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Bushfire: causes, behavior, impacts and management

A bushfire is a wildfire that occurs in the scrub, woodland or grassland of Australia and New Zealand. This article explains causes, behaviour, ecology, risks, notable events and management strategies.

Author: Leandro Alegsa Creation date: November 13, 2022 Last updated: April 28, 2026

simple.wikipedia.org · GFDL 1.2

A bushfire is a form of wildfire occurring in the open vegetation of the Australian and New Zealand countryside. In local usage "the bush" refers to scrub, scrubland, woodland or grassland and the term covers a wide range of fire types from fast-moving grassfires to slow-moving surface or intense crown fires. Bushfires are a seasonal hazard in Australia and New Zealand, with timing and behaviour shaped by regional climate and vegetation.

Characteristics and fire behaviour

Bushfires vary by fuel type, weather and topography. Grassfires spread rapidly across open country; forest and woodland fires can climb into canopies producing crown fires that travel faster and generate embers that start spot fires far ahead of the main front. Key weather drivers include high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds; steep slopes and continuity of fuel also accelerate fire spread. Many Australian plant species, notably Eucalyptus, contain volatile oils that increase flammability and encourage intense burning.

Origins and notable events

Ignitions arise from lightning, agricultural burns that escape control, equipment failures, fallen powerlines and deliberate arson. Some seasons produce extreme fire conditions. The 2009 Victorian bushfires (often called Black Saturday) were among the deadliest and most destructive recent events, with large loss of life and property documented. Other seasons have burned millions of hectares and caused widespread ecological and social disruption.

Ecological role and impacts

Fire is a natural process in many Australian ecosystems and some plants regenerate or reproduce only after fire. At moderate frequency and intensity, fires can maintain biodiversity and reset growth. However, very frequent or extremely intense fires can damage soil, reduce habitat for wildlife (including iconic species), and allow invasive species to gain a foothold. Smoke also affects air quality and human health over wide regions.

Management and preparedness

Approaches to reduce bushfire risk combine prevention, mitigation and response. Common measures include planned hazard-reduction burns to reduce fuel loads, construction of firebreaks, community education, strict controls on activities during high fire danger, and investment in firefighting resources. Early warning systems, land-use planning and clear evacuation procedures are critical for protecting lives and property.

Distinctions and further reading

Bushfire vs wildfire: terms are often used interchangeably, but "bushfire" is regionally specific.
Types: grassfire, surface fire, crown fire and spot fire denote different behaviour and hazards.
Management: combining traditional indigenous burning practices with modern science is increasingly discussed as a way to reduce catastrophic risk.

For more information on terminology, ecology and safety measures consult authoritative sources and local fire services; education and preparedness remain the most effective defence against bushfire harm. See related resources: wildfire overview, scrublands, woodland ecology, grassland fires, Australian fire services, New Zealand guidance, Eucalyptus and flammability, Black Saturday.

Oil painting of a bush fire between Mount Elephant and Timboon by Eugene von Guerard (1857)

View of the village of Swifts Creek during the 2006/2007 bushfires in Victoria in December 2006

Memorial to the 2003 bushfire in Canberra

Definition

Australian bushfires are generally defined as uncontrolled fires of grass, scrub, brush and forest. There are two main categories based on terrain type:

Bushfires in forested, hilly and mountainous areas:

These areas are sparsely developed, are not used for agriculture, and many of their forested areas are national, state, or other parks. Steep terrain increases the intensity and speed of fires, which pose a great danger to settlements and residents.

Bushfires in flatlands or grasslands:

In flat or less hilly terrain, mostly covered by grasses and shrubs, brush fires can spread immensely fast, as they are often fanned by strong and hot winds and favoured by dry and easily ignited vegetation. Fires in grasslands can reach an intensity similar to hill country. Here, too, there is a great danger to human settlements. However, they are easier to forecast and contain regionally; moreover, these areas are easier for fire brigades to reach.

Natural triggers of bushfires are lightning strikes, sometimes these fires are caused by careless handling of cigarettes or by arson; occasionally fires start unintentionally during agricultural use of areas.

During the 2019/2020 bushfires, fires also occurred in subtropical Gondwana rainforests in Australia, some of which had not burned for more than 1000 years. Fires also occurred in wet eucalypt forests due to drought conditions that had lasted for several years, as well as in dried-up swamps and soils of organic material after the water table there had dropped.

