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Frequently Asked Bushfire Questions

Bushfires

Bushfires are not just a problem in Australia. They can occur all over the world. Although in Australia bushfires have been around since early settlement. Bushfires have numerous causes. Some causes of fires are man made but other fires are caused by the weather. An example is that in Australia we do not get too much rain in the summer and it leaves the land extremely dry and as a result there are drought periods for months and months at a time in some cases. When there is widespread drought in an area it can have a dramatic effect.

Bushfires affect the economy because bushfires can destroy whole livestock herds and the livelihood of many farmers. This has a snowballing effect on the entire country as any livestock which was destroyed cannot be sold for the domestic market or exported for overseas markets.

When an area is threatened by a bushfire it can have devastating effects. The financial effect can be millions of dollars worth of damage and takes the land affected many years or decades to recover fully.

There is a human cost involved as bushfires can cause deaths and serious injuries. Also in especially rural areas bushfires can cause areas to lose a large percentage of their skilled and semiskilled workers and many businesses to close down.

It does not take a very long time for a bushfire to engulf an entire county and devastate the lives of thousands of people and ruin the economy of that county as bushfires are hard to control especially when there is a lot of fuel and it has not rained for a prolonged period.

Bushfires also cause devastation to the fauna and flora of a region which it goes through and can cause some species to become threatened or endangered species.

However, bushfires are part of the Australian ecological system as bushfires are necessary to regenerate some plant species.

Although after 200 years of European settlement and European farming and grazing methods the ecology has been altered which makes bushfires an enormous threat to the nation, to the economy and human beings.

Due to the bushfire problem the population of Australia must be educated and made aware of the bushfire problem to eliminate or minimise bushfires and their devastating effects.