Bushfire articles from responsible sources, starting with the most recent. IBG does not endorse or agree with everything presented, but each item is relevant, of high interest and of lasting importance.
‘New research links hundreds more deaths to major bushfires in Los Angeles and Hawaii’ – ABC News (7 August, 2025)
‘Severe bushfire risk increased by hazard reduction burns, report finds’ – ABC News (1 February, 2024)
‘NSW farmers permitted unlicensed firefighting vehicles as part of RFS trial’ – ABC News (29 January, 2024)
‘Ghost forests: Australia’s snow gums under threat from climate change’ – The Age (December 27, 2023)
‘‘We could not hold it’: Can you fight fire with fire?’ – Sydney Morning Herald (December 24, 2023)
‘NSW Rural Fire Service facing calls to conduct audit to determine true strength of volunteer firefighting force’ – Sky News (December 20, 2023)
‘The best of a bad choice’: Megablaze was artificially enlarged by the Rural Fire Service’ – Sydney Morning Herald (December 16, 2023)
‘NSW a ‘ticking timebomb’ for catastrophic bushfires as RFS falls significantly behind hazard reduction targets ahead of summer’ – Sky News (December 13, 2023)
‘Currowan author Bronwyn Adcock shared Black Summer’s lessons at True Story festival’ – The Illawarra Flame (December 6, 2023)
‘Continent of fire: Australia’s fatal firestorms have a distinctive and mainly Victorian lineage, but the 2019-2020 season was frighteningly new’ – Inside Story (December 6, 2023)
‘Exhausted Queensland fire crews battle 420 bushfires in a week amid warnings of worst fire season in 70 years’ – ABC News (October 28, 2023)
‘Australia’s new fire warnings system is generating misleading ratings, exaggerating risk, ABC investigation reveals’ – ABC News (September 28, 2023)
Australia’s fire alert system explained as El Niño sets scene for drier than average summer – ABC News (September 21, 2023)
Coronial inquiry into Black Summer bushfires concludes – Blue Mountains Gazette (August 21, 2023)
NSW Bushfires Coronial Inquiry wraps as Blue Mountains locals make last-ditch appeal on back-burn – ABC News (August 11, 2023)
NSW Bushfire Coronial Inquiry hears about RFS warning delays in 2019 fatal Kangawalla fire – ABC News (August 8, 2023)
Firefighting truck cabin standards lead closing submissions at NSW Bushfires Coronial Inquiry – ABC News (August 7, 2023)
Western Australia’s controversial forest burning regime comes under the microscope – ABC News (June 14, 2023)
NSW government quietly drops partial merger of SES and Rural Fire Service proposed by flood inquiry – The Guardian (July 20, 2023)
Black Summer bushfire inquiry hears of need for defensive strategy when back-burns unviable – ABC News (May 25, 2023)
Local RFS captain feared a backburn at Mt Wilson could escape into the Grose Valley – Blue Mountains Gazette (May 23, 2023)
NSW coronial inquiry hears back-burning strategy was ‘appropriate’ response to Currowan fire – ABC News (May 22, 2023)
RFS captain tells Black Summer bushfire inquest back-burn was a ‘foregone conclusion’ – ABC News (May 18, 2023)
Black Summer inquest hears air attack supervisor raised back-burn concerns with RFS – ABC News (May 17, 2023)
RFS defends Gospers Mountain back-burn decision at Black Summer coronial inquest – ABC News (May 16, 2023)
Black Summer bushfires may have influenced the onset of rare triple-dip La Niña, study finds – ABC News (May 11, 2023)
New research reveals how forests reduce their own bushfire risk, if they’re left alone – The Conversation (March 22, 2023)
20 years ago, vast bushfires razed Canberra’s suburbs – and bushfire science was never the same – The Conversation (January 18, 2023)
Climate-fuelled disasters: warning people is good, but stopping the disaster is best. Here are 4 possible ways to do it – The Conversation (November 24 2022)
