The tempo, size and severity of bushfire incidents in southern Australia intensified throughout the 1990s and into 2002-03, 2006-07, Black Saturday in 2009 and 2013-14, each which involved ever-larger numbers of aircraft. For example, the 2006-07 Great Divide Complex Fires in Victoria was referred to by some commentators as a "mega fire" with the campaign lasting for nearly 3 months burning over one million hectares. A total of 8200 hours were flown with between 55-65 aircraft engaged at any one time and an additional 200 were on call. The highest ever number of individual aircraft sorties were recorded.