No clearing. Origins of fires in government land. True. But nitwits will continue arguing, and nothing will be done. Environmentalism should be outlawed.

Discussing the subject is a complete waste of time. There is no indication that anything is going to be changed in the future.

Repeats of repeats of repeats of repeats ! Get rid of the "academic Experts" i.e. ideological do-gooders loaded to the brim with arrogant ignorance !
Get rid of them, stop listening to them, that's my advise to the Govts !
Let farmers deal with those issues as it is in their best interest.
I'll start taking the "experts" serious about anything environmental when they curb their excesses in all matters of convenience, commodities, travel & start contributing with effort & merit. In other words stop sabotaging Australia !

Disagree and agree. Firstly burning is not the only means to reduce combustible fuel, Other options include goats and whipper snippers, both of which remain available 24/7 65 days a year, prescribed burning has a narrow window that is contracting with climate change.

Lessons from the past that have been ignored are our reliance on coal/fossil fuel exports/imports, both of which contribute to climate change and the quite deliberate dismantling of our manufacturing sector.

We needed to change our energy mix and exports over twenty years ago, but because we have the albatrosses of tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber at the helm all the economic opportunities of energy cheaper than coal have been avoided by asinine Idealogues.

Even so, an equally dumbed down diehards, keep electing them! And on a litany of broken promises!

Bush fires were once controlled far better than now when we selectively logged our forests!

Logging roads created natural fire breaks and there were more eyes looking for spot fires and racing to extinguish them before they went too far!

Whereas, now we lock away vast swathes of bush and forbid the annual grazing that back then reduced the fuel load.

Heard on the news recently we were going o cull many camels, these soft-footed creatures would be ideal as fuel reduction devices not constrained by climate variations. And therefore the cull is ill-conceived or downright stupid.

We do need to do so much so differently and first cab off the rank is how we use and store water. All upland country must include dozen of small and tiny dams along every watercourse regardless of seasonal water flows which would be vastly extended, Force the salt table far lower, store billions of litres of valuable liquid in the landscape!

This storage could be extended into the flood plains with canal fed by the river systems, backfilled with gravel and serviced by perforated agpipes. Then re-covered to prevent evaporation.

This would keep vast swathes of agricultural land permanently moist and more importantly the vegetation. Which would be more nutritious/not so easily burned!
Alan B

Interesting summary of our history of bushfire inquiries.This list of inquiries that have been ignored says it all. Will the next one(s) be acted upon ow that is the $64 billion question.

Until climate change cultism is put back in perspective and returned to Pandora's Box and our governments address the issues of fire load, I fear we will be back in this situation again and again.

What will come from future inquiries, will be another layer of additional regulations for the building code.

More of the homeless will result.

The enquiry should lead with research of what demographic of people, tend to live in prone bush block areas.

On the surface of it, those sorts of people are not necessarily the farming variety.

Building more accessible infrastructure such as roads and bridges to service the isolated communities will not only increase their likelihood of survival during fire seasons, but improve their life structure by lifting them out of poverty and into a real estate bonanza.

Dan

The less fuel the less heat, the less burning, even a village idiot knows that but as usual the 'experts' don't !

Wetlands don'tburn neither do rainforests, Many covered canal fed tenches that allow river water to spread into the floodplains, would turn them into permanently moist areas that can be farmed without irrigation.

And we need to resume the selective logging of forests, given it was far better management than locking them away as future fuel for runaway firestorms And national parks need to be grazed to reduce the unusually high fuel loads of what has become green initiated fire traps.

Building codes need to be changed to eliminate all combustible material and every domicile needs a clear space around it protected by a colourbond fence and fence top sprinklers

. Buildings must have rooftop sprinklers and there needs to be far better water storage, I'd demand at least a million-litre tank minimum, that can be filled when the good rains come and kept for stay and fight scenarios. Which can use four thousand litres an hour minimum from a single hose?

Also, there must be independent power and fuel supply for a month. Better to have too much than too little.

Also, all municipal pumps need backup generators to keep the liquid gold flowing.

After that, we need to consider barrages on many coastal waterways to store far more freshwater in the estuarine environment.

Yes, I know the greens will go bananas but preserving human life takes precedence, followed by human domiciles.

These fires have spared neither our precious fauna or flora!
It probably has never ever occurred to the tree-hugging minority that they are never ever protected in forests that have been converted int vast conflagrations going somewhere to happen by green lock and leave idiocy!?
Alan B.

I'll keep saying it until the idiots start to take notice and realise I have a point.
And that is, the root of this whole fire debacle is and will always be the GREENS!
It was a bit more intense this time around, not because of the heat or the wind, but because the two of them conspired to raise the severity and intensity of the fires.
How many times does it have to be said, Australia is a sh!thole, that just cannot sustain humans comfortably.
We all huddle and gather along the coastal strips because that's the only place humans can live COMFORTABLY!
Thing about it, we are continually under threat by this country and it's very existence.
We can't go swimming either inland waters nor beaches, because we will be killed.
We can't even think about inland water, because there isn't any worth talking about or to go around.
We can't live anywhere on this land because it will kill you, either because of desert or because of the wildlife and insects.
Then if we decide to stay indoors and avoid contact with anyone or anything, we are continually attacked by local, state and federal fees and charges, which to many Aussies is just as much a life threatening situation as venturing outside.
So given the opportunity, I have been researching other countries with more conducive and favorable conditions, with less threatening govts and environments.
I am pleased to say that there are countries where you can happily mingle amongst the flora and fauna, without fear of losing your life, in fact quite the opposite.
Beware people there is a cult afoot which is slowly working towards world dominance, in their sick attempt at enslaving the people, that's their words not mine.
They've been at it for years, slowly but surely making subtle changes to our laws and lives to the benefit of their end goal.
They are doing it through the banks, as they control or own 97% of the banks, now, only lending you money if you forgo certain things, if you can't repay the loan.

