THE REVISION OF THE STATE PLANNING POLICY (SPP) FOR PLANNING FOR “BUSHFIRE RISK MANAGEMENT” WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE CHALLENGING, AND THAT IS PROVING TO BE THE CASE. SUBMISSIONS ON THE SPP CLOSE ON THE 25TH JULY WITH THE FEEDBACK REQUIRED ON THE MORE DETAILED GUIDELINES BY 1 AUGUST THIS YEAR.
The catastrophic fires in 1961, which saw whole towns in the South West disappear (including the mill towns of Holyoake, Nanga Brook, Marrinup and Banksiadale in the States’s South West which were never rebuilt) led to a Royal Commission which saw recommendations to improve controlled burning to reduce fuel loads. Across Australia in the 2013/14 bushfire season three lives and 335 homes were lost.
This is an incredibly challenging policy to develop and highly emotive. There are bushfire risks in planning that must be addressed, however trying to ensure there are no unintended consequences is extremely difficult.
The policy covers all of Western Australia and will quarantine some areas as being unsuitable for residential development. It is likely that in many instances that will be the right decision, but UDIA is concerned that it is a “point in time” assessment which does not take regard of the clearing which normally accompanies urban development.
The challenge for policy developers is that there is a vast difference between urban areas and peri-urban/rural areas in the early detection and access when there is a bush fire. According to the DFES Annual report, in 2012/13 there were 2,942 grass, scrub and bushfires attended to by professional fire fighters in the metropolitan area, with fire fighters on site within 12 minutes over 87 percent of the time. For practical reasons it is not possible to achieve that target for more remote fires.
UDIA is working through the concerns with the current policy with the Department of Planning. The one scenario that is proving to be the most challenging is in areas which will in the future be urban but will be developed by different landowners over time. This could lead to homes, a long way from any risk in the long term, requiring expensive bush fire mitigation treatment when they are first constructed.
The policy will impact on all new buildings, with the exception of renovations and extensions. This will mean that if you are within 100m of an area of bush greater than one hectare, you may need to design for bushfire mitigation.