‘Report: aerial operations had been shut down before the air tanker crash that killed three in Australia‘ – Fire Aviation (August 31 2022)
‘Send in the drones: how to transform Australia’s fight against bushfires and floods‘ – The Guardian (August 13 2022)
‘Major Investment Boosts Southern NSW Community Safety’ – Aerial Fire Magazine (December 16 2021)
‘Yes, it’s rocket science: Australia needs eyes in space to monitor our tinderbox landscape’ – The Conversation (November 29 2021)
‘Bushfires that burn more than a million hectares increasing due to climate change, CSIRO finds’ – ABC News (November 26 2021)
‘Black mark’: Farmers get nod to clear land for bushfire protection’ – Sydney Morning Herald (September 13 2021)
‘Queensland Parks and Wildlife initially rejected QFES waterbombing offer for Fraser Island bushfire, documents reveal’ – ABC News (August 2021)
‘Climate change: UN’s code red climate warning a burning issue for Australia’s fire risk’ – Sydney Morning Herald (August 21 2021)
‘A Staggering 1.8 Million Hectares burned in High Severity Fires during Australia’s Black Summer’ – The Conversation (March 30 2021)
‘Firefighters lose control of ‘mega-blaze’ backburn, homes destroyed’ – Sydney Morning Herald (December 16 2020)
‘Rising levels of carbon dioxide increasing extreme weather events in Australia, report finds’ – The Guardian (November 13 2020)
‘3 billion animals were in the bushfires’ path. Here’s what the royal commission said (and should’ve said) about them’ – The Conversation (November 9 2020)
‘Diminishing effectiveness: Value of hazard reduction during extreme fires questioned’ – Sydney Morning Herald (November 2 2020)
‘Shattered’ – The Monthly (October 2020)
‘Black Summer – Inside the Gosper’s Mountain mega-fire – the biggest bushfire Australia’s ever seen’ – ABC News (July 26 2020)
‘Weathering the Cost’ – The Monthly (July 2020)
‘Firefighting tactics should change as climate warms say fire chiefs’ – Sydney Morning Herald (July 29 2020)
‘People expect change but it may not come after fire inquiries’ – Sydney Morning Herald (July 18 2020)
‘Bushfire planning blindspots leave vulnerable wildlife exposed’ – Sydney Morning Herald (July 1 2020)
‘Fire experts say hazard reduction burns help but not the solution’ – Sydney Morning Herald (June 17 2020)
”We dodged a bullet in Sydney’: Record fire season comes to a close’ – Sydney Morning Herald (March 31 2020)
‘Summer’s bushfire smoke-related deaths exposed’ – Sydney Morning Herald (March 23 2020)
‘Bushfire crisis conditions eight times more likely under 2C warming, analysis shows’ – The Guardian (March 5 2020)
‘‘Unprecedented’ globally: more than 20% of Australia’s forests burnt in bushfires’ – The Guardian (February 25 2020)
‘Jurassic Ark : The Secret Mission to save the Wollemi Pines from Bushfires’ – The Australian (February 14 2020 – paywall)
‘A summer of flame’ – Sydney Morning Herald (February 8 2020)
‘It’s heart-wrenching’: 80% of Blue Mountains and 50% of Gondwana rainforests burn in bushfires’ – The Guardian (January 17 2020)
‘Some say we’ve seen bushfires worse than this before but they’re ignoring a few key facts’ – The Conversation (January 14 2020)
‘Factcheck: Are national parks ‘locked up’ and more vulnerable to bushfires?’ – The Guardian (January 11 2020)
‘Budgets and Bushfires: has government cost-cutting hindered the firefighting?’ – Michael West Media (January 9 2020)
‘What sort of inquiry should come after these fires?’ – Pearls and Irritations (January 7 2020)
‘Are hazard reduction burns effective in managing bushfires? The answer is complicated’ – ABC News (December 20 2019)
‘Former fire chief says re-think over backburning urgently needed’ – ABC News (December 16 2019)
‘Turf war at the fire front’ – Background Briefing, ABC Radio National (March 2015)
Independent Bushfire Group 