With the arrival of a bushfire season that is forecast to be particularly potent in the Yarra Ranges, preparation is key to protecting the local area and its people.
While each region of the Yarra Ranges is affected differently by bushfire and therefore has its own set of actions specific to each individual landscape, there are some universal initiatives that can be taken by all residents to preserve their own safety, as well as that of the local area.
Have a Bushfire Plan
When it comes to preparing for fire season, it is common knowledge that it is better to get out as early as possible. But what do you do if you don’t have much warning?
According to the Country Fire Authority, a bushfire plan should answer the following questions;
1. Which Fire Danger Rating is your trigger to leave?
2. Will you leave early that morning or the night before?
3. Where will you go?
4. What route will you take – and what is your alternative in the event that a fire is already in the area?
5. What will you take with you?
6. What do you need to organise for your pets and livestock?
7. Who do you need to keep informed of your movements?
8. Is there anyone outside your household who you need to help or check up on?
9. How will you stay informed about warnings and updates?
10. What will you do if there is a fire in the area and you cannot leave?
Vice President of the Millgrove Residents Action Group Phil Pomaroff said, “bushfire preparedness is having your plan, and these days the advice is to have a resilient property plan, but also that you have a ready-to-go-box with items such as a battery operated radio, key documents and key information.”
“You should leave as early as you can. You sometimes don’t get a lot of notice about fire advancements or the change of wind directions that can occur. So having a simple plan to get out as soon as possible and keep aware of what’s going on is important,” he said.
Mr. Pomeroff also suggested that residents download the Vic Emergency Application on their phones.
What To Do With Pets
No one likes to think about what to do with their pets in the case of a bushfire, so Community Safety Coordinator at the Kalorama CFA, Virginia Porter has done the thinking for the community.
Focusing on dogs, Ms Porter wishes to prompt the community to plan where they will go and what they will do with their pets on days with severe fire warnings.
Finding that many people feel as though they cannot leave the area, due to having pets, Ms. Porter sought to address this issue.
“What we found is that a lot of people won’t leave because they can’t take their dogs with them,” Ms. Porter said.
“We want to make sure everyone can leave, as soon as possible, before a fire strikes. We want people to leave on an extreme or a catastrophic day when there’s no fire in the area so that they’re out before something happens,” she said.
“Especially up in the Dandenongs, if a fire starts up there on one of those days, it’s going to impact people very, very quickly. So we want their plans to be that they’re going to leave before there is a fire.”
Ms. Porter has compiled a list of dog-friendly activities and places to visit on extreme fire danger days.
“There’s dog friendly cafes, there’s dog friendly pubs and bars, breweries, there’s, paths and beaches that you can take them to,” Virginia said.
“You can take your dog to work with you, if you have that discussion with your employer beforehand,” she said.
“You can go down to, Studley Park Boathouse, hire a rowboat and take your dog for a row on the Yarra River. There are whole sections of dog-friendly shops in South Yarra and all sorts of different things people can do.”
Ms. Porter’s list of dog-friendly destinations includes parks and beaches, various activities, dog-friendly accommodation, cafes, breweries, shops, pubs and bars.
The full list can be found on the Kalorama Fire Brigade’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1241254814708137&set=pcb.1241254921374793
In terms of other pets, Ms. Porter suggests purchasing carriers for cats and other small animals, and securing access to large open areas with water sources for livestock and larger animals.
Making Your Home More Fire Resilient
While property owners are always advised to leave in the instance of a fire, there are ways to mitigate fire damage to property.
First among Vice President of Millgrove Residents’ Action Group Phill Pomeroff’s list of property protection types is guttering.
Mr. Pomeroff said, “You have got to install fire guards in your guttering. That is priority number one.”
“Most fires occur through ember attack so the fire might be five kilometers from you, but the embers can fly over and if they get into your roof or under your house, they can start their own fire.”
“It is essential to have your roof protected from anything getting into it, which can be done with guttering, but it is also important to have venting and guards to protect underneath the house, through allowing air to flow and stop the embers from getting in,” Mr. Pomeroff said.
Ensuring gardens, wood and trees are cut back from, and moved away from the house is another suggestion of Mr. Pomeroff’s.
Member of Healesville Community Emergency Group Graeme George suggested other actions on top of fuel reduction for rural areas outside of townships.
The Healesville Community Emergency Group has created a plan for whole landscapes that takes weather patterns and terrain into account.
The plan recommends a tripartite approach to the mitigation of impacts from fire, including fuel reduction, the protection of forests that are regenerating and landscape modifications that slow wind speeds, provide heat shields and trap embers to protect assets.
Mr. George told the Star Mail in October, “We live in a very fire-prone environment, but our problem now with climate change is that fires are more frequent, they’re more intense, and in combination with past logging practices and prescription burning, there’s too much fire in the landscape and it’s doing too much long-term damage to ecosystem resilience.”
“The critical amount of fuel is the fuel within 100 metres of an asset. Houses are most likely to burn down if there’s fuel within 100 metres of them,” Mr. George said.
