Heatwaves have become longer, hotter and more frequent. This trend is accelerating from climate change.
Black Saturday firefighters battling flames in Victoria. When we laud fire fighters as heroes, we fail to acknowledge the ongoing impact of the fires.
AAP Image/Andrew Brownbill
In commemorating firefighters as heroes, we can fall into the danger of overstating their ability to control fires, absolving ourselves of responsibility.
Victorian Governor Linda Dessau places a flower on a model of Victoria at a memorial service for the ten-year anniversary of the 2009 Victorian bushfires.
David Crosling/AAP
Black Saturday in 2009 was Australia’s worst bushfire tragedy. But climate projections predict more bushfire danger in the future, threatening our water supplies as well as homes.
We need to know we can handle whatever the climate throws at us.
AAP Image/Catherine Best
In the years after Black Saturday, climate adaptation research was in full swing, creating knowledge in how to deal with the risks. But a series of funding cuts have left this research in decline.
Poorly resourced small towns like Marysville often struggle to recover from disasters like the Black Saturday bushfires.
Andrew Brownbill/AAP
Rebuilding small communities on the same site in the same way seldom works. It’s not about getting back to where you were, but rather grasping the opportunity to create a more resilient place.
116 houses were lost at Wye River in Victoria, but nobody was killed.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
It is now well documented that women and men are exposed to bushfire risk in different ways and degrees due to everyday divisions of labour and gendered norms.
Large bushfires occur in the mallee shrublands and woodlands of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
Lauren Brown
Controlling bushfire risk by burning a set percentage of land every year sounds sensible - but a more sophisticated approach is needed to truly safeguard both humans and wildlife in rural areas.
How will we cope with the losses posed by climate change?
Tim J Keegan/Flickr
Five years on from the devastating Black Saturday fires that swept through central Victoria in February 2009, research shows that people and communities are largely recovering well. In the first major…
Forests logged in the past two decades burned more severely the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
AAP Image/Andrew Brownbill
Victoria’s forest management policies need to be urgently reviewed in response to the discovery that logging can contribute to the severity of bushfires in wet forests, like the devastating fires on Black…
Burnoffs in the mallee region of Victoria may have done lasting damage to the environment.
The smell of smoke in the autumn and spring air is an increasingly familiar one to many Australians. It signifies that time of year when land management agencies in southern Australia feverishly try to…
Australians have always had to live with bushfires - but climate change is driving that fire danger even higher. And we’re not talking about a distant threat to future generations. According to real observations…
Firefighters have plenty of ideas about disaster management - so why don’t we listen?
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
You do not find many climate change sceptics on the end of [fire] hoses anymore… They are dealing with increasing numbers of fires, increasing rainfall events, increasing storm events. – A senior Victorian…
Jeannie Blackburn was the victim of horrific domestic violence from a man commended for heroism.
AAP/Julian Smith
Last week, I received an email with the subject line: “Bravery award for baby killer.” It urged readers to sign a Change.org petition calling on the Royal Humane Society of Australia to rescind a bravery…