I have mentioned before some of south east Queenslands fires are fueled by dead lantana. There are 10s of thousands of acres of national parks in Queensland so chocked with lantana grown in the wet 2017, now dead, just looking for a spark.

Southerners may not understand our lantana. It grows so thick that nothing bigger than a scrub turkey can penetrate it. It renders these parks useless to wildlife, man or beast. It grows around 3 meters high. When dead or dry it will throw flame 12 to 15 meters up into the trees in an instant.

We burn it on my 22 meter high riverbank. We can't use machinery on the steep bank, & you need motorcycle leathers to cut it by hand it is so nasty. It is an on going annoyance. Every flood we get reinfested with seed washed down from the up stream national parks.

Believe me, national parks are the worst neighbors on the continent. It they aren't sending fire to burn you out, they are send noxious weeds or feral pests to give you hours of hard labour controlling their unwanted gift. You had better clear these pests, for unlike national parks, we get fined for having them on our properties.

Has been: There are 10s of thousands of acres of national parks in Queensland so chocked with lantana grown

Tell me about it mate. In the 60's I did a lot of Army Exercises on Levers Plateau, Waiangri & numerousness other places. All loaded with Lantana. I always said If an enemy ever landed in Australia we could lead them into Lantana Country, then fire it. No-one get out alive.

I full agree with the fireload argument. My first home in Australia was on a hilly 40-acre block of mainly forest, with grass/lantana below the house. I was able to burn this off as necessary, with a degree of control which would have allowed any animals and many non-flying insects to get out of the way. I strated at the top of the hill and worked down, so the fire couldn't run away. I didn't burn the bulk of the property, and once when I was away, some boys lit a fire in a rubbish dump some distance away which reached my block. I returned to find most of the surface covering reduced to ash, but relatively few trees succumbed. The regularly de-loaded area didn't burn.