Land Use Planning and Bushfire Risk: CFA Referrals and the February 2009 Victorian Fire Area

Abstract

The Victoria Planning Provisions (VPPs) include siting and design regulations incorporated into local government planning schemes to mitigate risk in areas prone to bushfires. Introduced in 1997, these provisions were previously called the Wildfire Management Overlay (WMO). Now updated and renamed the Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO), the provision's ongoing development has been informed by fire behaviour and how houses ignite. The aim of the research reported here, conducted following the catastrophic February 2009 Victorian fires, was to review dwelling losses in terms of the WMO's effectiveness. Empirical evidence compares house losses of dwellings referred to the Country Fire Authority (CFA) via the WMO, with overall house losses. The results suggest that proportionately fewer houses referred to the CFA were lost, compared with those not assessed under the WMO. It should be noted that other factors influenced the results, such as the houses assessed under the WMO being generally newer.