Concerns for South East Australia’s fuel management

Editorial by John O’Donnell

The NSW Rural Fire Service 2023/2024 Annual Report is now available and worth discussing. 

Hazard reduction burning and mechanical removal totalled 139,927 hectares for NSW (Appendix pages 98 and 99):

• 126,087 ha burning.
• 13,840 ha mechanical.
• Total 139,927 hectares

There is difference in terminology used, some use hazard reduction burning, others use prescribed burning or controlled burning. Another term used in ecological maintenance burning. And of course, there is cultural burning. 

Unfortunately, areas of annual hazard reduction burning and mechanical reduction in NSW are both at very low rates and vary by year. The areas of fuel reduction in NSW and estimated percentage of forested area based on 20 million hectares of forest in NSW were:

• 147,625 hectares in 2017/ 18 (estimated 0.7 % of NSW forested area);
• 199,248 hectares in 2018/ 19 (estimated 1.0 % of NSW forested area);
• 55,548 hectares in 2019/ 20 (estimated 0.3 % of NSW forested area);
• 176,499 hectares in 2020/ 21 (estimated 0.9 % of NSW forested area) and
• 44,642 hectares in 2021/ 22 (estimated 0.2 % of NSW forested area).
• 90,089 hectares in 2022/ 23 (estimated 0.5 % (actually 0.045 %) of NSW forested area).
• 139,927 hectares in 2023/ 24 (estimated 0.7 % of NSW forested area).

Over time, shortfalls and inadequate fuel reduction add up and result in build-up of very high fuel loads and strata across landscapes. Only 4.3 % of the NSW forested landscape has received fuel treatment over the last seven years, this is extremely low and inadequate to reduce bushfire areas and risks to communities, firefighters, ecosystems, threatened species, protected areas and sites heritage sites. This 7 year outcome represents an average of 0.6 % of forests treated per year.

In addition, many of the forests with extensive hot intense bushfires of 2019/ 20 have high fuel loads and are now 5 years old. In many cases there are extensive areas of dead trees, heavy grass/ bark fuel and dense understories, all contributing to a potential timebomb in many bushfire seasons.

Bushfires have already occurred in these new fuels, one was described along the lines of a knife through butter, another was described as moving quickly through the understorey fuels. If we don’t increase prescribed burning and preparedness, SE Australia will continue to get more of the same intense bushfires with large impacts and forest death.

There are large opportunities to expand the use of small aircraft, helicopters and drones for low intensity burning operations, using placed grid patterns for fires to join up in the cool of the evening and unburnt patches. There are potential opportunities for a number of prescribed burning drones with individual brigades/ mitigation officers and fire regions.

Conclusions

In conclusion, these matters and opportunities are raised in order to optimise the safety of fire fighters, communities, forests, the environment and heritage sites, avoiding repeat large area intense bushfires as much as possible.

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Source: John O’Donnell