Wild Australia: After The Fires, narrated by Hugo Weaving, is a factual documentary created in 2020 by Northern Pictures – Australian Geographic’s sister company.
The film charts the long-term recovery of wildlife in the aftermath of Australia’s catastrophic 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires through stories of hope, human intervention and resilience, and provides an urgent message to safeguard our environment before it is too late.
The fire
Just 277.6mm of rain fell on average in 2019 – 40% below normal – and the driest year ever recorded in Australia.
2019 was also the hottest year ever recorded in Australia.
This peaked with the hottest ever December on record, which was also the hottest month in any year recorded, and included the hottest week ever as well as the hottest day ever in Australia – two days in a row.
All that 2019 heat was followed just four days into January 2020 when Australia was the hottest place in the world.
Across the country the worst bushfires in the nation’s recorded history burned the equivalent of half of Germany – 18.6million hectares.
This is two and a half times the size of the apocalyptic fires that burned the Amazon in 2019.
Australia’s losses included 21% of its temperate forests, well over three billion wild animals.
It’s estimated three billion native vertebrates perished in Australia’s Black Summer bushfires – the equivalent of almost half the human population of the planet.
The film
Synopsis
Australia’s fauna has a long, impressive history of surviving on the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Fire is a force that has shaped the nature of Australia.
However, as the last bushfire season has made brutally clear, climate change is shifting everything. After the worst bushfires in recorded history, the toll on the Australia’s unique wildlife has been nothing short of calamitous.
Three billion animals were killed or displaced as an area the size of England went up in flames.
The fires of Australia’s Black Summer are now recognised as the worst wildlife disaster in modern history. But the tragedy has also set the nation on the path to put meaningful protections in place to conserve its rare and irreplaceable creatures.
Following hard-working carers, dedicated scientists and passionate volunteers, we chart the ecological recovery of Australia, through stories of hope, human intervention and resilience. In the year that follows the fires, life slowly returns to the scorched bushlands of Australia.
The film provides an urgent message to safeguard our environment and bring about the necessary intervention required to maintain biodiversity on our hotter, more fiery planet, before it is too late.
