Different laws and policies apply to different aspects of fire, including fuel and smoke management, bushfire response and recovery, and beneficial forms of fire such as ecological and cultural burning. Many fire-related laws and policies around Australia are under review or being overhauled, and these review and reform processes present a critical opportunity to enhance these laws to facilitate adaptation as fire regimes change.
In this presentation, Phil will introduce the broad legal context for fire in Australia and describe some key ways that the law can help to facilitate adaptation to changing fire regimes over time. She will then examine Tasmania’s attempts at wholesale reform of its fire legislation, as a case study in what is possible, what is likely and what is actively unhelpful in drafting new laws from scratch.

Fire can have devastating impacts to wildlife and their habitats, however the effect of fire on aquatic animals is often overlooked. Fire may lead to increased erosion into waterways, and in steep upland parts of Victoria, can cause major debris flow events. These processes can smother habitats and degrade water quality, in turn threatening freshwater fauna. However, predicting the effect of fire on aquatic ecosystems is complex, as runoff from the fire footprint can travel many kilometers downstream. In Victoria, we have over 50 species of threatened freshwater fish, crayfish and mussels, however we currently do not have a method to rapidly identify aquatic animals at risk from fire. We aimed to develop a tool to identify at risk freshwater populations following a fire. The project used the HydroFire tool, which was previously developed as a rapid risk assessment tool to map locations at risk of debris flows, flash floods and water quality impacts following fires. We developed a risk matrix to rank species risk based on their level of range restriction and their threat of extinction. The outputs of the HydroFire tool were combined with observation data and Habitat Distribution Models to identify catchment and stream locations susceptible to post-fire runoff and debris flows. The outputs of the project were two decision support tools. The first is a static, interactive state risk map which identifies sub-catchments with threatened and/or restricted aquatic fauna. The second is an ArcGIS script tool which maps the potential impact of a fire severity footprint on animals in the downstream catchment. The development of these new decision support tools is important because if we can identify where impacts on water quality may occur, it can help us guide fire management actions, inform conservation actions, and undertake emergency recovery actions.

Prescribed fire is frequently used in forests and woodlands with the intent to mitigate wildfire risk. However, across many regions where burning is undertaken, its consequences for native taxa, including reptiles, are poorly known. In a Mediterranean-type biodiversity hotspot of South Australia where prescribed fire is employed with increasing extent and frequency, we evaluated changes in reptile species abundance, richness, and community composition across a time-since-fire chronosequence ranging 0–20+ years. We also assessed how these metrics changed with microhabitat complexity and climatic variables. Using Bayesian mixed-effects models, permutational multivariate analysis of variance, and N-mixture models, we found different community and species-specific responses to time since fire and to microhabitat structure. Relative abundance across taxa varied, with most showing a positive trend with time since fire. Abundance of a threatened endemic species was positively associated with long-unburnt habitat. Community composition changed significantly immediately after fire (0–2 years), after which it generally returned to previous conditions. Species richness did not change with time since fire. Correcting for detection probability confirmed that the abundance of a gecko did not increase with reduced microhabitat complexity, unlike the result found before correction, but individuals were more readily detected. Considering that long-unburnt sites were likely to support all species, were associated with trends for increased within-species abundance, and were needed by a threatened endemic snake, landscape managers should prioritise the retention and connectivity of sites unburnt for at least 20 years.

Fire is an integral part of much of Australian ecology, with Australian landscapes co-evolved with fire regimes. As climate change shifts fire regimes and land development changes vegetation, management of fire often requires the use of fire retardant chemicals. These chemicals are high in phosphates and other nutrients, which Autralian vegetation is known to be sensitive to. There is potential that these chemicals may change the plant community, potentially changing the fire load. This project aims to investigate how these chemicals impact soil and plant biology, and whether soil substrate or plant functional group are a factor. Focusing on changes in soil bacterial and fungal communities, and seedling establishment to improve how these important chemicals are used.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is one of the largest landholders in Australia, responsible for over 3 million ha of ecologically and culturally diverse landscapes throughout all states and territories. With the majority of Department of Defence (DoD) Estates subject to elevated fire potential due to prevailing weather patterns, vegetation types, fuel availability, and topography, operating in Bushfire Prone Areas is not unusual for the DoD. Compounded by the land use requirements which include a number of possible ignition sources, it is clear that the approach to bushfire preparation and management requires a strategic and well considered approach.

Through a collaborative initiative, Ventia and DoD undertake a series of workshops to meticulously plan, communicate, and execute an annual Bushfire Mitigation Program across all the DoD properties in WA, Vic, SA, Tas, and the NT. The effectiveness of previous mitigation efforts, fire history of the previous season, weather patterns, training objectives, and considerations or mitigation efforts of adjacent landholders and local authorities are just some of the factors used to inform program priorities. The goal is for a comprehensive management approach to mitigate the potential bushfire risk while preserving DoD training and capability. This highly collaborative approach between DoD and Ventia in bushfire planning has evolved since a review the delivery model in 2019. The outcome is a shift from a historically reactive program to a proactive, year-round planning and implementation model. The shift has improved the manageability of the program, strengthened stakeholder partnerships, and enhanced the quality and quantity of bushfire mitigation efforts for the immediate threat, and fire seasons to follow. Recognizing the critical role of effective and sustainable bushfire management as an enabler to ADF capability, this approach aligns with the DoD mission to defend Australia and its national interests.

