MCU14/0106 & OPW15/0001 Appendix F - Ecological and Bushfire Management Response

Noosa Civic Expansion
Bushfire Assessment Report




3                Bushfire Hazard Assessments
The broader Noosa Civic locality supports a mosaic of urban, rural residential, retail, commercial,
agricultural/pastoral and forested landscapes dissected by roadways and coastal waterways.          The Noosa
area is situated in a coastal region of south-eastern Queensland and is characterised by a mild sub-tropical
coastal climate which does not currently experience extended periods of severe fire weather (i.e. extremely
hot and dry periods with strong winds emanating from the continental interior) that are frequently experienced
in Victoria, South Australia and less frequently New South Wales and Tasmania.
Nevertheless bushfires do frequently occur in south-eastern Queensland and present a material hazard to
human health and property which needs to be appropriately considered as part of a comprehensive approach
to land use planning and development assessment. Analysis of climate data indicates that the frequency of
severe daily fire weather has increased throughout Australia, including south-east Queensland, over the period
from 1973–2010 and is anticipated to increase further in line with future climate change projections (BoM and
CSIRO, 2015).
Consideration of a site’s fire history is also of relevance when undertaking a bushfire hazard assessment. In
this respect it is noted that the Noosa Shire Business Centre Stage 1 Bushfire Management Plan (The
Consultancy Bureau, 2004) states that “The vegetation has recently (January 2003) been influenced by a fire
which has burnt and killed a lot of the regeneration. The result is that there is little or no ground fuel…”. There
are no available records, or indications from field based observations, of:
> any substantive wildfire events; or
> planned fuel reduction burns;
within the Noosa Civic site or adjacent lands.
The following sections provide assessments of the bushfire hazard levels that characterise the Noosa Civic
site locality. These assessments are provided in accordance with:
> the methodology specified in Appendix 3 of the SPP 1/03 Guidelines: Mitigating the Adverse Impacts of
  Flood, Bushfire and Landslide (SPP 1/03 Guidelines); and
> the more recently developed State Planning Policy (SPP) – Natural Hazards, Risk and Resilience -
  Technical Manual - A ‘fit for purpose’ approach in undertaking natural hazard studies and risk assessments
  (August, 2014).
It is noted that the precise relationship between the SPP “fit for purpose” hazard classes and the SPP 1/03
hazard classes are not clearly defined in any of the published guidelines. Based on the underlying principles
for assessing and classifying bushfire hazard levels, the relationship between the two sets of hazard classes
is likely to approximate that shown in Table 3-1.

Table 3-1        Likely relationship between SPP 1/03 and SPP Bushfire Hazard Classes
                                                       SPP Bushfire Potential Intensity Classes
                                              Very High             High          Medium            Low
                                      High
      SPP 1/03 Bushfire
                                     Medium
       Hazard Classes
                                      Low



3.1              SPP 1/03 Hazard Assessment
This bushfire hazard assessment has been prepared in general accordance with the requirements of the
Noosa Plan Natural Hazards Overlay Code, which requires a site specific bushfire hazard assessment to be
prepared in accordance with Appendix 3 of the SPP 1/03 Guidelines. In recognition of the scale at which
bushfires operate, for the purpose of this assessment the area considered for assessment of bushfire hazard
levels includes all vegetated land located within 500m of the proposed Noosa Civic expansion.

QIC Noosa Civic Pty Ltd                             Version 2                                          23 April 2015
J13041_Bushfire Assessment V2.docx            Commercial in Confidence                                      Page 4