Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission

Preserving Lives: Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Puts Human Safety First

Where considering current approaches to bushfire management and future adaptations, it is good to reflect on past lessons and recommendations. The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission conducted an extensive investigation into the devastating bushfires that occurred in Victoria,...
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Landscaping in Bushfire Prone Areas

We often get queries about providing advice on landscape design to reduce bushfire risk. Managing vegetation to reduce bushfire risk is something that all land owners and managers can do. People that live in bushfire prone areas (which is an area of land that can support a...
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NSW 2019/20 Bushfire Rebuild

In 2020 the Rural Fire Service (RFS) approached Blackash Consulting to help them undertake work to assist the bushfire rebuild in NSW after the 2019/20 state-wide bushfire natural disaster which destroyed over 2400 homes across 34 local government areas. Many communities in NSW...
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Rethinking crisis communications

I was fortunate enough to be a coauthor of an article, Rethinking Crisis Information for position magazine originally published in issue 105 of Position magazine. It is authored by Maritin Tomko, Lew Short, Sisi Zlatanova and Maurits van der Vlugt. The communication of the...
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Buying Property in a Bushfire Prone Area

If you are thinking of buying a property in a Bushfire Prone Area, spend a few minutes listening to Blackash Principal Bushfire Resilience, Corey Shackleton talk through some of the issues and considerations. Glen and John chatted with Corey Shackleton, around the concept of...
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Change Management for the New Australian Fire Danger Ratings System

In September 2020, Lew Short led a series of national workshops in each State and Territory for the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS) which is a nationally significant project to design and implement a new Fire Danger Rating (FDR) system for Australia. The AFDRS Board...
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Bushfires in Southeast Australia -summer and autumn

With much of eastern Australia in the grip of record drought, #bushfire weather will persist for months to come. The bushfire season in eastern Australia starts in North Queensland and moves south. The fires in northern NSW will continue to burn with new ignitions from accidents,...
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Bushfire Opportunities & Constraints

  One of the fundamental questions clients have for us regarding the development of a site is what can we safely do and what are the legislative requirements for the development type. New development has considerable bushfire requirements from setback from the hazard, design...
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NSW Legislative Changes for infill development on bushfire prone land

As of 1 March 2018, cosmetic changes to the structure of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act), take effect as it relates to development in bushfire prone areas. Section 79BA is now section 4.14. Section 79BA of the Environmental Planning and Assessment...
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Bushfires & living in the bush

Bushfire has been part of the natural environment of the Australian continent for thousands of years. The forest and grassland environments have adapted to accommodate this as have the original inhabitants. The frequency and intensity of bushfires varies throughout the landscape...
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