Spreading the word - Bathurst to Sth Africa

Next week I will be representing the Bushfire CRC at the Wildfire 2011 Conference in South Africa.

In a week that promises to be full of activities, this is an excellent opportunity to further develop collaborative research projects, particularly with researchers in the US and France, in topics including rural-urban interface fire, IMT simulation, and social science.

Over the years, the Bushfire CRC has entered into cooperative agreements with several international research partners that have resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding. I intend to hold discussions with these partners in South Africa in order to advance these agreements into our current research program. This continued support for our research from such important partners will be invaluable as we move towards a longer term vision for the Bushfire CRC.

Being in Africa, the conference program draws heavily on research and operations from that part of the world.  This should provide some new insights into how fire managers gain local community action on preventing wildfires.

The Bushfire CRC will be well represented with several of our people presenting at the conference and myself chairing the regional session for Australasia and North America.

Last week I was in NSW, firstly for the media launch of the annual conference. Then I spent time with NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers and paid staff. I was pleased to be invited to deliver the opening keynote address on our bushfire research at the NSW Rural Fire Service 2011 Leadership Forum in Bathurst last week, which was supported by the NSW Rural Fire Service Association.

The audience included both senior paid staff and volunteers and followed the RFS Young Members Forum. Clearly, NSW is making good use of Bushfire CRC research in recruiting and maintaining their volunteer fire brigades.