Annual Lecture 2006

Can we prevent disaster fires in one of the most fire-prone landscapes in the world?

The first speaker Assoc Prof Mike Clarke, argued that there is currently insufficient knowledge for an ecologist to confidently state whether major fires are an ecological disaster or a boon to fire dependent flora and fauna. While at La Trobe, Mike has conducted research on the evolution of co-operative breeding, the relationship between Noisy Miners and eucalypt dieback, and on the conservation biology of the endangered Black-eared Miner. He serves on several national recovery teams for threatened birds and is currently leading a $1.3 million dollar study on the impact of fire upon fauna in the Murray Mallee region of Victoria, NSW and SA.

The second speaker Athol Hodgson has more than 50 years fire experience in fire management and forest fire research in Australia, USA, Canada, France and Spain. He was formerly Commissioner of Forests, Forests Commission Vic.; Chief Fire Officer, Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands; and a Board member of Country Fire Authority. He is President of Forest Fire Victoria Inc., and presented a critique of the Wilsons Promontory 2005 fuel reduction 'escape' wildfire and the 2006 Grampians 'big burn'. He believes the failure to control these fires when they were small, thereby limiting the extent of their damage before they went feral, is symptomatic of political and policy shortcomings at the highest level.

The third speaker was University of Tasmania research fellow Jon Marsden-Smedley, pointed out that wildfires have been part of the Australian landscape for thousands of years and we need to develop an integrated fire management strategy. After working as a fire researcher with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, Jon undertook a PhD developing a fire history for south west Tasmania along with a fire management system for button grass moorlands. At the other extreme, he has developed a fire regime model for central Australia. In April this year, he returned to Tasmania to look at the interactions of fire, animal grazing and site productivity.