We might develop a body of anecdotal knowledge which, sometime, might be researched scientifically by somebody. My eventual hope is that the research would be comprehensive enough for us all to have access to the names of our local native fire retardant species.
Cheers, Trish

The topic hasn't come up at meetings of either local SGAP group.

Re the removal of the fact sheet, I was wondering, too, whether it was on legal advice.

Greening Australia another organisation which could take an interest.

I'm also interested in inflammability of exotic grasses; some burn hotter/ cooler than others. I shudder when I see the body of molasses grass downhill from a friend at Mudgeeraba.

Rose, wondering what happened to my contractions :)

Surely there's a reliable list out there somewhere done by someone who knows their stuff? For now I’m going by the ACT government list (type in ‘firewise home gardens’) and the Country Fire Service of South Australia list, in the hope that after their bush fires, they’ll have done some decent research. If anyone’s interested, I have compiled a list of most commonly mentioned fire retardant plants, with a code indicating who recommends them, whether the Tassies reckon they are flammable, and whether they are weeds – an amazing number of them are! Do you want me to post it?

These are the other results I got testing plants on my bonfire. Acacia iteaphylla (flinders range wattle which many lists say is fire retardant) burnt pretty easily. Acacia vestita and acacia elata (cedar wattle) were slow to burn. Acacia floribunda and a. cognata both flared up very quickly. The needles of casuarina cunninghamiana flared into flame quite quickly but immediately died, and the wood didn’t seem inclined to burn. Eucalyptus leucoxylon took quite a while to catch, then just kind of melted – however it often has quite a few dead branches on the tree so this could be a fire hazard. Corymbia/euc maculata burnt like leucoxylon. Callistemon little john and c. dawson river weeper didn’t catch quickly, and didn't burn with a whoosh. Hakea laurina (pincushion hakea) didn’t catch very easily. Leptospermum nanum (red) flared up very quickly. Japanese bamboo was terrifying, it exploded, sounding like gunfire going off all over the valley, although admittedly it was dry, as we’d cut it down during an evacuation alert.
Does anyone know if rosemary actually is a good fire retardant? I've seen it on quite a few lists; some say only the prostrate form is fire tolerant.

first job cut off the top foliage sections of all shrubby trees inside you fire break margin, knock down all tall plants in the garden. amazing how many pic's i saw on tv where homes are completely burnt yet there remains swimming pool or dams full of water near by? rebuild in steel and non-combustable materials.

len

The following web site:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/45318/Vol-8-October-2005.pdf
includes the following statement about a fact sheet:

Bushfire Safety for your Home & Garden:
Landscape Management provides some recommendation on the
use of less flammable vegetation species in landscaping
to reduce bushfire risk. This 2-page fact-sheet is aimed
at helping provide practical information on this oftencouraged
use of fire-retardant plants… which as
many of you know formed a major portion of Cuong’s
PhD work.

I have found the fact sheet on the GU website and the link is attached. I gives general guidelines only, as follows:

Plant selection

Different plants burn differently. This is
influenced by a number of features, which
are also influenced by how old the plant is,
the particular environment it is growing in
(including the season) and how it is looked
after (for example, if it is well-watered).
Avoid having plants near your home that may
burn easily. Such plants include those that:
• Accumulate and/or create lots of dry,
dead debris during the fire season;
• Have loose flaky bark;
• Have masses of very fine leaves; and
• Have very low moisture content.

Less flammable plants are those with the following characteristics:
• Produce large, thick leathery leaves;
• Have smooth bark or tightly packed bark
tissue; and
• Retain moisture content.

Don’t rely on plants being ‘fire retardant’

While some plants may not burn in low to
moderately intense fires, all plants can burn
in high intensity fires (those fires when you
and your home are most at risk).
You should not rely on published lists of ‘fire
retardant’, ‘fire resistant’ or ‘hard-to-burn’
plant species. Some of these plants are also
weeds. You should choose less flammable
plants that have the characteristics outlined
above. It is important to note that the
management of vegetation around your home
is just one part of the fire planning process
for your home. Your local council can provide
information to help you select plants that
are suitable for your local environment.
FaBCon can also help with plants that maybe
suitable in your area.

Regards,
Frank