Managing bushfire risk

Together with CFS, SA Water, ForestrySA and other partners, NPWS undertakes fire management across more than 18 million hectares of public land on behalf of all South Australians.

The aim is to reduce the risk of bushfire on public land, and private land in strategic locations, to safeguard the things people care about in the areas where they live. This involves fire management tactics such as prescribed burns and other tools.

State Bushfire Coordination Committee is tasked with coordinating bushfire management in South Australia.

The CFS is bushfire hazard leader in South Australia and oversees and coordinates the bushfire prevention activities of multiple agencies and landowners. NPWS works in partnership with other government agencies as part of an integrated statewide bushfire mitigation program to reduce the spread and impact of bushfires on communities and the environment. This fire management planning at the state level is put into action at the regional level.

NPWS also collaborates with conservation and industry groups, and national emergency management agencies, to reduce bushfire risk and/or fight fires.

Prescribed burning is part of a broader strategy needed to combat the more extreme fires Australia now faces.

Other strategic fire management activities like removing weeds, and rolling, or slashing vegetation, help to lessen the risk, intensity and spread of future bushfires, which makes suppression more achievable and safer. For example, selectively thinning clumps of vegetation, which is increasing a fuel load, is an effective way to reduce bushfire hazard while looking after the environment.

NPWS also maintains a network of fire access tracks in national parks across the state, in line with standards set by the CFS. These tracks are audited annually and where necessary, vegetation is slashed or rolled, and overhanging tree branches are removed. This ensures they can be safely accessed by firefighting appliances for prescribed burning and bushfire response.

All this prevention work is informed by meticulous research and planning and sits alongside being prepared, responsive and attentive to recovery.

NPWS contributes to CFS-led bushfire responses by supplying staff as firefighters, strike team leaders, sector commanders and divisional commanders; and aerial ignition staff who light fires from helicopters for back-burning operations in difficult to access areas.

It also supplies specialist staff in incident management roles including Incident Controllers, and agency liaison staff in the State Command Centre; planning and operations officers; mapping support teams; fire behaviour analysts; and a Natural Values team.

To help protect environmental values that might be affected by a bushfire, suppression activities (works to bring a fire under control e.g. retardant lines, bulldozers breaks etc), or by immediate post-fire threats, a Natural Values Officer works closely with the Incident Management Team (IMT) that is managing large and complex bushfires.

This specialist provides crucial ecological information quickly to the IMT. This information, alongside important information on life and property values, is then considered by the IMT when developing strategies and plans to manage the bushfire.