About the program
In 2019–2020, Queensland experienced an unprecedented and catastrophic bushfire season. It was unprecedented in terms of its scale, intensity and duration causing widespread human, social, economic and environmental impacts.
More than 8,000 fire incidents were recorded across state with more than 7.7 million hectares of land burnt including important habitats for 648 threatened plant and animal species.
In southern Queensland, the preceding extensive drought exacerbated the impact of these bushfires on native flora and fauna, which was already experiencing limited water availability, habitat cover and food resources.
In the Gondwana World Heritage Area, where the biodiversity is of international significance, the fires impacted lowland sub-tropical rainforests, as well as temperate rainforest at 1300 metres above sea level.
Evaluation of fire-impacted species
In January 2020, the Department of Environment and Science (department) used preliminary fire extent maps to evaluate the likely impacts to the habitats of threatened flora and fauna species, including those listed under Queensland’s Nature Conservation Act 1992 and the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
This evaluation was conducted by experts from the department’s Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) in collaboration with specialists from the Queensland Museum, Queensland Herbarium, Queensland universities and other scientific partners.
The threatened species with the greatest area of habitat burnt were prioritised for recovery actions. This included conducting surveys to evaluate their persistence after the fires and reducing threats from invasive weeds and introduced predators.
The initial evaluation identified 27 threatened plant species, 25 threatened vertebrate fauna species and a suite of specialised invertebrate species, for recovery efforts in Phase 1 of the program. In 2021, for Phase 2, the priority species were revised, with two additional plant species and one reptile species included as those being most at risk.
The greatest impacts to threatened species occurred across four protected area locations: Gondwana World Heritage Area; the Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park; Oakview and Nangur National Parks; and Bulburin National Park.
Recovery program funding
The Australian Government established the Wildlife and Threatened Species Bushfire Recovery Expert Panel to work with the different state governments, including Queensland, to prioritise the threatened species that required urgent recovery actions.
In March 2020, the panel approved $1.5 million in Phase 1 emergency funding from the Australian Government’s Wildlife and Habitat Bushfire Recovery package, for the department to deliver the Queensland Bushfire Recovery Program (program), which supplemented the existing on ground work from the department and QPWS. In March 2021, the Australian Government approved a further $2.35 million for Phase 2 funding to sustain the on-ground recovery efforts to reduce threats to the recovery of prioritised species.
Recovery projects
The program has delivered priority threatened species recovery actions through four recovery projects:
- Gondwana World Heritage Area (Lamington, Mt Barney and Main Range National Parks)
- Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park
- Oakview and Nangur National Parks
- Bulburin National Park.
Related information
Read the post-bushfire evaluation reports to learn how the 2019–2020 bushfire impacted the natural values of these protected areas.