Mega-fires, inquiries and politics in the eucalypt forests of Victoria, south-eastern Australia

Abstract

Three mega-fires in Victoria over the period 2002-2009 burnt some 3. million hectares, or 40% of the state's public land. In the worst of these bushfires-Black Saturday, 7 February 2009-173 people lost their lives in Australia's worst civilian tragedy. Each of these three fires was followed by intensive inquiries and investigations, the most prolonged and intensive being a Royal Commission inquiry (the most rigorous form of legal inquiry in Australia) into the Black Saturday fires. Continuous changes in the organization of public land management agencies and in policies of public land management over the past 30. years have disrupted forest and fire management, and resulted in large increase..