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ENVIRONMENT
AL ASSESSMENT
REPORT: FIRE
HAZARD
KGA 703: Professional Research Methods

Srishti Gautam – The Bushfire Assessment Company

554608 | University of Tasmania

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2

METHODS.........................................................................................................................................3

RESULTS...........................................................................................................................................4

DISCUSSION......................................................................................................................................8

RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................................................................9

REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The initial desktop analysis using QGIS serves as the foundation for the fieldwork that was
carried out in Bicentennial Park, Mt. Nelson on the 8th of September 2021. The goal of the
fieldwork was to determine the relationship between native flora species, previous fire
regimes, and fire hazard. The main aims of the report were to ground truth the vegetation
communities as identified in the preliminary stage of desktop analysis, to document and
analyse the relationship between occurrence of plant species and past fire regimes, to
evaluate the presence of main plant species by cover and abundance, to assess the fuel
hazards in each vegetation community and to consider the relation between vegetation
communities and fuel hazards. The fuel load assessment was carried out based on the
Overall fuel hazard assessment guide, 4th edition, Fire and adaptive management, report no.
82. Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne.

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Figure 1. Vegetation communities of Bicentennial Park. The map highlights the various
vegetation communities in the study area along with the four sites where fuel hazard
assessment was undertaken to understand the related bushfire risk.

Methods
Four quadrats of 20x20m were established to cover burned (2) and unburned (2) sites
across Bicentennial Park. The coordinates for each site were recorded with a GPS. The
Braun-Blanquet scale was used to determine the percent cover/abundance for each plant
species for the four quadrats to which a ‘density score’ was assigned. Lastly, the Overall Fuel
Hazard assessment guide was used to record the overall fuel hazard for each quadrat, the
fuel hazard category and the associated risk for all recorded plant species. This field data
was collected by technicians of the company. Due to technical difficulties, the coordinates
for Site No. 2 were recorded incorrectly, which resulted in a skewed location for site 2.
However, the approximate location was still plotted on the map (Figure 1).

Figure 2. Braun-Blanquet Density Scores.

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Results

Site No. Easting Northing Latitude Longitude Number of Overall

individual Fuel
species Hazard
1 – Unburnt

42.92429 147.34683 10 H
528305 5247534 2425° S 9344° E

2 – Unburnt

- - - - 11 H

3 – Burnt

42.92401 147.34669 14 L
528293 5247565 3714° S 0738° E

4 – Burnt

42.92411 147.34705 10 VH
528323 5247554 1655° S 8895° E

All photographs belong to The Bushfire Assessment Company

Table 1. A table showing the coordinates of all four sites along with the number of species
and the overall fuel hazard.

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 Site No. Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4
Canopy (20 m radius)
Average height 6-7 m 6m 9m 12 m
(m)
Bark fuel layer ( 20 m radius)
Stringy Bark Not present Not present Not present Not present
Fuel Hazard
Ribbon Bark H H H M
Fuel Hazard
Other Bark Fuel H Not present M M
Hazard
Elevated fuel layer (10 m radius)
Elevated fuel M VH M VH
hazard
Near-surface VH VH M VH
fuel hazard
Surface fuel layer (10 m radius)
Surface fuel H M L M
hazard
Combined Surface and Near-surface Fine Fuel Hazard
Combine VH H L VH
hazard
Overall Fuel hazard
Overall fuel H H L VH
hazard

Table 2. A table depicting the fuel structure categories for all four sites.

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Grass

Shrubs

Trees

Eucalypts

Figure 3. A graph comparing the different plant species between the two sites.

This figure depicts a comparison of plant species between sites 1 (unburnt) and site 3
(burnt). Site 1 and site 3 had somewhat similar abundance of grasses like snake sag grass
and sword sedge grass. However, there was a dominance of tussock grass on site 1 as
compared to Site 3. Sites 1 and 3 had no shrubs recorded. Site 3 was the most prevalent in
trees such as Silver wattle, native cherry, blackwood, She oak, and Blanket bush. Both sites
had all three types of Eucalypt trees, namely blue gum, white peppermint, and white gum,
with white peppermint and white gum dominating site 1. There was also more ground litter
i.e. fallen leaves on site 1 in comparison to site 3.

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Grass

Shrubs

Trees

Eucalypts

Figure 4. A graph comparing the different plant species between the two sites.

Site 2 (unburnt) and Site 4 (burnt) had somewhat similar abundance of grasses. However,
there was a notable increase in snack sag grass and tussock grass on site 2 Site 4 had more
coarse woody debris than site 2, which had none. The shrub prickley box was observed on
both sites however site 4 had a greater abundance of the shrub. Site 2 was abundant in
Silver wattle and blanket bush trees, while, Site 4 had more She oaks. Site 4 had more
diversity of eucalypt trees (3 species) than site 2 (2 species) with white peppermint
dominating the landscape.

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Discussion
Fire is critical to the conservation of biodiversity in Australia. Changes in the fire regime
(season, intensity, and frequency of fire) can lead to gradual changes in plant communities.
Both frequent fire and long-term fire exclusion have been shown to cause gradual effects on
plant community structure which relates to biodiversity loss. Therefore, many of the natural
habitats in the study area could be jeopardised if fire is not used properly as a management
tool (Bay, 2014: p.7). Numerous factors, including macro- and microclimate, species
composition, topography, presence of fire breaks, and human intervention mediate the
local impact of fire on vegetation (Shawn et al., 2021).

