Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges: How prescribed burns affected bushfires
NPWS conducts more prescribed burns in the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges (AMLR) region in spring and autumn than any other region in the state due to the high bushfire risk. During favourable conditions, individual burns are often small but strategically placed in high-risk areas as part of a broader plan to protect homes and infrastructure. Their effectiveness has been demonstrated on both public and private land. Take a look at some examples below.
The place
The Adelaide Hills rise from the eastern side of the Adelaide Plains and is the most densely populated rural fire region in the state. With a population of over 500,000 people there has been rapid growth in recent years around central towns such as Mt Barker. More than 35 suburbs in Adelaide's fringes and 40 towns in the Adelaide Hills are in bushfire prone areas.
The issues
The Adelaide Hills is an ecologically significant region which is also highly vulnerable to bushfires. Homes and businesses are intermingled with an abundance of vegetation often in steep topography.
During the Ash Wednesday 1980 and 1983 fires, 14 lives were lost, hundreds of people were injured, 119 homes were destroyed along with many other buildings, structures and cars. These fires burnt through huge areas of the Adelaide Hills and are etched in the memories of residents.
Trying to prevent another fire event of this magnitude and impact is a key driver of the NPWS fire management program.
The planning
We never know when or where a bushfire is going to start. A fire management plan can’t prevent bushfires, but it can focus NPWS fire management actions on strategies to reduce bushfire impacts and improve firefighter response. Likewise, prescribed burns won’t stop all bushfires, but they may limit their spread and impact and make them easier and safer to suppress.
A new AMLR Fire Management Plan is in development and due for release in mid-2026. Many NPWS reserves highlighted in the plan area are next to urban fringes or high-value commercial or agricultural assets.
The bushfires: how did prescribed burns make a difference?
Sampson Flat bushfire
The Sampson Flat bushfire began on 2 January 2015 under a catastrophic fire danger rating and destroyed 24 houses and 103 sheds. Sixty-two firefighters were injured fighting the blaze.
Starting on private land near the western side of Mt Gawler Native Forest Reserve, the fire burnt across roughly 12,600 ha impacting many towns including Kersbrook and Gumeracha, grazing land, vineyards, livestock and properties.
The fire burnt the entire Cudlee Creek Conservation Park and impacted the southern end of Para Wirra Conservation Park. Then after a wind change, the fire ran into prescribed burn areas in Millbrook Reservoir, that had been undertaken in between 2010 and 2013. These fuel-reduced areas moderated the intensity of the fire which enabled fire crews to contain it north of Gorge Road / River Torrens.
The main objective of the burns was to protect critical infrastructure and reduce the likelihood of a high intensity bushfire having a significant impact on Adelaide’s drinking water supply, which was largely achieved. If the bushfire had continued burning at high intensity, impacts on communities to the south may have been more significant.
NPWS staff observed that 1 to 2-year-old prescribed burn areas didn’t carry the fire at all (spotting didn’t take) and 3 to 5-year-old prescribed burn areas reduced the intensity, limited canopy scorch, and reduced spotting activity. These areas left more vegetation intact, which reduced the amount of post fire erosion following rain and remote cameras showed a much larger range of native animals used the habitat in these areas compared to the surrounding severely burnt areas.
Cudlee Creek bushfire
The Cudlee Creek bushfire started on 20 December 2019. The fire consumed 23,295 ha and impacted many towns throughout the Adelaide Hills including Lobethal, Woodside, Brukunga, Harrogate and Mount Torrens. Fire destroyed 85 homes and resulted in the loss of one life and injured 51 firefighters.
The bushfire burnt at high intensity under an Extreme fire danger rating, burning out Charleston and Porters Scrub conservation parks and Lobethal Bushland Park. Significant tree death was observed in areas of Lobethal Bushland Park that burnt under high intensity, but this was dramatically reduced when the fire ran into a prescribed burn put in place two years earlier (see aerial photo below).
This meant this part of the park could bounce back much faster, and demonstrates how prescribed burns can bolster ecosystem resilience, protect mature trees and provide areas of refuge for wildlife to shelter in and make use of post bushfire.
Belair National Park bushfire
A fire started along the train line in Belair National Park in the Adelaide foothills on a catastrophic fire danger day in 2014, burning in scrub surrounded by homes. A fire management plan developed earlier had identified the train line as high-risk, so fuel reduced areas were introduced strategically along the track.
When the fire threw embers and created spot fires in the footprint of a prescribed burn put in place one year earlier, the bushfire did not take due to the low level of fuel. The prescribed burns in the park successfully reduced the spread and intensity of the bushfire allowing the fire to be extinguished before it grew to a more dangerous size.
Mount Lofty Summit
When prescribed burns do their job they can create situations where you will never hear of a bushfire because the fire is unable to reach its potential. One example is when a small fire started below Mount Lofty in 2024, which would have burnt up to the Summit, but it ran into a recent prescribed burn scar instead and self-extinguished.
