Study seeks insights from farmers on fire and animals

Insights from South Australian farmers are needed to inform research which will help people make safer response choices in bushfire.

Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC PhD student Rachel Westcott (Western Sydney University) is undertaking a survey of community preparedness and response, focusing on farmers’ bushfire knowledge and experience.

The purpose of the research is to find new ways to narrow the bushfire awareness-preparedness gap, and ultimately to save more human life in a bushfire emergency.

“We want people and communities, with their animals, to be safer in a bushfire, to protect life, property and the environment,” says Rachel.

Participation is not conditional on having been involved in a fire. Rachel is seeking input from any farmers, whether or not their farm has been impacted by fire. The only requirement is that participants are a current or retired primary producer (farm owner, manager or worker) of any commodity.

Farmers generally have a reputation for being resourceful and self-reliant. Rachel hopes that finding out more about farmers’ bushfire knowledge and management strategies will help to inform other less knowledgeable groups, and contribute to developing new public policy.

The survey takes around 15-25 minutes to complete and saves as you go by clicking the ‘next’ button, so it can be completed over multiple sessions. There are no compulsory questions, other than the consent page, and there is opportunity to add written comments. All information gathered in the survey will remain confidential.

Following a busy harvest season and recent severe Spring weather events which affected many regions in South Australia, participation in the survey is greatly appreciated. Rachel is seeking responses to the survey before seeding begins.

The survey is available online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/Farmers-fire-and-animals.

Rachel’s CRC PhD is looking at how effective collaboration between animal owners, emergency responders and the whole of community could narrow the gap between hazard awareness and hazard survival. Her research is being undertaken on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, a location with diverse animal ownership, a 15-year history of severe fires and a resourceful regional community.