Bushfire season is here. The Bureau of Meteorology expects the declared El Niño to be strong to very strong. Southeastern Australia is bracing for a long run of dangerous fire weather.
Weather is only part of a catastrophic fire. Another factor is fuel – combustible vegetation. Our new research, published today, shows the current fuel load in some Australian forests is not “natural”. It is a product of colonisation, which loaded Australian landscapes with fuel a century before human-made climate change began.
