Insights from the 8th International Fire and Fuel Behaviour Conference 2026
Two members of Healthy Land & Water’s Fire Ecology & Preparedness team, Dr Miranda Rew-Duffy and Jaime Kruusmaa, attended the 8th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference (FBF Conference) in Hobart last month. Jaime presented on Bridging Science and Practice: Collaborative Fire Management for Biodiversity and Community Outcomes, while Miranda co-presented a poster with Clare Rogers from Brisbane City Council titled Improving threatened species outcomes in fire management through collaborative approaches: the collared delma (Delma torquata). They shared their conference insights with us.
Miranda
It was my first time at the FBF Conference, and I left feeling genuinely energised and more connected to the broader fire community. It was a real reminder of the incredible people doing this work: fire practitioners, Traditional Owners, researchers and community members, right across Australia (and beyond), all working toward the same goal of keeping Country healthy and communities better prepared for bushfire. At the same time, the conversations didn’t shy away from what’s ahead: a warming climate, legislative constraints, a growing urban–bushland interface, and the ongoing need to build and sustain capability.
The key messages I took away were:
- Sharing knowledge, especially with community, so people feel more confident and empowered, even when the future feels uncertain. We have so much science and practical experience behind what we do, but it only helps if we take people with us and make it accessible.
- Bringing Traditional knowledge into contemporary fire management to get the best outcomes. I saw some really powerful examples of Traditional Owners and other fire practitioners working side-by-side during bushfire response to protect culturally significant places.
- “Just be a good human.” Showing empathy, listening, and finding ways to connect, no matter who you are or where you come from. In tough times, that’s what helps people keep going.
Jaime
This was my second FBF Conference – the last one was fantastic, but this one stepped it up again! For those who know me, you’ll know I’m passionate about social and community change in the fire space, and that focus was woven strongly throughout the entire program.
A key theme was social licence, and the recognition that more technical knowledge on its own is not the answer. What matters just as much is how we communicate, the relationships that build when working towards solutions and the stories we tell about climate change and hazards such as bushfires. There was also a strong emphasis on knowledge brokering between academia and practitioners, and on designing research in ways that are useful and proportionate to the scale of the challenges we are trying to solve.
I’ll leave you with the quote that stayed with me most from the conference, from Todd Sculthorpe, a Trawlwoolway man, who delivered the Welcome to Country at the start of the conference:
… but perhaps what we are really seeing is not just a fire problem, but a relationship problem.
A disconnection.
A forgetting.
A loss of balance between people, fire, and Country.
