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The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, also known as the Black Summer, was one of the most intense and catastrophic fire seasons on record in Australia. Exceptionally dry conditions, a lack of soil moisture, and early fires in Central Queensland led to a premature start to the bushfire season from June 2019. Over ten thousand fires burnt, mainly in the south-east of the country, until March 2020. The most severe fires hit from December 2019 to January 2020.
The fires burnt more than destroyed over 3,000 buildings, and directly killed 33 people. Bushfire smoke was responsible for an additional 417 deaths. An estimated three billion terrestrial vertebrates, mostly reptiles, were killed or displaced. Some species may have been driven to extinction. In all affected states, air quality dropped to dangerous levels, and smoke moved across the Southern Ocean to impact weather conditions in other continents. Carbon emissions exceeded 700 million tonnes.
Rescue and recovery efforts were immense. States of emergency were declared across various regions of New South Wales (NSW) and the north-east to east of Victoria, which were the areas most impacted. NSW alone recorded 11,774 fires; six percent of the state burned. Methods of community damage control included total fire bans and strict evacuation orders. The Australian Defence Force was mobilised to provide manpower and logistical support, and international crews were brought in from New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the United States. An air tanker, helicopters and fire trucks crashed in rescue efforts, resulting in the deaths of several crew members. The last major fire in Victoria was contained on 27 February 2020, and all fires in New South Wales were extinguished by 2 March.
The total economic loss was estimated being at least $100 billion, far and away the costliest natural disaster in Australian history. Tourism sector revenues fell by $2.8 billion.
There was considerable debate regarding the underlying cause of the intensity and scale of the fires, including the role of fire management practices and climate change. The fires attracted significant international attention. An estimated $500 million was donated by the public, international organisations, public figures and celebrities for victim relief and wildlife recovery. Convoys of donated food, clothing and livestock feed were sent to affected areas.
Overview From September 2019 fires heavily impacted various regions of the state of New South Wales, such as the North Coast, Mid North Coast, the Hunter Region, the Hawkesbury and the Wollondilly in Sydney's far west, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra and the South Coast, Riverina and Snowy Mountains with more than 100 fires burnt across the state. In eastern and north-eastern Victoria large areas of forest burnt out of control for four weeks before the fires emerged from the forests in late December, taking lives, threatening many towns and isolating Corryong and Mallacoota. A state of disaster was declared for East Gippsland. Significant fires occurred in the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Moderately affected areas were south-eastern Queensland and areas of south-western Western Australia, with a few areas in Tasmania and the ACT being mildly impacted.
On 12 November 2019, catastrophic fire danger was declared in the Greater Sydney region for the first time since the introduction of this level in 2009 and a total fire ban was in place for seven regions of New South Wales, including Greater Sydney. The Illawarra and Greater Hunter areas also experienced catastrophic fire dangers, and so did other parts of the state, including the already fire ravaged parts of northern New South Wales. The political ramifications of the fire season have been significant. A decision by the New South Wales Government to cut funding to fire services based on budget estimates, as well as a holiday taken by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, during a period in which two volunteer firefighters died, and his perceived apathy towards the situation, resulted in controversy.
, was burnt or is burning across all Australian states and territories. Ecologists from the University of Sydney estimated 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles were lost since September with concerns that entire species of plants and animals may have been wiped out by bushfire, later expanded to more than a billion.
Since the start of the season, the ongoing bushfires have destroyed 2,176 homes, as well as 48 facilities and more than 2,000 outbuildings in New South Wales alone. Twenty-five people were confirmed to have been killed in New South Wales since October. The latest fatality reported was on 23 January 2020 following the death of a man near Moruya.
In New South Wales, the fires burnt through more land than any other blazes in the past 25 years, in addition to being the state's worst bushfire season on record. NSW also experienced the longest continuously burning bushfire complex in Australia's history, having burnt more than , with flames being reported. In comparison, the 2018 California wildfires consumed and the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires burnt of land.
Whereas these bushfires are regarded by the NSW Rural Fire Service as the worst bushfire season in memory for that state, the 1974 bushfires were nationally much larger consuming . However, due to their lower intensity and remote location, the 1974 fires caused around 5 million (approximately 36.5 million in 2020) in damages. In December 2019 the New South Wales Government declared a state of emergency after record-breaking temperatures and prolonged drought exacerbated the bushfires.
Due to safety concerns and significant public pressure, New Year's Eve fireworks displays were cancelled across New South Wales including highly popular events at Campbelltown, Liverpool, Parramatta, and across Sydney's Northern Beaches, and as well in the nation's capital of Canberra. As temperatures reached , the New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian called a fresh seven-day state of emergency with effect from 9am on 3 January 2020.
