Important: Our technical support team is available to assist you during business hours only. Please keep in mind that we can only address technical difficulties during these hours. When using the product to make decisions, please take this into consideration.

Abstract This spatial product shows consistent ‘near real-time’ bushfire and prescribed burn boundaries for all jurisdictions who have the technical ability or appropriate licence conditions to provide this information. Currency Maintenance of the underlying data is the responsibility of the custodian. Geoscience Australia has automated methods of regularly checking for changes in source data. Once detected the dataset and feeds will be updated as soon as possible. NOTE: The update frequency of the underlying data from the jurisdictions varies and, in most cases, does not line up to this product’s update cycle. Date created: November 2023 Modification frequency: Every 15 Minutes Spatial Extent

West Bounding Longitude: 113° South Bounding Latitude: -44° East Bounding Longitude: 154° North Bounding Latitude: -10°

Source Information The project team initially identified a list of potential source data through jurisdictional websites and the Emergency Management LINK catalogue. These were then confirmed by each jurisdiction through the EMSINA National and EMSINA Developers networks. This Webservice contains authoritative data sourced from:

Australian Capital Territory - Emergency Service Agency (ESA) New South Wales - Rural Fire Service (RFS) Queensland - Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) South Australia - Country Fire Service (CFS)
Tasmania - Tasmania Fire Service (TFS)
Victoria – Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP)
Western Australia – Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES)

The completeness of the data within this webservice is reliant on each jurisdictional source and the information they elect to publish into their Operational Bushfire Boundary webservices. Known Limitations:

This dataset does not contain information from the Northern Territory government. This dataset contains a subset of the Queensland bushfire boundary data. The Queensland ‘Operational’ feed that is consumed within this National Database displays a the last six (6) months of incident boundaries. In order to make this dataset best represent a ‘near-real-time’ or current view of operational bushfire boundaries Geoscience Australia has filtered the Queensland data to only incorporate the last two (2) weeks data. Geoscience Australia is aware of duplicate data (features) may appear within this dataset. This duplicate data is commonly represented in the regions around state borders where it is operationally necessary for one jurisdiction to understand cross border situations. Care must be taken when summing the values to obtain a total area burnt. The data within this aggregated National product is a spatial representation of the input data received from the custodian agencies. Therefore, data quality and data completion will vary. If you wish to assess more information about specific jurisdictional data and/or data feature(s) it is strongly recommended that you contact the appropriate custodian.

The accuracy of the data attributes within this webservice is reliant on each jurisdictional source and the information they elect to publish into their Operational Bushfire Boundary webservices. Note: Geoscience Australia has, where possible, attempted to align the data to the (as of October 2023) draft National Current Incident Extent Feeds Data Dictionary. However, this has not been possible in all cases. Work to progress this alignment will be undertaken after the publication of this dataset, once this project enters a maintenance period. Catalog entry: Bushfire Boundaries – Near Real-Time Lineage Statement Version 1 and 2 (2019/20): This dataset was first built by EMSINA, Geoscience Australia, and Esri Australia staff in early January 2020 in response to the Black Summer Bushfires. The product was aimed at providing a nationally consistent dataset of bushfire boundaries. Version 1 was released publicly on 8 January 2020 through Esri AGOL software.
Version 2 of the product was released in mid-February as EMSINA and Geoscience Australia began automating the product. The release of version 2 exhibited a reformatted attributed table to accommodate these new automation scripts. The product was continuously developed by the three entities above until early May 2020 when both the scripts and data were handed over to the National Bushfire Recovery Agency. The EMSINA Group formally ended their technical involvement with this project on June 30, 2020. Version 3 (2020/21): A 2020/21 version of the National Operational Bushfire Boundaries dataset was agreed to by the Australian Government. It continued to extend upon EMSINA’s 2019/20 Version 2 product. This product was owned and managed by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, with Geoscience Australia identified as the technical partners responsible for development and delivery. Work on Version 3 began in August 2020 with delivery of this product occurring on 14 September 2020. Version 4 (2021/22): A 2021/22 version of the National Operational Bushfire Boundaries dataset was produced by Geoscience Australia. This product was owned and managed by Geoscience Australia, who provided both development and delivery. Work on Version 4 began in August 2021 with delivery of this product occurring on 1 September 2021. The dataset was discontinued in May 2022 because of insufficient Government funding. Version 5 (2023/25): A 2023/25 version of the National Near-Real-Time Bushfire Boundaries dataset is produced by Geoscience Australia under funding from the National Bushfire Intelligence Capability (NBIC) - CSIRO. NBIC and Geoscience Australia have also partnered with the EMSINA Group to assist with accessing and delivering this dataset. This dataset is the first time where the jurisdictional attributes are aligned to AFAC’s National Bushfire Schema.
Work on Version 5 began in August 2023 and was released in late 2023 under formal access arrangements with the States and Territories. Data Dictionary Geoscience Australia has not included attributes added automatically by spatial software processes in the table below.

