PHOTO: Australia Burns. Getty Image
Australia’s devastating and deadly bushfires crisis will come at an unprecedented cost, experts have revealed, dwarfing every other natural disaster.
It’s not simple to estimate the eventual economic cost of Australia’s 2019-20 megafires, partly because they are still underway and partly because it’s hard to know the cost to attribute to deaths and the decimation of species and habitats.
But it’s easy to get an idea of its significance – and the cost will be unprecedented.
The deadliest bushfires in the past 200 years took place in 1851, then 1939, then 1983, 2009, now 2019-20. The years between them are shrinking rapidly.
Only a remote grassfire in central Australia in 1974-75 rivalled them in terms of size, although not in terms of material burnt or loss of life.
The term “megafire” is a new one, defined in the early 2000s to help describe disturbing new wildfires emerging in the United States – massive blazes, usually above 400,000 hectares, often joining up, that create more than usual destruction to life and property.
Australia’s current fires dwarf the US fires that inspired the term.
Burning embers cover the ground as firefighters battle against bushfires around the town of Nowra in New South Wales on December 31. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
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