1000
Fatalities
Homes destroyed (>1000)
Area burnt (>10,000,000 hectares)
YEAR 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960
9
2
4
8
5
1969–70
Dry River–Victoria River
Northern Territory
1968–69
Killarney Top Spring
Northern Territory
1970
1
3
1939
Black Friday
Victoria
1300
71
2 million ha
1940
1926
Gippsland /
Black Sunday
Victoria
60
400,000ha
1967
Black Tuesday
Tasmania
1300
62
264,000ha
(^353223)
14
1970
40 million ha
7
1943–44
Bushfi re Season
Victoria
1962
Dandenongs
Victoria
1969
Lara
Victoria
1951–52
Bushfi re Season
NSW / ACT
13
Large area burnt, small human cost
Australia's largest fi res (in terms of area
burnt) have largely occurred in uninhabited
parts of central Australia that are adapted
to fi re, with minimal human cost.
How do we measure destruction?
Human cost takes precedence,
with fatalities and homes destroyed
being the most common measure of
a fi re's destructiveness. Cost to the
natural environment is more diffi cult
to quantify but can be gauged
by the amount of area burnt.
AUSTRALIA’S MOST
DESTRUCTIVE FIRES
46 Australian Geographic
Buxton
5.46 million
hectares burnt
of the national park estate has
been impacted. In key bioregions,
the fi gure is well over 40%
OVER 35%
of the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains
Area and 54% of the NSW components of the Gondwana
Rainforests of Australia World Heritage property have
been affected by fi re
MORE THAN 80%
Area burnt is
larger than
The Netherlands
NEW SOUTH WALES
FACT
55
parks or
reserves
have had more than
99% of their area
aff ected by fi re
VICTORIA
1.53 million
FACT
More than half of
the habitat of 173
rare and threatened
species has been
impacted by fi re
hectares burnt
livestock losses in
North East and
6422 East Gippsland
residential and 653
non-residential
structures have
been either dam-
aged or destroyed
by the fi res
405
Fatalities:
20
Fatalities:
5
60
threatened
fauna species
affected
45
million ha
6.2%
of the entire state
has burnt