Finding that the risk of fast-moving fires on open farming landscapes where original tree covers have been removed has been overlooked, the Healesville Community Emergency Group’s Bushfire Mitigation Plan recommends the installation of wind breaks on open landscapes.
Situated away from assets, these windbreaks can be formed from native vegetation and, along with slowing strong winds, can double as habitats for local wildlife.
Mr George said, “there’s shelter belts that can be designed with a slope to them so they can lift the wind over assets that you want to protect, such as livestock in a refuge paddock, or a house or other farm infrastructure.”
“The shelter belts need to be species that are less flammable than our native vegetation, which means moving away from the stringy barks, pine trees, conifers and tea trees, which can lift the fire into the canopy very quickly,” he said.
According to Mr George, keeping paddocks closely grazed is another action landowners can take to mitigate bushfire damage.
When it comes to bushfire preparedness and protection, Mr George insisted that the community is key.
“The government and the CFA’s approach to making communities safer is that community involvement is critical to getting good outcomes,” Mr George said.
“We can’t rely on agencies to do all the work for us. The community has to get behind it, they’ve got to support the agencies, and particularly landowners have got to do their bit.”
Mr George encourages locals to go along to the Healesville Community Emergency Group’s meetings, attend events such as forums and trivia nights and help out.
Keeping up with the literature and being in touch with the local fire brigade were also among Mr George’s recommendations.
Chair of the Kalorama Mount Dandenong Fuel Management Group, Virginia Porter noted that when it comes to property maintenance, it is important that everyone takes responsibility for their own property, for themselves and for the sake of their neighbours and local community.
According to Ms. Porter, efforts that individuals need to implement include maintaining their properties and creating their fire plan.
Ms. Porter said, “What we’re telling people in Kalorama and Mount Dandenong might differ from what people are being told in Sassafras and Ferny Creek, so they need to go to their local brigades. And most of the local brigades that I know of are having community events in the lead up to summer.”
“Kalorama-Mount Dandenong Brigade actually has a service called Property Advice Visits where trained people will go out and walk around the property with the property owner and give them advice on what they need to do,” she said.
The Kalorama Mount Dandenong Fuel Management Group meets every second month and will be hosting drop-in sessions where the community can bring their fire plans in for discussion.
Ms Porter said, “We’re also always looking for people who are keen to come along and give us a hand when we need it.“
Deputy Chief Fire Officer and Director Forest and Fire Operations for Port Phillip Region, Tamara Beckett noted that the responsibility of fire preparation and risk management does not fall on home-owners alone.
Along with property maintenance such as trimming trees, keeping up to date with information and having a fire plan, Ms. Beckett said, “Businesses, community organizations and agencies all need to work in tandem to prepare and minimise risk.”
The installation of water sprinklers on roofs is also highly recommended.
Check in With Your Local CFA
Due to the varying topography, flora and fauna, and climates of the Yarra Ranges, there are specific fire preparedness and risk mitigation practices that are suggested for individual suburbs.
Member of the Warburton Emergency Planning Group Gordon Buller said, “The best advice I can give the local community in terms of bushfire preparedness is to chat to their local CFAs and go to their open days.”
“They have got heaps of written information that you can take home in the form of a handful of brochures,” Mr. Buller said.
“They have got all the information you need on how to prepare your house, how to prepare yourself, how to leave early and what to take, what to do with your kids and your dogs and your animals and horses or whatever you’ve got.,” he said.
“The CFA guys are always happy to talk and help out so people should really go and make use of that.”
According to Chair of the Korama and Mount Dandenong Fuel Management Group, Virginia Porter said, “What we’re telling people in Kalorama and Mount Dandenong might differ from what people are being told in Sassafras and Ferny Creek, so they need to go to their local brigades.”
“And most of the local CFAs are having community events in the lead up to summer,” Ms Porter said.
“Kalorama-Mount Dandenong Brigade actually has a service called Property Advice Visits where trained people will go out and walk around the property with the property owner and give them advice on what they need to do.”
Environmental Scientist Graeme Lorimer confirmed that every location in the Yarra Ranges is affected by fire differently.
Mr. Lorimer said, “Each particular location has its own, unique aspects and vegetation, and subsequently, needs to be considered on its own merits.”
“There is a lot of online information that can guide people so that they get more specific information that’s tailored to them,” he said.
Mr. Lorimer used Montros’ environmental features as an example.
“In Montrose there are north-facing steep slopes, there are south-facing slopes, there are urban areas, there are larger properties including some of the ones that got burnt last March and each of them has different requirements,” Mr. Lorimer said.
“Everybody though, should be paying attention to what the official guidance is for a property like theirs and they need to be aware that things are changing almost year by year not just because each season is different from the last but because climate change has completely changed the way that we have to manage bushfires,” he said.
The Yarra Ranges – A Changing Landscape
Mr. Lorimer noted that new weather patterns are among the effects of climate change, and alter the patterns of bushfire.
“Going back 20 years ago in Montrose we’d always say you need to be principally concerned about the strong northerly winds after a very dry period, and also the southwesterly change after one of those northerly winds so you should be looking to your north particularly and looking to your southwest,” Mr. Lorimer said.
