Australia: The Inspector-General Emergency Management report 2: 2018-19 review – The 2018 Queensland bushfire review

The purpose of this review is to assess the effectiveness of Queensland’s disaster management system in preparing for and responding to the major bushfires that occurred from late November to early December 2018. The review also considers the system’s handling of the associated heatwave. Covering the major fires, the review is based on the Standard for Disaster Management in Queensland and follows nine lines of enquiry. These relate to the science and lessons from other events, the heatwave, risk, mitigation, intelligence, technology, warnings, coordination, evacuation and interstate support.

The review ends with three conclusions:

1. The need to work together to manage the risk of intense fires.
2. The need to convey the risk and the best information about it to the community.
3. The need for the disaster management system to adapt when the hazard requires the technical capability of a large hazard-specific agency to respond to a disaster that occurs because of it.