Wildfires in Australia
Wildfires in Australia
Wildfires in Australia
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2007
The largest Australian bushfire in European recorded history that burnt an area
of approximately 5 million ha. which covered a quarter of Victoria.
The areas affected include Portland, Plenty Ranges, Westernport, the Wimmera
and Dandenong districts. Approximately 12 lives, one million sheep and
thousands of cattle were lost.The elevation of Port Phillip district into the colony
of Victoria, was on the 1st of July 1851.
Source: 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2004
" The blasts of air were so impregnated with smoke and heat, that the lungs
seemed absolutely to collapse under their withering influence;... "
Source: From the Melbourne "Argus" Newspaper Feb. 8.1851
" The fire kept enlarging its orbit, rolling about like some huge monster,
destroying everything it touched, its track marked by charred timber, embers
and ashes, cries and lamentations. Not content with dashing along the ground ,
it ran up the highest trees and the flames leaped in monkey fashion from tree
to tree. "
Source: From the "Melbourne Herald" Newspaper February 1883
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" On Black Monday the worst day for heat and smoke we have had since Black
Thursday, in 1851 -the destruction of property was very great, and no one
who has not seen a fire raging among the stubbles and fences on tilled lands,
with a strong north wind blowing, can well imagine what this is.
From Geelong to Ballarat was nearly a line of fire, and numerous houses,
fences, and crops were either burnt up or with difficulty saved. In the country
round Daylesford similar disasters occurred. .... "
Source: Perth Gazette & W.A. Times Friday 21 April 1865
Fires burnt 260,000 hectares in South Gippsland. Twelve lives and more than
2,000 buildings were destroyed.
"... People however soon began to find that the water caught has an
unmistakably smoky flavor, which may easily be accounted for by the fact that
the atmosphere during the rain and for a long time before was much thickened
by smoke from bushfires ..."
Source: The McIvor Times and Rodney Advertiser, 17 February 1898.
Early 1900s
Destructive and widespread fires are reported to have occurred in 1905 and
1906. Fires extended from Gippsland to the Grampians in 1912. In 1914, fires
burnt more than 100,000 hectares. In 1919 extensive fires occurred in the
Otway Ranges.
Forest fires burnt across large areas of Gippsland throughout February and
into early March. Sixty lives were lost in addition to widespread damage to
farms, homes and forests. The fires came to a head on February 14, with 31
deaths recorded at Warburton. Other areas affected include Noojee, Kinglake,
Erica, and the Dandenong Ranges. Widespread fires also occurred across other
eastern states.
1932
Major fires occurred in many districts across Victoria throughout the summer.
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Large areas of State forest in Gippsland were burnt and nine lives were lost.
Total area burnt in Victoria from the fires between Dec 21, 1931 and Feb 6,
1932, there were 206, 000 Ha burnt from 307 fires. Source: Foley 1947
From December 1938 to January 1939, fires burnt 1.5 to 2 million hectares,
including 800,000 hectares of protected forest, 600,000 hectares of reserved
forest and 4,000 hectares of plantations.
The fire severity peaked on Friday January 13 - "Black Friday". The fires
caused seventy one fatalities and destroyed more than 650 buildings and the
township of Narbethong.
“ Men who had lived their lives in the bush went their ways in the shadow of dread
expectancy. But though they felt the imminence of danger they could not tell that it
was to be far greater than they could imagine. They had not lived long enough. The
experience of the past could not guide them to an understanding of what might, and
did, happen. “
Source: Judge Leonard Stretton, authority presiding over the Royal Commission into the Black Friday Fires.
The fires affected almost every section of Victoria. Areas hardest hit included
Noojee, Woods Point, Omeo, Warrandyte, and Yarra Glen. Other areas
affected include Warburton, Erica, Rubicon, Dromana, Mansfield, Otway
Ranges and the Grampian Ranges.
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Fires in South Gippsland caused one human fatality, large losses of stock and
destroyed more than 20 homes and 2 farms.
22 December 1943
The first major fire of the 1943/44 season occurred near Wangaratta, killing
ten people and burning hundreds of hectares of grassland.
Fires in the Western Districts destroyed over 500 houses and caused huge
losses in the pastoral industry. Four or more grass fires near Hamilton,
Dunkeld, Skipton and Lake Bolac burnt approximately 440,000 hectares in
eight hours.
