Australian expat community in fundraising campaign for bushfire-hit people

Prof. Whelan, President of UOWD and author of "The Ecology of Fire", while delivering a talk on bushfires, said:

"Breaking the cycle of complacency, collectively and individually, is perhaps the greatest challenge Australia faces in applying our learning in time for the next major bushfire event."

"Preparing for bushfires is very challenging because of the relative infrequency of such incidents in the past, making us ill-prepared to handle such disasters due to a lack of knowledge and the wisdom of elders, as well as growing complacency, according to Professor Rob Whelan, a renowned expert on bushfires," said Prof. Whelan.

According to Prof. Whelan, in the past 40 years, major Australian bushfires have cost $2.5bn and have claimed over 250 lives, the greatest loss of life associated with any category of natural disasters in Australia. In a single catastrophic event, the Victorian bushfires this year have nearly doubled this figure.

Prof. Whelan, who was part of the three-member panel appointed by the Council of Australian Governments to conduct a National Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management in 2004, highlighted the key recommendations of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in the context of information emerging from the 2009 bushfires.

"The tragic and unprecedented loss of life should focus our attention on how we might modify our approaches to community awareness and preparedness, and to designing and applying more effective risk management and risk minimization strategies," Prof. Whelan said.

Referring to the human aspect of bushfires, Prof. Whelan said recovery was a long process and the period after the immediate response was most critical, because such natural disasters usually have delayed as well as immediate impacts.