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Wildfires in Australia

8,206 fires over 5,000 hectares with a perimeter estimated by GWIS since 2016, adding up to 131,039,936 hectares burned across 255 local government areas.

Only fires of 5,000 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

These figures leave out one provisional page, seen only as heat detections and still without a perimeter. They appear in the lists, marked.

The season, week by week

Copernicus GWIS

Australia, at this point in the year: 18,060,680 hectares, below the 2012–2025 average of 25,329,572.

2026 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest

The GWIS yearly series

2012–2026

Yearly average 2016–202532,515,011 ha

Worst year2023 54,622,415 ha

With a page here8,206 since 2016

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›See the year-by-year table

Year	Fires	hectares	Source
2026	28,090	18,138,120	GWIS
2025	39,291	35,690,266	GWIS
2024	34,762	30,413,770	GWIS
2023	50,370	54,622,415	GWIS
2022	36,765	26,351,647	GWIS
2021	37,617	24,986,635	GWIS
2020	28,038	18,692,571	GWIS
2019	34,631	36,692,877	GWIS
2018	42,994	36,849,335	GWIS
2017	48,045	37,997,118	GWIS
2016	32,877	22,853,480	GWIS
2015	38,741	33,979,367	GWIS
2014	40,157	35,928,840	GWIS
2013	32,439	26,283,474	GWIS
2012	55,716	65,444,470	GWIS

National estimates from Copernicus GWIS, rebuilt from heat detections since 2012.

When it burned: year by year, month by month

Hectares with a perimeter estimated by GWIS by the fire’s starting month, and the largest fire of each year.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Σ	Largest of the year
2026	839k	6k	98k	1,125k	913k	1,125k	2,050k	1,912k	2,412k	1,653k			12,132,951	Roper Gulf 252,658 ha
2025	650k	224k	27k	194k	789k	590k	787k	1,776k	2,697k	9,021k	2,256k	808k	19,819,953	Broome 402,858 ha
2024	146k	33k	28k	515k	457k	285k	408k	452k	1,531k	3,273k	1,734k	379k	9,242,182	Charters Towers 197,066 ha
2023	12k	154k	411k	239k	1,407k	205k	308k	1,652k	5,467k	9,731k	2,798k	1,988k	24,372,232	Barkly 793,890 ha
2022	221k	60k	220k	533k	693k	445k	645k	811k	605k	1,508k	665k	234k	6,639,148	Roper Gulf 140,738 ha
2021	18k	15k		216k	669k	20k	437k	590k	743k	1,871k	1,073k	510k	6,161,391	Victoria Daly 143,381 ha
2020	410k	120k		103k	267k	160k	529k	372k	563k	608k	1,014k	92k	4,236,584	Cook 247,350 ha
2019	907k	812k	123k	119k	807k	511k	1,122k	861k	1,487k	4,032k	1,799k	4,913k	17,493,180	Lithgow 855,014 ha
2018	181k		155k	1,692k	2,344k	564k	581k	1,418k	2,314k	3,224k	164k	477k	13,114,379	Laverton 207,309 ha
2017	8k	81k	29k	174k	930k	514k	491k	1,723k	3,017k	1,875k	1,559k	1,536k	11,939,993	Barkly 213,151 ha
2016	200k	22k	23k	332k	40k	667k	717k	309k	428k	1,155k	1,565k	430k	5,887,943	Cook 198,530 ha

Hectares burned per year

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

Largest recorded fires

By region

Northern Territory 57,490,928 ha · 3535
Western Australia 36,048,513 ha · 2734
Queensland 29,185,641 ha · 1752
New South Wales 5,467,677 ha · 136
Victoria 1,896,052 ha · 39
South Australia 875,564 ha · 81
Tasmania 372,313 ha · 17
Australian Capital Territory 86,269 ha · 1

Wildfires in Australia

The season, week by week

The GWIS yearly series

When it burned: year by year, month by month

Hectares burned per year

Largest recorded fires

By region

Fires in 2026 · 850

Fires in 2025 · 1124

Fires in 2024 · 638

Fires in 2023 · 1235

Fires in 2022 · 566

Fires in 2021 · 460

Fires in 2020 · 320

Fires in 2019 · 802

Fires in 2018 · 923

Fires in 2017 · 862

Fires in 2016 · 427