Attribute Name Description

fire_id ID attached to fire (e.g. incident ID, Event ID, Burn ID).

fire_name Incident name. If available.

fire_type Binary variable to describe whether a fire was a bushfire or prescribed burn.

ignition_date The date of the ignition of a fire event. Date and time are local time zone from the State where the fire is located and stored as a string.

capt_date The date of the incident boundary was captured or updated. Date and time are local time zone from the Jurisdiction where the fire is located and stored as a string.

capt_method Categorical variable to describe the source of data used for defining the spatial extent of the fire.

area_ha Burnt area in Hectares. Currently calculated field so that all areas calculations are done in the same map projection. Jurisdiction supply area in appropriate projection to match state incident reporting system.

perim_km ) Burnt perimeter in Kilometres. Calculated field so that all areas calculations are done in the same map projection. Jurisdiction preference is that supplied perimeter calculations are used for consistency with jurisdictional reporting.

state State custodian of the data. NOTE: Currently some states use and have in their feeds cross border data

agency Agency that is responsible for the incident

date_retrieved The date and time that Geoscience Australia retrieved this data from the jurisdictions, stored as UTC. Please note when viewed in ArcGIS Online, the date is converted from UTC to your local time.

Contact Geoscience Australia, clientservices@ga.gov.au

Important: Our technical support team is available to assist you during business hours only. Please keep in mind that we can only address technical difficulties during these hours. When using the product to make decisions, please take this into consideration.

Abstract This spatial product shows consistent ‘near real-time’ bushfire and prescribed burn boundaries for all jurisdictions who have the technical ability or appropriate licence conditions to provide this information. Currency Maintenance of the underlying data is the responsibility of the custodian. Geoscience Australia has automated methods of regularly checking for changes in source data. Once detected the dataset and feeds will be updated as soon as possible. NOTE: The update frequency of the underlying data from the jurisdictions varies and, in most cases, does not line up to this product’s update cycle. Date created: November 2023 Modification frequency: Every 15 Minutes Spatial Extent

West Bounding Longitude: 113° South Bounding Latitude: -44° East Bounding Longitude: 154° North Bounding Latitude: -10°

Source Information The project team initially identified a list of potential source data through jurisdictional websites and the Emergency Management LINK catalogue. These were then confirmed by each jurisdiction through the EMSINA National and EMSINA Developers networks. This Webservice contains authoritative data sourced from:

Australian Capital Territory - Emergency Service Agency (ESA) New South Wales - Rural Fire Service (RFS) Queensland - Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) South Australia - Country Fire Service (CFS)
Tasmania - Tasmania Fire Service (TFS)
Victoria – Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP)
Western Australia – Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES)

The completeness of the data within this webservice is reliant on each jurisdictional source and the information they elect to publish into their Operational Bushfire Boundary webservices. Known Limitations:

This dataset does not contain information from the Northern Territory government. This dataset contains a subset of the Queensland bushfire boundary data. The Queensland ‘Operational’ feed that is consumed within this National Database displays a the last six (6) months of incident boundaries. In order to make this dataset best represent a ‘near-real-time’ or current view of operational bushfire boundaries Geoscience Australia has filtered the Queensland data to only incorporate the last two (2) weeks data. Geoscience Australia is aware of duplicate data (features) may appear within this dataset. This duplicate data is commonly represented in the regions around state borders where it is operationally necessary for one jurisdiction to understand cross border situations. Care must be taken when summing the values to obtain a total area burnt. The data within this aggregated National product is a spatial representation of the input data received from the custodian agencies. Therefore, data quality and data completion will vary. If you wish to assess more information about specific jurisdictional data and/or data feature(s) it is strongly recommended that you contact the appropriate custodian.