On 23 January, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules air tanker crashed at Peak View near Cooma while waterbombing a blaze, resulting in the death of the three American crew members on board. It was one of eleven large air tankers brought to Australia for the fire season from Canada and US. An investigation is underway by the ATSB to determine the cause of the accident. Reaching the crash site proved difficult due to the active bushfires in the area. The crash site was located in dense bushland, and spanned approximately one kilometre.
State / territory Fatalities Homeslost Area Notes ha acres Australian Capital Territory 1 0 Area; fatality New South Wales 25 2,176 Area; fatalities; homes Northern Territory 0 5 Area, includes mainly scrub fires, which are within the normal range of area burnt by bushfires each year; homes Queensland 0 48 Area, includes scrub fires; homes South Australia 3 151 Area; fatalities; homes (KI:65) (AH:86) Tasmania 0 2 Area; homes Victoria 5 396 Area; fatalities; homes Western Australia 0 1 Area, includes scrub fires; homes Total 34 2,779 Total area estimate as of 14 January 2020; current figure may be more
Fire potential The Garnaut Climate Change Review of 2008 stated:
To describe emerging fire trends the study by Lucas and others defined two new fire weather categories, "very extreme" and "catastrophic".
The analysis by the Bushfire CRC, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research found that the number of "very high" fire danger days generally increases 2-13% by 2020 for the low scenarios (global increase by ) and 10-30% for the high scenarios (global increase by ). The number of "extreme" fire danger days generally increases 5-25% by 2020 for the low scenarios and 15-65% for the high scenarios.
In April 2019 a group of former Australian fire services chiefs warned that Australia was not prepared for the upcoming fire season. They called on the next prime minister to meet the former emergency service leaders "who will outline, unconstrained by their former employers, how climate change risks are rapidly escalating".
In August 2019 the federally funded Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC published a seasonal outlook report which advised of "above normal fire potential" for southern and southeast Queensland, the east coast areas of New South Wales and Victoria, for parts of Western Australia and South Australia. In December 2019, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC updated their advice of "above normal fire potential".
Regions affected Australian National University reported that the area burned in 2019–2020 was "well below average", pointing out that 30 million hectares less than the Australian annual average burned that year. More specifically, the early part of the season (2019) had "near average" burn area, whereas the area burned in the late part of the season (2020) was "unusually low".
New South Wales
The NSW statutory Bush Fire Danger Period normally begins on 1 October and continues through until 31 March. In 2019–20, the fire season started early with drought affecting 95 percent of the state and persistent dry and warm conditions across the state. Twelve local government areas started the Bush Fire Danger Period two months early, on 1 August 2019, and nine more started on 17 August 2019.
North Coast On 6 September, the northern parts of the state experienced extreme fire dangers. Fires included the Long Gully Road fire near Drake which burnt until the end of October, killing two people and destroying 43 homes; the Mount McKenzie Road fire which burnt across the southern outskirts of Tenterfield, and severely injured one person, destroyed one home and badly damaged four homes; and the Bees Nest fire near Ebor which burnt until 12 November and destroyed seven homes.
Mid North Coast At the Port Macquarie suburb of Crestwood a fire started on 26 October from a dry electrical storm. Water bombers were delayed the following day in attempts to bring the fire burning in swampland to the south west of Port Macquarie under control. A back burn on 28 October got away from New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS) volunteers after a sudden wind change pushing the fire south towards Lake Cathie and west over Lake Innes. Port Macquarie and surrounding areas were blanketed in thick smoke on 29 October with ongoing fire activity over the following week caused the sky to have an orange glow. During this time the Lindfield Park fire burning in dry peat swamp flared up and threatened homes at Sovereign Hills and crossed the Pacific Highway at Sancrox. These fires burnt .
On the Carrai Plateau west of Kempsey, a fire burnt in wilderness areas where locked up and poorly maintained fire trails made combating it difficult. This fire joined up with the Stockyard Creek fire and together with the Coombes Gap fire and swept east towards Willawarrin, Temagog, Birdwood, Yarras, Bellangary, Kindee and Upper Rollands Plains. Land around Nowendoc and Yarrowich was also burnt. This fire burnt more than , destroying numerous homes and claiming the lives of three people.
North-west of near the Cattai Wetlands a fire started on 28 October, this fire threatened the towns of Harrington, Crowdy Head and Johns River as it burnt north towards Dunbogan. This fire claimed one life at Johns River, where it also destroyed homes, and burnt more than .