Aerial view of 2020 bushfire destruction in Colo Heights, New South Wales, Australia. Credit: mikulas1/Getty Images
Researchers from the Australian National University have found that poorer and more remote communities faced the greatest loss of well-being due to Australia’s 2019-20 Black Summer fires.
The new study found that low socioeconomic neighbourhoods experienced greater long-term declines in well-being even after government disaster payments. These impacts were then exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers hope the findings can help shape Australia’s future disaster relief support systems to more equitably support wildfire-affected communities.
From 2003 to 2023, there was a more than a 2-fold increase in the frequency and magnitude of wildfire events. As climate change exacerbates wildfire conditions, this figure is only expected to accelerate.
The Black Summer Bushfires were some of the most catastrophic wildfires on record, destroying 3,000 homes and more than 17 million hectares of land.
Rather than focusing on the environmental or physical damage from the fires, the researchers chose to focus on what they call “the less visible but deeply consequential losses” of economic well-being.
“Traditional disaster assessments typically focus on property and asset damage, which tends to favour wealthier communities in recovery planning,” write the authors.
“Our study highlights a more complex and inequitable picture.”
They focused on well-being loss across 3 areas – income, housing stability and unpaid work – in their analysis of data from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent dataset.
The results, published in One Earth, uncovered that the wildfires caused unequal well-being losses across income, gender and geographic lines.
In response to the fires, the Australian Government’s Disaster Recovery Payments scheme gave a one-off payment of $1,000 to eligible adults and an additional 13 weeks of income support to people who lost theirs due to the fires. These programs were not means tested.
The researchers found that there was a 3.5% decline in weekly median income in non-poor areas after the fires. Income losses were most severe in urban-wildland areas during the peak tourism periods.
While the disaster payments may have helped some of the people in this situation, the researchers found there were ‘recovery gaps’ across disadvantaged communities.
One of the ways these economic burdens can materialise is through rent rise and crowdedness, or the average number of people per bedroom. Their results show crowdedness was experienced by all who were impacted regardless of wealth.
However, rent rise primarily occurred in poor areas that had been affected by the fires.
“The rise in rents can be due to the slow pace of rebuilding and reconstruction in the fire-affected areas, and that is impeded by a lack of insurance or underinsurance,” the authors suggest.
The COVID-19 pandemic created a further challenge for families to rebuild due to disruptions in the construction material global supply chain, which also led to a rise in cost and, therefore, rent.
There was also a disparity in unpaid domestic duties, especially across gender and poverty status. Unpaid domestic work includes activities like gardening, home maintenance and financial management.
“Wildfire survivors likely spent more time caring for their houses and surrounding areas to restore fire damage and prevent future fires,” the authors write.
“An increase in time dedicated to these activities was more prevalent in economically disadvantaged areas.”
They suggest that this may be due to financial limitations, as wealthy families may have been able to hire labour to do these domestic activities.
“Our results highlight a critical disparity,” write the authors.
“While poor communities incur lower economic damage compared to non-poor communities, they experience a relatively higher burden of economic and non-economic losses.”
Women also faced a higher burden of unpaid domestic work after the fires.
“The gender gap in the distribution of unpaid tasks was expected, given the persistent gender inequality in allocating unpaid work between men and women nationwide,” the authors write.
The researchers say their findings have important implications for not only future government-run disaster recovery programs but also how Australia plans to adapt to climate change.
“Recognising and addressing non-economic losses is essential for creating equitable recovery policies,” the authors say.
“The Black Summer case exemplifies how wildfires can exacerbate existing gender and socioeconomic disparities, underscoring the necessity for intersectional and gender-responsive approaches.”
To help design disaster relief systems that better support those most affected by wildfires, the team advise that further research explores caregiving burdens and other broad social inequalities.
“There is a need for data collection—particularly regarding unpaid labour, housing, and gender disparities—to support inclusive and evidence-based responses,” write the authors.
“Interdisciplinary collaboration among climate science, social policy, and economics can help build more resilient and just recovery frameworks in the face of escalating megafire risks.”