2003 Canberra Bushfires - Aftermath

Aftermath

By the evening of 19 January, it was clear that the worst hit suburb was Duffy (where 200 plus residences were destroyed) and that four people had died – they were Alison Tener, 38, Peter Brooke, 74, and Douglas Fraser, 60, all of Duffy, and Dorothy McGrath, 76, of the Mount Stromlo Forestry Settlement. The loss of life and damage to property and the destruction of forests to the west of the city caused not just economic loss but significant social impacts. Many people were affected by depression, particularly those who had lost their homes in the fires. The community questioned the lack of preparation for the fires and the total confusion at the time.

In the weeks after 18 January, the impact of the fires was studied in detail in order to determine how the damage had been done, and how to better work against such natural disasters in future. The Cities Project compiled information on as many as 431 damaged properties, stratified into the groups of "destroyed", "heavy damage", "medium damage", "light damage", and "superficial damage". This data was split by suburb to form a table which illustrated which areas had taken the most damage. The data allowed them to conclude that the high levels of "destroyed" property (91%) indicated the high speed with which the fire had moved. It was also concluded that once the establishments had caught fire, there was little chance of their being put out. In addition, the study showed that it was not only the fire which caused damage, but also the fierce winds recorded on the day, which were strong enough to uproot some small trees. It is believed that with the aid of this information, better policies and regulations have been formulated, which may help to reduce the destruction by future bushfires in Canberra, as well as in other locales.

Bushfires severely harmed the vegetation of the Cotter River Catchment and caused water quality problems in the three dams in the catchment, Corin, Bendora and Cotter Dams. For quite some time after the fires however, turbidity in the water due to silt and ash from surrounding burnt out forests meant Canberra had to rely on Googong Dam on the Queanbeyan River, which was not affected by the fires. Given the drought and existing water shortages, this effectively reduced Canberra's water reserves to around 15% for some time. An upgrade to the Stromlo Water Treatment Plant was subsequently required to allow extra filtration of water to cope with the diminished quality in the future.

As with any bushfire, the environment will take significant time to regenerate. Regeneration of vegetation was delayed by an ongoing drought in the region.