Records indicate that between fifteen and twenty people died as a result of
these fires. The total area covered by grass fires that season was estimated to
be in the order of 1 million hectares.
5 February 1952
A fire that originated on the Hume Highway near Benalla burnt approximately
100,000 hectares and caused the deaths of several people.
17 January 1965
A major grass fire burning near Longwood in Northern Victoria caused seven
fatalities and burnt six houses.
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Fires in Gippsland burnt for 17 days, covering 300,000 hectares of forest and
15,000 hectares of grassland. Over 60 buildings and 4,000 stock were
destroyed.
19 February 1968
8 January 1969
280 fires broke out on the 8th of January 1969. Of these, 12 grass fires
reached major proportions and burnt 250,000 hectares. Areas seriously
affected included Lara, Daylesford, Dulgana, Yea, Darraweit, Kangaroo Flat
and Korongvale. Twenty-three people died, including 17 motorists at Lara,
trapped on the Geelong to Melbourne freeway. The fires also destroyed 230
houses, 21 other buildings and more than 12,000 stock.
14 December 1972
12 February 1977
A fire started from a lightning strike on December 28, 1980 and continued to
burn through until
6 January 1981. The fire burnt 119,000 hectares in the Sunset Country and
the Big Desert.
31 January 1983
Fires in the Cann River forest district burnt more than 250,000 hectares
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1 February 1983
Australia's most well-known bushfire event. Over 100 fires in Victoria burnt
210,000 hectares and caused forty seven fatalities. More than 27,000 stock
and 2,000 houses were lost. Areas severely affected included Monivae,
Branxholme, East Trentham, Mt Macedon, the Otway Ranges, Warburton,
Belgrave Heights, Cockatoo, Beaconsfield Upper and Framlingham.
In Victoria alone, these included 1719 houses (plus approx 300 in SA), 82
commercial properties (hotels, restaurants, stores, etc), and 23 dairies.
Additionally, 1,238 farms were damaged in Vic contributing to a total of
approximately 1,700 other (minor) buildings damaged in the two states. Also a
large number of vehicles were destroyed.
Total deaths were 75 ( SA=28 and Vic=47*, incl 13 CFA & 2 other firefighters)
and 2676 reported injuries. (*Note that the exact no. of deaths varies at official
levels depending on when initially surviving victims succumbed to their
injuries). Worst affected areas in Victoria included Framlingham (9 dead, 83
homes lost), Otway Ranges and Aireys Inllet (3 dead, 730 homes
lost),Macedon and Mt Macedon (7 dead, 400 homes lost), Cockatoo (7 dead,
300 homes lost), Upper Beaconsfield and Belgrave Heights (21 dead, 180
homes lost).
In SA - Adelaide Hills (12 dead, 150 homes lost, incl 5 dead and 25 homes lost
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at Greenhill) and in the south-east of the State (14 dead, 40 homes lost mainly
in the Mt Gambier area). Of 2676 injuries, 133 required hospitalisation
Over 300,000 livestock died (incl over 250,000 sheep and cattle in SA, 27,000
in Vic, plus thousands of others including poultry, pigs, horses, donkeys, deer,
etc) while 15,900 km of fencing and 1.5 million hay bales burnt.
In SA alone, over 10,000km of fencing was destroyed across nearly 1000 rural
properties.
More than 1 million ha burnt in Vic and SA during the 1982/83 summer with
about half of that area affected during the main fires Feb 16-18 (210,000ha in
Vic).
A total of 4,540 insurance claims were paid totalling $176m and a total
estimated cost of well over $400m (1983 values) for both states combined.
14 January 1985
A major fire in Central Victoria burnt 50,800 hectares of land, including 17,600
hectares of Crown Land. Three people died and over 180 houses, 500 farms
and 46,000 stock were destroyed as a result of the fire. Areas affected include
Avoca, Maryborough, and Little River.
21 January 1997
Five major fires broke out including fires in the Dandenong Ranges that
caused three fatalities, destroyed 41 houses and burnt 400 hectares. Other
areas affected include Arthurs Seat, Eildon State Park, Gippsland and
Creswick.
A fire reported on New Years Eve continued for 10 days and burnt a total of
32,000 hectares. Of this area, 22,000 hectares was in the Alpine National Park
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Lightning in the North West caused two fires - one in the Big Desert
Wilderness Park and another in the adjoining Wyperfield National Park on 17
December. Fanned by dry fuel and poor weather conditions, these fires joined
to eventually burn 181,400 hectares.