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Painting Black Thursday (Fire of 1851) by William Strutt (1825-1915)

History

Bushfires of natural origin have been present on the Australian continent for millions of years, triggered by lightning strikes and thus significantly shaped much of the landscape of the Australian continent before the arrival of man. Aboriginal people used fire for hunting and landscape management for many thousands of years, usually in the cooler seasons and when winds were favourable. Fires set in this way encouraged the growth and expansion of grasslands and facilitated hunting, as well as reducing the stock of combustible material and facilitating penetration into inhospitable areas with dense vegetation.

The increased occurrence of human-caused bushfires allowed fire-resistant plant species to spread, especially eucalypts. With their rapid formation of shoots after fires, woody stem bulges, and fire-resistant seeds, many plants adapted evolutionarily. Some species produce flammable oil, which increases fire effectiveness, eliminating non-fire resistant plant species in the surrounding area.

According to a summary published by the Australian CISRO in 2012, Australian fire and land management agencies dealt with 268,398 bush and grass fires between 2002 and 2007. That was an average of 53,680 fires per year. Assuming this trend had been constant throughout the 20th century, there would have been a total of about 5.5 million fires from 1901 to 2000.

Some of the most dangerous and large Australian bushfires since the arrival of European settlers have been (in chronological order):

Fire	Area	Burnt area	Date	Dead	Destruction
Bushfire in Victoria 1851	Victoria	estimated 50,000 km²	February 6, 1851	approx. 12	1 million sheep, thousands of cattle
Red Tuesday Bushfires	Victoria	2,600 km²	February 1, 1898	12	2,000 Buildings
Bushfire 1926	Victoria		February-March 1926	60	1,000 houses
Bushfire in Victoria 1939	Victoria	20,000 km²	December 1938 - January 1939, especially on 13 January 1939	71	3,700 houses
Bushfire 1944	Victoria	approx. 10,000 km²	14 January - 14 February 1944	15–20	more than 500 houses
Bushfire 1951-1952	Victoria		Summer 1951-1952	10
Black Sunday Bushfire (1955)	South Australia		January 2, 1955	2
Western Australia Bushfire 1961	Western Australia	18,000 km²	January-March 1961	0	160 houses
Bushfire 1962	Victoria		14-16 January 1962	32	450 houses
Southern Highlands Bushfire	New South Wales		5-14 March 1965	3	59 houses
Tasmanian bushfire of 1967	Tasmania	estimated 2,640 km²	1967	62	1,293 houses
Dandenong Ranges Bushfire	Victoria	19 km²	February 19, 1968		53 houses and 10 other buildings
Bushfires in the Northern Territory 1968-1969	Northern Territory	400,000 km²	1968–1969		Killarney - Top Springs
Bushfires in the Northern Territory 1969-1970	Northern Territory	450,000 km²	1969–1970		Dry River - Victoria River
Bushfire in South Australia 1969	Victoria		January 8, 1969	23	230 houses
Northern Territory Bushfires 1974-1975	Northern Territory	450,000 km²	1974–1975		Barkly Tableland, Victoria River District, near Newcastle Waters
1974-1975 Western Australia Bushfire	Western Australia	290,000 km²	1974–1975
1974-1975 South Australia Bushfire	South Australia	170,000 km²	1974–1975
Western Districts-Bushfire	Victoria	1,030 km²	February 12, 1977	4	116 houses and 340 buildings
Western Australia Bushfire 1978	Western Australia	1,140 km²	April 4, 1978	2	6 buildings (the falling wind in the early evening is believed to have saved the towns of Donnybrook, Boyup Brook, Manjimup and Bridgetown)
Northern Sydney Bushfire	New South Wales		1979		20 homes in Sydney, the fire spread to Ku-ring-gai-Chase National Park.
Ash-Wednesday-Bushfires	South Australia and Victoria	4,180 km²	February 16, 1983	75	about 2,400 houses
Central Victoria Bushfire	Victoria	508 km²	January 14, 1985	3	> 180 houses
Eastern Seaboard Bushfires 1994	New South Wales		27 December 1993 - 16 January 1994	4	225 houses
