FILE PHOTO: This handout satellite image by Vantor received on January 16, 2026 shows a bushfire at Budgee Budgee Bushland Reserve near Dargo, in Australia's Victoria state on January 12, 2026. - Satellite image ©2025 Vantor/AFP
SYDNEY: At 8.40am on Dec 12, 2025, in the midst of Australia’s bushfire season, a blaze erupted in Golden Valley, a remote woodland region of the island state of Tasmania.
Typically, such a fire in a sparsely populated area might not be detected until hours later and, by then, would have become uncontrollable. But this fire was detected by a new artificial intelligence-powered camera on a tower 19km away.
The camera, which rotates 360 degrees every minute and takes photos every five seconds, spotted a plume of smoke and alerted Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), a state-owned forest management and timber production company that is one of the state’s three firefighting agencies.
A fire truck that happened to be nearby was sent to dump water on it. Two helicopters and two firefighting crews were later deployed. By 11am, the fire was out, according to Dr Shaun Suitor, strategy manager at STT.
“This was in dense bush land,” Dr Suitor told The Sunday Times. “Without the camera, this fire would not have been seen for hours, and it would not have been controllable.”
The camera is one of 11 being used by STT to monitor 821,000ha of state forest in Tasmania, as the authorities across Australia adopt new high-tech weapons in the battle against the nation’s bushfires.
The cameras are placed on top of fire towers that have been in place for decades and would typically be manned by fire spotters who would sit in a cabin and keep an eye out for fires.
But unlike the spotters, who normally work in daylight hours only on days deemed to be high-risk, the cameras can operate 24 hours a day.
Rob Vernon, head of Indicium Dynamics, the Tasmania-based firm that developed the cameras, told ST that the cameras can cover about 2,000 sq km and spot fires hundreds of kilometres away, but work best at a range of up to 25km.
During daytime, he said, the cameras have detected a fire 78km away, and the night-time record was 130km.
“The images taken by the cameras are processed with AI models that are trained to look for smoke,” he said.
“We are continually training the cameras to be better and better.”
The authorities across Australia have been looking to install or trial AI cameras. The federal government recently awarded A$1.4 million (US$935,760) to STT to oversee the roll-out of cameras in areas covered by Tasmania’s three firefighting agencies, which also include the Tasmania Fire Service and Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. The network is set to be Australia’s largest bushfire-detection camera system.
Australia’s most populous states, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, have also begun rolling out AI cameras to detect fires. NSW plans to install 22 cameras across the central and southern regions of the state. The project will cost A$1.4 million over the next five years.
The Minister for Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty, said in a statement: “These cameras will assist our firefighting agencies to protect critical forest plantation assets as well as neighbouring communities, national parks and privately owned agricultural land.”
Australia, the world’s driest continent, is prone to bushfires, and has experienced some catastrophic fires in recent years as climate change causes more intense and prolonged heatwaves and droughts.
The state of Victoria has endured the worst of the bushfires during the current fire season, including blazes in early January that killed one person, destroyed hundreds of homes and razed more than 400,000ha of land as temperatures soared above 40 deg C.
In December, fires hit Tasmania and NSW, leaving a firefighter dead and about 20 homes destroyed in each state.
Firefighters warned people on Jan 12 to prepare for more bushfires in a high-risk summer.
In recent years, the fires have prompted the development of apps that provide quick alerts about blazes, including clear instructions to residents about whether to evacuate.
The Victorian government’s VicEmergency app and website, which incorporate information from the weather bureau, fire authorities, and energy and climate agencies, have been credited with helping to save lives in recent fires. Users can create “watch zones” for specific areas such that notifications are sent to their phones about potential threats.
John Ferguson, a journalist who covered the recent fires, wrote in The Australian on Jan 12 that the app reflected the progress that the state had made since 2009, when the nation’s deadliest bushfire killed 173 people.
“Residents in affected areas in 2026 were helped by vastly more sophisticated communications systems, including the emergency apps that pinged warnings relentlessly,” he wrote.
The firefighting authorities and scientists in Australia have also been trialling the use of other technologies, such as drones that can carry cameras to blazes and map the area for firefighters, drones that can dump water, and satellites to spot fires.
Vernon said his firm is in discussion with countries such as Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and Belgium about providing its fire-detection cameras. It also plans to develop the technology for use for other natural disasters such as floods. The cameras cost about A$60,000 each, including the battery, communications and installation on infrastructure such as towers.
Dr Suitor said technologies such as the AI cameras “won’t stop the threats but will help us to manage them”. The fire threat across south-east Australia, he said, is “extremely high” as the land is dry and filled with eucalypts that are highly flammable.
“The cameras have been a really positive disruption,” he said. “We are seeing a lot more fires and can jump on them a lot quicker.”
He added: “The best way to deal with a fire is within 30 minutes of them starting. If you can get a couple of minutes extra, it can make a big difference.” - The Straits Times/ANN
