CDU EXPERT: Desert megafires set to worsen under climate change without Indigenous fire management
WEDNESDAY 27th AUGUST 2025
Who: Rohan Fisher, Senior Research Fellow at Charles Darwin University’s (CDU) Faculty of Arts and Society, Northern Institute (https://www.cdu.edu.au/northern-institute).
Topics:
- The scale of the 2023 ‘Black Spring’ fires across northern spinifex deserts,
- Why desert fires spread so quickly and what makes them difficult to contain,
- How Indigenous ranger-led prescribed burning has been shown to reduce megafire spread, and
- What this means for future fire management in arid Australia under climate change.
Contact details: Call +61 8 8946 6721 or email [email protected] to arrange an interview.
Quotes attributable to Senior Research Fellow, Rohan Fisher:
“Hardly anyone’s heard of the Australian ‘Black Spring’ bushfires of 2023. But the fires that tore through the tropical savannas and northern spinifex deserts that year were the biggest Australia had seen in more than a decade - burning an area about eight times larger than the Black Summer fires along eastern and southern Australia.
“Despite their size and potential impacts on cultural and biodiversity values, they are not acknowledged as a significant national event and barely registered in the national or global media.
“The limited media that did occur focused on the threat of fire to the small town of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, but most Australians remain unaware of the existence or full scale of the fires.
“Our satellite analysis showed just how fast these fires can move - in some cases spreading over 25,000 square kilometres in less than a week.
“The encouraging news is that where Indigenous ranger groups had been carrying out prescribed burning, we saw very different outcomes. These areas acted like natural firebreaks, disrupting the spread of the flames and reducing their intensity.
“Ultimately the only effective way to prevent these massive fires in very remote parts of Australia is through a long-term, well-funded strategy of using fire over our vast desert landscapes to control fuel, as was done during previous millennia.
“As climate change drives more extreme weather and rainfall patterns, we can expect spinifex deserts to fuel even larger fires in the future.
“The lesson from 2023 is clear: if we want to reduce the risk of megafires, we need to invest in Indigenous-led fire management on a much greater scale.”
Contact details:
Alyce Mokrzycki
Media and Communications Officer
Marketing, Media and Communications
E: [email protected]
W: cdu.edu.au
