2015-04-28 Infrastructure & Services Committee Agenda

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   28 APRIL 2015




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1.0   Introduction
Within Noosa Shire there are 159 bushland reserves covering an area of 2633ha. The reserves are
managed by Councils Natural Areas operational team. Map 1 shows the distribution of the
reserves which vary in size from 750m2 to 325ha. Map 1 also shows the State Planning Policy
Bushfire Hazard Areas. 122 reserves are mapped as having potentially medium, high to very high
bushfire intensity during extreme fire events.
As a landholder, Noosa Council has certain obligations in relation to fire management. Under the
Fire and Rescue Service Act 1990 a landholder has the responsibility to:
e   manage fuel loads within land it controls;
e   take all reasonable steps to extinguish an unauthorised fire;
e   report the existence and location of the fire as soon as practicable to a Fire and Rescue fire
    officer or other named officer; and
e   take reasonable steps to notify every occupier of adjoining land of planned fire mitigation.
Many of the reserves are State land with Council as trustee. Under the Land Act 1994, Council has
a duty of care for the trust land which extends to controlling fire and maintaining biodiversity.
Some of the reserves are Nature Refuge under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Council has
agreements in place with National Parks to ‘use fire to maintain vegetation structure and diversity’.
The Noosa Fire Management Action Plan is a three year plan to initiate fire management actions
including:
e   aprogram of fire hazard risk assessments across the bushland reserve network;
e   the prioritisation of reserves for fire management actions;
e   the establishment and improvement of fire trail networks and fuel reduction zones;
e   planning for ecological burning;
e   systems and processes for managing bushfire on bushland reserves;
e   the initiation of bushland reserve neighbour bushfire education campaigns in conjunction with
    QFES;
e   capacity building with fire management agencies such as Queensland Fire and Emergency
    Services, National Parks, Department of Natural Resources and Mines and other large
    landholders to manage bushfire and assist with planned burns;
e   improving Council’s fire management capacity through staff training and the purchase of fire
    equipment;
e   communication processes with key stakeholders such as Bushland Care Groups;

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