Modelling would predict where dangerous fires could occur across Australia so firefighting planes and helicopters could be deployed in advance
Australian firefighting agencies would have the technology and capability to identify and extinguish every dangerous bushfire within an hour, anywhere on the continent, by the end of 2025, under an audacious plan to be launched in Canberra.
The philanthropic foundation of mining billionaire Andrew Forrest will on Tuesday unveil its so-called Fire Shield plan that hopes to bring governments, science agencies, big business, communities and firefighting authorities together to deliver the goal.
Using rapidly emerging technology including on-ground cameras, low-orbit satellites and data on conditions in flammable areas, the plan is being spruiked as the bushfire equivalent of the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s.
The chief executive of Minderoo Foundation’s $70m fire and flood resilience initiative, Adrian Turner, will launch the blueprint alongside the federal science and technology minister, Karen Andrews.
Minderoo has been working on the plan since January. Turner, a former executive at CSIRO, was asked to take on the role just days after helping his brother save his property from an inferno at Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales.