The exact history of bushfires in Bicentennial Park prior to Tasmanian colonisation is

unknown. However, it is recognised that Aboriginal fire practices over thousands of years
have shaped and affected the current day landscape and vegetation communities with ‘less
fire tolerant species ‘in wetter areas and ‘more fire resistant species’ in dry areas. Major
fires in Bicentennial park occurred in the following years: 1967, 1982, 1995 and 1998 (Bay,
2014: p.26). According to the desktop analysis, vegetation fires were the most common type
of fire between 1993 and 2013, followed by vehicle and rubbish fires, with ‘escape from
burning off' being the leading cause of vegetation fires. Therefore, making public education,
awareness, and vigilance an important factor in reducing vegetation related fires in the park
(Bay 2014: p. 27).

Dry eucalypt forest dominates the site, followed by modified land and wet sclerophyll
forest. The Dry eucalypt forest and woodland community encompasses all four of our sites.
(Figure 1). The presence of fine fuel is the most important determinant of fire intensity,
while the quantity of near surface fuel influences the rate of spread of a bushfire (Gould et
al., 2008). The fuel structure (surface fine fuel, near surface fine fuel, elevated fuels and bark
fuels), however, is a more important determinant of bushfire than the ‘total fine fuel load'
(Marsden-Smedley, 2009).

Fuels in the canopy, elevated, bark, surface, and near surface are present at all four sites.
Site 1 has fewer trees, which means less ground litter and a lower risk of bark fuel hazard
due to mechanical thinning. Because of a recent control burn, site 3 has invigorated fresh
grasses with less litter and some coarse debris. Ground litter with elevated fuel, such as bark
on the ground and candle bark hanging down the eucalyptus trees, was abundant at Site 2.
While, site 4 harboured a large amount of dead debris and wood because of a recent control
burn which accidentally raised the site’s fuel score.

Therefore, the sites can burn with moderate to high intensity depending on the degree of
fuel accumulation. There is a chance of significant ember attack and spotting at site 2 and
site 4 due to high bark fuel hazard. A crown fire can be sustained by tree cover, and
eucalypts (especially rough bark and old hollow trees), which can produce embers that can
carry a bushfire over nearby fuel breaks and roads as in case of site 1 and threaten nearby
property. If there is enough ground litter a fire can go through any time of the year.

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Recommendations
A robust fire management plan is in effect in Bicentennial Park, however it can benefit from
various real life case studies. The 1967 Bicentennial Park Bushfires elicited the need to
develop predictive modelling to actively manage fires (Bay, 2014). SPARK is a bushfire
prediction tool developed by CSIRO with adaptable inputs like wind speed, weather and
local vegetation. It was used during The Deans Gap fire, NSW, 2013 which had very complex
and variable local vegetation to create over 100 simulations to predict fire spread. This
complex case study somewhat reflects the vegetation, fuel load and topographical
complexity of Bicentennial Park which can use SPARK to provide decision makers with
information for better fire management. (Miller et al., 2015).

The 2020 Lake Conjola fire, New South Wales killed 3 people and destroyed 130 homes. The
aftermath of the fire and recovery was mostly led and funded by The Conjola Community
Recovery Association therefore highlighting the challenges in securing adequate
government funding. Thereby, necessitating the placement of community in the heart of
‘bushfire preparedness, response and recovery’ with adequate territory, state and federal
funding, healthcare, financial counselling and affordable essential services. The fire
management plan should have a community partnership, inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people and community sector organisations to improve community resilience,
future bushfire recovery effort, preparedness and responsiveness (Australian Bushfire and
Climate Plan, 2020: p.45).

The most important recommendation is to address the urgency of climate change and
strengthen the 2030 emission reduction targets by decarbonising all economic sectors and
ending new fossil fuel developments (Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan, 2020: p.12).
Australia can definitely follow the green energy transition of Iceland from fossil fuels to
hydropower and geothermal powered economy by investing more in research and potential
renewable energy projects than investing in coal and gas (Lee et al., 2012).

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References
Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan: Final report of the National Bushfire and Climate
Summit 2020, pp. 12-45.

Bay, S., 2014. Fire Management Plan Bicentennial Park–Porter Hill, pp. 7-27.

Gould, J.S., McCaw, W.L., Cheney, N.P., Ellis, P.F. and Matthews, S. eds., 2008. Field guide:
fire in dry eucalypt forest: fuel assessment and fire behaviour prediction in dry eucalypt
forest. CSIRO PUBLISHING.

Lee, H. and Logadóttir, H.H., 2012. Iceland’s energy policy: Finding the right path forward.
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Michael-Shawn, F., MJS, B.D., Cathy, W., Michela, M., Felicitas, H., Alexa, B., Tegan, H.,
Hendrik, H. and Atun, Z., 2021. The influence of climatic change, fire and species invasion on
a Tasmanian temperate rainforest system over the past 18,000 years. Quaternary Science
Reviews, 260, p.106824.

Marsden-Smedley, J.B., 2009. Planned burning in Tasmania: operational guidelines and

review of current knowledge.

Miller, C., Hilton, J., Sullivan, A. and Prakash, M., 2015, March. SPARK–A bushfire spread
prediction tool. In International Symposium on Environmental Software Systems (pp. 262-
271). Springer, Cham.

Overall fuel hazard assessment guide, 4th edition, Fire and adaptive management, report no.
82. Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne.

Tasmanian Bushfires Inquiry, 2013, Recommendations and Response. Available at:

https://gfmc.online/wp-content/uploads/Bushfire_Inquiry_recommendations.pdf [Accessed
24 September 2021].

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