Great Ocean Road post bushfire resilience guideline
Post bushfire recovery is a complex. Building resilience to future bushfires is a necessity.
Lew Short teamed up with Justin Leonard of the CSIRO to produce the Guideline for Building in Bushfire Prone Areas Wye River & Separation Creek for Emergency Management Victoria.
The 2015 Christmas Day Bushfires resulted in the loss of 116 houses in Wye River and Separation Creek on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road.
The Guideline aims to build a safer and a more resilient community. It is the culmination of post fire analysis, research, collaboration and understanding community needs.
The guideline recognises the challenges of the rugged and isolated nature of the Great Ocean Road and the desire of the community to increase its resilience to future fires.
The guideline aims to enhance the prospect of building survival in future fires. It provides guidance to improve access to ensure people have a contingency in being able to pass through the township if they need to leave their burning house.
The guideline introduces bushfire protection measures (BPM) in combination with existing planning and building requirements to provide a better outcome for the site than regulations will provide on their own.
