NEW BLACK SUMMER-RESPONSE RESEARCH BEGINS THROUGH THE BUSHFIRE & NATURAL HAZARDS CRC

Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC

New research to explore important issues from Australia’s devastating 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires is underway through the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. 

To be completed by June 2021, the new suite of research projects is backed by the first $2 million of $88.1 million announced by the Commonwealth Government for more natural hazard research, with additional funding from the CRC.

In response to the devastation of the 2019/20 bushfires, this research will cover many important aspects across three main themes (with further information available here): 

  • Fire predictive services – to understand the extreme fire behaviour of Black Summer and what contributed to it.
  • Cultural land management – to explore the integration of cultural land management practices into fire prevention.
  • Community-led recovery – to investigate effective community engagement, participation, leadership and behaviour in disaster prevention, relief and recovery. 

“This research is really about landscape, people and culture,” said Dr John Bates, Research Director at the CRC.

Each project will take a different approach to understanding the 2019/20 bushfires – some from a state perspective and some from a national perspective – which will enable emergency services and governments to learn lessons from Black Summer, to help reduce the devastating impact of bushfires in future fire seasons.

“Bushfires are complex and ever-evolving. This new research will continue the CRC’s mission to bring together a range of expertise across different scientific disciplines to find ways to either improve existing or develop new knowledge that fills crucial gaps in how we prepare for, respond to and recover from bushfires and other natural hazards, so that we can create a safer Australia for everyone,” said Dr Bates.  

The research portfolio was established by the CRC in consultation with its partners – including emergency and land management agencies, Indigenous groups and researchers across the country – and continues the highly successful collaboration between the CRC and its partners. Project leaders will include Dr Jeff Kepert, Dr Mika Peace and Paul Fox-Hughes (Bureau of Meteorology); Dr Marta Yebra (Australian National University); Leo Lymburner (Geoscience Australia); Dr Karin Reinke and Prof Simon Jones (RMIT University); Dr Timothy Neale (Deakin University); Adj Prof Jeremy Russell-Smith (Charles Darwin University); and Prof Lisa Gibbs (University of Melbourne).

The research is strongly aligned with the outcomes of several jurisdictional post-fire inquiries and the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements. The next eight months of research will address the key themes that arose from Black Summer, with a view to providing insight, data and knowledge which can be further developed in the new national research centre.

Further information is available on the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC website


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