Towards a Bushfire Strategy

To position Victoria to meet future challenges and reduce the threat of bushfire, CFA and DSE are working together to develop a Bushfire Strategy that outlines new bushfire management policies and directions.

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the number, size and severity of bushfires in Victoria. The ‘mega’ fire events of the 2002/03 Alpine Fire, 2006 Grampians Fire and the 2006/07 Great Divide fire are all evidence of increasing fire risk. Similar trends are being experienced in North America and Europe, most recently in California and Greece.

Bushfires are a vital part of our natural environment, driving regeneration and maintaining the health of species and ecosystems. The combination of drought, climate change and unnaturally high fuel loads, however, has created an unprecedented bushfire risk.

Victoria’s bushfire agencies are very successful at first attack firefighting, keeping fires to small sizes and limiting their impact. An unintended consequence of this success is that a large amount of natural fire (lightning initiated fire) has been stopped, resulting in a build-up of unnaturally high fuel loads.

A key tenet of this strategy is an increased fuel reduction burning program based on good science and sound ecological principles. Burning will always be risky and requires significant planning, risk management and operational capability. Considerable community awareness, acknowledgement and sharing of risk is required to undertake this activity.

The strategy aims to position Victoria’s bushfire management agencies to effectively manage risk in partnership with the community with actions under six themes:

• Managing the land with fire – An increase in fuel reduction burning based on good science and sound ecological principles.

• Building community capacity to live with fire – Improve community understanding of the role of fire and increase shared responsibility for prevention and preparedness for bushfire.

• Enhanced response and recovery – Continue to lead the way in fire response while building on our recovery efforts.

• Workforce capability – Build and maintain a skilled, fit and experienced firefighting force to do the job.

• Planning for protection – Provide community and planners with better risk management and mitigation tools.

• Risk and adaptive management – Develop a more responsive approach to bushfire management based on continuous learning and improvement.

Updates will be provided on CFA Online (members only).