Gold Coast 2009: Annual Conference

AFAC 09: Meeting Expectations

Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australia

A total of 1173 fire industry staff and fire researchers mixed at the annual conference of the Bushfire CRC on the Gold Coast. The conference participants discussed the latest innovations in fire science over the two day program, while many others also gained a more in-depth understanding at pre-conference workshops on community safety and protecting fire fighters and a seminar on fire, fuel and weather.

The annual AFAC/Bushfire CRC is the largest emergency services forum held in Australasia. The delegates represented:

  • Urban fire services
  • Rural fire services
  • State emergency services
  • Parks and land management agencies
  • Local government
  • Federal and State government
  • Community support agencies
  • Researchers and academics

In addition, the broader fire industry was invited to attend the Trade Expo. More than 100 SME's and large corporations took up the offer to host a trade booth. The Bushfire CRC and the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council shared a large booth in the centre of the Expo.

News from the Event

Workshop: PROTECTING FIRE FIGHTERS
This workshop gave participants a chance to be part of discussion to improve how we adopt quality research into agency practice and across the industry. It was an opportunity to gain greater knowledge of the quality work of three Bushfire CRC research projects, combined with facilitated discussion to further the implementation enabling improved safety of fire fighters and increased capacity of specific agencies and the industry as a whole.
Seminar - FIRE, FUEL AND WEATHER
Characteristics of fuels and weather drive fire behaviour. These two back-to-back seminars provided an opportunity to hear from the researchers from across Australia involved in issues such as fire behaviour in shrublands, grassland curing and links to the Grassland Fire Danger Index, and evidence for the importance of fire in maintaining forest health.

Other Resources

This Community Safety Workshop was held as part of the 2009 AFAC and Bushfire CRC annual conference on the Gold Coast.
Prof Douglas Paton, a Bushfire CRC project leader at the University of Tasmania, was unable to attend the conference but provided this introductory video on the main issues to be discussed.

Dry lightning as a cause of bushfire.

Weather and bushfire impact

Fire patterns in semi-arid land

Fire behaviour modelling in shrub and heath lands

Fire danger alpine regions

Grassland fire danger index

Tree decline in the absence of fire

Burning in eucalypt plantations

Fire, fuel and weather research

Fire experts have long recognised that characteristics of fuels and weather are key drivers of fire behaviour. A seminar exploring these issues was held as part of the September 2009 Bushfire CRC/AFAC conference on the Gold Coast. The seminar gave fire and land managers a chance to hear from the researchers about the work being conducted all across Australia and New Zealand by the Bushfire CRC and develop an in-depth...

Research Posters

Program A
Author Title
Assessing and Evaluating Bushfire Management options in the Rural-Urban interface using PHOENIX-Rapidfire
Atmospheric Stability Environments and Fire Weather (1) - An Extended Haines Index
Atmospheric Stability Environments and Fire Weather (2) - A Case Study of the Hovea
Behind the flaming zone: woody fuel consumption and fireline intensity
High resolution observations and the frequency of fire weather events
Improving Senescience Algorithms in Plant Growth Models
Incorporating the effect of spotting into fire behaviour spread prediction using PHOENIX-Rapidfire
Lightning-fires and associated atmospheric conditions
New decision support tools for Aerial Suppression
Online forecasts throughout Australia of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System
Predictive Simulation as a Key Component of an Early Warning System
Satellite Remote Sensing as a key tool for Grassland Curing Assessment
Technology Enhanced Learning
Program B
Author Title
Bushfire smoke and public health: what information is available in Victoria?
Capturing and communicating traditional burning knowledge
Does an emergency response protect our water reservoirs?
Ectomycorrhizal community ecology of Eucalyptus delegatensis forest
Fire and Plants - what determines response patterns?
Fire severity mapping
Long-term impacts of prescribed burning on regional extent and incidence of wildfires
Measuring and modeling fire effects on methane oxidation
Planning fire intervals for biodiversity conservation
Project B7: Eucalyptus decline in the absence of fire and the role of phosphorus demand
Resilience of a forest understorey seedbank community to frequent burning
The Forest Flammability Model
Program C
Author Title
A climate for change? Adaptive capacity of the fire management sector
Children and Youth: An untapped resource in the development of resilient communities
Fire catchment management groups
Fired up? Understanding the disconnect between bushfire awareness and preparedness amongst diverse rural landowners
Using crime prevention theory in bushfire arson prevention
What makes us prepare for bushfires?
What makes us prepare for bushfires?
Program D
Author Title
Better brigade leadership enhances retention of volunteers
Cardiovascular risk screening of Australian Volunteer Firefighters
Dehydration and Australian bushfire fighters
Evolution 101: Taking the 'Evolutionary Monkey' off our backs
How expert bushfire incident managers anticipate worst case scenarios
IMTs - Cobbled together or perfectly planned?
Neighbourhood scale risk assessment and implementing BPM's to an urban interface zone
Volunteer work and life balance: Recommendations for Emergency Service agencies