Bushfire Hazard Assessment and Management Plan

                                                       Bushfire Hazard Assessment and Management Plan




2       Bushfire Regulatory Framework
Given that bushfire hazard can cause harm to people and social wellbeing, damage to property and
impacts to the economy and environment, the management of bushfire hazard in Queensland is
considered an integral component of land use planning and development decisions.

There are three regulatory mechanisms/instruments applicable to the site that regulate development to
avoid and mitigate potential impacts associated with bushfire hazard:

    •   State Planning Policy (SPP) and associated guidelines (Department of Infrastructure‚ Local
        Govenment and Planning (DILGP), July 2017);

    •   Noosa Plan 2020 (Noosa Council, 2022); and

    •   Australian Standard AS3959:2018 – Construction of Buildings in Bushfire-prone Areas
        (Standards Australia, 2018).

2.1 State Planning Policy (SPP)

The SPP identifies the Queensland Government’s policies about matters of state interest in land use
planning and development (Department of Infrastructure‚ Local Govenment and Planning (DILGP), July
2017). The SPP is a broad and comprehensive statutory planning instrument. It sits above regional
plans, standard planning scheme provisions and local government planning schemes within the
hierarchy of planning instruments outlined in the Planning Act 2016.

The SPP is supported by the following guidance material:

    •   The SPP state interest guidance material - Natural hazards, risk and resilience - Bushfire (‘SPP
        guidance’) (DSDMIP, 2019), which provides further context to the SPP and explains how the
        SPP policies can be applied, in particular for local government when making or amending local
        planning instruments. The SPP guidance is also intended to assist assessment managers and
        practitioners in applying the SPP assessment benchmarks when state interests have not been
        integrated into the local planning scheme (where applicable).

    •   The ‘Bushfire Resilient Communities – Technical Reference Guide for the State Planning Policy
        State Interest - Natural Hazards, Risk and Resilience – Bushfire (‘BRC Technical Guide’)
        (QFES, 2019), which provides technical guidance and policy positions of the Queensland Fire
        and Emergency Services (QFES). It includes procedures for undertaking a bushfire hazard
        assessment (BHA), calculating asset protection zones and preparing a Bushfire Management
        Plan.

The SPP assessment benchmarks outlined in Part E of the SPP and Section 4.0 of the SPP guidance
apply to development to the extent that the development is assessable against a planning scheme and
only to the extent that the planning scheme is inconsistent with the SPP.

The SPP is also supported by a state-wide map of bushfire prone areas (BPA) (also referred to as
‘bushfire hazard area’) that was developed based on the CSIRO modelling of potential fireline intensity
using the methodology described by Leonard et al. (2014). The BPA mapping identifies areas of Very
High (>40,000 kW/m), High (20,000 – 40, 000 kW/m) and Medium (4,000 – 20,000 kW/m) Potential
Bushfire Intensity. The Potential Impact Buffer includes all land within 100 metres of any area with a




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