Recent rains in the bushfire-prone southeast corner of the country mean we probably won't see more megafires until the next drought dries out the fuel load and the land erupt yet again. As always when there are grants to be snaffled, 'climate change' will be named the culprit. What a pity that funding doesn't go to the study of fire history

While everyone loves koalas, killed in their thousands by the summers' bushfires, few appreciate just why there were so many in the flames' path. Simply put, intense flames prompt the regrowth on which the animals thrive, their populations explode, and then they starve. Sensible fire regimes would end that boom-and-bust cycle, although the 'experts' won't tell you that

When the current fires die down, as sure as eucalypts like to burn Australians will get yet another inquiry. Just who is appointed will signal the findings long before their report is drafted: ivory tower theoreticians and computer modellers or, let us hope, practical, hands-on field researchers

Virtually invisible in their natural condition, koalas became the poster animal for greenies and empire-building  bureaucrats only after they became pests. Regardless of ecological realities, it suits the activists' cause to depict them as in danger and requiring salvation