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Inquiry into the 2002-2003 Victorian Bushfires

Over the summer of 2002-2003, bushfires burnt across the greatest expanse of land in Victoria since 1939. The Premier established an inquiry into the 2002-2003 Victorian Bushfires in April 2003. The inquiry was led by the Emergency Services Commissioner, Bruce Esplin, assisted by two independent experts:

  • Dr Malcolm Gill, Honorary Research Fellow, CSIRO Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Canberra
  • Professor Neal Enright, School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, and Executive Director, Office for Environmental Programs at the University of Melbourne.

The purpose of the inquiry was to look into all aspects of the preparations for, and response to these fires, and in particular to identify opportunities to learn from them and further improve Victoria's fire management capability.

Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference for the inquiry were:

  • examine the effectiveness of preparedness for the 2002/03 bushfire season, including hazard reduction and mobilisation of resources
  • assess the effectiveness of the response to the 2002/03 bushfires, including emergency management procedures, cross agency response and coordination and resource deployment
  • provide recommendations for future bushfire management strategies, including any required improvements to existing emergency management arrangements including public communications, community advice systems, infrastructure, training and overall resourcing.

The inquiry called for public submissions and undertook six months of consultation, research and analysis related to the 2002-2003 bushfires. An interim report was presented to the Premier in August 2003, enabling matters requiring action to assist in the preparation for the forthcoming fire season to be progressed and to assist in moving forward from the fire event of the previous summer.

The report of the inquiry was publicly released on 14 October 2003. The government received and accepted the recommendations the recommendations in full and work is under way to ensure their implementation.