Under a U.S.-Australia Wildfire Arrangement to provide mutual firefighting assistance, five National Park Service staff with experience in combating wildland fires joined more than two dozen other U.S. firefighters on Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams to assist Australian colleagues in the State of Victoria to combat one of the worst and most deadly wildfire seasons in its history.

Several of these NPS staff served in key leadership positions, including the Chief Liaison to the Australian government and team leads to the International BAER teams.  The emergency stabilization-rehabilitation teams worked with the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Country Fire Authority (CFA), and Parks Victoria (PV) to supplement their agency field officers in accessing the burned area assessments on public and private lands. 

More than 150 fatalities had occurred due to prolonged drought conditions, high temperatures, and high winds.  Since the inception of the wildfire agreement, there have been a number of Australian and American fire management crews deployed to assist in combating ever more severe fire seasons.