Meeting of North Australian Fire Managers

Recently, I was pleased to Chair the North Australian Fire Management Group (NAFM) meeting in Kununurra from 15-16 June. It was jointly hosted by WA FESA the WA DEC and the Bushfire CRC.

The Bushfire CRC chairs the NAFM Group meetings each year. This is a meeting of senior fire and land managers from across the tropical north of Australia. It includes representatives from WA, DEC and FESA; NT, FRS and Bushfires NT; and Queensland, QFRS and QPWS, as well as invited guests. This was originally an initiative of the Tropical Savannas CRC in 1999, but following their closure the Bushfire CRC has taken over as Chair.

This forum is an important part of ensuring multi-jurisdictional co-operation across the vast areas in the tropical north of Australia which is one of the most fire-prone regions on earth with over 37,000,000 hectares being burnt annually. 

The meeting this year was also attended by representatives from Charles Darwin University, University of Western Australia, BoM, WA Landgate, and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

The meeting took place over two days, the first hearing discussions relating to the past fire season, which was quite subdued owing to extent of the wet season. The predictions for the upcoming season; which will form the basis of the Northern Seasonal Outlook to be published by the Bushfire CRC soon. The meeting also discussed the various carbon abatement projects; the Kimberley EcoFire project, fire prevention initiatives as well as the fire spread modelling project from the UWA which came from the previous Bushfire CRC project.

The second day was a field day examining fire management challenges around the Eastern Kimberly region, including managing tourist facilities. The  presentations from the forum are available on the Bushfire CRC website at http://www.bushfirecrc.com/research/event/2011-nafm

The next meeting is scheduled for June 2012 in Townsville.