Project Description

Sandstone Ecosystems, Deep Time & Fire Management – Current and Future Issues for Maintaining Ku-ring-gai’s Biodiversity.

In our recent AABR webinar, fire ecologist Mark Schuster*took us walking through the sandstone bush of Ku-ring-gai on Sydney’s leafy north shore, without leaving our chairs.

Mark’s talk, Sandstone Ecosystems, Deep Time & Fire Management – Current and Future Issues for Maintaining Ku-ring-gai’s Biodiversity, drew on more than four decades of work in fire ecology across Queensland and New South Wales. These days he wears the “meat in the sandwich” badge at Ku-ring-gai Council, sitting between 140,000 residents concerned about bushfire risk and the need to protect the area’s extraordinary sandstone biodiversity.

Working across Hawkesbury Sandstone and Narrabeen Group formations, with pockets of shale, Mark described Ku-ring-gai as “deep time country”: Triassic sandstone about 250 million years old, supporting Proteaceae-rich communities that have been evolving since at least the Miocene. Sydney Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland, Duffy’s Forest and Sandstone Gully Forest all host rich layers of Banksia, Grevillea, Hakea and other Proteaceae, along with fauna such as red-crowned toadlets, eastern pygmy possums, rockwarblers, southern brown bandicoots, glossy black-cockatoos and even peacock spiders.

The challenge is to manage fire in ways that keep these ancient assemblages going while still protecting people and property at the urban–bush interface. Mark emphasised:

  • Biodiversity-led fire management – letting ecological needs drive the planned burn program, with hazard reduction as a co-benefit
  • Appropriate fire intervals – generally in the 10–15 year range, echoing natural lightning-driven regimes, to avoid both “too hot, too often” and senescent, collapsing mid-storeys
  • Soil moisture as the key dial – burns timed so they are cool enough to stay out of the canopy, but hot enough to open Proteaceae seed pods
  • Watching the grass-fire cycle – fragmentation, tracks and nutrient plumes around housing can drive grassy, high-frequency fire regimes that simplify communities and squeeze out seeder species.

Mark also shared how much of his work is on foot, literally walking the 95 kilometres of interface so he can “feel the spirit of the land” and bring that lived understanding into discussions with residents. Street-level “bush meets” and close collaboration with Ku-ring-gai’s bush regeneration team and the RFS round out a program that tries to keep ancient sandstone ecosystems and modern suburbs living side by side.

*Mark Schuster has lived, breathed (and often dreamt) fire planning, fire regime research and fire ecology for quite a few decades – first researching fire regimes and lizard populations at Bauple State Forest, Queensland in 1977. He has worked in Queensland and NSW local governments, conservation and national park agencies as a fire ecologist, planner and technical fire ranger for much of this time. His deep appreciation and knowledge of landscapes, fire behaviour and the ecological aspects of fire regimes allow him to develop and implement fire management frameworks, strategies and management plans for both long-term ecological resilience of natural values and minimisation of risks to people and property. Mark incorporates the latest in fire research into the planning sphere and then translating this to on-ground fire operations. He now applies his knowledge to his beloved ‘Southern Sandstone’ – working for Ku-ring-gai Council.