Title:

Living in a Land of Fire

Date:

June 2006

Organisations

DSEWPC

Authors:

Professor Rob Whelan, Professor Peter Kanowski, Dr Malcolm Gill, Dr Alan Andersen

Overview

The Living in the Land of Fire report was commissioned for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee. This document supports the Committee's Report but is not part of it.

The report discusses:

• Fire: a fundamental force
• Fire in Australian environments
• Environmental effects of fire
• Effects of fire on life, health, property, infrastructure and primary production
• Living in a land of fire: achieving better outcomes for people and the environment
• Policies and institutional arrangements
• Building the knowledge and information base
• Implementing strategic planning and management to minimise risks to assets
• Case study: Air quality
• Case study: Weeds compromise fire management: Gamba grass in northern Australia
• Case study: Integrating Indigenous and western knowledge systems for land management
• Case study: Biodiversity conservation and life-and-property protection
• A risk management approach to bushfires
• Conclusions: living in a land of fire

Fire is an integral part of Australia’s natural environment, and of our cultural and social fabric. The first people on the continent learned to live in a fireprone environment and to manage fire as part of everyday life. Fire was their principal land management tool, and the early European explorers frequently commented on the presence of smoke and recently burned country. European colonists feared bushfires and used fire to help clear native vegetation for agriculture; they sought to prevent and suppress bushfire to protect life and property. Contemporary Australian land managers are using fire in primary production, for biodiversity conservation, and for the protection of life, property and other assets.

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Links

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