The aggregated total area burnt was unprecedented, not only in an Australian context but also globally 19. 3) this was the largest individual fire ever recorded in Australia 18. For example, the Gospers Mountain fire near Sydney burned over 500,000 ha, with massive impacts on the World Heritage forests (Fig. The fires were unprecedented in several ways, most notably for their huge size. The future was portrayed as a cataclysmic choice between two cities that were based either on frivolous consumption that would collapse from the four horsemen or on long term meaningful work (represented by building the city from diamonds, in harmony with the Tree of Life and River of Life) 72. Such ideas have been used in the past two thousand years to portray starkly different futures through art and literature 70, 71. This involved four horsemen that symbolised: pandemics, famine from climate change, war (continuous conflict) and death (of civilization). It has been a part of Jewish literature since the Babylonian era 68, in Muslim literature 69 and in the Christian era is set out in the book of Revelation during the collapse of the Roman era. The apocalypse is about cataclysmic change symbolising the end times. It exposes Australians to reconsider how we live. These deeper concerns have been called ‘collective trauma’ 12, now magnified by the corona virus. However, the unprecedented ferocity of this fire season has traumatised Australia (Fig. Such native bush is fire-dependent in its ecology so there has always been some awareness of the need for protection with a long history of volunteer fire brigades being a part of Australian settlements in such forested areas. Australia is predominantly a coastal urban nation with 85% of the population living in the coastal zone and mostly in urban centres where there are significant areas of native forested bush. These dramatic impacts across the Australian landscape are driving a deeper consideration of their implications for the future pattern of urban development. During January 2020, the national capital Canberra measured the worst air quality index of any major city in the world 11. The fires blanketed urban areas with heavy smoke. Tragically, an estimated one billion native animals died 10, a scenario almost unimaginable. Nearly 80 percent of Australians were affected either directly or indirectly by the fires 9.
Over 3000 homes and 7000 facilities and outbuildings were destroyed 12.6 million hectares burned and over 100,000 head of stock lost 8. The 2019/2020 Australian fires resulted in the tragic loss of over 400 lives, 33 of them directly from the fires and 417 from smoke inhalation 7. The poll showed that ‘citizens mostly attributed their worry to climate change, drought and bushfire’ with a strong concern about the ‘reluctance of government to be proactive’ about this and other environmental concerns.
The IPSOS (2020) report 6 on Australian attitudes showed a dramatic increase in concern for the environment in January 2020, now the highest concern of all issues (see Fig. Nevertheless, the Australian delegation at the COP 26 Madrid climate change conference was part of the group of four nations attempting to reduce the Paris commitments in December 2019 even as the fires were spreading rapidly. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports have highlighted fire risk to Australia in every major report since 2001 2, 3, 4 and Australia’s own Garnaut Report in 2008 said prophetically ‘….without adequate action, the nation will face a more frequent and intense fire season by 2020’ 5. The extent, timing and intensity of the fires dramatically demonstrated how climate change is already driving catastrophic impacts 1. The Australian bushfires brought in the 2020s with a global sense of apocalypse.