Wooroloo Bushfire	Western Australia	105 km²	8 January 1997	0	16 houses
Dandenongs Bushfire	Victoria	4 km²	21 January 1997	3	41 houses
Lithgow Bushfire	New South Wales		2 December 1997	2
Perth-and-SW-Region-Bushfire	Western Australia	230 km²	2 December 1997	2 (21 injured)	1 House
Linton Bush Fire	Victoria		1998	5	There were 5 firefighters who died in the line of duty on December 2, 1998.
Black Christmas Bushfire	New South Wales	3,000 km²	2001–2002	0	121 houses
2002 Northern Territory Bushfire	Northern Territory	380,000 km²	2002
Bushfire in Canberra 2003	Australian Capital Territory		2003	4	nearly 500 houses, Canberra
Bushfire in Victoria 2003	Victoria	> 13,000 km²	8 January - 7 March 2003		41 houses. The bushfire burned for 59 days.
Tenterden	Western Australia		December 2003	2	(21,100 km² of forest burned during the 2002-2003 bushfire season in southwestern Western Australia)
Eyre Peninsula Bushfire	South Australia	8,900 km²	10-12 January 2005	9	about 50 houses
Central Coast Bushfire 2006	New South Wales - Central Coast		New Year's Day 2006
Jail Break Inn Fire	New South Wales - Junee Shire	300 km²	New Year's Day 2006	0	20,000 head of cattle. 7 houses, 7 combines and 4 sheep pens destroyed. 1,500 km of fence was damaged.
Victoria bushfire 2005	Victoria	1,600 km²	December 2005 - January 2006	4	57 houses, 359 farm buildings, 65,000 head of livestock. The bushfires occurred in the Stawell, Moondarra, Anakie, Yea and Kingla regions.
Grampians Bushfire	Victoria	1,840 km²	January 2006	2	25 houses destroyed, 62,000 sheep and 500 cattle burned.
Pulletop Bushfire	New South Wales - Wagga Wagga	90 km²	February 6, 2006	0	2,500 sheep, 6 head of cattle, 3 vehicles, 2 straw barns and 50 km of fence was destroyed
The Great Divides Fire	Victoria	10,480 km²	1 December 2006 - March 2007	1	51 houses
Bushfires in Victoria 2006/2007	Victoria	approx. 12,000 km²	1 December 2006 - 7 February 2007	1	41 houses destroyed. The bushfire burned for 69 days
Dwellingup Bush Fire	Western Australia	120 km²	February 4, 2007	0	12 houses destroyed.
Kangaroo Island Bushfire	South Australia	950 km²	6-14 December 2007	1	Flinders Chase National Park (630 km² or 85 % of the area of the national park burnt)
Boorabbin National Park Bushfire	Western Australia	400 km²	30 December 2007	3	Overhead power lines and Great Eastern Highway were destroyed and not usable for 2 weeks
Black Saturday Bushfires	Victoria	> 4,500 km²	7 February 2009 - 14 March 2009	173	> 2,029 houses and 2,000 other structures. In the course of this bushfire, three lightning-generating fire clouds, so-called pyrocumulonimbus, were formed, which rose to a height of up to 15 kilometres.
Toodyay Bush Fire	Western Australia	> 30 km²	December 29, 2009	0	37 houses
Lake Clifton brush fire	Western Australia	> 20 km²	11 January 2011	0	10 houses destroyed
Roleystone-Kelmscott Bush Fire	Western Australia	> 15 km²	6-8 February 2011	0	72 homes destroyed, 32 damaged, the Buckingham Bridge on Brookton Highway collapsed and had to be replaced with a temporary bridge.
Bushfires in Australia 2019/2020	New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory	> 126,000 km²	August 2019 - March 2020	33 directly + estimated 445 from smoking	5,900 buildings including 2,800 homes destroyed; 80% of Australia's residents hit by smoke, thousands treated in hospitals for smoke-related illnesses at a cost of AUSD 2 billion (1.2 billion euros), an estimated additional 445 deaths from smoke-related illnesses
Bushfire Fraser Island	Queensland	> 800 km²	From mid-October 2020

Shoots from the bark of a eucalyptus tree after a large bushfire, a survival strategy of plants after fire damage.

Two years after the Bogong bushfire, the forest in Victoria's eastern Gippsland shows the recovery of trees and vegetation.

Author

AlegsaOnline.com - Bushfire - Leandro Alegsa

Creation date: November 13, 2022
Last updated: April 28, 2026

URL: https://en.alegsaonline.com/art/15591