 We've been hearing a lot about grassland fires over the last few fire seasons. Grassland can burn quickly and intensely, affecting communities in rural areas and in suburbs surrounded by open grassland. By understanding the grassland in your area, we can better predict fire behaviour. This makes it easier for emergency services to set accurate fire danger ratings and to advise you and your communities on how to stay safe. Let's explore grassland in more detail. We all love green, lush grassland. As you would expect, green, lush grassland is unlikely to burn. In Australia, we are also very familiar with grassland that is dry and brown. As you would expect, this grassland is more likely to burn. Grassland curing is the natural process that changes our grassland from green and lush to dry and brown. We measure grassland curing on a scale of 0% to 100%, where 0% is the greenest and 100% is the driest. At the extremes, it's easy to understand the impact of grassland curing on fire behaviour. The lowest percentages of curing between 0% and 30% tend to be safe and are unlikely to burn. At the higher end, grassland that is 70% to 100% cured is likely to burn rapidly and intensely. The middle levels of curing between 40% and 60% are more significant. If we know the specific level of curing within this range, we can better predict fire behaviour. This helps emergency services set the correct fire danger rating, allocate the most appropriate resources to prevent and manage grassland fires, and send the correct safety messages to your community. We have a network of observers who collect data to help us map the level of grassland curing across Australia. This data, combined with satellite images, helps us to produce grassland curing maps. These maps are used by emergency and land management services to plan and manage our bushfire preparation and response. We rely on volunteer observers to help collect this data. If you live near or regularly travel through grassland areas, agricultural crops, or areas with large paddocks, you could volunteer as an observer. If you live on the outer suburbs that are surrounded by open fields and plains, you could also make an important contribution. Help us keep your community safe by becoming a grassland curing observer. If you want to learn more about grassland curing or find out how to become a grassland curing observer, explore the other resources on this page.