One year on from the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, many Australians, and the Bushfires Royal Commission, are still trying to explain the ferocity of the blaze that claimed 173 lives and burned more than 450,000 hectares.

The idea that the Australian bush burns the way it always has is being challenged by David Lindemayer, a professor of forest and wildlife management at the Australian National University. Lindenmayer has been working in the Victorian forests for almost 30 years, and he says the latest research indicates that logging a forest can make it more prone to fire, and increase the severity of that fire.