Eighty seven fires were started by lightning in the north east of Victoria on 8
January 2003. Eight of these fires were unable to be contained and joined
together to form the largest fire in Victoria since the 1851 "Black Thursday"
bushfires. Burning for 59 days before being contained, the fires burnt over 1.3
million hectares, 41 homes and over 9,000 livestock, with thousands of
kilometres of fencing also being destroyed. Areas affected include Mt Buffalo,
Bright, Dinner Plain, Benambra and Omeo.
During the 2002-2003 bushfire season, there were 5,999 bushfires attended
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" The geographic location and the topography of Australia mean that almost all
vegetation types in the country are fire prone ....Even the normally arid
interior of the country is capable of carrying extensive fires. " Source: 1301.0 - Year
Book Australia, 1995
Across Victoria more than 500 fires broke out in January 2006 (including the
Deep Lead fire that started near Stawell on New Year’s Eve). The fires were
fuelled by strong winds and extreme temperatures, including many days with
temperatures above 40 degrees. The fires with greatest impact on the
Victorian community occurred in the Stawell (Deep Lead), Yea, Moondarra,
Grampians, Kinglake and Anakie areas.
Area burnt: 160,000 hectares (60% public land, 40% private land -
Approximately 98,000 hectares of national parks and conservation areas and
6,000 hectares of State forest were burnt)
Fencing: 364km of crown land boundary fencing and 2281km of other
boundary or internal fencing
Reference. http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/dse/
The Great Divide Fires of 2006/07 were the longest running bushfires in
Victoria’s fire history.
On 1 December 2006, over 70 fires were caused by lightening strikes.
Many of these fires eventually merged to become the Great Divide Complex,
which lasted 69 days and burnt approximately 1,048,000 hectares of public
and private land.
Multiple other fires occurred simultaneously across the state.
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By the 7th February, more than 1400 firefighters had been injured (including
bruises, cuts, blisters, burns, dehydration, broken limbs and spider bites).
More than 400 St John Ambulance volunteers, including doctors, nurses and
first aid officers provided first aid.
On 16 December, eleven New Zealand firefighters were injured while fighting
the fire in the Howqua Valley in north-east Victoria.
The fire map accumulates the locations of the fires detected by MODIS on
board the Terra and Aqua satellites over a 10-day period. Each colored dot
indicates a location where MODIS detected at least one fire during the
compositing period. Color ranges from red where the fire count is low to
yellow where number of fires is large.
" February 7th 2009 will be remembered as the day when more than 400 fires
burnt across the State during the most severe weather conditions
recorded." (#)
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173 people perished in the Victorian bushfire inferno " Black Saturday " on the
7 th of February. 2009 which, destroyed 2,029 homes, 2,498 buildings,
59 Commercial Premises and the loss of 5,223 stock.
It burnt out 411,239 hectares of land.
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Mudgegonga 2 Total 2
Bendigo Fires
Long Gully 1 Total 1
Source: Department of Sustainability and Environment Document was last reviewed on 17/03/2009
(12)
Source: Black Saturday: the immediate impact of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia
The Medical Journal of Australia MJA 2009; 191 (1): 11-16 Accessed: 14th July 2009
(#)
Source: Condolence Speech - Victorian Fires The Hon Julia Gillard MP 9 February, 2009
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Rigorous scientific evidence has been used to identify the most vulnerable
areas by taking account of factors including:
1: Population density which relates to both the number of people and
where there are large transient populations. Transient populations are
important because they do not understand the area the way the locals do and
wont know about the plans for fire.
2: Potential for extreme fire behaviour. A number of things are
considered including how much dry vegetation there is, how steep the slope
is, and what direction the slope is facing. Slopes that face north and west are
drier than slopes facing south and east.
3: Proximity, type and volume of fuel load making communities more
vulnerable if large fires are able to gain strength prior to it impacting on
communities.
4: How easy it is to leaving safely which goes to questions of the number of
usable roads.
5: How easy it is to get help , which is about the number of usable roads
and how isolated the community is.
6: How well prepared the community is.
7: Recent planning requirements will have mitigated the risk of fire.
The fire agencies have found that the most vulnerable areas have been
identified because,
8: They have high population densities, which may also arise because of the
influx of summer tourists.
