Bushfire stories

Bushfire stories are important resources. They reveal how people directly and indirectly understand and experience bushfires and their general ideas about the environment. These ways of seeing inform how people act toward both. Notably, recent bushfire inquiries have emphasised local and individual action, responsibility and knowledge as the way forward for preparing and navigating future fire seasons. Bushfire stories can also enrich our approaches to the complex and contested issues surrounding Australia’s fire seasons.

This project will collect and archive community stories about Australian bushfires on a publicly viewable website called Bushfire Stories. This archive will serve as a valuable platform that enables people to tell their stories and be heard. It will provide an online space to express, engage with, and understand diverse experiences of bushfires – including those not necessarily covered in the current mainstream reporting on bushfires. This archive will also inform our research into how communities understand, experience, and narrate bushfires.

Contributors: Associate Professor Thom Van Dooren, Dr Blanche Verlie, Dr Scott Webster, Dr Fiona Allon