COAG Bushfire Taskforce

All Australians understand, accept and respect bushfires and know that they will continue to occur. We have drawn on Indigenous, local and scientific knowledge in learning to live with bushfires. Communities understand that the risk, and the responsibility for bushfire mitigation and management, is shared by individuals, landholders, communities, fire and land management agencies, researchers, and governments.

Australians recognise that bushfire can be damaging but that planned fire can also be beneficial, by sustaining ecological processes or by reducing fuels—thus reducing the risk of uncontrollable bushfires. Decisions about bushfire mitigation and management are made within a risk-management framework, known as the 5Rs—Research, information and analysis; Risk modification; Readiness; Response; and Recovery.

Research, information and analysis. All schoolchildren learn about bushfire survival and the role of fire in our environment. Governments, agencies and community groups guide good practice in preparing for bushfire. Coordinated bushfire research redresses gaps in our understanding of bushfires and their effects, is at the international forefront of knowledge, and informs management and policy. A ‘Centre for Lessons Learnt' distils and disseminates lessons from major fire events.

Risk modification. There is a cooperative approach to risk reduction. Arson is a rare source of ignition. Fuel reduction and ecological burning are based on fuel management zones that link landscape management to the protection of community, environmental and economic assets. There is greater knowledge, awareness and trust between rural landholders, public land managers, communities and fire agencies. Systematic planning, development constraints and building codes in bushfire-prone areas reduce risk to life and property.

Readiness. As individuals and as a community, Australians know how to defend themselves and their property effectively against fire. The previous culture of complacency, blame and risk avoidance has been replaced by shared understanding and valuing of all assets, cooperative assessment of the most suitable risk-reduction measures, and shared responsibility for action.

Response. Bushfire response is planned, coordinated and managed by the states and territories, and cooperative arrangements facilitate cross-border assistance. Aerial firefighting resources are coordinated nationally. State and territory bushfire services operate within integrated emergency services, structured for a range of hazards. Volunteers are integral to rural firefighting. The states and territories deliver training to national standards, and there are many examples of interagency and interstate deployments of personnel affording greater experience. Volunteers are valued, encouraged and recognised.

Recovery. Recovery occurs concurrently with the response effort and focuses on individual support, community and economic renewal, and environmental restoration. Part of recovery is learning from the experiences of each fire event, and from other emergencies, to maintain our awareness and improve our knowledge, planning and responses.

Summary: living with fire

Bushfires are an inherent part of the Australian environment. We cannot prevent them, but we can minimise the risks they pose to life, property and infrastructure, production systems, and the environment.

Australia has a large and very capable force of volunteer and career firefighters, advanced firefighting technologies, and significant firefighting resources. But the geographical scale of our country, the large and expanding rural–urban interface, and the potential for rapid bushfire development and spread under adverse weather conditions mean that individual Australians cannot rely solely on fire agencies to protect their lives and property from bushfires.

Bushfires have a fundamental and irreplaceable role in sustaining many of Australia's natural ecosystems and ecological processes and are a valuable tool for achieving land management objectives. However, if they are too frequent or too infrequent, too severe or too mild, or mistimed, they can erode ecosystem health and biodiversity and compromise other land management goals.

We have been learning to live with fire since the first Australians arrived on our continent. We need to continue, and enrich, that learning process in contemporary circumstances and be able to adapt our planning and responses to change. This report seeks to help all Australians meet these challenges.

The Inquiry

The Inquiry responded to its terms of reference by focusing on the following themes: risk factors contributing to bushfires; bushfire mitigation strategies and their impacts; the impacts of bushfires on the environment, life, property and the economy; resources and infrastructure for fire mitigation and firefighting; efficiency of resource use and the best use of technologies; cooperation between agencies and jurisdictions; and examples of good practice.

Building on the extensive body of knowledge about bushfire in Australia and on the reports of previous bushfire inquiries, we adopted an evidentiary approach and a strategic national outlook. Some of our recommendations can be implemented quickly, but we consider that many important outcomes are achievable only in the longer term. Achieving them will require strategic and sustained investments, cultural and institutional change, and leadership from all Australian governments.

The recent report to the Council of Australian Governments, Natural Disasters in Australia , proposed reform of mitigation, relief and recovery arrangements for all natural disasters. Our philosophy, approach and recommendations complement those advanced in that report.

