- Fifth year review
- Stakeholder meeting
- Bushfire book
- Bushfire research fund
- Carbon expo
- Bushfires NT
- Seasonal forecast
- Student skills
- Students online
- Education survey
- US review
Fifth year review
The 5th Year Independent Panel Review has concluded
with a very positive assessment of the Bushfire CRC’s
research quality, performance against agreed milestones and
research adoption.
The Review was chaired by Steve Morton, Group Executive,
Manufacturing, Materials and Minerals, CSIRO. He was assisted by
panel members Bob Mitchell, an independent consultant and a former
CEO of the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (WA), and Tim
Vercoe, a forestry consultant and a former Director, Asset
Protection, at CSIRO Forest Biosciences, General Manager with
ENSIS, and an original member of the Bushfire CRC Board.
Utilising their knowledge and experience they provided incisive
comments and several recommendations that will assist the Bushfire
CRC in its final period.
The executive summary of the report concluded: “The Panel
has been greatly impressed by the quality of science and by the
rate of adoption of research results evident in the Bushfire
CRC.”
The Panel was left with an extremely positive view of the
Bushfire CRC, which is a tribute to the combined effort of all
researchers, stakeholders and staff. The panel was clearly
impressed with the achievements of the Bushfire CRC to date, the
rate of adoption across the industry and the close association
between AFAC and the Bushfire CRC.
Stakeholders AGM
Most partner organisations attended the Stakeholder Council AGM
at the end of October to hear of the progress of the Bushfire CRC
and to participate in the process of moving the Bushfire CRC
forward for the coming year.
I spoke about the recommendations of the 5th Year
Independent Panel Review and how the Bushfire CRC management
proposed to respond. I also introduced the Bushfire Research Fund
and proposed that agencies promote it widely within their
communities.
Other speakers addressed the main themes of the day:
Communicating the Research and Research Adoption into agencies.
Program B leader Professor Mark Adams, of the University of New
South Wales, gave a progress report on the research into prescribed
burning. He drew on the outputs from each of the research projects
within the Program and showed how they informed agencies using fire
as a management tool.
Dr Ray Canterford, Bushfire CRC Board member and Branch Head
(Weather Services) at the Bureau of Meteorology, presented an
overview of Bushfire CRC fire weather projects undertaken by his
organisation. These included spatial fire weather forecast
products, smoke modelling, seasonal bushfire outlooks, and climate
change studies.
Damien Killalea, Tasmania Fire Service and Program C end user
leader, provided an example of the positive impact of community
education research within his organisation.
Robert Hogan, Executive Manager of Public Affairs at the CFA,
described how Bushfire CRC research fitted in with his
organisations overall knowledge management objectives. He showed
how the research was presented on the CFA website and in its
publications both to its own staff and volunteers and to the
broader community and politicians.
Dr Geoff Cary, senior lecturer in fire science at the Australian
National University, talked about the Fire Science course at ANU
and how Bushfire CRC research was making a major input. This year,
11 Bushfire CRC researchers from Programs A, B and C contributed by
lecturing on their individual research topics.
I was also pleased to receive from Geoff the final PhD thesis of
Bushfire CRC student Adam Leavesley. Geoff was Adam’s
supervisor at the ANU for his research into the response of birds
to the fire regimes of Central Australia.
Presentations from the Stakeholder AGM are now online in the
member’s area of the Bushfire CRC website:
/members/
[You will need to log in to see these pages.]
