Issue 376: Aerial Firefighting

Australian communities have long contended with the threat of bushfire. Since the Black Thursday Bushfires of 1851 – when 5 million hectares were devastated across Victoria – the Australian bushfire response has been an issue of national concern.

2019 has been a particularly difficult year for Australia’s rural communities, with massive fires burning across multiple states. New South Wales has been hard hit in 2019, with over 3 million hectares burnt by a series of massive fires that have been raging for months.