WA Bushfire Planning & Environment Seminar

Overview:

 Join us for a one day seminar to learn about bushfire planning and related environmental issues in Western Australia.

 Our speakers will cover a range of topics throughout the day, including:

• Perspective and experience of Shire of Mundaring in bushfire planning, environmental approach taken, various examples and areas requiring further improvement;
  
• What is bushfire fuel and how is it maintained in your APZ?
  
• Demystifying Biodiversity Act
  
• “Real” costs of building to AS3959
  
• Recent changes to the bushfire prone mapping
  
• Policies updates from the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage
  

The morning session will commence with our first speaker, Angus Money, who will talk about the perspective of Shire of Mundaring on bushfire planning and relevant environmental issues. You will learn about processes from development of BMPs and BAL assessments, through to the building stage, challenges that Shire come across and areas of improvement for both industry and LGAs.

Our second speaker, Daniel Panikar will demystify the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (WA) and its Regulations replace the 1929 Sandalwood Act and the 1950 Wildlife Conservation Act in WA, and establish a new regime for the conservation and protection of biodiversity on 1 January 2019. You will learn what does this mean for BAL assessors and people building in bushfire prone areas.

Dan will be joined by Caron Robertson and Lina Ramlee from the Department of Water and Environment Regulation, who will present on the exemptions applicable to bushfire management and when a clearing permit is required.

Kath Kinnear will then focus on a discussion on APZ and requirements to fuel loads and provide you with a Bushfire 101 lesson to ensure that your houses and communities are safe. You will see plenty of practical examples of APZ maintained in various states.

The afternoon session will commence with findings from a research project undertaken by H+H Architects and Bio Diverse Solutions on the real costs of building to AS3959. Kath Kinnear will present findings of the case study of a standard house and outline the true cost of building to each construction standard.

It will be followed by the State Government Update on bushfire planning related issues.  DFES will provide an update on the changes to bushfire prone mapping as a part of a three staged action plan to address the inherited inconsistencies across Western Australia’s bushfire frameworks, standards and mapping.

Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage will then provide an update on relevant policy changes and Position Statement on Tourism that is due to be released November 1.

The afternoon will conclude with the Q&A of the Expert Panel. You can ask the curly questions to our presenters and the floor of experts. After a full day of information overload if your questions haven’t been answered this is the spot. A ballot box will also be available for any people shy to speak up.  

There will be plenty of opportunities for you to ask questions, engage with industry stakeholders and network with bushfire consultants, government agencies and key stakeholders.