The Protecting Firefighters Information Package developed by the Bushfire CRC and presented here combines crucial research projects on Safe Behaviour and Decision Making (led by Dr. Mary Omodei, La Trobe University), Effective Incident Management Teams (led by Dr. Christine Owen, University of Tasmania), and Firefighter Health and Safety (led by Dr. Brad Aisbett of Deakin University and David Nichols of the CFA).

The Information Package includes summaries of various presentations made during the Protecting Firefighters Workshop held prior to the AFAC / Bushfire CRC Conference on the Gold Coast in September 2009, as well as an array of supporting written materials.

This resource was developed by the Bushfire CRC in consultation with a steering group that included representatives from NSW RFS, Victorian CFA & DSE and WA FESA, which kept in mind relevant AFAC groups including AFAC Learning and Development, Rural and Land Managers, Workforce Management and Urban Operations.

The Information Package is a tool that can be added to as various related products develop, and is designed primarily to assist with sharing basic information about this body of research. As the three research areas have obvious synergies, they are combined here into a specialist course that is also a useful adoption product.

Presented here is a PowerPoint slideshow summary of the pre-conference workshop delivered at the Gold Coast on 22 September 2009, developed by workshop facilitator Geoff Brown of Tangent Consulting. The slideshow provides a good overall snapshot of what was delivered in a number of more detailed and specific interactive presentations from researchers.

Participants were eager to share what they learned during the course of the pre-conference workshop. This short video shows what some of the people involved took away from the event, in their own words.

The following three research presentations were delivered during the pre-conference workshop. Scroll through them for your own education and understanding, or utilise them within your own agency. Using the buttons located at the bottom-left of each slideshow, these PowerPoint displays can be placed on your own website (through the "Embed" option), sent to someone directly (through the "Email" option), or downloaded to your computer (through the "Menu" option).