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Katie Woolf spoke with Mitch Hart from Gamba Grass Roots · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we know that yesterday the Northern Territory government announced
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: five hundred thousand dollars is going to be put. Well,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: it's going to contribute to trying our best to I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: guess control Gamber around the top end. And joining us
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on the line right now to talk about this announcement
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  Speaker 1: and what it's going to mean for the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: is Mitch Hart from the Gamber Grassroots Group. Good morning
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  Speaker 1: to you, Mitch. H Katie.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, Mitch. Yesterday obviously the government made this
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  Speaker 1: announcement five hundred thousand dollars. How far will it go?
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  Speaker 2: Well, five hundred thousand. It's really great positive news. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I think all the people that have been out dealing
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  Speaker 2: with Gamber on their block and calling for more action
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  Speaker 2: will welcome that. There's still, of course more to do,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: but yeah, we welcome yesterday's announcement from the territory government.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: The Gamber Army will be able to keep going with
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  Speaker 2: its important work.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So what exactly, you know, what exactly does the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: funding enable. Does it mean that we're able to get
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: more people out there trying to control the Gamber? What
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  Speaker 1: will it do?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? So the Gambra Army is a grant for Territoriana
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  Speaker 2: RAMA running the program and ran it did a great
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  Speaker 2: job working with other landholders to deal with gambra. And
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  Speaker 2: I think the role for the Gamber Army is that
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  Speaker 2: has a positive impact bringing together landholders, park ranges and
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  Speaker 2: also government agencies on public lands to deal with gamba.
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  Speaker 2: And I think the second reason why it had a
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  Speaker 2: really positive impact it got some out of work territories
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  Speaker 2: back on the tools. It meant that some of those
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  Speaker 2: contractors who deal with gamba get better trained employees. And
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  Speaker 2: I think for the community more generally, it was a
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  Speaker 2: sign that the government's starting to take gamber action seriously.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And so over what kind of period of time will
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  Speaker 1: that five hundred thousand be able to, you know, to
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  Speaker 1: enable this work to be done.
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  Speaker 2: So most gambra action and control happens during the wet
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  Speaker 2: season when the gamber's growing. So what that'll allow for
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  Speaker 2: is the Gamber Armi team to get together over the
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: next few months and map out where to next wet season,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: so you know, they'll be in spraying sort of late
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  Speaker 2: this year and into the wet next year, and what
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  Speaker 2: they'll be doing at the moment and over the next
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  Speaker 2: few months is working out where they can go. So
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  Speaker 2: the real positive of the announcement yesterday is allowed that
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  Speaker 2: to happen with some certainty, so they can talk to
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  Speaker 2: other landholders, talk to government agencies to get to help
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  Speaker 2: them get rid of some gambra on their block. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, it means we can push that to that
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  Speaker 2: next round of places that the gamber armi might not
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: have got to win its first year. So that's real
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  Speaker 2: positives here, Mitch.
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  Speaker 1: I know that for a lot of people that live
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  Speaker 1: sort of out in the rural area and beyond, they'll
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: be well aware of the issues we've got with gamber.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Even some of us that live, you know, closer to
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  Speaker 1: town or in town are certainly aware. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: to those out there listening who maybe don't know just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: how big an impact gamber grass has, particularly when we
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: talk about you know, when it comes to fighting fires,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: how bad is ash.
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  Speaker 2: Well, just to put it simply, gamber fires they burn hotter,
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  Speaker 2: they with more intensity, and you know, you talk to
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  Speaker 2: any firefighter who's facing gamba fire and they just talk
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to you about the feeling of the gamber heat and
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: you know, you see the size of fire trucks and
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  Speaker 2: the bits and pieces melted. Yeah, so that's the severity
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: of it all. So that's what it means. It means potterfires.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It wiped out native bushland that territorians love to get
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  Speaker 2: out to. So that's another big impact that people should
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  Speaker 2: think true and be aware of. And like Literal Natural Park,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: it threatens its future, which is the place for tourists
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  Speaker 2: and locals to get out to.
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  Speaker 1: Mitch, I know that when the announcement was made yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: some people are sort of wondering, oh, is this going
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  Speaker 1: to help, you know, in terms of making sure that
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  Speaker 1: we don't see so many issues hopefully on August twenty
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: nine when the night comes to let those firecrackers off.
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  Speaker 1: But based on what you've just told us, and based
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  Speaker 1: on a few calls that we got yesterday, it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: sound as though this is really aimed at, you know,
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  Speaker 1: at that. It's more so work that's going to happen
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  Speaker 1: during the wet season.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's right. What you know, the situation we
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  Speaker 2: have right now with the dangerous fire conditions made worse
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  Speaker 2: by Gamba, and if you add crack a night to
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  Speaker 2: the top of that, you know, that's the real concern
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  Speaker 2: that I think, you know, Territorians have heard loud and
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  Speaker 2: clear from people on the front lines and from firefighters.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, for us, we're very happy to see
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  Speaker 2: this announcement by the government shows that the community has
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  Speaker 2: been heard on this and the knee ongoing action, But
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the concerns about krack andite still remain, and so you know,
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  Speaker 2: the good news in this is we're reducing that fire
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  Speaker 2: risk for the coming years, but there's still much more
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  Speaker 2: work to do, and I know for people on the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: front line are still waiting pretty nervously ahead of krack andite.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like a lot of Territorians are. You know,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we put a post up earlier in the week on
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the socials and you know a lot of people really
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  Speaker 1: very concerned about what may happen on August twenty nine,
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  Speaker 1: just due to the dryness out there and then obviously
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: letting those crackers off.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a tinder box out there already, and that's
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  Speaker 2: you know, the reality for Territorians, whether it's a moa
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  Speaker 2: spark or a cigarette, we're adding krackinnite to the top
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  Speaker 2: of that is something that you hear in the voice
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  Speaker 2: of the people who express those concerns, just how worried
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  Speaker 2: they are about that, and how our fire crews will
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: be able to deal with buyers going off possibly all
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  Speaker 2: over the place, and you know, add gamba grass to
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  Speaker 2: that mix. It's a pretty dangerous event that I think
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  Speaker 2: people are rightly nervous about.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Mitch Hart from the Gamba grass Roots Community Alliance,
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Thanks for Katie, Thank you