Bushfires

A bushfire is a natural disaster in which a large, uncontrolled fire spreads through vegetation and forests. Common in Australia, bushfires are a threat to human, plant and animal life and often cause extensive damage to buildings, farms, and public infrastructure. The cost of bushfires to Australia is often billions of dollars spent annually on containment and repair spending, in addition to prevention and public safety communication measures.

Bushfires in Australia are common in the hot summer months, when lightning and extreme heat are more likely to occur. Human-lit fires that expand out of control are another common cause of bushfires, especially in dry weather conditions. Eucalyptus trees that grow in the bush act as an accelerant of bushfires, due to their oil providing fuel and helping the fire to spread.

Many townships and cities use buffer zones and educate the public about measures they can take to prevent bushfires. The most devastating bushfires have been known to displace thousands of residents whose homes are lost to bushfires.

Background

Bushfires are believed to have occurred in Australia for about sixty million years. The late 1900s and early 2000s have seen several major bushfires, which caused extensive damage and loss of life.

While some bushfires are the product of human negligence and lack of precaution when lighting small fires, naturally occurring bushfires ignited by lightning and high winds are also a significant threat in southern Australia, which often experiences extreme weather and drought. Some of the continent's most devastating bushfires have happened in Victoria and Tasmania.

On 7 February 1967, 110 bushfires were reported in Tasmania following a drought. In the city of Hobart, sixty-two people died in the disaster's wake.

Another of Australia's most infamous and devastating bushfires occurred on 16 February 1983 in Victoria. More than 180 fires followed ten days of drought, high temperatures, and high winds. Known as the Ash Wednesday fires, the disaster spread across southern Australia, destroying more than three thousand buildings and killing seventy-five people. The Ash Wednesday fires also killed an estimated 340,000 sheep and 18,000 cattle and caused more than $200 million in damage.

Bushfires have increased in frequency since the 1990s, especially in Victoria. In 1997 more than 250 bushfires were reported in Victoria. A major bushfire known as the Canberra Firestorm spread throughout forests surrounding Namadgi National Park in January 2003.

Another massive bushfire rolled through Victoria in 2009, killing 173 people and injuring 414 in what came to be known as Black Saturday. Some 400 fires caused more than $1 billion worth of damage and displaced an estimated 7,562 people. A report on the Black Saturday disaster cited a lack of proper communication and preparedness and suboptimal building materials as contributing factors in the scale of the fires' destruction.

In New South Wales in 2013, another large bushfire caused extensive damage and burned more than 118,000 hectares of bushland.

Bushfires cause secondary damage in the form of air pollutants that contain inflammatory and carcinogenic elements. Drinking water catchments impacted by the Black Saturday fires resulted in a further $2 billion in recovery spending.

Due to the loss of life and property caused by bushfires, municipal and government authorities widely publicise prevention measures. In addition to general caution with fuel sources and man-made fires, authorities encourage controlled back-burning of bush land to help starve a bushfire before it occurs.

The Australian government cites flawed human management factors as a contributor to the occurrence of bushfires. A general shift from fire prevention to fire fighting and a lack of buffer zones have allowed bushfires to have more severe impact, the government has reported. The 2009 Black Saturday fires prompted a turning point in public and political interest in determining causes of bushfires, especially those that may be related to humanmade climate change.

Bushfires Today

Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent, making it particularly vulnerable to increasing extreme temperatures and weather events that can cause bushfires. In 2013 the Climate Council published findings that global climate change was increasing the incidence and intensity of bushfires in Australia.

Researchers have asserted that the warming of the climate, driven by increasing atmospheric carbon from human pollutants, leads to several factors that contribute to the danger of bushfires. These factors include further decreases in the expected rainfall in southern Australia enlarging the arid region where bushfires are likely to occur, high winds, extreme storms that can include thousands of lightning strikes, and increasing temperature extremes.

While climate change does not itself spark fires, the factors linked to climate change are likely to increase the number and impact of bushfires. Australia's average temperature increased by one degree Celsius since 1900, and each decade since 1970 has been hotter than the former, marking a significant increase in the risk of bushfires.

Bushfire incidence increased between 1973 and 2010 at weather stations throughout Australia, with no station showing a decrease over that period. Climate researchers have concluded that a continuing increase of global temperatures will continue to cause a corresponding increase in the risk of bushfires. A 2017 Climate Institute report concluded the economic toll of Victoria bushfires is projected to more than double by 2050 due to the effects of climate change. The report calls for a rapid reduction in carbon emissions to stall these effects.

The link between the increasing temperature of the planet and the occurrence and impact of bushfires is the subject of ongoing debate. When the Climate Council released a 2013 report establishing the link between climate change and bushfires, then-prime minister Tony Abbott dismissed the report and its claims.

With continued carbon emissions levels contributing to climate change, Australia is likely to experience an average temperature increase of one degree Celsius by 2030, which will cause more severe storms, more months of drought conditions, and a sharp increase in the number of days that pose an extreme fire threat annually. Expansion of southern Australia's population in areas surrounding Victoria will increase the severity of the threat, as more people inhabit bushland regions susceptible to fires.

Australia experienced particularly severe bushfires once more beginning in 2019. As the country continued to experience a prolonged drought, approximately one hundred bushfires were burning in the states of Queensland and New South Wales in September. By December, Australia was also experiencing record high temperatures and the fires had spread to impact every state. In January 2020, the government allocated an initial $2 billion in recovery funds. Concerns also grew about the large number of animals, particularly unique species and those that have been part of conservation efforts, dying or losing their habitats to the devastating fires. While officials declared that the fires in New South Wales had been contained in early February, the issue and debates concerning climate change and preparedness persisted. Fires in other areas of the country persisted into March 2020. By that time, according to media reports, an estimated 18.6 million hectares of land had been burned and at least thirty-three people had been killed; many others struggled against heavily deteriorated air quality conditions.

While not as severe, the Wooroloo bushfire occurred in 2021. By the time it was extinguished on February 6, eight-six houses two fire trucks had been destroyed. The fire burned 10,500 hectares. In 2023, a fast spreading bushfire broke out in Pilliga Forest, burning about 121,000 hectares in December. The fire was the first of sixty occurring at that time.

Bibliography

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