Inquiries following the 2002–2003 Australian bushfires: common themes and future directions for Australian bushfire mitigation and management

Abstract

Summary Major bushfires in south-eastern Australia in the 2002–2003 bushfire season caused the loss of ten lives, substantial damage both to rural and urban property and to infrastructure and primary production systems, and had significant environmental impacts. The scale and impacts of the fires prompted the governments of the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria to establish inquiries into the bushfires in their jurisdictions, and the federal House of Representatives and Council of Australian Governments to establish inquiries with wider terms of reference. This paper reviews the outcomes of these inquiries in the context of the most wide-ranging, that of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), which the authors conducted. The inquiries which followed the 2002–2003 bushfire season explored many of the common themes which had emerged from the preceding 13 inquiries into significant bushfire events in Australia since 1939. These include the importance of risk reduction, particularly through fuel reduction; of community education; of the role of volunteer firefighters; of local knowledge and of access for firefighting; and of the adequacy of resources for bushfire mitigation and management. While emphases varied, there was broad agreement amongst the four 2002–2003 inquiry processes about key actions necessary to improve bushfire mitigation and management: more pervasive and effective community education; decision-making within a risk management framework; improving governance and coordination; and supporting and sustaining the role of volunteer firefighters. All inquiries focused, to varying degrees, on the limits of knowledge and information, and how that might be addressed; on the importance of improved development planning and building design; on the role of landscape-scale fuel reduction burning in reducing risk; and on improving bushfire response and recovery processes. The inquiries agreed there was both scope and need for more effective fuel reduction burning to protect natural as well as other assets. However, as the Victorian Inquiry noted, this is ‘not necessarily about burning substantially more land, but rather, burning smarter’. The COAG Inquiry developed an indicative set of national bushfire principles, which it suggested should form the basis for future Australian bushfire policy, and COAG has since undertaken to develop a final set of principles based on these.