Wildfires: Characteristics, drivers and impacts on cultural sites

Abstract

Australia is a continent shaped over many millennia by fire. The flora and fauna, from tropical savannas, to the arid interior, to the wet forests of southeastern Australia, have lived and evolved under fire, and many have traits that let them tolerate and thrive under this disturbance. People have also lived alongside landscape fire, and have used it as a tool for many thousands of years (e.g., Adeleye et al. 2021; Haberle et al. 2010). However, not all fires are created equal; cool burns in the cooler months have very different behaviours and impacts on Country than the intense, difficult-to-control wildfires that dominate the summer months. Show more