FAQs

The plan’s purpose is to establish a collaborative approach to addressing bushfire risks within the City of Cockburn. The aim is to work with all landowners to reduce the impact a potential bushfire may have on the community and environment by providing a framework for:

 Identifying all assets at risk from bushfire

• Outlining the treatment needed to reduce that risk to an acceptable level
• Identifying who is responsible for that treatment.

Bushfires cannot be eliminated from the landscape, and there are circumstances when fire cannot be controlled.

However, planning and preparedness activities can reduce the frequency, spread, and impact of bushfire events. Bushfire preparedness is a shared responsibility, and only by working together can we reduce the impacts of bushfires.

Under the State Hazard Plan - Fire, local government areas in Western Australia with significant bushfire risk are required to develop an integrated Bushfire Risk Management Plan that addresses bushfire risk across all land tenures. 

The Bushfire Risk Management Planning Program is a state-wide initiative led by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) to support local governments across WA to develop a contextualised plan to reduce bushfire risk within their local community. 

As part of the Bushfire Risk Management Planning Program, DFES supplies tools, templates and guidance to local governments participating in the program to ensure the plans comply with DFES standards. 

The DFES Guidelines for Preparing a Bushfire Risk Management Plan 2020 (the Guidelines) describe the process and requirements for identifying and assessing bushfire risk and preparing a plan. 

The community plays a crucial role in managing bushfire risk, including maintaining their properties in a bushfire-safe manner, participating in community education and awareness programs, and reporting potential hazards and fires.

An asset is anything valued by the community that is vulnerable or requires protection from bushfire. There are four categories of assets considered in the plan: 

• Human settlement
• Economic
• Environmental 
• Cultural assets.

Only those assets at risk from bushfire need to be assessed and included in the plan. 

As a guiding principle, assets located within 400m of classified vegetation are deemed to be at sufficient risk from bushfire to warrant inclusion in the plan. Assets located beyond 400m may still be included on a case-by-case basis but will generally be assigned a lower risk rating than those located nearer to vegetation.

Once an asset is identified, the City applies the risk assessment criteria in the DFES Guidelines. This assessment uses a combination of consequence and likelihood to determine the asset’s risk rating. The table below demonstrates how likelihood and consequence combine to determine the risk rating.  

No organisation has unlimited resources to manage every risk, therefore it is necessary to prioritise unacceptable risks for treatment. 

Local governments and other landowners and managers are encouraged to allocate resources to treatments that address higher priority risks and provide the best return on investment. 

As per the DFES Guidelines, the City’s plan addresses assets with high, very high and extreme risk ratings.

A treatment is the possible action needed to reduce an asset’s risk rating to an acceptable level. These treatments modify the characteristics of the community or the environment, thereby reducing the potential impact of bushfire on the community, economy, and environment.

According to the DFES Guidelines, there are five asset-specific treatment strategies: 

• Fuel management: Treatment reduces or modifies the bushfire fuel through manual, chemical or planned burning methods.
• Ignition management: Treatment aims to reduce potential sources of ignition in the landscape.
• Preparedness: Treatments aim to enhance the community’s capacity to fight a bushfire, for example by improving vehicle access, water supply or availability of firefighting appliances.
• Planning: Treatments focus on developing plans to improve the ability of firefighters and the community to prepare, respond and recover from bushfire.
• Community Engagement: Treatments seek to build relationships, raise awareness, and change the behaviour of people exposed to bushfire risk. 

Selecting the most appropriate treatment strategy or combination of treatment strategies for an asset involves balancing the costs of implementing treatments against the benefits derived. 

In general, the cost of managing the risk needs to be proportionate to the benefits obtained. Appropriate strategies will include a mix of treatments that are undertaken in both close proximity to the asset and in the wider landscape. 

The City seeks further guidance on appropriate treatment strategies from DFES’ Guidelines for Preparing a Bushfire Risk Management Plan and Bushfire Risk Management System.

Prevention and mitigation strategies employ a tiered approach that starts with community awareness as the foundation for all mitigation efforts. In higher-risk areas, the City or landowners implement additional mitigation measures, which may include:          

• Manual vegetation removal 
• Slashing and mowing 
• Selective tree and bush removal.

If the risk level does not change to an acceptable level after the above treatments are reviewed, the City may undertake low-intensity hazard reduction burns using the City’s two Bushfire Brigades (BFB), Jandakot BFB and South Coogee BFB. 

Low-intensity hazard reduction burns are only done with the least possible risk and when weather conditions permit.

Every Bushfire Risk Management Plan must include a Treatment Schedule, which is subject to continuous development due to the dynamic nature of our built and natural environment. 

In the City's plan, the indicative schedule represents an initial estimate of activities for the first year of implementation, based on desktop research. However, it is flexible and subject to modification as officers conduct on-site assessments and collaborate with landowners when executing the plan.

The Indicative Treatment Schedule identifies areas with assets that have a high, very high, or extreme risk rating. 

To address these risks, the City will develop an annual program of works aimed at reducing the risk rating of these assets. These activities may involve engaging with the community and landowners through education sessions or requiring private rural landowners with bushland to carry out specific treatments. The City will communicate with the relevant land owners and occupiers over the life of the plan.

The Indicative Treatment Schedule outlines the necessary treatments to reduce the risk to assets in areas with high, very high, and extreme risk ratings. Some of these treatments may involve private rural landowners as the responsible party.

The mentioned treatments are initial estimates and may be subject to change as further assessments are conducted. Throughout the plan's duration, the City will develop an annual program of works and maintain communication with affected landowners who may be required to undertake bushfire risk treatments.

Property owners are not legally obligated to complete mitigation works unless the City has issued a specific work order under the Bushfire Control Order.

DFES’ Bushfire Risk Management Branch undertake a quality assurance review of all draft plans before they are submitted to the State Government’s Office of Bushfire Risk Management for endorsement. 

Following endorsement, the plan is presented to Council for approval. Council approval signifies the local government’s acknowledgement of the assets that have been identified within their local community and the risk ratings and treatment priorities assigned. Approval of the plan is a commitment by local government to work with land owners and managers to address unacceptable risk within their community.