Roger Underwood

Roger Underwood. A Bold Endeavour – a history of our work in the Western Australian rangelands is a terrific book. I read it from cover to cover and then went back and read some parts again ... if the political will for action ever arises, best-practice land management systems for the WA rangelands are now known and understood, and could be implemented across the rangelands tomorrow.  This situation can be attributed to the work of that small band of tough, dedicated scientists of the Rangeland Management Branch during its short, but dramatic history. 

Roger Underwood. Eyes in the Sky is the latest in the BushFire Front's bushfire history series. It tells the story of the development of the bushfire detection system in the southwest, and of the incorporation of fire spotting aircraft into this system.

Roger Underwood. I had an email from a Queensland mate the other day. “I recently took a train trip from Brisbane to Charleville” he told me, “and there were huge piles of concrete sleepers beside the line to the Toowoomba Range and elsewhere.” I knew exactly what he was talking about. In September 2024 I travelled by train from Perth to Adelaide, from Ballarat to Melbourne and from Melbourne to Sydney. Alongside every railway line along this trip were piles of “used” concrete sleepers.

Roger Underwood. There was an unusual event in Dryandra Forest in Western Australia in November 2023: a commemoration of 100 years of forestry management. At a large gathering in the forest, beneath the shade of a 100-year-old brown mallet plantation, speeches were made, a plaque unveiled, and this book on the history of the forest was launched.

Is this really how harvested forests are left? Australian Rural & Regional News looks into recent statements that highlight continuing conflicting and confusing information in the public domain about connections between forestry operations and bushfires and whether prescribed burns reduce bushfire risk.

There was only one occasion on which Granny’s Tea Set actually did duty. It was an auspicious one. It was in the mid-1930s. The Great Depression was biting, Groupies were leaving their blocks in droves and things were tough. The then-Premier of Western Australia, James Mitchell (known derisively on the Groups as “Moocow Mitchell”), had finally been convinced that he should come down and have a look at what was going on, so he could appreciate the plight of the Group Settlers.

Having read the latest comment by Philip Zylstra in the ARR.News journal I was tempted to dismiss it as negligible, and move on. Then I realised that he had denigrated my colleagues, dismissing them as an emotional "lobby group”, and I realised that he must not be allowed to have the last word. To the extent that we are pushing for Australian governments to adopt a bushfire policy and management practices that minimise bushfire damage to the Australian people, to community assets and the environment, then yes, we are lobbyists. But we do so unemotionally, from the basis of science and experience.

I have recently re-read Think Trees, Grow Trees, a 1985 publication from the Institute of Foresters of Australia. This excellent little book was the brainchild of, and was edited by Dr Wilf Crane, one of my contemporaries at the Australian Forestry School, a notable forest scientist and famous and eccentric character ... To me, the most important part of the book (in terms of contemporary relevance) is the chapter called Living with Fire. It is written by Phil Cheney.

The mapped fire histories of the southwestern forests show that bushfires have been most frequent in forests with dense understoreys promoted by previous burns, and far less common in areas that have not been burned for several decades, allowing the understorey to naturally thin. Two new voices have entered the discussion on this here and made numerous claims, but their ill-informed comments have distracted from the point.