Drive

Fire has a sacred relationship with humanity and the landscape. Indigenous Australians used it when first colonising the land. Our ancestors used it for warmth and for cooking, and our biology is adapted because of that. While fire can be a source of life and regeneration, it can also be a force for death and destruction. After the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria that claimed 173 lives, the Australian government adopted a new Fire Danger Rating across all states to preempt potential bushfire threat. Today (12th November), the maximum rating – Catastrophic – has been used in Sydney for the first time since its inception ten years ago. A weeklong state of emergency and total fire ban has been issued across the entire state of New South Wales. This, of course, is in relation to the bushfires raging across both New South Wales and Queensland right now. Dr. David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science at the University of Tasmania, was on-air to discuss.

Download the RFS Fires Near Me app, and keep updated on the flames closest to your vicinity.

Photo by Benjamin Waters, at Charles Hamey Lookout on Camden Head near Port Macquarie