I think Austraslia will respond effectively to mitigate consequences of more fires and more areas becoming prone to fires overr time.

We really have no choice. it looks like a regretable reality.

But it may come from a variety of strategies: changes to National park rules, substantial and being cleared to avoid links between huge forest areas, higher insurance premiums for living in fire prone regions, more roads to allow greater escape from fire prone regions and towns, and so on.

ALTRAV,

When I haven't been overseas for Australia's sake or working for Australia, I've lived my life in the bush.
After reading your last post I'm amazed that I've survived in 'your' Australia.
Around here the only insects that are a nuisance are flies and mozzies (some of which resemble Dragon Flies!!), the numerous snakes are no problem as they tend to avoid humans and the only dangerous animals are a few scrub bulls (and, very occasionally a demented cow) and suicidal kangaroos on the roads.
I've sat in a hide, many a time, hunting foxes and watched snakes glide bye.

At night the local towns are more dangerous, especially around closing time.

Seeking to clarify data on burn-offs. Forest Fire Victoria but the totals at much less

https://www.ffm.vic.gov.au/fuel-management-report-2018-19/statewide-achievements/bushfire-risk

Over the past 10 years they appear to be under 40,000 hectares per year. Could you provide the source of the 74,825 hectares

Alanjohn. The source was a Weekly Times article of Wednesday 12 December about black Saturday. See attachment in https://volunteerfirefighters.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Letter-to-PM-Scott-Morrisson-22-February-2019.pdf.

The problem's not just in NSW and Victoria. It's across the country.
There'll be no useful changes. Too many invested in keeping the greenyism thing alive. It's been so lucrative for the parasite class who gain income from regulation and compliance. Then there's the thing where espousing an interest in environmentalism's a virtue signalling thing.
They'll fight tooth and nail to keep it going

Well put Jamo!

It's easier to just say: Recent disastrous bushfires result mainly from 'Incompetence'

Well finally, we can put down all these GW, CC alarmists.
Josephus has supplied us with, what I call the last nail in the coffin of these alarmist, lying, misguided, misinformed, easily led, hopelessly lost souls.
From the 97% scientists down to Al Gore, and the Swedish maggot.
Finally we can ignore them once and for all.
The link below, says it all.
Listen/read it and weep, alarmists;

https://summit.news/2020/01/09/glacier-park-in-montana-set-to-remove-glaciers-will-all-be-gone-by-2020-signs/

"And the truth shall set you free"!
I speak of course, of the "thick-head" clan, SR, Paul, and of course let's not leave out the latest of the clan, Mr O.
And anyone who subscribes to these contributors and their views are more than welcome to put their hand up and their name on the list of members of this flawed lot.

Absolutely agree, it's very clear that we had a chance to prevent most of what's happening at the moment if not all of it if we had taken all of the necessary actions.

if we had taken all of the necessary actions.
ArnoldKMB,
Many of us did, it's the Leftist non-thinking who perpetually sabotage common sense ! They represent the greatest percentage in the decision making circles hence the perpetual mayhem.
If only we could some lesser educated people into Authority the situation would improve.
People who know but don't have certificates rather than people with certificates & think they know but don't !

Excellent article, thank you Brendan. But history shows that the chance of commonsense prevailing is minimal. And on page 1 of today's Australian (13 Jan), PM Morrison responds with the fatuous approach of intensifying our futile and costly emissions-reduction.

... emissions-reduction programmes.

The whole thing is becoming ridiculous ! The CSIRO, the governments
official advising body cannot produce a definitive document that
proves Human generated CO2 is warming the planet.
However the planet is warming, and whats more it is right on schedule !
It is the Svenmark hypothesis since confirmed by two Uni papers from
Finland and Japan.
A peak in global warming was expected around 2000 and it has occurred.
It will be with us for a 100 years possibly and then decline to a cold
period in about 300 years when the Londoners can get their ice skates
back out of the cupboard.
Heard of the Medieval warm period ? Heard of the Maunder Minimum ?
Well here we are again !

Bazz, thank you, I've been trying to grill your very comments into SR's limited brain and ability to deduce simple facts.
So thanks for your effort on making it clearer for these morons who somehow refuse to see reason, when it has been presented so many times.

Anything that reduces emission/pollution is great even for the short-term. Will the CC concerned please list the commodities & Habits they're willing to curb as of tomorrow in order to reduce pollution ?

Two days gone & still no-one's told us what they'd do without to curb Climate Change ?