Bushfire Preparedness (Vegetation) Program
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A rewarding project, helping schools reduce the risk of harm from bushfires, is taking bushfire consultants from our Town Planning team around Victoria.
Spiire’s Town Planning team was engaged by the Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA) to provide advice to schools around Victoria that are on the Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR) as part of the Bushfire Preparedness (Vegetation) Program.
Each school listed on the BARR is visited in a rolling three-year program for an assessment and advice regarding vegetation management and maintenance.
Qualified and accredited bushfire consultants from our regional Victorian network of Town Planning teams conduct first visits to the schools prior to bushfire season, which generally runs from October to March. In this session, our bushfire consultants provide advice on vegetation management within school boundaries to reduce the risk of harm from bushfires.
This includes advice to prioritisation for utilising each school’s Bushfire Preparedness Vegetation Program funding, both within the immediate year and future years of the three-year cycle. This vegetation management prioritises risk reduction through assessing emergency evacuation routes, shelter-in-place buildings and the protection of school assets.
Our Planning team considers the specific context of each school site and conditions to advise on issues such as historic planting positioned too close to combustible built assets, the maintenance of large tree areas with a lot of growth and understorey, and a range of other measures such as telecommunications or building improvements. These assessments deliver tailored advice to each school informed by the site’s landscape context.
The team conducts follow-up phone or in-person visits towards the end of each season, prioritising travelling to the schools with the biggest need, to check progress on recommendations and understand any barriers to implementation.
With the first year in the three-year cycle completed at the end of the 2024 financial year, we look forward to working with more schools around the state in coming years.
