National Hazards Research Australia announces what it is working on

Never heard of it? Perhaps that’s because the Commonwealth agency is brand new, announced in July 2021,  and just now underway, with $85m over ten years.

And if it looks like a cooperative research centre (albeit one with mainly public-sector partners) that’s because it is billed as a successor to the Bushfire CRC (2003-2014)and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC (2013-2021), which in combination lasted way longer than the decade norm for the time-limited programme

The problem was the last drought and the cataclysmic fires accompanying it made closing down research on fire and related politically unsaleable and the previous government never intended to give it up (CMM March 5 2020)

And so there is a successor organisation – with an extended brief to cover all natural disasters.

Research already funded by the Commonwealth agency include,

* community experience of this year’s east coast floods

* predicting severe weather impact

* “robust” temporary building repairs

* Water sources for aerial fire-fighting

* improving fire prediction and fireground safety using observed/modelled fires