John O’Donnell, June 2024
The author considers that large numbers of Australian towns and cities are inadequately prepared for bushfires and this is one of the reasons for undertaking this review. Readers can assess bushfire preparation in relation to their own and other towns and cities and assess if bushfire preparation is well managed, has improved after earlier bushfires and if it has improved since the 2019/ 20 bushfires.
Read the full review here: Town and city bushfire disaster review, case studies and lessons across Australia
Nineteen Australian town and city impact and disaster bushfire case studies are highlighted in Section 2 of the review. These outline bushfire information in relation to each of the selected bushfires, and in most cases bushfire lessons and insights.
These case studies are from: Victoria – 5; New South Wales – 4; South Australia – 3: Western Australia – 3; Tasmania – 1: Australian Capital Territory – 1; Australia – 1; and a combined Victoria/ South Australia case study. A broad representation of town and city disasters across most of Australia.
Seven older case studies are included in the bushfire disaster assessment from 1851 to 1967, it is important to note that town and city bushfire disasters are not just a recent phenomenon and have occurred since European settlement and the curtailment of Aboriginal burning practices. The other 12 case studies range from 1983 to 2021.
In relation to the status of town and city bushfire preparedness across SE Australia, the author considers bushfire preparedness and mitigation is inadequate because of the following factors:
- Miniscule rates of prescribed burning around and within towns and cities.
- Focus on town and city ring of confidence approaches with protection focused around the edges.
- Very limited prescribed burning across landscapes and restrictive rules and codes.
- Very high fuel loads/ strata, with huge contiguous areas of these fuels set up for intense bushfire runs.
- Increasing eucalypt decline and increasing dense forest understories and bushfire risks.
- Poor forest fire resilience.
- Restrictive fire policies reducing prescribed burning to very long timeframes.
- Missed opportunities for developing cooperative/ alliance approaches to prescribed burning arrangements and programs.
- Risk allocation to lighters of fires with minimal consideration of reducing fuel loads and strata.
- Huge areas of dead timber and fuels and dense regrowth from intense bushfires.
- Increasing urban residential areas at the interface.
- In many cases generic town bushfire risk management plans.
- Low levels of community participation and locations of fire adapted communities such as adopted in the US.
- Inadequate town and city bushfire design.
- Focus on bushfire suppression at the expense of fire mitigation.
- Inadequate government expenditure in relation to bushfire mitigation.
- Increased reliance on water bombing for control of forest fires,
- Inadequate bushfire planning and management focus in many towns and cities in relation to reducing bushfire risks.
- Inadequate focus on fire fighter safety.
- Loss of skilled firefighters and reduced use of effective suppression techniques, including quick attack and backburning at the right time.
- Complacency in regards to bushfires.
- Failures in communication and systems in some cases.
- Inadequate capture and retention of bushfire lessons and insights.
Inadequate bushfire preparedness and mitigation has resulted in the continuation of large intense bushfires across SE Australia, including impacts on towns and cities, and are often associated with long fire runs.
Another issue that greatly concerns the author is that Australia has never really fully nor effectively captured and locked in many of the key lessons in relation to avoiding and reducing town and city bushfire disasters across these communities on an ongoing basis.
A major focus of Section 3 of the review is capturing key bushfire disaster lessons and insights in relation to town and city bushfire disaster avoidance, sound fire and fuel mitigation, fuel management, preparedness for bushfires, community and firefighter safety, infrastructure protection, firefighting attack and a range of other lessons from case studies over the last 170 years.
Twenty-two lesson and insight broad areas are outlined, and include a considerable number of lessons and insights, 127 in all. The analysis was detailed and assessed the case study lessons in Section 2 and also a large number of bushfire disaster documentation, as outlined at the start of Section 3.
If we don’t improve actioning in regards to capturing and implementing town and city bushfire lessons and insights, there will continue to be large scale impacts on communities, community members, fire fighters, the environment and massive economic impacts.
Read the full review here: Town and city bushfire disaster review, case studies and lessons across Australia
About John O’Donnell
John is a retired district forester and environmental manager for hydro-electric construction and road construction projects. His main interests are mild maintenance burning of forests, trying to change the culture of massive fuel loads in our forests setting up large bushfires, establishing healthy and safe landscapes, fire fighter safety, as well as town and city bushfire safety.
