September 2009

Future of the Bushfire CRC – Board meeting

The Governing Board of the Bushfire CRC met on 3 September 2009 to discuss the options for ongoing bushfire research following the outcome of the recent CRC funding process.

At present the Bushfire CRC has received an additional three years funding; $15m for 2010-2013. This will allow the Bushfire CRC to undertake research into issues arising from the current 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and to begin research identified as being required to meet the industry’s needs by 2020. Further work has begun to obtain Commonwealth funding beyond 2013 for the longer term research projects.

Royal Commission

The Bushfire CRC has been engaged by the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. In addition to providing strategic advice, the Bushfire CRC has provided research on human behaviour and building surveys for the Horsham, Beechworth, Bunyip and Narre Warren fires. The Commonwealth has acknowledged this work and Sen Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, has written to our Chairman, commending the CRC’s efforts in these areas.

Stakeholders meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Bushfire CRC Stakeholder Council will be held on 21 October 2009 in Melbourne. This meeting will discuss the issue of ongoing research and, accordingly, the new partners who signed up for the CRC for Fire – Environment and Society will also be invited to participate.

This will be an important meeting to gain agreement on the ongoing nature of bushfire research for our industry. I urge all Stakeholder representatives to attend.

Gold Coast Conference and Bushfire CRC workshops for industry

It’s only two weeks until our annual conference, held in conjunction with the Australian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. The Bushfire CRC pre-conference workshops will again be a feature of the week’s activities. If you or your key staff haven’t already signed up for a workshop please consider doing  so. These workshops are an excellent way of getting a detailed understanding of the latest research in a discussion with the researchers and colleagues from agencies across Australia. If you need to know the latest developments in the fields of Community Safety, Fire Fighter Health and Safety, or Fire, Fuels and Weather go to our Events page for more information.

Research Adoption activities

A successful seminar and field trip at Casino in northern New South Wales was held in August to show the outputs of the latest research by the Bushfire CRC and how these can be used in the field when managing fuel in eucalypt plantations.

Bushfire CRC PhD student Phil Lacy lead the activity, which was based around his research and his recently released field guide Burning Under Young Eucalypts. The day attracted 22 participants including people from Bushfire CRC member organisations as well as others from the plantation industry. For more on this event or to purchase the field guide go to here.

Other recent research adoption activities include:

·     A seminar on Managing the Unexpected in Prescribed Burning and Fire Suppression Operations , lead by Dave Thomas, former US Forest Service fuels specialist. This was well attended and the interactive seminar provided ideas for participants on how to improve performance at prescribed burns and during suppression operations.

·     A seminar with Professor Domingos Xavier Viegas that provided an overview of a research progra m on forest fires p ropagation carried out at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal. Prof Viegas spoke about the research topics that have been covered in this program including: fire meteorology; fuel modeling and characterisation; slope and wind effects on fire spread, extreme fire behaviour; fire safety and decision support systems. Prof Viegas will now explore opportunities in Portugal for joint research with Bushfire CRC researchers.