The 'Truth' About Fire in Australia

Reeling from images of the catastrophic destruction of bushland and the prospect of species' annihilation I've been struggling to gather my thoughts on 'fire' in Australia. I have been very engaged in the 'fire' debate which, fed by the raging east coast fires, now seems to focus mainly on 'controlled burns' and their efficacy (or not) in reducing risk.  With global warming in the mix the issue of controlled burns is now much more complex. 

Recently I responded to a question by a follower of a friend's blog post in relation to this topic. I gave such a comprehensive answer I thought it might be useful to post it here, if only for my own record. 

Many Australians, who get their info from media grabs and don't engage deeply, don't really understand the issues around fire in a country that was designed to burn. In the current fear and confusion there has been a lot of emotive blaming of environmentalists and other convenient scapegoats. 

Basically - controlled burns (assuming they were useful in the past) are now less useful, maybe even counter-productive, for 3 reasons: 

1. The fire season has now extended out both ends and there is less time to burn safely and efficiently - it's either too wet or too dry. 

2. It has been stated by very experienced fire commissioners that controlled burns don't have much, if any, impact on wildfires, which are now more common due to global warming and the resulting drought in the east of Australia. One commissioner stated that recent wildfires ran right across areas that were control-burned only 2 years ago. 

3. Controlled burns regularly get out of control and destroy properties and lives. Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, stated recently on the ABC that he has had to placate angry residents who have been the victims of these burns. I know from social media exchanges, that many Australians don't trust government environment management authorities.

The reality is: Australia has a hell of a lot of highly inflammable bush and the landscape was designed to burn. Humans have encroached further into the bush and there is simply not enough time or resources to do what needs to be done, and benefits are questionable. We can't cut down the entire bush - we live in an ecosystem and vegetation helps with our now 'excess carbon'. We are caught between a rock and a hard place - in real terms: between the ocean and the desert interior. Thousands of academic papers have been written on this topic alone.

Throw in the discussion around the recently trending current silver bullet - Aboriginal burning practices - and things get even more confusing. An article I read yesterday by Tony Pedro, a local who has been arguing against burns for decades, spoke recently to one of the Aboriginal elders who said, yes, traditionally they did carry out controlled burns BUT they were cool slow burns in very restricted grassland areas to make it easier to grow/catch food. Aboriginal people never carried out hot burns in forests or dense bush like management authorities do now. It has been suggested by Pedro (with supporting historical photographic evidence) that Western burning practices have actually contributed to the current problem because they have changed the type of vegetation in forest understoreys. 

I'm in agreement with Pedro. I used to live on what was locally known as 'fire hill' and when firies tried to burn the western side of the hill, they couldn't get it going because of the thick layer of forest mulch. Unfortunately, with a warming and drying climate, these dense mulched layers are starting to dry out and burn - like the Amazon rainforest did recently for the first time in recorded history.

It's probable humans were never meant to live in some areas of Australia - which is now something authorities are looking at. Good luck with that - I reckon a lot of people will still want to live there and the cities aren't necessarily safe. Fires came very close to the wealthy suburb of South Turramurra in Sydney a few weeks ago. 

We can't all live on the coast and we need to produce food. I see the real problem as climate change, of course, but also population. We conveniently forget that the reason Aboriginal people were so successful at living on this very dry continent is that they maintained a balance between their occupation and their environment - between food gathering practices and their population - because they understood the land and how it worked. 

If we are going to start implementing indigenous practices, we also need to honour their wealth of knowledge - listen to everything they are saying - not just what suits a divisive political narrative.

Article: 'A farmer and volunteer firefighter's personal perspective on fire management practices in south-west Western Australian forests'

Image: Author. Manipulated digital collage.