Bushfire preparation and preparedness - Australia 2024/25Friday 11 Oct 2024
It is the author’s belief that South East Australia continues to be not adequately prepared for upcoming bushfires. And, to be frank, we as a society have learnt very little following 2019/20 and earlier bushfires, especially in regard to inadequate bushfire mitigation. As a consequence, communities, firefighters and the ecosystems are highly exposed over the coming bushfire season. Disaster insurance costs are going up every year and will continue to go up with current limited adopted fire mitigation approaches. This article focusses on bushfire preparation and preparedness and not bushfire seasonal outlook, which will be coming out over the next couple of months. Good bushfire preparation and preparedness is important in order to reduce risks to household risks, communities and firefighters. It reduces fuel loads and strata, reduces areas of contiguous fuels, reduces bushfire risks, assists in controlling bushfires, reduces bushfire intensity and reduces the cost and impact of bushfires. This includes rising insurance costs. The author considers that there are 15 main areas of concern in relation to sound bushfire preparation and preparedness for major bushfires across SE Australia, these concern areas are outlined below. Number 1 concerns inadequate prescribed burning and grazing and consequent high fuel loads across forested landscapes across SE Australia, this will not protect SE Australia/ states. A number of SE Australian states are under 1% of forest areas prescribed burnt per year. Refer to state prescribed burning and wildfire data in this link. Number 2 relates to the fact that SE Australia is not adequately considering nor effectively using adaptive management across forested landscapes, including low intensity burning and forest thinning to maintain forest health and reduce bushfire risks. There are limited attempts to set up fire resilient landscapes. The author considers that US approaches for resilient fire landscapes in many areas are way ahead of Australia. Number 3 pertains to an inadequate fire mitigation funding balance, noting that there is further disaster funding detail in 2020 Menzies Research Centre Strengthening Resilience: Managing natural disasters after the 2019-20 bushfire season. More >> Source & image credit: John O'Donnell  | ||
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