5.1 BACKGROUND TO THIS CHAPTER

During the summer of 2003 after a prolonged period of drought the national capital of Australia, Canberra, was ringed by devastating fires. The main threat came from the western side where the hills were covered in tinder-dry old-growth natural forests and plantations of softwood radiata pine trees. Driven by high winds and extreme heat the fires became a firestorm of monstrous proportions.

The firestorm burnt most of the forests and after some 10 days during which fire fighters lost the battle, fires raged through the suburbs. Some 500 homes were destroyed, several people were killed and hundreds were injured. An estimated 370 mega tonnes (MT) of energy was consumed by the fires. This represents an amount of energy more than 10 times that delivered by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Two years on, houses are being rebuilt and plans are being made to re-plant the forests, though not in such close proximity to the suburbs or the city precincts. Given time the natural-growth eucalyptus forests will recover.

A once-thriving softwood timber industry has been destroyed, with around 10,000 hectares of commercial plantations being burnt. Trees not burnt by the firestorm have been harvested. Damaged trees have been removed or burnt. If it can be determined that re-planting the softwood plantations will enable creation of an economically viable forest industry, planting is likely to proceed.