Given La Niña’s effect on the Australian climate, we’ve been given a reprieve in some sense in regards to bushfire season. A group of researchers from the UNSW believe that it is an opportune time to rethink Australia’s bushfire strategies and to prepare properly for the impending bushfire seasons of the future.

The UNSW quartet, consisting of Rachael Helene Nolan, Grant Williamson, Katharine Haynes and Mark Ooi, believe climate change is exceeding the capacity of our ecological and social systems to adapt. They believe that in order to properly prepare for bushfire season, the ‘business as usual’ approach will not work in future. The collective believes a number of strategies are needed in order to combat fires when they arise.

The inquiries made into bushfires each year since 1939 have often led to changes in policy, but even then complacency has set in by the time the next bushfire has rolled around. There has been much debate around the effectiveness of hazard reduction burning, as well as whether  excessive “fuel loads” – such as dead leaves, bark and shrubs – had been allowed to accumulate.

UNSW found that hazard reduction burns conducted in the years leading up to the Black Summer fires effectively reduced the probability of high severity fire, and reduced the number of houses destroyed by fire. The fires, UNSW believe, were driven by record-breaking fuel dryness and extreme weather conditions, which was made worse by climate change. The university is an advocate for hazard reduction burning, but believes new policy responses are needed given the severity of climate change.

The Black Summer bushfires also had a range of diverse and unexpected impacts. While many of the fires raged in regional areas, the metropolitan areas of the east coast were blanketed in smoke, with smoke-related deaths estimated to be at 429. 

UNSW found that socially disadvantaged and Indigenous populations were affected heavily by the fires. 38 percent of fire-affected areas were among the most disadvantaged, while just 10 percent were among the least disadvantaged.

Areas with relatively large Indigenous populations were heavily fire-affected, including Grafton, Eurobodalla Hinterland, Armidale and Kempsey, where greater than 20 percent of the population is Indigenous.

257 plant species were unable to effectively regenerate due to the short intervals between fires. Many vegetation communities were also left vulnerable to too-frequent fire, which may result in biodiversity decline, particularly as the climate changes.

The UNSW researchers believe it to be imperative that the knowledge gained from the government inquiries must be used to implement funding to support bushfire management, research and innovation. Money has already been allocated towards water-bombing aircraft, improving fire trails, additional hazard reduction personnel and research, but the university says there must be an investment in community-led solutions and involvement in bushfire planning and operations. This includes engagement between fire authorities and residents in developing strategies for hazard reduction burning, and providing greater support for people to manage fuels on private land. 

Indigenous cultural burning brings about a range of benefits, but the university says non-Indigenous land managers should not treat cultural burning as simply another hazard reduction technique, but part of a broader practice of Aboriginal-led cultural land management. The researchers say that greater engagement and partnership with Aboriginal communities at all levels of fire and land management is also needed.

With the unpredictable nature of climate change, living with fire requires different ways of thinking. Thoughtful planning and investment into fire management and research, irrespective of the weather outside, is crucial to protecting our communities from the dangers of fire in the summers to come.

To read the article in full, click here.

Image: UNSW