For the first time - Australia has a detailed national picture of bushfire hazard and the potential impact of climate change on it. A project to create consistent maps and data began as a result of the black summer royal commission. The new information, which the ABC has been given early access to, allows people to see what climate change could mean for the bushfire risk at their property, and is already being used by national agencies and telcos.
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00:00It's a fairly small burn, but it's fairly complex.
00:14Fighting fire with fire.
00:16As the danger period approaches, firefighters on the northern outskirts of Sydney are conducting
00:21a hazard reduction burn.
00:23It's a three and a half hectare burn, which will offer protection to about 100 homes.
00:28It's becoming harder to get these burns done thanks to climate change.
00:32The season is lengthening for us and also what we're seeing is more extreme fire behaviour.
00:40This map from the CSIRO shows this area already has potential for an incredibly destructive
00:46fire.
00:48And the data, which uses weather, fuel and terrain information, is now being produced
00:53on a national scale.
00:55It has had quite a significant impact already and stands to just be a really firm basis
01:01of which we can revolutionise how risk management is achieved across Australia.
01:08Following a royal commission into the horror 2019-2020 black summer season, a specialist
01:13team at the CSIRO was tasked with producing nationally consistent data.
01:19What we can do as a national science agency is try to build a unified system that simply
01:25builds on the best of what states are being able to do and put our perspective on top
01:29of that as well.
01:30It'll support a federal response during nationally significant fires.
01:41It's also being used to protect telecommunications towers.
01:44I remember you saying the embers can be as small as two millimetres.
01:48The CSIRO team analysed more than 7,000 Optus towers, including this one in Victoria's Yarra
01:54Ranges.
01:55The red dots show areas posing higher risk and work has now been undertaken to reduce
02:00the threat here and at 39 other sites.
02:04We've been able to less the probability of those catastrophic losses by six times.
02:09The CSIRO data also shows if the fire hazard is projected to increase or decrease with
02:15climate change.
02:16The red indicates a higher risk under this climate model, which is the case for this
02:21area in Tasmania where Julian de Blanc lives.
02:28All you can do is take the necessary precautions.
02:30Mr de Blanc has taken several precautions, installing cladding outside, double glazed
02:36windows and ember protective blinds.
02:39The work's been recognised by the Resilient Building Council and it could mean he gets
02:43a discount in his insurance premiums.
02:46If you're an insurer, surely you're going to be wanting to insure properties that are
02:51resilient against fire or against flood or whatever the risk is.
02:58Following debate about the use of hazard reduction burns, the Royal Commission asked the CSIRO
03:03to develop consistent vegetation classifications and called for better communication about
03:09fuel management.
03:11A fire raged through this area of the Grampians in February, but Forest Fire Management Victoria
03:17says large areas were protected by a mosaic-style prescribed burn.
03:22We know from research that different species will inhabit these different sort of structures
03:28of the bush.
03:29With summer upon us, fire services across the country are preparing for the season ahead.
03:35At the same time, the Royal Commission is preparing to hand down its final report.
03:40It'll happen early next year and it's expected to show that 33 recommendations have been
03:45addressed and 20 others are still underway.
03:48The benefit that Royal Commission has really lies within the ability to understand and
03:55pick up those recommendations and honour them and take them forward.
04:00Work on the CSIRO's data is continuing and so the latest maps won't be available for
04:05this fire season.