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Bushfires
Government
Emergency
Management Australia advises and supports the Attorney-General
and the portfolio, the Australian Government, States and Territories,
and the broader emergency management community to enhance their capacity
to best manage the risks that disasters present to the community.
In Australia the prime responsibility
for the protection of life, property and the environment rests with the
States and Territories.
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia
Key National Bodies
- National Aerial Firefighting
Centre (NAFC) co-ordinates and manages the acquisition and deployment
of firefighting aircraft for the Commonwealth and the States and Territories
of Australia.
- Augmented
Australasian Police Ministers Council is an expanded version
of the Australasian Police Ministers' Council formed to deal with issues
related to emergency management, including disaster mitigation and anticipation.
Created in 2003, it brings together Commonwealth, state and territory
police ministers, ministers responsible for emergency management and
ALGA.
Research in Australia
- Bushfire CRC provides
research that enhances the management of the bushfire risk to the community
in an economically and ecologically sustainable way.
- CSIRO
Bushfires research into bushfire behaviour is improving the
understanding of fire, and leading to better technologies and strategies
to save lives and limit damage.
- Risk Frontiers - Macquarie University - FireAUS
- A national database of address bushfire risk ratings based on distance
to the nearest area of extensive bushland.
Recent Inquiries
Key International Bodies
- International Association
of Wildland Fire is a non-profit, professional association representing
members of the global wildland fire community. The purpose of the association
is to facilitate communication and provide leadership for the wildland
fire community.
- United Nations Environment Programme - Global
wildfires - real-time information on current fires status and early
warning.
- Firenet - the international
fire information network.
- NASA's Earth Observatory - natural hazards - fires.
Other Countries
United States
- Healthy Forests
Initiative - reducing the risks of wildfire to people, communities
and the environment.
- Useful links
to US agencies and organizations involved with wildfires.
- Community
Wildfire Protection Plan;
- An
Initiative for Wildfire Prevention and Stronger Communities - White
House Report
- Joint Fire Science Program
- National Interagency Fire Center
- Wildland fire does not respect jurisdictional boundaries. No single
federal, state, local, tribal, or volunteer agency alone can handle
all wildland fire that may occur in its jurisdiction. A number
of agencies
work together to exchange support, protection responsibilities, information,
and training, providing an efficient method for protecting lives, property,
and natural resources.
- SmokeyBear fire prevention.
- Resourceshelf - Learn
about Wildfires
Canada
- Canadian Forest Service - Forest
fire in Canada.
- Key fire links
for Canada.
- Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre
- provides operational fire-control services, as well as management
and information services to its Member Agencies. In addition to coordinating
services for all of the provinces and territories, CIFFC often coordinates
the sharing of resources with the United States and other countries.
New Zealand
Further References
- Parliamentary Library publication Bushfires:
Is Fuel Reduction Burning the Answer?,10 December 2002.
- Paul Collins, Burn: the epic story of bushfire in Australia,
Allen & Unwin, 2006. (Held in the Parliamentary Library at 363.3790994
COL)
- Bushfire Summer,
ABC Television—Episode 1: Heat Wave - 15 January 2007;
Episode 2: All Hell Breaks Loose - 22 January 2007; Episode
3: State on Fire - 29 January 2007; Episode 4: Future on
Fire - 5 February 2007.
- Hennessy K, Lucas C, Nicholls N, Bathols J, Suppiah R, Ricketts J.,
Climate
change impacts on fire-weather in south-east Australia, CSIRO,
2006.
- Steven W. Running, 'Is
global warming causing more, larger wildfires?', Science,
18 August 2006, v.313(5789), pp. 927-928.
- Dan Drollette, 'Storms
of fire [Environmental factors making Australian increasingly prone
to bushfires]', Cosmos, December 2005-January 2006, no.6,
pp. 70-76.
- Vic Jurskis, 'Decline
of eucalypt forests as a consequence of unnatural fire regimes',
Australian Forestry, December 2005, v.68(4), pp. 257-262.
- S. Ellis, P. J. Kanowski and R. J. Whelan, 'Inquiries
following the 2002-2003 Australian bushfires: common themes and future
directions for Australian bushfire mitigation and management', Australian
Forestry, June 2005, v.68(2), pp. 76-86.
- Asa Wahlquist, 'An
unstoppable force', Australian, 13 December 2006, p. 11.
- Megan Doherty, 'Fire
season: ready or not?', Canberra Times, 7 October 2006,
p. 3.
- Brendan O'Keefe, 'El
Nino flags more extreme fires', Australian, 30 August 2006,
p. 3.
- Dr Geoff Cary, Climate
change and bushfire incidence, Proceedings of NSW Clean Air
Forum 2004, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 17 November 2004.
- Bush Fire Front - the Alliance against Bushfire Damage in Western Australia.
- Phil Cheney, 'Guest editorial: Can forestry manage bushfires in the future?', Australian Forestry, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
See also the
Parliamentary Library's Economics Internet Resource Guide on DROUGHT.
Comments to: Science,
Technology, Environment and Resources Section
Last reviewed
25 August, 2009
by the Parliamentary Library Web Manager
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