Panel at QUT forum: (back row) Dr Timothy Graham, Dr Richard Thornton, Major-General Richard Wilson, Leeton Lee, Prof Vivienne Tippett (front row) A/Prof Wendy Scaife, A/Prof Amisha Mehta, A/Prof Dominique Greer. Credit: IFE QUT
CRC research was showcased in Brisbane recently as part of an expert panel assembled to dissect the devastating bushfire season.
Hosted by the Queensland University of Technology, the Grand Challenge Future Forum on 31 January featured CRC researchers from QUT Prof Vivienne Tippett, A/Prof Amisha Mehta and A/Prof Dominique Greer, alongside CRC CEO Dr Richard Thornton. They were joined by Major-General Richard Wilson, former chair of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, Firesticks Alliance cultural practitioner Leeton Lee, and QUT’s Dr Ian Weir, Dr Timothy Graham and A/Prof Wendy Scaife.
The sold out event discussed key topics including whether the fire season is unprecedented, building a bushfire-resilient environment, community awareness and traditional Indigenous burning practices.
Dr Thornton opened the forum and said that many factors must be taken into account to increase Australia’s bushfire resilience.
“There’s a whole load of different factors to consider,” Dr Thornton said.
“One is about forest management, one is about building construction, and the third is about human behaviours. Every one of those is a critical, weak link in the process.
“Fires have always been part of the Australian landscape. We have to move on from the fires and do more about the mitigation. This is a long-term event and will continue for a long time.”
“We’ve done some research that’s funded through the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC that assesses community members’ knowledge of bushfires and have found a couple areas of gaps,” she said.
“One is that community members don’t understand how fire begins and how it spreads, and they have a knowledge gap around the speed of bushfires. We know from our research that preparedness levels for bushfires is around 25%, so there is still a lot more work that can be done.”
The importance of community response and action was a hot topic on the day, with in-depth discussions on the role of the community in dealing with natural hazards. A/Prof Greer said we can utilise the power of the community in future crises.
“If we can bring this kind of community spirit and community mindedness back towards what we see science producing, we can use the momentum that we’ve developed now to come to a better place, a better outcome, and a better position of preparedness next time this happens, which it will,” she said.
Prof Tippett, who moderated the forum’s proceedings, posed the question of how we can merge science and community energy together into real action, to which Dr Thornton described the role of the CRC in making sure strong science is picked up in meaningful ways.
“This disaster and the unfolding disaster that will happen is a critical point which we can leverage science into getting policy change and practical solutions,” he said.
“That’s certainly what we’re trying to do and what a number of our scientists are doing.”