When Seth Godin coined the idea of the “purple cow,” he wasn’t talking about livestock, he was talking about ideas. A purple cow is something remarkable: it stands out, provokes curiosity, and makes people stop and think.
In bushfire planning, the “purple cow” is the performance-based, risk-driven solution that challenges convention. It’s not about ignoring the rules, but about achieving outcomes that are safer, more cost-effective, and more proportionate to the actual bushfire risk.
Moving Beyond “Business as Usual”
In NSW, Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019 (PBP) sets out acceptable solutions; clear, prescriptive rules. These are the “brown cows”: reliable, predictable, and uniform. But in many cases, these solutions don’t reflect the unique conditions of a site or a proposal. Applying them without flexibility can lead to over-regulation, unnecessary cost burdens, unnecessary environmental impact and outcomes that don’t actually improve bushfire safety.
Performance-based solutions — the purple cows, allow specialists to design for context. They stand out because they look different, but they achieve compliance with the intent of the legislation and provide better alignment between risk and response, often balancing a range of issues.
Making Risk Visible
Bushfire risk is not uniform across the landscape, bushfire risk is not the same everywhere. This is recognised through as range of mechanisms, most notably Bushfire Prone Land mapping, that have different categories of vegetation classification (Category 1, 2 and 3) and Bushfire Risk Management Plans that are multi agency documents produced by a Bushfire Management Committee (BFMC) with consideration of bushfire risk across a local government area. Statewide Bushfire Risk Management Plans and mapping forms part of a coordinated, region-wide risk assessment endorsed by emergency services, land managers and local councils.
In this context, the application of bushfire controls should be risk-based, proportionate, and commensurate with the actual hazard. Acceptable solutions, alternative solutions and performance-based approaches are a key requirement of the National Construction Code (NCC) and PBP providing options based on site specific risk and innovation in meeting bushfire safety outcomes.
The purple cow in the field is obvious; you can’t miss it. Likewise, a properly documented, risk-based alternative solution is not hidden or vague. It is transparent, evidence-based, and easily defensible. It provides stakeholders including referral agencies such as the RFS and consent authorities with confidence while avoiding unnecessary regulatory overreach.
Challenging Conventional Thinking
Bushfire practitioners and other specialist areas often encounter fundamentalism: the belief from referral agencies and consent authorities that prescriptive measures are the only safe path. But as Godin argues, bushfire compliance is not found in conformity, it’s found in being remarkable.
By adopting performance pathways under the NCC and PBP, projects on Bushfire Prone Land can demonstrate compliance with the performance requirements, even when acceptable solutions are not achievable or proportionate. Examples include:
- Designing reduced APZs and Bushfire Attack Levels where modelling shows radiant heat thresholds are still met.
- Using vegetation management agreements on adjoining land to secure outcomes.
- Applying advanced fire behaviour modelling (based on specific vegetation and slope inputs) to show compliance without unnecessary clearing.
- Designing buildings to meet and often exceed acceptable solution requirements with input from specialists such as architects, fire engineers, planners and BCA experts.
- Recognising an appropriate balance of Bushfire Protection Measures, avoiding burdens that add cost and impact without improving safety.
Cost and Complexity Balance
The purple cow forces us to ask: “Why is this different?” In bushfire planning, the same question is essential: “Why impose cost and complexity if the risk doesn’t justify it?”
Performance-based solutions are not shortcuts. They require rigour, data, and expert judgment, in accordance with the NCC Assessment Methods. When done properly, they deliver a balance, protecting life and property while avoiding unnecessary regulatory burden and impacts on projects.
A Call for Remarkable Bushfire Planning
At Blackash, we support the NSW and national system that requires bushfire solutions to be proportionate, risk-based, and defensible. Like the purple cow, they should stand out because they achieve better outcomes, not because they simply follow the herd.
In an era where over-regulation threatens productivity, the challenge is to be remarkable: to design solutions that satisfy compliance and development potential, provide safety, while considering cost and environmental balance.
The purple cow reminds us that doing what everyone else does isn’t enough. The future of bushfire planning belongs to those willing to be different, for the right reasons.
