I'm John Bachelors with Daniel Clode.

Her book is A Future in Flames, the story of Bushfires in Australia,

but it's the story of bushfires everywhere if you consider the threat to arable land, to people, to wildlife,

to ecosystems, and yet not a threat, it as we've established it is part of a

continent a part of nature we come now to the question of what burns in my conversation with you about the koala,

I learned that eucalyptus is a torch

when it's hit by fire because of the eucalyptus oil and burns very quickly and then blows through.

There's another tree that also you write about the mountain ash and that tree, the ash forests of Australia both the eucalyptus and the mountain

ash regenerate very quickly is that correct Danielle yeah so mountain ash is a eucalypt as well it's it's

actually the largest of all the eucalypt and the largest hardwood in the in the

world it's tall if not possibly taller in the redwoods in the world. If not possibly taller in the past

than the Redwoods, California.

And the eucalyps are what we call a fire adapted

group of plants.

So they're drought adapted and those drought adaptations

have happened to have made them resilient

in that generally in the face of fire.

So they regenerate after fire. They most of you know there's a lot of deaths but there's also majority usually survived fires.

Mountain Ash has an interesting history because it actually does

die after fire but it releases a huge load of sea into the forest and it needs a lot of sun to

regenerate so in the aftermath of a fierce fire, a very, very fierce fire.

And mountain ash fires are notorious if you.

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