“Now we get really strong winds from the northeast and that’s changing. Almost yearly we’re seeing a trend towards different wind directions such as more winds like over recent weeks,” he said.
“We have had so much more strong wind than historically and fuels are changing, vegetation is changing in response to climate change and so people need to be alert firstly to what the guidance is online from the authorities like the CFA and CSIRO but they also need to keep up to date and understand how things are changing.”
Professor in Bushfire Behaviour Trent Penman noted that climate change is already negatively impacting ecosystems and could lead to increased risk of fire and severe weather.
Prof. Penman said, “We really need to have some hard conversations about what environments we are wanting to keep around in the future and what that means for fire.”
“If there’s species or ecosystems that are under severe threat from climate change, and the interaction with fire, will the state invest in protecting those, or will we have to accept that there are communities that are not going to be viable under climate change. If so, should we place our efforts elsewhere?”
New Technology and Local Bushfire Preparedness Events
Virtual reality (VR) has been brought to the Yarra Ranges, and features among new technologies designed to assist bushfire preparedness.
The VR program runs as a series of 2-hour, free immersive workshops and provides an opportunity to strengthen emotional preparedness, sharpen decision-making under pressure, and help protect local neighbourhoods this fire season.
Participants answer a series of questions about household emergency planning and preparedness before donning a heat jacket and VR headset equipped with noise cancelling headphones.
Titled ‘Heat of the Moment’, the virtual reality experience aims to prompt participants to think about their action plans in the case of a fire.
The Kalorama-Mount Dandenong Fuel Management Group is the first community group to try out the new fire safety technology, and the response has been positive.
Chair of the Kalorama Mount Dandenong Fuel Management Group, Virginia Porter noted that all kinds of people have attended the VR workshops thus far.
Ms Porter said, “We have had new residents, people with young families, empty nesters, and some experts who had been in the CFA for over 55 years attend sessions.”
“At the beginning I was a bit concerned about how these different participants would find the workshops, but so far, most people have come away going ‘wow,’” Ms Porter said.
“Everyone that we’ve put through the session so far has said that they will be going away and reviewing their bushfire plan, so it’s got them all thinking, which is amazing.”
The program’s main message is not just about having a good plan.
Ms Porter said, “The sessions are also about how one’s ideas, judgement and mindset can change under pressure.”
“The program is terrific and it is going to save lives,” Ms. Porter said.
The Virtual Reality program is funded by a foundation and was created by x and y, who have experienced the devastation of bushfires first hand during Black Saturday.
Ms. Porter hopes that the program will soon be taken up by local CFAs and other community groups.
I would like to see this virtual reality program embraced across the board in the future because after the first session we had, it was clear that everybody living in a bushfire area needs to do this,” Ms Porter said.
We have had virtual reality for things like gaming for ages. We should have been doing this years ago. It is good we are catching up now,” she said.
“It’s great that there is funding to do this because it is a really expensive process to put together.”
Tecoma local and mother of two Tanya Steele shared her perception of the immersive fire experience.
Tanya’s Experience
“I’m a 41 year old, with two kids, two cats and a partner, living in Tecoma. I grew up in a town in the north west of WA, so I have memories of getting ready for potential cyclones every year – luckily my town was never hit too badly, but I have a healthy respect for the weather,” Tanya said.
“I wasn’t prepared to think about some of the questions in the workshop, but they were vital ones, like who would be likely to take charge in an emergency.
I couldn’t quite get my head around why people would want to stay to defend a property, my family’s plan has always been to leave.
But hearing and experiencing the realities of how quickly fire can move – I now think we really need to get off the mountain first thing in the morning.”
Tanya said, the VR itself wasn’t super realistic, but it was enough, and that she could hear a radio playing and a family and other background noise.
“What struck me about it was the increase in volume, embers hitting the roof and the wind picking up, it really bothered me,” Tanya said.
“I know now to be aware that noise is a major stress trigger for me.
Watching the scenario and hearing the family interact, become stressed and try to leave – I hadn’t considered how everyone’s stressed versions of themselves could really slow down leaving. I found myself panicking a little for them, why weren’t they gone already?
I want to go through it with my family properly and do a rehearsal, so they know and so they can help on the day.”
Tanya said the experience of it will stay with her and it has given her a healthy respect for getting prepared.
“I am trying to think about my bushfire plan and practice as kind of like a first aid course. We’ll practice, refresh regularly and hope we’ll never have to use it, but when you do, perhaps it will be automatic,” Tanya said.
“I would also like to know what my neighbours will do and let them know what we plan to do.”
Anyone can attend the VR sessions and the next three are scheduled to take place at the Fernlea Community House at 356 Belgrave-Gembrook Road in Emerald.
The dates for the upcoming sessions are; Sunday, 23 November at 10am to 12pm, Monday, 24 November at 6.30pm to 8.30pm, and Tuesday, 25 Nov 2pm to 4pm.
Sessions are free and there are twelve spots available per session.
Register at www.ibe.org.au/sign-up-consent
For more information on bushfire preparedness, visit the Country Fire Authority and the Yarra Ranges Council websites.
