Farmers are calling for controlled burning to reduce future fire risks and ecologists want a cull of predators which threaten rare species.

One of Australia's leading scientists called for urgent measures to protect the park's rare animal and plant life from predatory wild cats, foxes, pigs, horses and deer which thrive on burnt ground.

Wild cats, for example, would travel as far as 12 kilometres to get to burnt areas because the prey they feed on have little hiding place on scorched earth. Feral cats know that.

To counter that invasion, ecologist David Lindenmayer of the Australian National University wants culls. "This is the time to enact really aggressive control programs," he said.

He also wants nature to be allowed to take its course, letting the regrowth of vegetation to flourish. "Namadgi was fried in 2003 and now there's been another big fire. Systems don't need any more fire."

Professor Lindenmayer's immediate concern was to find out exactly what state the park was in after the latest fire.

The Orroral Valley fire has burnt through 85,000 hectares, including 80 per cent of the national park. The fire has been contained but not yet extinguished.

"You can't understand the true effects of the fire unless you monitor for many, many years," he said.

The ecologist of global repute was particularly worried about the Corroboree Frog, the Smoky Mouse, the Greater Glider and the Yellow Bellied Glider.

He said that ecological systems - the integrated way in which plants and animals rely on each other - need time to recover.

"Some of these ecosystems are not geared to deal with two massive fires and all the other hazard burning as well."

"Namadgi needs to protect the unburnt parts. You let them do their thing. Leave them alone. They've managed to survive for the last 60 million years."

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But there are many interests in the park - including ecologists but also tourists, historians of Canberra's history and many others. The park contains the rain catchment area for Canberra's water.

One farmer told The Canberra Times he was worried the park hadn't done enough to protect his assets. Steve Angus said that fencing, for example, cost $15,000 a kilometre and more. He had invested mightily in his farm, which only just survived.

He felt that the Namadgi National Park authorities should have done more to prevent the fire.

Mr Angus' property adjoins the park. He stood at the boundary fence and told The Canberra Times that the fire stopped exactly where the park ended because the fuel was so thick there, in contrast to his side of the fence.

"Anyone who says hazard reduction doesn't work has rocks in his head," he said.

"The park and the adjoining neighbours haven't had the best relationship over the years.

"Hopefully, that will change because of what's happened now, but the park needs to look after its neighbours."

He said that farmers next to the Namadgi National Park were on 99-year leases and were investing serious amounts of money.

"Our assets needs to be protected," he said.

"There's got to be more hazard reduction and burning in strategic areas. We need to start putting a buffer zone in along the edges of the park.

"They have a bushfire abatement zone of the urban edge of Canberra. Why aren't we doing a similar thing on the edge of the park? The park's the greatest threat to us."

He knows exactly how long it has been since the previous fire.

"This has been 17 years and two weeks If this is going to happen every 20 odd years, it's not going to be fun place to live."