Australia: Bushfire season 2019-20 (Black summer)

This report examines how large, severe bushfires in South East Australia are causing widespread environmental, social, and economic damage, worsened by inadequate fire management and increasing fire intensity.

This article reports on findings from two case studies conducted in South Australia that explored regional business recovery pathways following the Black Summer fires (2019/2020) and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning in the second half of 2019, what we now know as the Black Summer fires began devastating eastern Australia. Poorer communities, renters and women carried the heaviest burdens after the fires were put out.

As the 2019-2020 megafires took hold across eastern Australia, many of us reeled at the sight of animals trying and often failing to flee. Our screens filled up with images of koalas with burned paws and possums in firefighter helmets.

This comprehensive analysis highlighted the economic impacts of the tourism shutdown from Australia's Black Summer Bushfires. This analysis could be used for budgeting and rebuilding in community-and-industry hotspots that may be far from the burn scar.

The study illustrates how institutionalized learnings, organizational and systemic reforms, and policing activities enhanced the absorptive and adaptive capabilities of police as emergency responders, emergency management networks, and local residents.

Cold fronts play a role in making bushfires drastically worse—posing a serious concern for future bushfire events.

Families affected by Australia’s catastrophic Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 found that preparing to evacuate was especially complex and physically difficult. Parents were under-prepared, and many did not have an evacuation plan.

New research by American scientists suggests the Black Summer fires were massive enough to influence the El Niño Southern Oscillation cycle. It’s one of the most important drivers of unusual weather over the entire globe.

The Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 were cataclysmic: a landmark in Australia’s history. They burnt more than 10 million hectares, mostly forests in southeast Australia. Many of our most distinctive, ancient and vulnerable species were worst affected.