OBITUARY
By JOHN CAMERON and DAVID PACKHAM OAM
THE passing of John Mulligan on April 22, 2026 is with much regret.
He was 94.
John was a dedicated campaigner for improved management of native forests, and in particular to make them less prone to damaging wildfires.
John was so appalled at the declining state of forests that he compiled a book aptly titled Our Mismanaged Forests.
Victorian bushfire policy and practise is hopelessly misguided and appallingly bad, and based on shonky science steeped in ideology. These misguided policies and practises have delivered unprecedented wildfire damage to Victoria’s forests.
John lived and worked in the bush and saw this alarming trend unfold over his lifetime, and he was committed to redress it.
John had conviction and endeavour to get things done. He encouraged a dozen people to each write a chapter ensuring the issue was looked at from all angles. They had considerable expertise and experience in bushfire science, fire behaviour, fire control, forestry, land management, general management, beekeeping, mountain cattle, sawmilling and Australian history.
His book also includes a ‘must read’ postscript from bushfire scientist Phil Cheney and seven appendices variously describing the ticking ‘time bomb’ that threatens to kill hundreds of people and millions of animals, particularly with a ‘response only’ strategy that has demonstrably failed. Neglect of forests is allowing wildfires to destroying them.
John’s contribution to the book was considerable, including organising it, writing the prologue titled The Right Fire and Chapter 1 Our Mismanaged Forests, and funding a substantial proportion of the first print run from his own pocket.
In particular, John drew attention to the following:
Victoria’s forests contain unprecedented and massively dangerous fuel loads;
Too much ‘bad fire’ (hot wildfire) has converted much of tall open forests into scrub, which is more than twice as fire prone as the tall forests it replaced. The book includes photo evidence of this fire prone scrub which has much more elevated fuel responsible for surface fires transitioning into crown fires. Also, initial attack of scrub wildfires is twice as likely to fail as wildfires in tall open forests;
To redress this alarming trend, John argued for the need to reintroduce more ‘right fire’ (cool planned fire). John quoted Vic Jurskis: “The firestick should be applied frequently, willingly and skilfully” and “frequent mild burning makes ecosystems healthy and safe”, and;
To understand ‘right fire’, we must refer back to the Aboriginal fire regimes that were also successfully mimicked by the early settlers until the misguided attempt to exclude all fire contributed to the 1939 bushfire disaster.
John provided a copy of his book to parliamentarians and councillors and called for “all state politicians, shire councillors and CEO’s to face up to their responsibilities regarding crown land management. For too long this responsibility has been shirked and left to bureaucracy to manage … whose management has been disastrous for the forests. Particularly relating to fire, the evidence is there to see … allowing the department to go on its merry way, obfuscating the real risk of dangerous and unnatural forest fire.”
John’s words of wisdom: “No fuel – no fire, less fuel – less fire”.
John will be sadly missed, but hopefully his words of wisdom eventually resonate, and arrest the current forest decline and help deliver well-managed forests in the future.
His book is available for $40 plus $10 postage from: ourmismanagedforests@gmail.com, or locals can arrange a pick up from Bairnsdale (Ph 0437 500 437).
About the authors: John Cameron is a Traralgon-based forestry and business consultant and was chairman of Private Forestry Gippsland, Southern Tree Breeding Association and Australian Research Group on Forest Genetics. David Packham OAM is a CSIRO scientist of two decades.