Bushfire book
Wildfire in the High Country has been launched before
60 invited guests including the Minister for Police and Emergency
Services the Honorable Bob Cameron (pictured above right, middle)
and members of the Bushfire CRC Board and Stakeholder Council. The
launch took place at the Metropole Hotel in Melbourne on the
evening before the Stakeholders meeting. The joint editors of the
book, Robin Purdey and John Collyer, both spoke on how the book was
helping their community to better understand and to recover from
the bushfires of early 2007. The book is a text and photographic
record of the fires in the southern high country of Victoria put
together by the Mansfield Writers Group. The Bushfire CRC supported
the publication along with the Country Fire Authority, and the
Victorian departments of Sustainability and Environment and Human
Services and attended a local launch of the book in Mansfield in
July. The book can be ordered online through:
/news/wildfirehighcountrybook.html
Bushfire Research Fund
The Bushfire Research Fund is now open for donations from the
broader community for ongoing research. The Bushfire CRC has put
the Fund on the Register of Environmental Organisations with the
Australian Government’s Department of Environment, Water,
Heritage and the Arts. Donations are tax deductible. A brochure was
distributed at the Stakeholder’s Meeting. If you would like
more brochures for your organisation contact the Bushfire CRC
office. For more information see: www.bushfirecrc.com/centre/fund.html
Carbon Expo
The Bushfire CRC was invited by the CRC Association to
participate in the Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2008 at the Gold
Coast Convention Centre late last month. The Bushfire CRC was an
exhibitor in the trade fair at the Expo along with three other CRCs
with climate change related research. The Federal Minister for
Climate Change and Water Senator Penny Wong spoke at the
conference, which attracted 1200 delegates from a broad range of
industries and government bodies. The conference provided an
excellent opportunity for the Bushfire CRC to position itself in
this new and growing field.
Bushfires NT
The North Australian Fire Manager's Forum, a twice yearly
meeting for land and fire managers who have an interest in fire and
for researchers, was held in Broome in October. Bushfire CRC
Research Director Richard Thornton attended the meeting, which was
jointly hosted by Western Australian Department of Environment and
Conservation and FESA. It also included representatives from NT
Bushfires and Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and the shires of
Wyndham and Derby. The meeting has traditionally been hosted by
Tropical Savannas CRC, but is now looking at how it can become more
self-sustaining. Key topics included a wrap up of the fire season,
lessons learnt from an arson intervention project in WA, research
into fire and biodiversity management across tenures in the
Kimberley, and the carbon emissions abatement projects across the
North of Australia. Also discussed were the management of fire
across privately owned lands and engagement with the pastoralists
in the Kimberley.
There was also a discussion on the rebid for the Bushfire CRC
and how the work encompasses the whole of Australia.
Seasonal forecast
The Seasonal Bushfire Outlook was released nationally last month
with a good response from all partners as well as a steady stream
of media interest that still continues. The Outlook is a product of
the Bushfire CRC supported Seasonal Bushfire Assessment workshops
that have been held twice a year – in northern and southern
Australia – for the last two years with Bushfire CRC member
the Bureau of Meteorology as the central convenor. The Outlook
presents the main conclusions for the upcoming fire seasons as
decided by fire managers, severe weather meteorologists and
climatologists from across Australia.
Student skills
Communication/media skills training courses were conducted in
Melbourne and in Adelaide (after the conference) by an external
trainer. About 20 of our postgraduate student participated in the
sessions that gave practical advice on how to structure and deliver
presentations and how to prepare for media interviews. The students
gave very positive feedback on this training to improve their
skills. The training was organised by Education Manger Jen Lumsden
and Communications Manager David Bruce.
Students online
The project to film all post graduate students continues. A
compilation DVD of the interviews completed so far was showcased at
our booth in Adelaide. The filming has allowed our students to
simply and succinctly talk about what their research is about and
what it plans to achieve. Once all the students are filmed
stakeholders will be given the complete DVD. The footage is also
able to be viewed on the individual student web pages on the
Bushfire CRC website and on the Bushfire CRC You Tube
channel. The current edition of Fire Australia also
carries a feature on the project.
Education survey
The recent Cutler report, ‘Venturous Australia –
building strength in innovation’ identified an
organisation’s capacity to adopt new information as key to
building innovation. To that end the Bushfire CRC has
consulted with the industry to build the role of the education
program to complement research adoption. An online survey was
conducted to gauge how agencies perceive their capacity to adopt
new information, to identify learning and development initiatives
that would be of most benefit to agencies and to determine how
resources can be prioritised to meet the need. A summary of the
results was presented at the Stakeholders meeting.
US review
Finally, I have been invited by the Joint Fire Science Program
(JFSP) to the United States next week. The JFSP was created in 1998
as an interagency research body as a partnership of the US
departments of Interior and Agriculture. It is completing its
10th year of operation and I have been invited to join a
panel for an independent review of its research in a similar manner
to the Bushfire CRC’s 5th Year Independent Panel
Review. The results of the JFSP Review will help shape the
research programs to meet future challenges and deliver fire
science to the US.
Gary Morgan
CEO
Bushfire CRC
