A Culture of Burning: Social-Ecological Memory, Social Learning and Adaptation in Australian Volunteer Fire Brigades

Abstract

While Australian government agencies are increasingly emphasizing the need to “build community resilience” to bushfires, communities in many rural landscapes have a strong history of actively managing fire risk, in particular through involvement in volunteer fire brigades. This paper explores social-ecological memory, social learning, and adaptation in volunteer Country Fire Authority brigades in western Victoria, specifically in the context of planned burning of strategic roadside fire breaks. It examines the relationships between local knowledge, narratives and practices of burning and how these shape volunteer identities, embodying “shared responsibility”. Findings show that participation in roadside burning is critical for supporting social learning and ongoing community engagement in fire management. However, changing land uses, social demographics and regulatory processes are negatively impacting local volunteer capacities. While brigades have responded by re-organizing their practices, questions remain as to what extent this constitutes adaptation or transformation connecting to broader landscape-level risk management.

Keywords:

• Adaptation
• bushfire
• community-based fire management
• planned burning
• resilience
• volunteering

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners on whose land the University and research sites are based: the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, and the Gunditjmara and Eastern Maar Peoples, respectively. We thank Country Fire Authority brigade volunteers, local Council and state land management agency staff, and local residents who participated in this study. A special thank you to Dr. Tarnya Kruger, Dr. John Morgan, and Anthony Watts for their guidance and support of this research. Thank you to the three anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor at this journal for their detailed and constructive feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The initial research for this paper was undertaken in the Landscape and Environmental Sociology lab at the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences (SFES), University of Melbourne, with funding provided by the SFES.