Responses to Bushfires
- Describe the role the Government plays in preventing and managing bushfires.
- Victoria's government works year round to prepare parks and reserves to reduce the possible impact of a fire
- Around 70 percent of Parks Victoria staff are trained in specific fire fighting roles
- Parks Victoria works to rebuild and reopen bushfire affected areas and support the natural environment in its recovery
- Local Bush Fire Management Committees across NSW help identify assets at risk of bush fire in an area, which will include communities, buildings, infrastructure as well as culturally and environmentally significant locations. They then develop strategies to protect those assets
- Each Bush Fire Management Committee develops a Bush Fire Risk Management Plan. It sets out the types of work scheduled to deal with the risk of bush fires in an area. These works may range from a community engagement event to hazard reduction activities.
3. How can individuals prevent and manage the threat of bushfires?
- Firebreaks are cleared trails around the perimeter of a property that enable vehicle access to fight fires.
- By law, it is the landowner’s responsibility to install and maintain clear firebreaks on their property
- Prescribed burning to reduce fuel loads is a major component of the bushfire mitigation program across the Territory.
- Fuel reduction burning has proven highly effective in establishing areas of low or no fuel that contain the spread of bushfires and protect lives, property and the environment.
- Controlled aerial burning is carried out at the end of the wet season every year in Top End regions to reduce the frequency and intensity of bushfires in the late dry season—August to November.