bushfire

A case study in folly #7: an avoidable inferno – the 2015 Wye River fire

2 January 2026 / 4 Comments

How many disasters must we have, and how much public and private money needs to be spent, before we stop accepting a situation that can and should be avoided?

Professor Mark Adams, landowner at Separation Creek

Introduction

Christmas should be a time of family, rest, and renewal. For the small coastal communities of Wye River and Separation Creek on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, Christmas Day 2015 brought devastation instead.

Kosciuszko’s managed decline: how politics and bad science burned the high country

7 November 2025 / 5 Comments

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The place becomes a circus.”

Old Turkish Proverb

Settlement, snow leases and the rise of the grazing scapegoat

By the 1830s, white settlers from the Monaro, Canberra, and Goulburn districts were driving cattle into the Snowy Mountains each summer.

A case study in folly #5: Firestorm of incompetence – what Yankees Gap says about modern fire management

1 August 2025 / 9 Comments

The fire that should never have happened

This is not just a story of a fire that got out of control — it’s a story of a system that was never in control to begin with.

On 9 August 2018, a landholder on Yankees Gap Road near Bemboka, on the south coast of New South Wales, did what many had done before him.

A case study in folly #4: The price of ignoring fire risks

7 March 2025 / 7 Comments

The day started rather innocuously on 18 March 2018 at Tathra, a serene coastal town nestled amidst the forested hills of southern New South Wales, renowned for its natural beauty near the sea. Yet, by 5 pm, this picturesque setting became the backdrop for a disaster that laid bare systemic failures in firefighting coordination, urban planning and bushfire preparedness.

Debunking false claims about bushfire risk and native forest logging in Australia

17 January 2025 / 21 Comments

Recently, a troubling narrative has emerged that native forest logging in Australia contributes significantly to increased bushfire risk. Some academics championed this idea, purporting to follow the scientific method, but often their work lacks scientific rigour. These claims have misled the public, skewing the debate around forest management, fire prevention, and the ecological role of logging.

The debt of burden was the skeleton in all their closets – the failure of the Beerburrum Soldiers Settlement Scheme

20 September 2024 / 5 Comments

A Grand Vision

The Queensland government funded Beerburrum Soldier Settlement Scheme was a disaster. The aim was to provide repatriated servicemen from World War I with farms where “swords could be transformed into ploughshares” for a tranquil existence in a rural climate.

The high enlistment numbers and enormous physical and mental casualties from the war, forced Australian authorities to develop a repatriation policy.

Three days of hell in the valley

3 November 2023 / 10 Comments

Introduction

This month marks the 55^th anniversary of the worst fires experienced in the Bellinger Valley since European settlement. The late spring and early summer of 1968 was one of the worst fire seasons experienced in New South Wales. Spring was exceptionally dry in coastal areas, with Sydney only receiving 29.5 mm for the season, easily the driest on record.

A fiery summer in north-west Tasmania

24 February 2023 / 3 Comments

Introduction

The summer of 1933-34 was very dry across most of Australia, including Tasmania. It began a pronounced drought period that lasted until early 1939.

Victoria had significant bushfires in 1932. “Red Tuesday” on 19 January saw many fires in almost every part of the state, particularly West Gippsland, where nine people died. … Read more

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Cabins in the sky

4 March 2022 / 17 Comments

Introduction

Early in my forestry career, I recall reading the fantastic story about building fire towers on top of karri trees in Western Australia. I got to see and climb one of them around the turn of last century when I had a brief visit to the south-west forests. I am in awe of the work involved at such dizzying heights unsupported by harnesses or scaffolding frames that are compulsory these days.… Read more

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70 years of bushfires – have the lessons learnt been ignored ?

6 August 2021 / 2 Comments

This blog focuses on two Victorian bush fire disasters 70 years apart. It highlights a failure of governance, a failure to heed fire expert advice, a preoccupation with an emergency response model that has failed in North America and is failing forests and residents in Australia, and an arrogant contempt towards previous bushfire inquiries.… Read more

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