The 2002–03 fire season

The Inquiry's establishment was prompted in part by the severity of the 2002–03 fire season, between May 2002 and April 2003, and its impacts. Severe drought conditions and above-average temperatures prevailed across much of Australia, creating high-risk conditions. Ten people lost their lives; city suburbs, rural towns, farms, plantation forests and infrastructure were damaged; property losses exceeded $400 million; and there were significant environmental impacts. In southern Australia the fire season was characterised by both campaign fires— bushfires extending over a prolonged period—and extreme events on particular days during the campaign fires.

Nationally, over 54 million hectares were affected by bushfires. In this fire season, as in others, the greatest area burnt was in Australia 's rangelands and northern savannas, where extensive bushfires affected particularly Indigenous communities, pastoralists and environmental assets. The area burnt in the northern Australian savannas in 2002–03 was less than that burnt in the two preceding seasons, but Central Australia experienced the greatest area burnt in 25 years as a consequence of high fuel loads following good rains in previous years.

Aspects of the 2002–03 fire season in south-eastern Australia were reminiscent of other seasons that have generated inquiries, among them 1939 in Victoria , 1961 in south-west Western Australia , 1967 in Tasmania , 1983 in Victoria and South Australia , and 1994 and 2001 in New South Wales . This pattern is a reminder that, while the 2002–03 season was severe, it was not unprecedented or even unusual in the longer sweep of history in such a fire-prone continent.

We can expect other severe fire seasons in the future; they may even become more frequent and more severe under changed climatic conditions.

Learning how to live with bushfire

Given the inevitability of bushfires, all Australians must learn how to live with them. This has been recognised at least since the Stretton Royal Commission of 1939, which identified both school and adult education as ‘the best means of fire prevention and protection'. Despite achievements in other areas of education about living safely in the Australian environment, and progress on particular aspects of education and awareness of bushfires in individual states and territories, a nationally consistent bushfire education strategy that reaches and informs all Australians is yet to be implemented.

Australia needs a nationwide program of school and community education about bushfires—the fire history of the continent, the role of bushfire in the Australian environment, and how to prepare for bushfires and survive them. As a result of this learning, Australians will be better able to protect their own life and property and those of others. There is strong evidence that well-informed and well-prepared communities, with realistic expectations both of the likely impacts of bushfire and of the suppression capabilities of fire services, can minimise the impacts of bushfires.

A well-informed community will also appreciate that there are ‘good' as well as ‘bad' bushfires. Good bushfires help to meet land management and fire mitigation objectives without adverse impacts on people, property or the environment. Bad bushfires threaten lives, property or the environment and can do so in ways that are difficult to control.

We should grasp opportunities to integrate learning about bushfires with learning about other hazards, to learn from and with Indigenous Australians, and to draw on scientific research and educational innovation.

A risk-management framework

A structured risk management process, consistent with the Australian Risk Management Standard, offers the best framework for making strategic and operational decisions about bushfire mitigation and management. Emergency management in Australia has adopted one form of this framework; its elements are Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery, or PPRR.

The Inquiry further developed and adapted the PPRR framework to a 5Rs framework—Research, information and analysis; Risk modification; Readiness; Response; and Recovery—which is a better basis for understanding the integrated elements of bushfire mitigation and management.

Application of the 5Rs framework should be informed by a thorough understanding of the full range of assets that are threatened by bushfire—life and property, infrastructure and production systems, and environmental values.

Research, information and analysis

Information and data, and their analysis and synthesis, are the basis for knowledge and learning from which we can continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of bushfire mitigation and management. Consistent data gathering and collation about bushfires across Australia have been limited, handicapping informed decision making.

Spatial data and its use in mapping products have become increasingly important for bushfire mitigation and management. The capture and provision of data and information relevant to bushfire mitigation and management are being greatly facilitated by the adoption of all-hazards and whole-of-government approaches by the Australian Government and the state and territory governments.

Advances in technology, analytical tools and communication (such as the increasing availability and quality of satellite remotely sensed data and its interpretation and communication to diverse audiences) are very important to bushfire mitigation and management. There has been good progress towards nationally consistent, widely available data and information in some arenas, but anomalies and gaps remain. These include a national program of fire regime mapping, establishment and maintenance of a suite of nationally consistent databases, establishment of a network of long-term ecological research sites, and integration of information gathering in an adaptive management process.

