Helicopters on loan from Canada and Victoria have been delivered to the ACT, providing aerial support and training opportunities for this bushfire season.
A Bell 412 helicopter with the capacity to drop 1400 litres of water, retardant and fire crews to remote locations has arrived from Canada, and a second Canadian aircraft will arrive in the capital next month.
Canadian pilot Kevin Jackson, who flies for Wildcat, has been in the ACT with the aircraft for the past five Australian bushfire seasons, including during Black Summer.
During the 2019-20 season, Mr Jackson battled fires in several NSW locations, including Armidale and Taree, and was sent to assist in the ACT in the aftermath of the Orroral Valley Fire.
Mr Jackson said the key to a successful operation is maintaining constant contact between aerial and ground staff.
"If it's really smoky and that visibility is not very good, you have to have really good communication," Mr Jackson said.
A special intelligence gathering helicopter from Victoria will also be stationed at the Hume Helibase over the next few weeks and months.
The Firebird 100 is used to provide fire information from the air to the incident management team, using an infrared camera located under the aircraft. A laser pointer on the camera allows fire regions to be mapped.
In February, the ACT will take delivery of a third helicopter, on loan from Canada for the latter part of the season.
The ACT bushfire season started on November 1. It was delayed a month due to the La Nina weather pattern bringing higher-than-average rain fall.
ACT Rural Fire Services monitor conditions across the territory to inform the length of the season and the requirement for the aerial assets.
Each state and territory manages its own aerial firefighting capabilities comprised of owned or leased aircraft. The National Aerial Firefighting Centre procures and allocates a fleet of aircraft from within Australia and overseas to supplement state and territory capabilities.
Australia's two Large Air Tankers, a Boeing 737 Fireliner and a C130 Hercules LAT, are currently based in Western Australia during the state's high-threat season.
The ACT will soon renegotiate its five-year contract. The ACT does not own any firefighting aircraft of its own.
The northern and southern hemispheres have historically been separated by a number of months, allowing for contractual arrangements between countries.
The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster that followed the Black Summer bushfires found the increasing duration of fire seasons in both hemispheres threatens the effectiveness of current sharing arrangements.
ACT Rural Fire Service chief officer Rohan Scott said a lot of the Australian-based companies were beginning to increase their resources so aircraft were available in Australia year-round.
"We're starting to develop our own dependency," Mr Scott said.
He said we hadn't yet reached the point where the two hemispheres seasons overlapped.
"It's only a matter of time that we do start to see those overlaps," Mr Scott said.
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