Research on the impacts on schooling of COVID and bushfire and flood disasters has found academically the kids are mostly OK. It’s their well-being and recovery from trauma that demand our attention.
The Black Summer bushfires burned far more temperate forest than any other fire season recorded in Australia. The disaster was clearly a climate change event; however, other human activities also had consequences.
Taking timber from forests dramatically changes their structure, making them more vulnerable to bushfires. And, crucially for the Black Summer bushfires, logged forests are more likely to burn out of control.
Naturally, the drivers of the fires were widely debated during and after the disaster. Research published earlier this month, for example, claimed native forest logging did not make the fires worse.
We believe these findings are too narrowly focused and in fact, misleading. They overlook a vast body of evidence that crown fire – the most extreme type of bushfire behaviour, in which tree canopies burn – is more likely in logged native forests.
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Byfield National Park will be more resilient to future bushfires after receiving a $495,000 boost, as part of $10.7 million in bushfire recovery projects announced Friday by the Australian and Queensland governments.
In 2019, the Cobraball bushfire burnt across the Capricorn Coast, engulfing 12,100 hectares of land including 15 homes, 38 sheds, 8,500 hectares of grazing land and 275 hectares of horticultural production land.
Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry said the fourth and final round of Local Economic Recovery projects was a joint investment of $36.8 million to support recovery in Queensland communities hit hard by the 2019-20 bushfires.
Ms Landry said the 21 projects funded across Queensland included an exciting project in Capricornia.