292 Illoura Place Cooroibah - Bushfire Management Plan · MCU20/0022

2.2 On-Site Hazard Assessment
This Site-Specific Bushfire Hazard Assessment references: Vegetation Hazard Classification &
Potential Fire-line Intensity for Queensland sourced from A new methodology for state-wide
mapping of bushfire prone areas in Queensland. CSIRO, Australia. (2014)1; the Bushfire
Resilient Communities Technical Reference Guide (QFES, 2019)2; and the Bushfire Attack
Level (BAL), Building setback requirements and Construction Standards as per the Australian
Standard AS 3959- 2018 - Construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas3; and Bushfire Risk
Mitigation Measures in compliance with current industry best-practice assessment
methodologies and Councils Planning Scheme. 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;




1 This methodology updates the calculations apparent in the Australian Standard AS3959: 2018 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 Bushfire Resilient Communities Technical Reference Guide (QFES, 2019), supports the SPP 2017 by providing technical guidance for
bushfire hazard assessment and bushfire management Planning.
3 The Australian Standard AS3959: 2018 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.

    13 March 2020                            292 Illoura Place, Cooroibah - Bushfire Management Plan                                      Page 8
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