Back in the field

Bushfire CRC researchers are back in field conducting community-based research in New South Wales following the October bushfires. This important research, undertaken at the request of the NSW Rural Fire Service in the Port Stephens, Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands areas, will add to the data collected earlier this year in other areas of NSW, along with data collected from similar work following Black Saturday in 2009, the Perth Hills and Lake Clifton fires (WA, 2011) and Tasmania’s Dunalley fire in January this year.

Two things really strike me about the work that we have been doing following recent fire events. The first is the considerable benefit of having a team made up of both researchers and agency personnel.  The researchers bring to the partnership their skills, their expertise and their independence; the agency personnel bring their knowledge, an understanding of the fire service processes and activities, and most importantly their community connection, which provides response rates that most researchers can only dream of.  

The second is the enormously valuable data set that is being built up over time, creating a long term resource for researchers and agencies seeking to understand community preparedness and response to fires in a range of different environments and circumstances.  It is my fervent desire that this important data set continues to be built upon and interrogated into the future as there is much rich information that we have not yet fully explored.