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Kangaroo Island CFS

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About Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island is the third largest island off the coast of mainland Australia. The island is 155 kms long, up to 55 km wide covering an area of 4,500 square kilometers. Kangaroo Island is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Today, the island still possesses rich and diverse flora and fauna seldom found elsewhere in Australia. The population of Kangaroo Island is 4284 with a number of settlements located across the island. The main townships are Kingscote, Parndana, American River and Penneshaw. The Winter and Spring months produce a lush country side. In the Summer and Autumn, December to March the landscape changes, with conditions turning to dry and warm, the earth becomes sun bleached with temperatures ranging from 20º C to 32ºC with central areas of the Island occasionally experiencing temperatures of 35-40ºC. With 24 protected areas including 19 National and Conservation Parks and five Wilderness Protection Areas covering over 30% of the total of the Island, the thick, scrubby vegetation creates an extreme fire hazard. Fires on Kangaroo Island pose some unique challenges to fire managers and fire fighters alike. The thick, scrubby vegetation is an extreme fire hazard unlike any, found on mainland South Australia.

Wildfire History on Kangaroo Island

Over the years, Kangaroo Island has experienced extremely dangerous bushfires resulting in livestock losses, property damage along with vast areas of natural vegetation being destroyed across the island.

Large bushfires were frequent events in the past on kangaroo island, as burning was used wide as a tool for managing hazards and clearing vegetation during the establishment of agricultural land. This has been halted over the past two decades, as legislation controlling clearance of native vegetation has prohibited 'burning-off'. In recent years NPWSA have had approvals to conduct prescribed burns in national parks. Lightning strikes have been the cause of fires, which have regularly burnt out tens or thousands of hectares in the undeveloped areas of the island. A fire in Cape Gantheaume Conservation Park burnt 24,500 hectares in December 1996.

The number of wildfires, and their magnitude, recorded on KI each year is small. However, isolated major events resulting in the destruction of many thousands of hectares are still quite frequent, occurring 3-5 times annually. These follow past patterns of lightning strike fires on the western end of the island. There is a tendency to believe, therefore, that major uncontrollable fires will only occur in areas of native vegetation. However, a fire which spread across the entire center of the Island in 1975, showed that major fires are possible in established agricultural areas. Several fires covering hundreds of hectares of farming land occurred in the 1990's.

Recent fires have included the Mount Taylor fires in December 2000 in native vegetation and the Gosse fire in January 2001 on farming land.

Cooperative approach to fire management on Kangaroo Island

In recent years, National Parks and CFS on the Island have taken significant steps to work together to manage fires on the Island. National Parks take a leading role in planning and CFS take a leading role in operations. A fire management plan is currently being developed for the Flinders Chase National Park. A cooperative approach to fire management on the island is essential given the need to work closely together utilizing limited resources effectively.