During the Bushfires & The Immediate Aftermath

Federal Level

A Public Relations Disaster

Unfortunately for Prime Minister Scott Morrison he planned his holiday in potentially the worst possible time. Whilst Australia was burning Morrison was in Hawaii enjoying the lovely waves and sun. This did not go well with many Australians who felt their PM abandoned them. The Guardian commented:
"The trip became emblematic of a federal government caught flat-footed for last summer’s unfolding bushfire catastrophe."

However Morrison had no intention of causing public outrage and in response to the fair critiscm he recieved he returned home from Hawaii, to face possibly the hardest year an Australian Prime Minister would have had to face in recent years.

In an attempt to restore his public image, the PM went onto the frontlines to connect with Fire Fighters and gather infomation on how the Federal Government can better support them. However this didn't always go to plan as many Fire Fighters used this as planned as some would snub him and reject him, due to the lack of support the government gave leading up to the fires.

Morrison Announces Bushfire Relief

National Bushfire Recovery Agency

The National Bushfire Recovery Agency is a 2 billion dollar initiative from the Federal Government which was announced on Jan 6 2020. The agency sought to work with State and Local Governments, to assist key stakeholders which have been harmed by the fires. Part of their mission statement was:
"Ensuring affected communities have ready access to meaningful support and all available services"

This agency was also set up to act as an advisory body to the government.

Whilst these measures certainly went a long way, many say that it was to little to late.

BBC | The Australian Bushfires What's Being Done

The Federal Government did a great job to request aid and help from other countries and helped coordinate the fighting of the bushfires once they started. The government also started to compensate volunteer fire fighters to help them support their families.

Morrison Announces Bushfire Relief

Royal Commission

Immediately after the bushfires, the government announced a Royal Commission to assess bushfire management accross the state and to make releavent reccomendations. This commission would go on to find that there wasn't a sufficient response made by the Federal Government in response to the bushfires.

State Level

BBC | Australian Bushfires Fire Hotspots

NSW Government Response

Between July 2019 and January 2020 over 10 million hectares of land had been burnt. The graphic on the left outlines the fire hotspots, which is almost everywhere.

The New South Wales State Government deployed over 2700 Fire Fighters to local communities and Fire effected regions. The Rural Fire Service also deployed about 100 aircrafts everyday to help water bomb, transport and manage the fire effected region.

The graphic on the left shows the aircrafts RFSNSW used to fight the fires. The NSW government made a huge committment to purchase and maintain all of these veichles.

Aircrafts were crucial to the NSW fire response as it allowed the Rural Fire Service to cover large areas of land, something which is crucial when dealing with such a large land area.

Air crafts use a combination of volume of water and high pressure to suffocate the fire and put them out.

The NSW government had the key role of being a middle man, they communicated with both State and Local governments to coordinate a fire response.

NSW committed million of dollars to fighting the fires and committed a further 177 million dollars to state wide support packages which aimed at helping those effected by the fires rebuild their lives and careers. These support packages were announced immediately after the fires to help craft and economical recovery and support people in need.

NASA | Solar Irradiance vs Temparture

Gladys Berejikilian also made a bipartisan effort to fund more climate research and did acknowledge that Climate Change did indeed have a role in the severity of the fires. This was an important step taken by her to prevent future fires of an even higher degree,
As she states:

"Our climate is changing"

Local Level

Rural Fire Service | Volunteers

One of the main local governments and community campaigns was to encourage people to volunteer to help fight the fires. Kangaroo Valley especially had a large amount of men join the effort to fight the fires.

The Morning Bulleten | School Goes Red

Local communities such as schools banded together to help fight the fires. The image on the left shows a primary school encouraging all their students to wear red to help raise awareness and funds for the bushfires.

On a local and community level individuals banded together to help their fellow australians out, by either volunteering or providing monetary aid.

Kangaroo Valley

The Sydney Morning Herald | Kangaroo Valley

To help the community, during the bushfires the local government in Kangaroo Valley put together template bushfire plans, and offered assistance to any people who needed help constructing their own bushfire plans. This was a small but highly effective step in helping to save the lives and property of many people. These plans included setting up fire breaks accross key areas.

The community leaders in Kangaroo Valley wanted to be able to take care of each other. One community leader said:

"We need to look to the worst-case scenario, that we may not be able to talk to the RFS at all."

The Kangaroo Valley Local Councils shared bushfire plans amongst residents and also helped deve;op a collaborative way to tackle the bushfires.

Kangaroo Valley was modelled as an exemplar in bushfire management at a local scale and was heavily praised by the Rural Fire Service. Immediately after the bushfires, the local government organised community gatherings to help support each other and slowly rebuild.