2022-11-14 GC Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - Draft Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan

13. Incidents and disaster management
With thousands of visitors and neighbors, and foreshores being particularly vulnerable to weather
events, EBFR incident and disaster management is important.


Bushfire risk
Fire risk in Council reserves is extensively discussed in the Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic
Fire Management Plan 2021 – 2026 and Noosa Bushland Reserves Strategic Management Plan
2021 – 2026, and any fire risk management activities here should be read in conjunction with those
documents. The fire management plan identified the fire risk that the bushland in the EBFR poses
to adjacent buildings as High to Medium.

Sustained periods of extreme fire weather in Queensland occurred in 2019 and 2020. It is likely
that periods of severe and extreme fire weather are going to be more common and more intense
as climate change progresses.


Recent fire history
During extreme fire weather in September 2019, a fire was started in Peregian Beach South
Foreshore Reserve by flying embers from Emu Mountain or Peregian Springs. About two hectares
of the reserve was burned, one house was lost, and others were damaged.

Contributing factors included continuous vegetation and fuel between bush and some houses,
older houses that predate current bushfire area building codes and very restricted and risky access
for fire fighters.

Fire management and firefighting access
Fire management and firefighting access across much of the EBFRs creates various challenges.
Fire fighter access to the 2019 fires was very restricted and risky, and meant fire fighters needed to
often walk down unknown, narrow, one-way accesses alongside private houses to access the fire,
making it dangerous for fire fighters. In some locations there is continuous vegetation and fuel
between the bush and houses. Several residences and outbuildings have zero or near zero
boundary clearance to the to the foreshore reserves.


Fire Access Trails and Fuel Reduction Zones
The Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic Fire Management Plan 2021 – 2026, requires double
ended, through fire access trail widths next to residential development, buildings and facilities of up
to four metres, and up to three meters where the bushland strip is narrow. All vegetation, except for
closely mowed ground cover, needs to be removed. Outside of this area the reserve would be
managed for conservation and landform stability values.

This is highly desirable from a fire risk management point of view, would significantly improve fire
fighter safety and is the preferred option. Where a through access is not yet established, a buffer
with the same dimensions and characteristics should be established.

Where fire access trails are not possible (due to the dimension of the bushland reserve, slope, or
sensitive environmental values) the Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic Fire Management Plan
2021 – 2026 identifies a Fuel Reduction Zone (FRZ) of up to ten metres as a suitable Interface
Zone treatment for risk management. A fuel reduction zone reduces fuel by reducing the middle
and connecting vegetation layers while keeping the ground cover and canopy trees. Outside of this
area the reserve would be managed for conservation and landform stability values.

Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan – Draft (V4 26.9.22 – for public consultation)       Page 35