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By the end you can…
Learning goals
Define bushfire, natural hazard & disaster.
Explain the fire triangle & the “big three” controls.
Describe fire behaviour (front, embers, spot fires).
Explain slope & climate drivers.
Discuss fire-adapted ecosystems & cultural burning respectfully.
Section 1
What is a bushfire?
A uniquely Australian hazard
Bushfire = any fire burning out of control (internationally: “wildfire”).
A natural hazard can harm people & environments; a disaster when it does major damage.
Double-edged: many species are fire-adapted, yet extreme fires devastate.
Section 2
What controls a bushfire?
The fire triangle & the “big three”
Fuel load
More dry leaf litter & bark = hotter fire.
Weather
High temp, low humidity, strong wind.
Topography
Fire runs faster uphill.
Fire needs heat + fuel + oxygen (the fire triangle). Ignition = lightning or humans; the big three decide how bad it gets.
Section 3
How fire moves
Fire behaviour
Embers start spot fires ahead of the front (so fires jump roads). Crown fires leap treetops; radiant heat is the main killer.
Section 4
Slope & climate drivers
Land shape & the climate cycle
Slope: fire roughly doubles speed per 10° upslope.
El Niño = hotter/drier (higher risk); La Niña = wetter (more growth → future fuel). Tracked by the SOI.
The warming trend lengthens fire seasons (Chapter 13).
Section 5
Fire in the landscape
Fire-adapted ecosystems & cultural burning
Eucalypts resprout from epicormic buds; some seeds need fire's heat/smoke. Fire is woven into Australian ecosystems.
First Nations cultural burning — living knowledge
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples have used cool, low-intensity cultural burning to care for Country for tens of thousands of years — reducing fuel and risk. Learn from endorsed sources: AIATSIS · NITV.
Section 6 · Case study
A global hazard
Wildfires worldwide
California & Greece
Record burn areas and deadly, fast-moving fires — driven by the same drought, heat & wind, and worsened by climate change. Comparing places sharpens management insight.
ScaleChangeEnvironment
Recap
14.1 in one screen
Pull it together
Bushfire = fire out of control; natural hazard.
Fire triangle + big three: fuel, weather, topography.