‘…the cultural paradigm is both the most obvious and the least developed in fire research…’

Stephen J. Pyne 2007, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 16: 273

The documentary Afterburn follows the stories of three families over three years in one small Victorian community following the devastating 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. In the immediate aftermath of these fires, the Steels Creek community approached historians and a trauma specialist to help them understand the perils of recovery, history and location.

In this film we look at the long-term impact of trauma on families and communities in the face of increasing environmental disasters and ask: What does recovery really mean and can communities learn to live with the legacy of fire?

Afterburn features psychologist and leading trauma and disaster specialist Dr Rob Gordon, and Social and Environmental historians Professor Tom Griffiths and Professor Peter Stanley.

Afterburn is the final piece of the Victorian Bushfire Research Project (VBRP), a five-year collaboration between the Centre for Environmental History, Australian National University, the National Museum of Australia, filmmaker Moira Fahy and the Steels Creek community.

The VBRP is the only example of an integrated social, environmental and psychological study of a community living in the most fire-prone region on the planet. It grew organically from the needs of the community, was driven by the adrenalin of a crisis and forged by the belief that something lasting, that would serve future communities, had to come from this terrible tragedy.

The VBRP includes the documentary Afterburn and two books: Professor Tom Griffith’s and Dr Christine Hansen’s book, Living with Fire: People, Nature and History in Steels Creek, which examines the relationship between people, place and fire; and Professor Peter Stanley’s book, Black Saturday at Steels Creek: Fire and an Australian Community, which looks at what happened on the day.