Page 2980 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 September 2006
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It is worth while reflecting upon the massive amount of work that has been undertaken by the ACT Rural Fire Service and the ACT government land managers to achieve this outcome. The process has required a considerable revision of how things are done and a reassessment of the reasons for doing things that we have traditionally expected to be done to reduce bushfire risk. For example, the SBMP requires the creation and improvement of communication products for stakeholders and the Rural Fire Service has responded to achieve this. This includes identifying key data gaps such as fire trail location and the application of new classification systems that identify the suitability of each trail for particular vehicle types. The mapping of fire history, the identification and mapping of infrastructure and asset location, as well as mapping the vegetation in the ACT will ensure that risk assessment modelling can truly reflect consequence.
In addition, data analysis has been required in relation to fire path and fire behaviour that more accurately reflects the lessons we have learnt from 2001 and 2003. The process for the collation and exchange of data has been identified and implemented to be consistent with national data standards, and the responsibility for data collection and providing data to these new defined standards has been assigned among emergency services, land managers and territory planning authorities.
Strategy 7 of the SBMP requires that responsible agencies reduce bushfire fuel hazards appropriately. This has required the revision of all hazard reduction programs across all land tenures, and through the bushfire operational plans a new set of standards and objectives has been defined. To assist this a new fuel hazard model has been developed covering all vegetation communities. This is now being incorporated into new research and new management products being produced by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, which will further strengthen bushfire planning in the ACT.
The program for reducing potential ignition sources and reducing hazards along roadsides has been a major program for this government. For example, the mowing programs conducted in 2005-06 treated some 250 hectares of grassland and woodland, but many areas have always been too rough to incorporate into the program. These areas have now been assessed and treated to allow them to be mowed when required, thus allowing contractors to provide continuous breaks in fuel loads to guard against the spread of fire. In some of these assessments it has been identified that hazard reduction may be more efficiently achieved by low intensity burning, and in 2005 the practice of hazard reduction burning on roadsides was reintroduced by the RFS with great success. This has proven to be a cost-effective tool for reducing risk and a valuable training tool for firefighters.
Building the capacity of the ACT community to deal with bushfires has been a key strategy in the SBMP and, with the support of the commonwealth working together program, there has been a focus on rural leaseholders. By assisting landholders to manage bushfire risk on their property and to integrate their actions with other landholders it is anticipated that the management of fire in these areas surrounding urban Canberra can be more effectively achieved during periods of high fire danger.
The SBMP requires that the ACT Rural Fire Service identifies its training and resource needs to deal with a major incident. In a major project, with the support of the Australasian Fire Authorities Council, the ESA has completed a review of the
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