Lessons from Black Summer: how people experienced the 2019/20 NSW fire season

25 May, 2021

Community expectations of warnings and information appear to be growing, shows new NSW-based research with UOW: University of Wollongong, Australia, and Macquarie University.

The Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre spoke to 200+ people and surveyed 1000+ others for a report commissioned by the NSW Rural Fire Service to explore people’s experiences during the Black Summer fires in NSW. The research shows the challenges around community expectations of warnings, with many people expecting to receive highly detailed and localised information in near real-time.

New initiatives, including fire spread prediction maps and Tourist Leave Zone messages, were found to be effective in communicating risk, but few travellers had prepared for the possibility of encountering bushfire while travelling or at their destination. Read more in Hazard Note 95: https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/hazardnotes/95?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=haznote95&utm_campaign=haznote95