9: They are located in areas where the physical characteristics of the area
assist in building fire intensity.
10: Fires are potentially well fed by fuel load before they reach the town or
community. Some communities are more likely to impacted by a well
established bushfire.
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11: They have limited ability to leave the area safely by road because of the
limited number of roads or the likelihood that those affected do not know the
local area well.
12: Fire trucks may not be able to be brought into an area and so it will be
dependent on local resources only.
13: They have communities that have not had experience over time in
preparing for extreme fire events.
14: They are old townships or communities built with materials and
standards not designed to minimise the impact of fire.
ha.
Year Location Start Date Dead
Burned
1851 Widespread Bushfires "Black Thursday" 06/02/1851 12 5 million
1865 West,Central,South "Black Monday" 27/02/1865
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include the 7th of February 2009 fire loss, which has yet to be assessed.
Australia Wide Floods since 1790
There were over 2,300 recorded Human fatalities.(1)
Australia Wide Tropical cyclones since 1839
There were over 2,100 recorded Human fatalities.(1)
Australia Wide Severe storms since 1824
There were over 770 recorded Human fatalities.(1)
Bushfire area burnt - Source: CFA website; DPI/DSE website; R.H. Luke and A.G. McArthur, Bushfires in Australia, AGPS,
1978; Reports of the 1939 and 1944 Royal Commissions; A.G. McArthur, N.P. Cheney and J. Barber, The fires of 12 February
1977 in the Western District of Victoria, CSIRO and CFA, 1982; R. Murray and K. White,
(1)
Reference. Blong, R (2005) ‘Natural hazards risk assessment - An Australian perspective’.
(1)
Source. 1301.0 / 2008 / Yearbook Complete / Understanding natural hazard impacts on Australia.
* Image: Pine plantation fire adjacent to Hume Highway at Wandong Victoria 2003
courtesy of " Bushfire Threat to Nillumbik Shire " David Packham Rural Fire Consultant
Source: http://www.nillumbikratepayers.asn.au/btn.htm
(2)
Source: The land of the Lyrebird, page 142, cited by Foley 1947.
(3)
Source. Foley 1947
(4)
Source: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/ ( Linton bushfire not found in E.M.A Database accessed 20/2/2009 )
Source. Emergency Management Australia, Attorney-General’s Department. EMA disasters database. Events by category.
(4a)
Source: 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2004 accessed 20/6/2009 )
1916 282
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Reference:
Note the fire in 1949 Landes region, France the death toll was 80.
The 1825 Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada fires MIRAMICHI."---The following account of the loss and Lives and Property
sustained by the late conflagration at Miramichi, is extracted from an abstract published there, by order of the "Committee
appointed for the relief of the sufferers." Persons burnt, 130; drowned, 10; deaths from injury received by the fire, 20---Total,
160." http://www3.gendisasters.com/fires/4314/miramichi,-nb-fire,-oct-1825
(5)
Source: 1871 Peshtigo, Wisconsin, USA http://www.peshtigofire.info/ Accessed: 14th July 2009
(6)
Source: 1918 Cloquet, Minnesota, USA COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRES OF 1918 by Lois E.
Johnson President, Moose Lake Area Historical Society http://www.mnhs.org Accessed: 14th July 2009
(7)
Source: The Great Hinckley Fire of 1894 http://www.hinckley.govoffice2.com/ Accessed: 14th July 2009
(8)
Source: 1881 Thumb region, Michigan, USA http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=1245
(9)
Source: 1997 Sumatra, Kalimantan, Indonesia Death toll: >250 human due to aircraft and maritime accidents associated
with the fires. GFMC: Bush and Forest Fires in Australia www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/GFMCnew/.../20050112_aus.htm
(10)
Source: 1916 Matheson, Ontario, Canada. Natural Resources Canada. www.nrcan.gc.ca Accessed: 14th July 2009
(11)
Source: 1987 Greater Hinggan, China Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) http://www.fire.uni-
Black Saturday: the immediate impact of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia.
The Medical Journal of Australia MJA 2009; 191 (1): 11-16 Accessed: 14th July 2009
(13)
Source: Fire in Australia's Tropical Savannas http://www.savanna.org.au/all/fire.html
(14)
Source: 2001. Global forest fire assessment 1990-2000. FRA Working Paper No. 55. www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp
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http://www.coagbushfireenquiry.gov.au/index.htm
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