Fire chiefs warn of heightened bushfire risk across NT, NSW and Queensland this spring
Australian fire authorities have warned that large parts of the Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland face elevated bushfire danger this spring due to heavy fuel loads and dry conditions. Residents are being urged to prepare early.
The Australian and New Zealand Council for Fire and Emergency Services (AFAC) has released its national bushfire outlook, flagging heightened danger across several regions of the country heading into spring.
In the Northern Territory, above-average vegetation growth following intense rainfall and flooding earlier this year has left large fuel loads across the region, particularly in the Barkly and southern areas. Officials say land where grass has gone unburnt for a year or more faces the greatest danger.
In New South Wales, low soil moisture has raised fire risk in several areas, including the northern tablelands around Armidale and part of the far south coast near Bega — regions badly affected by the 2019-20 black summer fires. Authorities say vegetation has regrown enough since then to once again carry fire.
South-east Queensland is also at heightened risk, along with parts of Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia, as a strengthening El Niño system drives dry conditions in the country's south-east. Victoria is facing one of its warmest and driest spring outlooks in years.
Experts note that a pattern of intense rainfall followed by rapid drying has created dangerous conditions, worsened by the spread of invasive buffel grass, which has become dominant across much of inland Australia.
A New South Wales Rural Fire Service official said an unusually warm winter with below-average rainfall in parts of the state, combined with a forecast of continued dry conditions, could push fire risk into summer as well. Residents are being urged to prepare now by clearing gutters, trimming overhanging branches near homes, and putting together a bushfire survival plan.
