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Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires pp 1–5Cite as

Bushfires

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Synonyms

Bush fire; Forest fire; Landscape fire; Wildfire

Definition

Bushfire has the same meaning as wildfire but is the term used in Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. It is an unplanned fire in a vegetated area (as opposed to an urban area). The word was probably first used in South Africa and may derived from the Dutch word “bosch” meaning uncultivated land. However, in all three countries, the term “bush” now refers to extensive areas of natural vegetation (excluding pure grasslands). In Australia bushfire was first used in the first half of the nineteenth century, for example, in Ludwig Leichardt’s 1847 account of his exploration of the interior. By the latter half of the century, it was in common use. The term passed into legislation in the first half of the twentieth century, first in the Australian Capital Territory (Bushfire Act 1936), Western Australia (A Bush Fires Act 1937), and New South Wales (Bush Fires Act 1949).

Fire Regimes in Australia

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfire, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Owen Price

Authors
  1. Owen Price
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Owen Price .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. United States Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Samuel L. Manzello

Section Editor information

  1. RECOVER-EMR, IRSTEA, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Anne Ganteaume

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Price, O. (2019). Bushfires. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_151-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_151-1

  • Received:

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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