Shackle Road Self Guided Drive - Stop 4 - SA

Stop 4 - Firebreaks
Bushfires are part of the cycle of life for Kangaroo Island and evidence of previous fires can be seen throughout Flinders Chase National Park. The most recent fire in December 2007 was started by lightning and burned around 65% of Flinders Chase National Park.
Shackle Road plays an important role in fire management within the park by being a firebreak. To safely manage fuel hazard levels, prescribed (planned) fires are used. Our trained specialists decide where, when and under what conditions burns will be managed. Regular fuel reduction operations are undertaken along the length of Shackle Road.
Can you see the tall yacca or grass tree (Xanthorrhoea semiplana tateana) on the edge of the firebreak? Yaccas are very long-lived plants, growing only one centimetre per year, so if you see one over two metres high it means it is about
200 years of age. The long flower spikes often grow following fires and may shoot to 3.5 metres tall in about three months. After fire, birds and pygmy-possums pollinate the thousands of individual flowers, and the seeds are then dispersed onto the nutrient rich ash. The botanical name refers to the gum which flows from the stem. This may be found as dried hard balls on the tall, black trunk.
The green carpenter bee (the largest native bee in southern Australia) nests in dry flowering stalks of yaccas and in trunks and branches of dead banksia.
The yacca gum harvesting industry began as early as 1843 and by the early 1900s several hundred men were employed. The gum of the yacca contains a substance
used to manufacture explosives. During the First World War several hundred tonnes of yacca gum were ordered by England and America. Yacca gum is also used in the manufacture of wood stains and fireworks.
Bronzewing pigeons (Phaps chalcoptera and P. elegans) and beautiful firetail finches (Stagonopleura bella) are common in this area, as they feed on the seed of the bush-peas (Pultenaea spp.) that grow here.