As a nation who celebrates “droughts and flooding rains” it is odd that we are so resistant to accepting the persistence of bushfires at the urban interface. Bushfires are a part of Australian environment. However, their inevitability does not equate with admitting defeat in the face of overwhelming odds. It does require sound risk management and integration of a range of measures to reduce their impact and to build resilience from their impact.

1. Lew Short
Principal, Emergency Management & Resilience

2. “The world has entered the era of ‘mega crisis’
or catastrophic emergencies’ whose force
and magnitude defy even the best laid plans
and the most robust response systems”
Professor Paul ‘t Hart

5. Limittodirectattack
Parallelattack
Indirectattack
Defensive
Limittosafeoperationof
helicopters(~50km/h)
Potential:
• Loss of radio &
telco towers
• Loss of situational
awareness

6. Capacity of community to
receive and act on triggers

7. Out of Scale Events
• Big events expose the vulnerability of
government
• Wicked problems and leaps of faith
• The system will break
• Blue Mountains
197 house losses
No deaths
173
374
Deaths
Black Saturday
fires
Associated
heatwave
What level of risk is tolerated?

9. Sydney Basin drained
of fire fighting
resources and sent to
the Mountains
• What if fires had been burning in northern or southern
Sydney OR started in these places when the resources
were away?
Winmalee http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-26/nswfire-warnings-disaster-relief-winmalee-meeting-
bushfires/5047638

10. 24 October 2013

11. • Victims of the
October 2013
Springwood,
Winmalee and
Yellow Rock
bushfires are
launching a class
action against power
company Endeavour
Energy
• ~$200m

12. Bushfire Challenges
• Catastrophic & out of scale events
• Ability to manage large scale asymmetric
events
• Situational awareness in complex
environments

13. Challenge: How to
make information
accessible
• In a way that provokes a
response
• Gives greater
understanding of risk
• Initiates action and
adaptation
• Builds capacity
• Enhances resilience

14. Lew Short
Principal, Emergency Management &
Resilience
Eco Logical Australia
Lews@ecoaus.com.au
Lew Short
Lewshort14
http://www.slideshare.net/LewShort