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Why do people relocate to bushfire-prone areas in Australia

Resource Key: JDCGHGRJ

Document Type: Journal Article

Creator:

Author:

  • Olufisayo Adedokun
  • Temitope Egbelakin
  • Willy Sher
  • Thayaparan Gajendran

Creators Name: {mb_resource_zotero_creatorsname}

Place:

Institution:

Date: April 2024

Language: en

Bushfire is an annually reoccurring hazard that causes significant damage to property and life, arable land, ecosystems and infrastructure worldwide (Goswami et al. 2018; Labossière and McGee 2017). In Australia, millions of hectares of land are burnt; homes and properties are destroyed; infrastructure is damaged and wildlife suffer death, injury and habitat destruction (Booth 2020). High numbers of deaths are recorded due to bushfires in relation to other disasters (Venn and Quiggin 2015). The 2019–20 bushfire season in Australia led to 35 fatalities, the economic costs of mental health issues amounted to $1.95 billion (Kohlbacher 2020) and insurance losses amounted to $1.7 billion (Wittwer and Waschik 2021). Australia is among the most bushfire-prone places in the world (NSW Rural Fire Service 2019). Successive bushfires have affected the communities living within or near fire-prone forests and rangelands in terms of loss of lives, homes and infrastructure destroyed (Labossière and McGee 2017). In bushfires, people are susceptible to smoke inhalation and, over 2019 and 2020, there were 429 smoke-related deaths in addition to the 35 people directly killed by bushfires (Kohlbacher 2020). According to Venn and Quiggin (2015), 40% of deaths associated with bushfires in Australia occurred due to the increased per capita fatality rate and mental health consequences. People are at risk of bushfire because they tend to live in urban-bush interfaces (Kruize et al. 2019). In addition, people move to urban bushland regions because it offers affordable housing and less population congestion (Anton and Lawrence 2016). However, the risk is increasing as research indicates increased occurrences of bushfire is due to the rise in extreme temperature, increasing wind speed, low humidity and decreased rainfall (Booth 2020, Neale 2016, van Oldenborgh et al. 2021). The changes in climate implies an increased likelihood of bushfire severity, fatalities and damage to infrastructure along with health-related issues (McLennan et al. 2018). However, despite these risks, it appears people may not realise or may not pay adequate attention to the risks inherent in bushfire-prone areas. These people usually underestimate the risks of living in these regions and may also be inadequately prepared for a bushfire event (Koksal, McLennan and Bearman 2020). The aim of this study was to investigate why people elect to live in bushfire-prone locations.

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