Attachment H - Bushfire Management Plan v3

mapping of bushfire prone areas in Queensland. CSIRO, Australia. (2014)1; Bushfire Attack
Level (BAL), Building setback requirements and Construction Standards as per the Australian
Standard AS 3959- 2009 - Construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas2; and Bushfire Risk
Mitigation Measures in compliance with current industry best-practice assessment
methodologies. Vegetation composition and extent, slope and industry standard Fuel Load
calculations will be used to determine the Potential Bushfire Hazard acting on the proposed
development. Additionally, this BMP will address the requirements of the proposed
development against Noosa Plan 2017, Division 9 – Natural Hazards Overlays Code with
regard to the proposed development.

Two key features of the landscape strongly contribute towards the behaviour of bushfires:

     1. Vegetation community structure/composition
        The structure and composition of vegetation communities determine the rate at
        which dry fuel accumulates. Some vegetation communities protect fuel from drying
        out in all but extreme bushfire seasons, making the vegetation susceptible to very
        destructive bushfires, whilst other vegetation communities may expose fuels to drying
        and therefore be frequently available for burning.
     2. Slope
        As a general rule, bushfire intensity and the rate of spread of bushfires rises in
        proportion to slope, with bushfires burning faster uphill and slower downhill. Studies
        have shown that the speed and intensity of fires moving up slopes generally doubles
        every 10 degrees of slope. Steeper slopes also increase the difficulty of constructing
        ring roads and firebreaks and limit the access for emergency crews.

Several investigative tools were utilised to determine the site specific bushfire hazard risk
including:

       ▪   A review of local aerial photography;
       ▪   A review of site and local topography;
       ▪   Review of site development plan;
       ▪   A review of DERM Regional Ecosystem Mapping; and
       ▪   An inspection of the site.




1 This methodology updates the calculations apparent in the Australian Standard AS3959: 2009 based on current fire weather modelling and

includes 43 detailed Vegetation Hazard Classes, in addition to the 20 broad Hazard categories used to update State-wide Mapping.

2 The Australian Standard AS3959: 2009 defines Fire Danger Index as the chance of a fire starting, its rate of spread, its intensity and the

difficulty of its suppression, according to various combinations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and both the long and
short term drought effects.

 8 May 2019                                   35 Rules Road, Pomona - Bushfire Management Plan V3                                          Page 8
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