Mow and Weed vs No Mow and Let Go or something else?

I am not sure which way to go.  We have a big overgrown area with waste high dry Rhodes grass.  In amongst it are fruit trees that appear to be doing OK but it is difficult to access.  
We also live in a fire prone area - last close fire 20 years ago.

Picture on the left is a peach that I dug out from the side of the road which I cleaned around and the one on the right is an almond in the "wilds".
Our ground has about 75mm (3") of zero humus top soil that is slimy after any rain and than it gets into hard overworked clay and pebbles.
When the ground is dry, it is impossible to get a crowbar into it.  Mechanical digging is also next to impossible as well.  

My question is what is the best way to manage this area?  

I would clean/mow around the trees I would like to leave, put down a cardboard ring and whatever mulch I had available, preferrably lots of leaves or woodchips, along with some compost or manure.

Then, depending on how much time you have, and what you want to do there, you can clean more areas, pile mulch there to start improving the soil and plant trees.
However, since I myself don't have much time, and some nicer areas I still need to plant perennials into, I would just leave most of the overgrowing patches, try throwing some desired tree seeds in there, and wouldn't do much there for a couple of years, until trees would start to be visible and around an inch thick. Then I would also start minimally tending to those areas, so I would watch out to keep the desired trees and try to keep them a bit mulched with at least the surrounding sun-stealing vegetation, which I would chop ~once a year and put it around as mulch.

Grazing with animals such as cows and goats would be also a good option to help with clearing brush and grass, and improving the soil of the area, but make sure you well protect the trees that you want to keep.

If you have even more time and resources, you can also scatter clay balls and seed the entire area with soil improving cover crops.

Thank you Humm,
Great advice.  I like the idea of the compost and manure as well as the bit by bit.
I did not mention in the original post, we have chickens and Guinea fowl in the area so they do a bit of tractoring but this area has got away from them and me.
And congratulations on your first Permies post 👍😊
Cheers

Hey, thanks. I've been a long time lurker here and just felt I can share something here

I also have some firsthand experience with this - We've grazed our pastures just with cows for around 6 years now, it's a bit different than in your area, because the land here was already fertile and overgrowth was a problem in some areas. So there were some grassy areas that were already slowly becoming forests with a lot of blackberries and vines blocking the passage. The cows helped a lot with clearing both. Once a bull got a bit stuck with horns into some vines, and he just started wildly turning his head left and right and pulling back really hard, which in turn pulled a large number of vines from trees. And his reward, after he finally got unstuck, was a large number of fresh vine leaves and shoots. And some vines remained around his horns still, even after he was free, so he looked really majestic, like he had a crown

If you clear the area with animals, I think it's the fastest, but also takes the most time and worry that they might escape. But they are a massive help.

Cows don't like blackberries though, they are mostly good just for trampling them sometimes, and eating resprouts that occur after you do some clearing in the autumn with shears and chainsaw. So with cows + goats I think it would go even faster.

To me, there are a lot of factors to be considered.

The biggest one might be fire. Even though the last fire was 20 years ago, there is no way to know when it might happen in a fire-prone area.

How far is this area from your house and are there fire breaks between this area and your house?

For the health and well-being of the fruit trees, some of the earlier suggestions would be wise.

How often are the beehives and fruit trees accessed?

Once the fruit trees are mulched then consider keeping the paths under control.  I don't like walking in tall grass so if this were my property the paths would be mowed or mulched.

Anne Miller wrote:To me, there are a lot of factors to be considered.
The biggest one might be fire. Even though the last fire was 20 years ago, there is no way to know when it might happen in a fire-prone area.
How far is this area from your house and are there fire breaks between this area and your house?
For the health and well-being of the fruit trees, some of the earlier suggestions would be wise.
How often are the beehives and fruit trees accessed?

Thank you Anne.  Too true about the fires.  We have had more fires and lightening strikes than we did when we had the huge bush fires at the end of 2019 and we are not yet out of winter.
This area is about 150 M (470') from the house but there is clear space for about 1/3 way.  I access the bees almost every day to talk to the girls and see how they are going. Once the wind drops, the first post winter hive inspection is due.  The Fruit trees - well, that is the issue!!!
So, from what you are pointing towards and the advice from Humm, slash it all down and get the mulch down.  We have been offered horse blossoms from next door.

I will also get some timber into the trench to make a bit of a hugelbeet.