Response of open woodland and grassland mine site rehabilitation to fire disturbance on engineered landforms

•Rehabilitation demonstrated recovery trajectories towards or beyond pre-fire levels within 2 years.•Open woodland and grassland became more dissimilar in the 2-years following the fire.•Vegetation communities varied significantly from their pre-fire condition.•Land managers can use controlled fire to manipulate ecological outcomes for post-mine rehabilitation communities.•Future studies should examine the resilience of mine site rehabilitation following disturbance events across a range of locations, seasons and climatic conditions.