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This year marks a milestone in the maturing of Australia’s research sector – 21 years ago the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) began.
The Bushfire CRC did not start research in the emergency management sector, but it was the first to coordinate it nationally. This was the era where researchers were on one side of the room, the emergency service agencies on the other, with a big vacant space in between. Jump forward to 2024 where more than 4,000 people from across the broad sector mixed and mingled together at the AFAC24 conference in Sydney in September, while at the annual Natural Hazards Research Forum in Adelaide in May 2024, 300 researchers, agency staff, community and government representatives met to discuss the latest Australian natural hazards research.
The Bushfire CRC (2003-2014) paved the way for the broader Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC (2013-2021) and the current Natural Hazards Research Australia (2021-2031), all under Australia Government science funds, co-funded by partner organisations from every state and territory, plus research input from dozens of universities.
It is worth noting the significance of the start of the Cooperative Research Centres program in the early 1990s under the Hawke Government. There was nothing new about a research centre – but a cooperative research centre was an entirely different beast.
CRCs were born of the belief that the research community and industry did not know how to talk to each other. The former hoped and believed that the benefits of the best research would be self-evident to all, the latter saw little connection between the outputs of universities and their own daily needs of getting the job done. Into this space stepped the Bushfire CRC in 2003 (along with dozens of other CRCs across Australia) to get everyone around the same table to work on the same problems – researchers, fire agencies, government funders, NGOs, community, utilities and others.
At the end of both CRCs, it was apparent that their legacies were more than a pile of publications. The tangible outcomes were significant, but the intangibles were no less important in bringing together everyone from that wary gathering of individuals back in 2003. There was something about the cooperative nature of the research that established a pattern that continues into Natural Hazards Research Australia.
The achievements of the two CRCs that remain relevant are high level, multi-hazard, with a national focus, and an emphasis on being open and accessible:
Collective strength The first C in CRC was all about being a cooperative – a network of local, national, international projects, with a pool of ideas and resources. All partners have access to all research input and outputs.
A forum for knowledge The research centres created a mutual space for discussion and learning, and for the development of natural hazards science. The scientific fields were not new, but the idea that such a diversity of views and interests would all be learning together was new back in 2003.
Achievements include the creation of the Research Day at the annual AFAC conference, which began in 2006 and has grown to become an essential and permanent part of the sector's largest conference. In addition, there have been many other conferences, seminars, workshops, webinars, media appearances, industry-focused publications and research briefs. The volume of output over the two decades has created its own challenge to remain accessible and updated.
Capacity of people The creation of knowledge through research leads to more skills, more knowledge, more capability, in partners, researchers, students and the community. The education program has had a marked impact on the sector - the Bushfire CRC supported 98 researchers at the PhD level, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC supported 150, and now Natural Hazards Research Australia has started with 63 – that's 311 new researchers, supported and nurtured, with more to come in coming years Most of the graduates have either joined the staff of partner organisations or remained active in research.
Research feedback Both CRCs and Natural Hazards Research Australia were set up to do dynamic and responsive research, with a built-in feedback loop to ensure research not only gets into operations and policy but then feeds off the success or otherwise of this research translation to refine further research goals.
Research in use Finally, when you get all the above right, they were able to produce research that is relevant, accessible and ready to use.
Driving Change was the CRC claim where new research insights for partners and the community enabled them to change their approach to natural hazards for the better. Driving Change also became an online collection of research-based tools, case studies and other resources, all done with partners involvement. That still-growing collection marks 21 years of research accessible and ready for use.
Overview | Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC (bnhcrc.com.au) Highlights from the 21-year collection of useful research include: Disaster resilience
- a national view on resilience through the Australian Disaster Resilience Index
- a better understanding of active preparation to ensure community-wide safety
- resources to guide long-term recovery in communities
Education and communications
- contributions of the content and tone of hazard warnings in the national warnings handbook
- inclusion of animals in emergency preparation, response and recovery
- an historical analysis of human and building loss in floods in Australia
- placement of children and schools at the centre of emergency management
- foundational insights for policy makers into bushfire arson
Extreme weather
- analysis of severe weather systems
- assessment of impacts of coastal erosion from storms
Predictive services
- a real-time view of fire history across northern Australia's savanna
- widespread adoption of fire simulation modelling with Phoenix Rapidfire
- prediction of the formation of PyroCBs and extreme fires
- improved methods for assessing the curing of grasslands
- Bushfire Seasonal Outlooks for a public view of bushfire potential across Australia
- prediction of impacts of extreme sea levels rises from climate change
- understanding complex fire weather
Future workforce
- insights into improving the recruitment and retention of emergency volunteers
- an investigation of the physical demands of bushfire suppression under hot and stressful conditions
- national guidelines on fitness for task for State Emergency Service personnel
- development of teamwork and decision-making tools for incident controllers
- a future imagining of the needs and skills for Workforce 2030 in the sector
- shared resources to achieve positive mental health in volunteers
Infrastructure and impact
- a research basis for public guidelines on constructing houses, preparing properties and sheltering in vehicles during bushfires
- a clear overview of vulnerable infrastructure with the Australian Exposure Information Platform
- a practical guide for strengthening the home with the Weather the Storm website
Managing the landscape
- accessing the risk of landscape fire with the Australian Flammability Modelling System
- a guide to the options for better fire management with the Prescribed Burning Atlas
- reducing the impacts of bushfire smoke on communities and firefighters
- burning in tropical ecosystems to promote biodiversity
- a focus on fuels and fire issues in the high country of Australia as a basis for better policies and practices
Policy and influence
- better workforce management with a diversity and inclusion framework
- insights into the use and effectiveness of aerial firefighting under Australian conditions
- understanding the nature of challenges with catastrophic and cascading events
- a Capability and Maturity Assessment Tool to coordinate preparedness to severe or concurrent major disasters
- a long-term view of learning from natural hazards in Australia with an Inquiries and Reviews database
- evaluating the real costs and benefits of planned burning using an economic analysis tool
First Nations Communities
- gaining an insight into the possibilities of more cultural burning in southern Australia
- learning from a great depth of experience with training modules to build remote bushfire and natural hazards skills
Post event learning A detailed and systematic analysis of many major natural hazards from Black Saturday in 2009 through to the Black Summer fires of 2019-20 and the east coast floods of 2022-23.
Most importantly, these 21 years have only been possible because of the people involved – from the Bushfire CRC, through the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, and now Natural Hazards Research Australia. Collaboration makes it all possible - 500+ people from emergency management agencies and other partners, 700+ researchers, 300+ PhD students - have all worked together to improve natural hazards science that keeps people safe. We are focused on the decades to come too, as our risks evolve with climate change and population movement. The challenges are immense and natural hazards science is key. By asking the right questions and working together, research will be useful, usable and used and Australia will be better equipped to face future hazards.