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Abstract: This paper briefly describes Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and reviews the history of the use of forensic anthropology in the identification process. The potential contributions made by forensic anthropology are illustrated through the presentation of a case study. In February 2009 the state of Victoria in south-eastern Australia experienced the most devastating bushfires in its history, resulting in catastrophic loss of life and public and private property. Within 48h of the disaster, forensic teams including pathologists, odontologists and anthropologists assembled at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne to begin the task of identifying the deceased. This paper reviews the part played by forensic anthropologists in the identification process and outlines the important contribution anthropologists can make to DVI, especially at the scene, in the mortuary and in the reconciliation process. The anthropologist''s experience with differentially preserved human remains meant they played an important role identifying and recovering heavily fragmentary human skeletal remains, differentiating human from non-human remains, establishing basic biological information such as the sex and age of the individuals and confirming or denying the possibility of re-associating body parts for release to families. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Disaster started on a record hot day in February 2009 and resulted in over 300 separate fires with a death toll of 173 and over 400 presentations to hospital emergency departments. This occurred a little over a week after a heat wave in which over 400 people were thought to have died prematurely in southeastern Australia. The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in collaboration with the police force and the State Coroner''s Office and over 100 colleagues from all over Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Japan implemented a DVI process based on Interpol guidelines to identify the deceased persons. CT scanning was conducted on all remains collected and played a pivotal role in the identification processes in conjunction with experts in pathology, anthropology, forensic odontology and molecular biology. This paper outlines the scale of the disaster and the work, from a forensic medical perspective, to identify the deceased. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]