Research investment relevant to bushfire mitigation and management has been boosted by the establishment of the Natural Heritage Trust and relevant cooperative research centres. Although these investments by the Australian Government and state and territory governments and their agencies are significant, there remain gaps and urgent priorities. For example, more research is needed on building design and materials, climate and climate change, fire behaviour and ecological responses, individual and community psychology and social processes, and Indigenous Australians' knowledge and use of fire.

Strategic research planning, and sustaining research capacity beyond the lives of the cooperative research centres are critical concerns and need to be addressed now if current research is to continue to inform bushfire mitigation and management.

Risk modification

Identification of assets and agreement about the most suitable and effective forms of risk modification for them underpin decisions about risk modification.

Land use planning, development controls and building standards have a central role in reducing the risk to people and property from bushfire. The Inquiry endorses the recommendation of the Natural Disasters in Australia report to the Council of Australian Governments in relation to land use planning, development controls and building standards.

Arson is a significant cause of bushfires. Reducing the frequency of ignitions that result from arson depends on effective education and policing and on community vigilance. There are a number of examples of successful arson-reduction programs. School and community education are the principal means of reducing the number of fires that arise from carelessness.

Modification of elements of the landscape is an important means of reducing risks to assets. Among the objectives of landscape modification are reducing the probability of a bushfire starting, slowing its spread, limiting its intensity so that it might be controlled, and maintaining ecological processes and biodiversity. Strategically planned and effectively implemented fuel reduction, usually but not only by burning, is the primary means of risk reduction.

There is no point in conducting fuel-reduction burning unless it is effective in reducing the risk to assets. There are many constraints on achieving fuel reduction on a large scale across the landscape. Some of these are operational; others are associated with environmental damage caused by too-frequent burning. Consequently, fuel-reduction burning should not be seen as a panacea: it needs to be used to address strategic priorities that respect the range of assets and values in a landscape and minimise the risk to each of them. Effective risk reduction requires shared understanding of assets and shared responsibility for protecting them.

Creating a mosaic of fire regimes across a landscape—with fire intervals, seasons and intensities in the mosaic appropriate for particular ecosystems—appears to be the best means of sustaining biodiversity and should be a goal of both ecological and fuel-reduction burning. There will still be trade-offs, because fuel-reduction regimes that threaten biodiversity might have to be applied in particular circumstances to achieve adequate risk reduction.

We still have much to learn from Indigenous Australians about their knowledge and use of fire. Evidence from several parts of Australia shows that their understanding of fire can be integrated with current scientific knowledge and adaptive management to improve bushfire mitigation and management across the continent.

Readiness

Readiness describes everything that can be done before a bushfire event. It is just as important for individuals and communities as it is for fire and land management agencies. Relevant and effective community education and public information programs are therefore central to readiness. The 2002–03 fire season revealed some of the difficulties of achieving this, especially in ensuring that programs retain their relevance and impact during extended periods without major bushfires. Encouraging membership of volunteer rural fire brigades and the development of community-based fire groups are two important elements of maintaining bushfire readiness in the community.

An incident management team needs to be ready to provide comprehensive ‘operational' information on the status of a bushfire, the response measures being taken, the areas potentially at risk, and preparations that members of the public can make. The media have a particularly important role to play in conveying accurate and timely information. All agencies involved in fire and recovery need to be fully prepared and able to call on additional resources as required.

Agencies need to be able to communicate readily with each other. There are still significant impediments to good communication, and the Inquiry supports the efforts of the National Coordinating Committee for Government Radio Communications to develop a national plan to ensure interoperability of emergency services radio communication across Australia.

Response

State and territory fire authorities are responsible for most aspects of operational response. The Inquiry supports the all-hazards approach to control and coordination of bushfire responses based on the AIIMS Incident Control System. Important elements of such a system are unity of command in large, complex, multi-agency bushfire responses and mechanisms for identifying and using local knowledge.

Rural fire agencies place strong emphasis on safety and training. The media and residents may also need training in fire-ground safety. Less experienced firefighters also need more structured programs so that they can gain operational experience.

