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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-29 Daily Xml
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Bushfires

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:54): Bushfires in our state are, sadly, not in any way uncommon. Coming into the warmer months, I thought it was pretty timely to reflect on what was the worst bushfire season on record that doubtlessly left an impact on me and I think indeed many other South Australians and that was our 2019-20 bushfire season.

This week—and, yes, it really was this week—six years ago, a strong northerly wind combined with existing dry conditions and dry temperatures to create dangerous bushfire weather in our state. Several fires broke out across the state, including one at Wongulla in the Murraylands, where several firefighters were injured. Catastrophic fire conditions were forecast across the state for 20 November and the CFS declared a statewide total fire ban. A fire was reported shortly after that threatened Yorketown on Yorke Peninsula that same day, before a wind change pushed the fire dangerously close to the township of Edithburgh. The fire destroyed several homes and burned more than 5,000 hectares.

Dangerous fire weather conditions continued from spring into summer and December's strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures on several days combined to create dangerous bushfire conditions, including some areas with catastrophic fire danger ratings. Nearly all of South Australia recorded its highest ever accumulated Forest Fire Danger Index for that December.

On 20 December, after four days of sweltering extreme heat, temperatures in the west of the state had reached 49.9°. In several other locations, it had exceeded 45°. Adelaide, for what it is worth, reached 43.9°. More than 200 bushfires burned across the state that day, including a major fire at Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills that spread rapidly, threatening the townships of Mount Pleasant, Springton, Palmer, Cudlee Creek, Mount Torrens, Harrogate, Inglewood, Gumeracha, Lobethal and Woodside.

Over the next few days, the fire burned 23,000 hectares, before being bought under some measure of what we term control. An elderly man tragically died in his home during the fire and 84 homes were destroyed, as well as over 400 outbuildings and almost 300 vehicles. At the end of the catastrophe, more than 40,000 hectares were burned by fires that started that day. One thousand five hundred firefighters responded. Thirty-one firefighters and two police officers were injured. A 24-year-old man from Queensland died in a car crash that started a fire in the Murraylands.

On that same day, Kangaroo Island experienced multiple dry lightning strikes, sparking fires that took 11 days to contain. The island's fire crews were still fighting these fires when more lightning strikes created even more fires in inaccessible parts of the wilderness areas which merged with the existing fires when a strong northerly on 3 January caused the fire to spread to the island's south coast.

The Kangaroo Island fires burned 211,500 hectares, including in the Flinders Chase National Park, where an estimated 25,000 koalas were killed and the habitats of numerous other animals were irreparably destroyed. The fire on KI tragically killed two people who were trapped in their car. It destroyed 56 homes, injured 23 firefighters and destroyed two CFS trucks. The fire also changed lives forever. Every person on the island and every person who cares about the island will never forget it.

Bushfires, which were declared a catastrophe across the nation that year, according to the Insurance Council of Australia, cost the nation $2.32 billion. South Australia accounted for around about 8 per cent of that, with around about 10 per cent of all claims. The state government review of the South Australian response to the fire made clear that, in fact, the result could have been far worse. Indeed, to best sum up why I will now quote a portion of that report to finish off:

The expertise that volunteers brought to the bushfires is difficult to quantify. Those with local knowledge excelled and helped with decision making in what was a fast moving and dynamic situation. The review heard from many volunteers, some of whom have spent decades fighting fires, and while some were overwhelmed with incident management teams barely coping, others used their knowledge and expertise to great effect. We should be grateful for their efforts. The level of hazard reduction was criticised in the aftermath of the fires but as will become evident in this review, the conditions were such that in some of the fires no amount of hazard reduction would have made any difference.