Policies reviewed in the wake of Black Summer bushfires

In the wake of the Black Summer bushfires it was revealed more than 24 million hectares of land was scorched across Australia, 33 people were killed and more than 3000 homes destroyed.

An estimated three billion animals were killed or displaced by the fires and the economic impact is believed to be around $10 billion.

Last year's horrific bushfire season burnt 1.6 million hectares of agricultural land and at least 1 million hectares of conservation land across Queensland.

Following the devastating fires, the federal government established a royal commission in February.

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements received more than 1800 submissions, which formed a 600-page report of observations, resulting in more than 80 recommendations handed down to the government.

The recommendations found there needed to be a greater national response and more leadership from the federal government during national disasters, with calls for the Prime Minister to be able to declare a state of national emergency during such a crisis.

Queensland's Inspector-General Emergency Management also conducted a review into the Sarabah, Stanthorpe and Peregian Springs bushfires, which took place in September 2019.

Superintendent James Haig from the Rural Fire Service said the 2019-2020 bushfire season was a significant year for bushfire management in Queensland.

"Across much of country Queensland and in fact most of the state, we came off a number of very dry years, and from a fire perspective that obviously means the bush is dry and the fires go hard," Mr Haig said.

"In 2019, we had over 8000 bushfire incidents; the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had over 34,000 responses and 3000 different trucks deployed.

"Compare 2019 with 2020, there were roughly 4000 bushfires this year, so a much better year, probably due to better conditions, although I know large parts of Queensland are still very dry."

"The most recent bushfire was the Frazer Island fire and that particularly resonates with me because for a significant part of that fire I was the incident controller when QFES took over.

"Last year we had quite a lot of houses destroyed, however, one of the key messages coming out of 2019 and 2020 was no one was killed."

Queensland's ability to contain bushfires across the state was also bolstered with a new $15 million long-term Large Air Tanker Bomber 141, based out of Bundaberg.

Mr Haig said Operation Cool Burn had been the best success they've had in years with regards to the amount of hazard reduction burns completed.

"This year we've delivered over 550 hot-spot activities, which is the most we've ever got done as they are the highest priority and the biggest threat to community protection and to me that was a huge success," he said.

"That was around about an 80 per cent completion rate, and I've got to take my hat off to our volunteers because even with COVID and all sorts of challenges, we still got all that done.

"We're really hopeful that the widespread rain through a La Nina season might help and in turn that makes bushfire management a lot easier."

QFES participated in several cultural burns, including at Tamborine Mountain and Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island).

Mr Heig said QFES trained with traditional owners about indigenous cultural fire management practices.

"We're trying to incorporate more of the traditional indigenous knowledge of how they might have burned that landscape in the past, as a way of mitigating the risk going into the future and I think there's a real appetite for it," he said.

"Just weeks ago, as the Incident Controller at Fraser Island, I can tell you that we had some Aboriginal Corporation people embedded in the incident management team and that helped us better understand some of the concerns they had and the cultural values of the island.

"There are huge environmental impacts and cultural impacts and people in Queensland care about their bushland as well and we're trying to make sure that we do that as well as we can."

Mr Haig said QFES were beyond thankful for the support and time volunteers gave during the 2019-2020 bushfire season.

"They have worked so hard and they draw from rural communities all across Queensland; I'd like to give a big shout out to them for the fantastic effort they've done and I really hope that we can have a quiet and safe Christmas and New Year," he said.