[prawn]

In South Australia, they're very much monitored and controlled. In the Northern Territory however, it is not uncommon in season to see fires burning beside the highway in a national park, and no one anywhere nearby monitoring them. Well, that is besides birds who hang around to nab fleeing insects and other creatures. Birds have been known to carry burning twigs elsewhere to spread the fire too.

Coming from the former region and visiting the latter, it's quite jarring. But that (now called) mosaic burning has thousands of years of history. You can easily see how it advantaged the early occupants of the area: reduce overall fuel load, flush out animals to hunt, and clear annoying tall, dry grasses which would be miserable to live amongst and walk through.