There is currently no standard system across the states and territories for fire ban advice or for bushfire threat warnings. Given the mobility of the Australian population, especially in summer, the Inquiry supports the development of standardised national warning and alert systems.

Fire access trails and water access are important components of bushfire response that often receive too little attention. Although land management objectives can place constraints on the specific location of fire trails and stored water, these response components need to be strategically planned, mapped, marked and maintained.

The Defence organisation has the capacity and willingness to support bushfire fighting in emergency situations, but the limits to its potential contribution are generally not understood by the public. The operating arrangements for Defence assistance to the civil community are generally effective and well coordinated.

Aerial fire suppression is valuable technology when used as part of a coordinated strategy with firefighters on the ground. The Australian Government has displayed leadership in supporting the establishment of the National Aerial Firefighting Centre, and the Inquiry considers that the Government's support should continue, pending the outcomes of current research into the overall effectiveness of aerial fire suppression.

Residents need to be sufficiently well informed and prepared to be able to decide whether to evacuate when threatened by a major bushfire or to stay and defend their property. There should be a consistent national policy that is understood by residents as well as fire, police and emergency services personnel. Such a policy must be fully integrated with community education, so that residents can make informed decisions and avoid risky evacuation at the height of a fire event.

Recovery

Processes for recovery from major bushfires parallel those relevant to other natural disasters and should therefore be considered from an all-hazards perspective. There is a comprehensive, nationally agreed framework for recovery, the Australian Emergency Manual—disaster recovery , which should now be updated to incorporate lessons learnt from the recovery programs following the recent major bushfires and the outcomes of the review of community support and recovery arrangements by the Health and Community Services Ministerial Council.

This update should highlight the importance of adopting a whole-of-government approach; quickly implementing special arrangements for a particular bushfire event but ensuring an effective transition back to normal arrangements; helping affected people to navigate the maze of support structures; and encouraging the insurance industry to provide consistent and clear advice to policy holders.

Governance and coordination

Major bushfires do not recognise local government boundaries, interstate borders or the distinction between private and public lands. As the size and impact of bushfires increase, each level of government is progressively engaged. The effectiveness of bushfire mitigation and management is determined by the degree of interaction within and between the three levels of government.

The development of policy on bushfire mitigation and management across Australian Government departments and agencies would be best coordinated by a senior-level committee. That committee could also coordinate advice on these matters to the Australian Emergency Management Committee and the augmented Australasian Police Ministers Council. The Inquiry also considers that a mechanism should be established for the Australasian Fire Authorities Council to provide advice to the Australian Emergency Management Committee.

Urban and rural fire agencies are drawing closer together in each jurisdiction, and operational coordination within land management organisations is improving. This trend is desirable, and the culture of cooperation must be extended throughout the organisations. Regardless of the structures in place, there must be a single, unified command system for bushfire events and integrated operational planning and response.

Knowledge, learning and training

Learning and training are fundamental to bushfire mitigation and management and are relevant for volunteer and career firefighters as well as land managers. Learning and training take various forms—general schooling and education, competency-based qualifications under the Australian Quality Training Framework, tertiary education courses, interaction with Indigenous Australians, and through the culture of a ‘learning organisation'.

In terms of competency-based training, retaining a public safety focus is preferable to integration into a wider public sector context. The Public Safety Training Package is being used widely for volunteer and career firefighters. The Inquiry suggests that a National Safety and Security Skills Council be formed, under the Australian National Training Authority, to administer this Package and to continue its development.

Most university education about bushfires focuses on particular aspects such as fire ecology or land management. There are few programs that deal with bushfire mitigation and management as an integrated whole. Several cooperative research centres are helping to redress this situation. There is a need for a nationally coordinated program of professional development relevant to the various aspects of bushfire mitigation and management. Such a program would best be developed and run by the Australasian Fire Authorities Council and Emergency Management Australia, in partnership with relevant state and territory agencies and education and research institutions.

A ‘learning organisation' has processes for capturing and sharing the lessons from recent events. To add most value, learning also needs to be shared among organisations. The Inquiry considers that Australia would be very well served by the establishment of a Centre for Bushfire Lessons Learnt, to build on existing institutions and arrangements and to draw on the knowledge and experience of Indigenous Australians.

