Education for burning solutions in the north

Future fire managers will be better equipped to meet fire management challenges in northern Australia with the development of a new award-winning educational package.

The university course ‘Fire Ecology & Management in Northern Australia’ won the prestigious 2005 National ASCILITE* Award for Educational Design & Technology in Tertiary Education last month.

The online fire course, the first of its kind in Australia, was developed collaboratively by the Bushfire CRC, the Tropical Savannas CRC, CSIRO and Charles Darwin University.

Bushfire CRC and CSIRO ecologist Dr Kate Parr says the course tackles a wide range of complex ecological, social, political and historical aspects of fire management across northern Australia.

‘Fire management in the north was totally different to that in southern Australia,’ she says. ‘We recognise that many managers come from down south so we have contrasted the northern situation with the practices and realities of fire management in southern Australia.’

Dr Parr says the course gives students real world problems and resources. ‘Through videoed interviews with fire fighters, researchers and land managers, and by using computer simulation models to explore management options, students can experience the challenges faced every fire season’, she says.

Dr Penny Wurm, from the Tropical Savannas CRC, says the course has a whole-of-northern-Australia focus, bringing together case studies, research and references that bridged the Kimberley, Top End and northern Queensland. The course will form part of a Bachelor degree in Science or Environmental Science.

Dr Wurm said: ‘While the new course is fully integrated it can also be used as a set of resources. For example, a lecturer may just want some north Australian case studies, or to concentrate on fire science – the unit is set up so they can select and use the materials they wish.’

Bushfire CRC chief executive officer, Mr Kevin O’Loughlin says the Bushfire CRC will be looking at the wider application of the north Australian approach elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand.

The development team also includes Charles Darwin University staff, Dr Lesley Instone and Ms Helen Rysavy.

* ASCILITE is the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education

Images for this media release can be found here .