Bush Heritage Australia (BHA) is a national non-profit organisation dedicated to conservation land management. A key part of BHA’s work involves managing fire and its effect on the environmental, cultural and economic values of reserves and partnerships. This is achieved through prescribed burning and bushfire suppression activities.

One of the most fire-prone properties managed by BHA is Carnarvon Station Reserve, located in Queensland’s Central Highlands. The reserve lies within a landscape of rugged sandstone and basalt ranges, interspersed with fertile alluvial flats. Vegetation is primarily composed of woodlands and grasslands. Carnarvon Station borders the expansive Carnarvon National Park to the north and east and adjoins large cattle grazing properties to the south and west.

Carnarvon Station’s fire risk is strongly influenced by seasonal and multi-year climate patterns. High summer rainfall encourages vigorous grass growth, which then cures off during the region’s cold winters. This cured vegetation creates ideal conditions for large, high-severity bushfires.

Fire management at Carnarvon Station is complex and shaped by both natural and human factors. While neighbouring landholders have diverse land management goals, there is a strong culture of cooperation when responding to bushfires. Over the past decade, most bushfires in the region have been caused by lightning strikes, though some have resulted from prescribed burns that escalated under deteriorating fire weather conditions.

Despite on-reserve research, literature, and fire management guidelines recommending fire return intervals of 3 to 10 years, the increasing incidence of unplanned bushfires is making it difficult to maintain these intervals across the reserve.

This presentation reviews 25 years of fire history at Carnarvon Station and examines the challenges of achieving effective fire regimes in the face of increasing climatic variability. It highlights the broader difficulties of managing large, protected landscapes under a changing climate.

Reptiles represent an understudied group in fire ecology, however, we hypothesized that as ectotherms, they would be vulnerable to increased temperatures in a post-fire landscape with reduced thermal refugia. To test this, we collaborated with Australian Landscape Trust on Calperum Station in the South Australian Murray Mallee. This collaboration was twofold; by working with ALT we were able to utilise their extensive survey infrastructure and access a diverse range of habitats and fire regimes to test out theories, and following our research, we could then work directly with ALT in implementing recommended changes to fire management, such that the needs of vulnerable species are considered. We conducted extensive fieldwork on Calperum Station across multiple projects, including fauna and flora surveys, measuring changes to the thermal characteristics of the landscape post-fire, and identifying the thermal preferences and tolerances of the reptile species using the landscape. At the conclusion of these experiments, we determined that fire drastically reduces the availability and thermal properties of thermal refugia in the mallee, and that reptile species affiliated with spinifex grasses (Triodia sp.) are most at risk of the adverse effects of fire. This risk is driven by the absence of old growth spinifex in a post-fire landscape, and the subsequent lack of ground cover resulting in not just higher ambient temperatures, but a lack of available refuge from these higher temperatures. This increased vulnerability in spinifex affiliated species is reflected in long running survey data, which indicates that fire shapes population level changes across mallee reptile fauna. Whilst results varied across other reptile taxa, these results highlight a key priority in fire management for conservation. By working with ALT, we can optimise fire management on Calperum Station, prioritising the conservation of vulnerable reptile species, and provide an improved model of fire management in the mallee.

A key challenge in re-introducing fire after long-term fire exclusion is understanding the short term impacts of burning so that management can be tailored to local site conditions. Optimally, fire management would be conducted in a way that allows robust, quantitative experiments to take place, providing data-driven feedback to managers. This brings an additional challenge, however, because experimental designs can conflict with the goals and values of managers.

We aimed to tackle these challenges through an ongoing research-management partnership in grassy woodlands of subtropical southeast Queensland. Our experiment was conducted at Hidden Vale Research Station, a 4,600 ha property in southeast Queensland, owned by the Turner Family Foundation (TFF) and managed jointly with University of Queensland (UQ). Paired sites comprised one control (no fire) and one treatment: moderate (4–6 years) or high (1–2 years) frequency burning. Pre- and post-fire data were collected across 31 transects annually between 2023 and 2025.

Following a brief overview of ecological results, we outline three fundamental lessons which have been essential to the success of our partnership. Lesson # 1 is time. At the outset, we experienced conflicts in our goals and values: the experimental design was too rigid to meet management goals while management goals limited quantitative hypothesis testing. Flexibility, compromise and patience allowed our values to converge over time. Key to this divergence is Lesson # 2 – frank communication. At a local level, communicating our work to management staff, researchers and practitioners in our organisations was critical. Lesson # 3 is participation. We do not sit in silos and make the effort to participate in each work domain. Input from a management perspective was essential to building a robust and feasible experiment while researchers’ on ground participation in burns also fed into the two-way learning process.