Rural fire service volunteering

Over 30 per cent of Australians over the age of 18 years do volunteer work of some kind. Emergency services volunteers make a major contribution to the safety and wellbeing of Australians. About a quarter of a million such volunteers, mostly in the rural fire services, contribute about 21.5 million hours annually. This effort forms the foundation of Australia's emergency service response. The Inquiry found that a wide range of methods are used to acknowledge the contributions of volunteers; the report catalogues and comments on these.

It is important for the states and territories to ensure that the demands made of volunteers are reasonable, especially during bushfire campaigns of long duration. This includes ensuring that there is a matching of volunteer availability with the assessment of the probable extent of deployment, having processes in place for volunteer support, and recognising the generosity and cooperation of volunteers' employers.

Recent increases in levels of training required to meet national competencies are making membership of rural fire brigades too onerous for some volunteers. It would be valuable to develop a brigade classification structure and training regime that provides greater flexibility for these volunteers.

Reviewing performance

The Inquiry proposes that a common set of bushfire good practice indicators be developed within a risk-management framework, to provide consistency of reporting and review.

Major bushfire events are typically followed by a cycle of government and community responses—bushfire event

accusations and blame

inquiry and review

increases in funding

initial change and compliance

coronial inquiry

complacency

the next event. Some elements of this cycle are positive and constructive; others are not.

Investigations of bushfires should be completed soon after the event. The public must be satisfied that deaths and other matters of concern are properly explored, and individuals need to be held accountable for their decisions. Reviews and investigations should focus on learning, rather than on blame. Adoption of a common set of national indicators of good practice—with subsequent state and territory review against them—will provide transparent measures of government, agency and community performance, potentially reducing or even eliminating negative aspects of the bushfire cycle and improving overall bushfire mitigation and management.

The Inquiry notes that the coronial inquest process can be adversarial, drawn-out and expensive and therefore less helpful in a review-and-learning process.

National bushfire principles

There is no consistently expressed common understanding of our approach to bushfire mitigation and management in Australia. This is a poor foundation for the future. A clear statement of principles is needed if we are to achieve the following objectives: establish shared goals; communicate the goals widely; develop a common framework for mitigation and management; ensure cooperative responses across borders and tenures; and improve assessment and reporting of performance and compliance with standards.

The Inquiry recommends that the Council of Australian Governments adopt a statement of national principles for bushfire mitigation and management; this report suggests the following indicative national bushfire principles.

Indicative national bushfire principles

Bushfires are understood, accepted and respected
Like other natural hazards, bushfires cannot be prevented. In many instances, bushfires are an important tool to assist in achieving land management objectives. The impact of unplanned fires needs to be minimised through effective action based on learning and understanding. This also requires strong self-reliance.

Shared responsibility
A philosophy of responsibility shared between communities and fire agencies underlies our approach to bushfire mitigation and management. Well-informed individuals and communities, with suitable levels of preparedness, complement the roles of fire agencies and offer the best way of minimising bushfire risks to lives, property and environmental assets.

Decisions within a risk management framework
No single action will lead to the elimination of bushfire risk. The best approach to minimising risk is to make decisions about bushfire mitigation and management within an integrated risk management framework.

Integration of learning and knowledge
Analysis of fire events is based on operational and scientific evidence and research. This should be informed by extensive and consistent national data, including fire regime mapping. The best results will be achieved by integrating all forms of knowledge, and good information about fire history, with analysis at the local and regional levels.

Manage fire according to the landscape objectives
Australia has a great diversity of climates, environments, land uses and built assets. Fire management objectives and outcomes will vary across landscapes and over time. Clear agreed objectives and an adaptive management approach are required for implementation.

Consistency of purpose and unity of command
There needs to be consistency of purpose during bushfire mitigation and unity of command for all fire response, irrespective of organisational structures.

Protection of lives as the highest consideration
Firefighter and community safety must be at the forefront of bushfire mitigation and management deliberations. Although there should always be a balance between safety, effective response and environmental considerations, it is personal safety that must be the greatest concern.

Monitoring performance
The states, territories and local governments need to regularly review their performance against these principles and other appropriate indicators. Performance review should not be allowed to wait until after a major bushfire event. If the principles are to improve performance and bring about change, they must be monitored on a regular basis

National Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management - Summary

Bushfire in Australia: a vision for 2020