Kevin Tolhurst |
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Biography |
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My full name is Dr Kevin Gerard Tolhurst. I am employed by the University of Melbourne at the Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, Creswick Campus as a Senior Lecturer in Fire Ecology and Management. I have held this position since 1997.
In 1974, I was awarded a cadetship by the Forests Commission of Victoria to study Forestry. I hold a Diploma of Forestry obtained at the School of Forestry Creswick in 1976, a Bachelor of Forest Science (Hons.) awarded by the University of Melbourne in 1980 and a Doctor of Philosophy awarded by the University of Melbourne in 1996.
After graduating with the Diploma of Forestry, I worked for the Forests Commission of Victoria predominantly involved in environmental and timber assessment of the mountain forests of central Victoria. In 1980, I worked for a short time in East Gippsland studying the vegetation in experimental logging areas. In 1980 and in 1981, I lectured and tutored at the School of Forestry in the University of Melbourne’s Bachelor of Forest Science. In 1982 and 1983 I was based in Alexandra in central Victoria, where I was responsible for timber harvesting planning and operations and for recreation management in that Forest District. In 1984, I took up a Fire Research position with the Forests Commission based in Creswick. Here I initiated and managed a major multidisciplinary fire research program based in the foothill forests of Central Victoria. In 1997, I resigned from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and took up a Fire Ecology and Management teaching and research position with the University of Melbourne.
Between 1974 and 1985, I undertook a wide range of fire related roles and duties as an employee of the forestry department. My roles included being member of firefighter crews, crew leader, sector leader, communications officer, and fire controller. I have attended numerous small wildfires and a number of large fires including fires in the north-east of Victoria in 1979 and 1985, in East Gippsland in 1977 and Central Victoria in 1983. Since that time I have attended a number of major fires in the role of a fire behaviour and fire weather technical specialist. Some recent examples of these are the Sydney bushfires in 1994, the Berringa Fire in 1995, the Moora Moora fire in the Grampians in 1995, the Mt Difficult fire in the Grampians in 1999, the Little Desert fires in 1997, the Caledonia Fire in 1998 and the Creswick Fire in 1997, Sydney bushfires 2001, Big Desert Fire 2002, SE Australian fires 2003, the Victorian fires of 2006 and the Great Divide fires of 2007. My duties as a field Forester and a Fire Researcher has also resulted in me attending a wide range of prescribed fires ranging from high intensity prescribed fires in logging slash to low intensity prescribed fires in foothill forests. My experimental work in the Wombat State Forest requires the repeated application of operational-scale low intensity prescribed fires for which I have had the responsibility.
Since 1979, I have published 132 scientific papers and reports related to fire management. These publications have ranged from information leaflets and articles for the general public to national and international conference papers and scientific papers in international journals. A recent publication is a book titled “Synopsis of the Knowledge Used in Prescribed Burning in Victoria” co-authored by Phil Cheney, CSIRO, Bushfire Research and Management.
In my capacity as an expert in the fire science and management field, I have had a number of previous contracts. I played a key role in the development of a national fire danger rating system in South Africa where I was employed to give an international perspective and technical depth to this work. I gave extensive expert evidence to the Linton Coronial Inquiry in Victoria over the period 1999 to 2001. I have also given expert evidence and prepared reports for the ACT Government lawyers on their Coronial submission in 2003 and for Crown Law, Queensland in regard to a major plantation fire which occurred in 1994.
I am currently developing a Risk Management model for Bushfires as part of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. This model looks at the interactions of various aspects of the Bushfire Management business and the spatial and temporal impacts of fire in the landscape on social, economic and environmental factors.
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