The accuracy of the data attributes within this webservice is reliant on each jurisdictional source and the information they elect to publish into their Operational Bushfire Boundary webservices. Note: Geoscience Australia has, where possible, attempted to align the data to the (as of October 2023) draft National Current Incident Extent Feeds Data Dictionary. However, this has not been possible in all cases. Work to progress this alignment will be undertaken after the publication of this dataset, once this project enters a maintenance period. Catalog entry: Bushfire Boundaries – Near Real-Time Lineage Statement Version 1 and 2 (2019/20): This dataset was first built by EMSINA, Geoscience Australia, and Esri Australia staff in early January 2020 in response to the Black Summer Bushfires. The product was aimed at providing a nationally consistent dataset of bushfire boundaries. Version 1 was released publicly on 8 January 2020 through Esri AGOL software.
Version 2 of the product was released in mid-February as EMSINA and Geoscience Australia began automating the product. The release of version 2 exhibited a reformatted attributed table to accommodate these new automation scripts. The product was continuously developed by the three entities above until early May 2020 when both the scripts and data were handed over to the National Bushfire Recovery Agency. The EMSINA Group formally ended their technical involvement with this project on June 30, 2020. Version 3 (2020/21): A 2020/21 version of the National Operational Bushfire Boundaries dataset was agreed to by the Australian Government. It continued to extend upon EMSINA’s 2019/20 Version 2 product. This product was owned and managed by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, with Geoscience Australia identified as the technical partners responsible for development and delivery. Work on Version 3 began in August 2020 with delivery of this product occurring on 14 September 2020. Version 4 (2021/22): A 2021/22 version of the National Operational Bushfire Boundaries dataset was produced by Geoscience Australia. This product was owned and managed by Geoscience Australia, who provided both development and delivery. Work on Version 4 began in August 2021 with delivery of this product occurring on 1 September 2021. The dataset was discontinued in May 2022 because of insufficient Government funding. Version 5 (2023/25): A 2023/25 version of the National Near-Real-Time Bushfire Boundaries dataset is produced by Geoscience Australia under funding from the National Bushfire Intelligence Capability (NBIC) - CSIRO. NBIC and Geoscience Australia have also partnered with the EMSINA Group to assist with accessing and delivering this dataset. This dataset is the first time where the jurisdictional attributes are aligned to AFAC’s National Bushfire Schema.
Work on Version 5 began in August 2023 and was released in late 2023 under formal access arrangements with the States and Territories. Data Dictionary Geoscience Australia has not included attributes added automatically by spatial software processes in the table below.

Attribute Name Description

fire_id ID attached to fire (e.g. incident ID, Event ID, Burn ID).

fire_name Incident name. If available.

fire_type Binary variable to describe whether a fire was a bushfire or prescribed burn.

ignition_date The date of the ignition of a fire event. Date and time are local time zone from the State where the fire is located and stored as a string.

capt_date The date of the incident boundary was captured or updated. Date and time are local time zone from the Jurisdiction where the fire is located and stored as a string.

capt_method Categorical variable to describe the source of data used for defining the spatial extent of the fire.

area_ha Burnt area in Hectares. Currently calculated field so that all areas calculations are done in the same map projection. Jurisdiction supply area in appropriate projection to match state incident reporting system.

perim_km ) Burnt perimeter in Kilometres. Calculated field so that all areas calculations are done in the same map projection. Jurisdiction preference is that supplied perimeter calculations are used for consistency with jurisdictional reporting.

state State custodian of the data. NOTE: Currently some states use and have in their feeds cross border data

agency Agency that is responsible for the incident

date_retrieved The date and time that Geoscience Australia retrieved this data from the jurisdictions, stored as UTC. Please note when viewed in ArcGIS Online, the date is converted from UTC to your local time.

Contact Geoscience Australia, clientservices@ga.gov.au