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Black Saturday

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Victoria’s bushfire protocols are operating at peak performance, in part due to the recommendations of Susan Pascoe and others in the Black Saturday Royal Commission.

How the lessons learnt from Black Saturday are saving lives

Though January’s bushfires scorched nearly as much land as Black Saturday, just one person was killed. Experts and survivors attribute this to several improvements, but warn we must always remain vigilant.

  • Angus Delaney

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Dingoes in Big Desert are a genetically distinct population. Grave fears are held for their survival.

Big as Black Saturday: Critically endangered species on brink as fires rip through habitats

One expert said he was not aware of another day in Victoria’s history in which so many different ecosystems – across so much of the state – had been so damaged.

  • Bianca Hall
Former Victorian Supreme Court judge and senior counsel for the Black Saturday bushfires royal commission, says a national inquiry into antisemitism is essential.

Bushfire inquiry’s top silk says royal commission essential for harmony

“Why this happened and how we prevent it in the future, I think, is of the utmost importance for our nation,” Jack Rush told this masthead.

  • Brittany Busch and Nick Newling
Soldiers in Kyiv fold a Ukrainian flag on the coffin of a soldier killed Russian troops in a battle.

The DNA detectives taking on the grim reality of Ukraine’s war

Their code is “everyone has the right to a dignified life, everyone has the right to a dignified death”. And they are using ingenious ways to identify bodies, and bring closure to families.

  • John Silvester
Victorians have been warned that this year’s bushfire season could be similar to the Black Summer of 2019-20.

Bracing for a bad bushfire season, this year I’m packing two emergency kits

For some people, mementos may be considered “stuff” – unimportant, unnecessary and replaceable. For others like me, these items are the opposite.

  • Shona Hendley
Nash family

‘We were extremely lucky’: This family narrowly escaped death on Black Saturday, but Kinglake is still home

The Age photographed the Nash family in 2009 after the fire destroyed all of their possessions bar the clothes line and a cubby house. We revisited them as The Age turns 170, and they say they can get through anything.

  • Carolyn Webb
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A firefighter reacts as a blaze rages out of control from the Bunyip State Park towards Labertouche and Tonimbuk during the Black Saturday bushfires, which claimed 173 lives in 2009.

Burnout and trauma: huge climate cost on emergency workers revealed

One type of injury suffered by police and firefighters leapt by 50 per cent during the Black Saturday and Black Summer bushfire disasters.

  • Bianca Hall
The Bayindeen-Rocky Road fire buring in bushland yesterday.

Forest fire redundancies ‘risk emergency responses’

Victoria’s Environment Department is looking to make 208 people redundant in its bushfire and forest services group, including 118 in forest fire operations.

  • Rachel Eddie
Major events
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Triumph and tragedy: A front-page view of history

As The Age celebrates 170 years, we look back on some of the most notable major events featuring on our front pages over the decades.

  • Hannah Kennelly

Hazard reduction shouldn’t be hazardous. So why the escaped fire at Oxford Falls?

Have we learnt all the lessons from our 2020 Black Summer disaster? Last weekend’s blaze suggests that we haven’t.

  • Ian Brown