Geographical Fire Research in Australia: Review and Prospects

Abstract

Abstract'You live in the bush. You live by the rules of the bush, and that's it.' These were the reflective words of Mrs Dunlop upon seeing the blackened rubble of her home, which made headline news the morning after the first, and most destructive, fire front tore through the Blue Mountains in New South Wales on 17 October 2013 (Partridge and Levy, 2013). While seemingly a simple statement, it goes right to the heart of heated public and political debates -past and present -over who belongs where and why in the fire-prone landscapes that surround Australia's cities. Bushfire is a constant and ongoing part of Australian history, ecology and culture. The love of a sunburnt country, the beauty and terror of fire, and the filmy veil of post-fire greenness described in the century-old poem 'Core of My Heart' (Mackellar, 1908) are still apt depictions of Australian identity today. Yet longer fire seasons and an increase in extreme fire weather days with climate change add both uncertainty and urgency to Australia's ability to coexist with fire in the future (Head et al., 2013).

Bushfires, Human Health Economics, and Pyrogeography

“…Indeed, the need to think holistically about fire in the Earth system has given rise to a new discipline -'pyrogeography'. Pyrogeography unites numerous physical, biological, and social perspectives of fire by recognising the close coupling of human and natural systems Eriksen and Head, 2014).…”

Introducing the “Fire Social Science” Section of the Journal Fire

“…However, since I started my academic career in the early 2000s, there has been a marked shift towards understanding that social factors are equally at play. This shift is associated with the insights provided by fire social scientists through empirical research and publications in a wide range of journals and books [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. It is now established knowledge that the intimate relationship between land use change, fire exclusion, and climate change, acts as a positive feedback loop.…”

Wildfire risk, biodiversity and peri-urban planning in the Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia

“…Such human relationships with forests are not fixed in time, and changing perceptions of value and risk need to be reflected in vegetation management. While Gill (1994) partly framed the role of culture in wildfire management in SA, Cottrell (2005), Pyne (2009) and a review by Eriksen and Head (2014), all suggest that gaps remain in our understanding of the cultural interpretations of landscapes, vegetation and fire in upland areas, especially as culture relates to planning within the periurban space. Historical and contemporary links between people and landscape have strongly influenced the Mt Lofty Ranges and now raise new and important questions for policy.…”