Flame to Regime

Wildfire Research & Education

FLARE Wildfire Research group is one of Australia’s largest fire research groups. We are based in the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at The University of Melbourne. Our team of fire scientists have backgrounds in landscape ecology, forest science, combustion engineering, mathematical modelling, data analysis and computer programming. The diversity of research experience enables the team to answer the complex questions facing fire management agencies around the globe. We have an open, inclusive and collaborative approach to science and seek to work with the best and brightest minds in fire science.

Fire Lab

Our fire research laboratory enables us to conduct small to moderate scale combustion experiments

Meet the team

Our team of experts and students are passionate about advancing the science of fire to improve ecosystem and community health

Fire Software

We develop our own software to predict fire regimes and their impacts to solve complex problems

Working with governments, industry and researchers worldwide

We have strong working relationships with a range of national and international research partners including fire and land management agencies, institutions of higher learning, research centres and fire specialists. This helps build the scientific knowledge base that supports best practice fire management through experimental fire research and ensures our research has practical outcomes for fire management. 

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
Energy Networks Australia
Parks Victoria
New South Wales Rural Fire Service
Forest Wood Products Australia
Australian Bluegum Plantations

Our capabilities

The team works across five interrelated research capabilities – Fire Behaviour, Landscape Flammability, Ecosystem Interactions, Fire Risk Modelling, and Future Fire. These themes consider fire across multiple spatial and temporal scales, from a single flame to the patterns of fire regimes.

Education opportunities

Our team delivers a broad range of undergraduate, postgraduate and professional teaching, as well as the supervision of post-graduate researchers. Teaching provides us with the opportunity to engage with practicing fire planners and managers, as well as foster the next generation of fire professionals. 

Latest project updates

Future fire regimes increase risks to obligate-seeder forests

Many species are adapted to a particular fire regime and major deviations from that regime may lead to localised extinction. Here, we quantify immaturity risks to an obligate-seeder forest tree using an objectively designed climate model ...

Development of state-wide future fire risk estimates

Understanding how fire regimes are shifting with climate change and therefore how bushfire risks are changing is a key knowledge gap for many management jurisdictions in Australia, including biodiversity management. Preserving species and ...