Future of the Bushfire CRC – Board
meeting
The Governing Board of the Bushfire CRC met on 3 September 2009
to discuss the options for ongoing bushfire research following the
outcome of the recent CRC funding process.
At present the Bushfire CRC has received an additional three
years funding; $15m for 2010-2013. This will allow the Bushfire CRC
to undertake research into issues arising from the current 2009
Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and to begin research
identified as being required to meet the industry’s needs by
2020. Further work has begun to obtain Commonwealth funding beyond
2013 for the longer term research projects.
Royal Commission
The Bushfire CRC has been engaged by the 2009 Victorian
Bushfires Royal Commission. In addition to providing strategic
advice, the Bushfire CRC has provided research on human behaviour
and building surveys for the Horsham, Beechworth, Bunyip and Narre
Warren fires. The Commonwealth has
acknowledged this work and Sen Kim Carr, the Minister for
Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, has written to our
Chairman, commending the CRC’s efforts in these
areas.
Stakeholders meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Bushfire CRC Stakeholder
Council will be held on 21 October 2009 in Melbourne. This meeting
will discuss the issue of ongoing research and, accordingly, the
new partners who signed up for the CRC for Fire – Environment
and Society will also be invited to participate.
This will be an important meeting to gain agreement on the
ongoing nature of bushfire research for our industry. I urge all
Stakeholder representatives to attend.
Gold Coast Conference and Bushfire CRC workshops for
industry
It’s only two weeks until our annual conference, held in
conjunction with the Australian Fire and Emergency Service
Authorities Council, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. The
Bushfire CRC pre-conference workshops will again be a feature of
the week’s activities. If you or your key staff haven’t
already signed up for a workshop please consider doing so.
These workshops are an excellent way of getting a detailed
understanding of the latest research in a discussion with the
researchers and colleagues from agencies across Australia. If you
need to know the latest developments in the fields of Community
Safety, Fire Fighter Health and Safety, or Fire, Fuels and Weather
go to our Events page for more information.
Research Adoption activities
A successful seminar and field trip at Casino in northern New
South Wales was held in August to show the outputs of the latest
research by the Bushfire CRC and how these can be used in the field
when managing fuel in eucalypt plantations.
Bushfire CRC PhD student Phil Lacy lead the
activity, which was based around his research and his recently
released field guide Burning Under Young Eucalypts. The
day attracted 22 participants including people from Bushfire CRC
member organisations as well as others from the plantation
industry. For more on this event or to purchase the field guide go
to here.
Other recent research adoption activities include: 
· A seminar on Managing the
Unexpected in Prescribed Burning and Fire Suppression
Operations , lead by Dave Thomas, former US
Forest Service fuels specialist. This was well attended and the
interactive seminar provided ideas for participants on how to
improve performance at prescribed burns and during suppression
operations.
· A seminar with Professor Domingos
Xavier Viegas that provided an overview of a research progra
m
on forest fires p ropagation carried out at the University of
Coimbra, in Portugal. Prof Viegas spoke about the research
topics that have been covered in this program including: fire
meteorology; fuel modeling and characterisation; slope and
wind effects on fire spread, extreme fire behaviour; fire
safety and decision support systems. Prof Viegas will now
explore opportunities in Portugal for joint research with
Bushfire CRC researchers.
