Bush Fire Prone Land

Vegetation Category 1 is considered to be the highest hazard for bush fire. It is represented as red on the BFPL map and has a 100m buffer. This vegetation category has the highest combustibility and likelihood of forming fully developed fires including heavy ember production.

Vegetation Category 1 consists of:

• Areas of forest, woodlands, heaths (tall and short), forested wetlands and timber plantations

Vegetation Category 2 is considered to be a lower bush fire hazard than Category 1 and Category 3 but higher than the excluded areas. It is represented as light orange on the BFPL map and has a 30 metre buffer. This vegetation category has lower combustibility and/or limited potential fire size due to the vegetation area shape and size, land geography and management practices.

Vegetation Category 2 consists of:

• Rainforests
• Lower risk vegetation parcels. These vegetation parcels represent a lower bush fire risk to surrounding development and consist of:
• • Remnant vegetation
  • Land with ongoing land management practices that actively reduces bush fire risk. These areas must be subject to a plan of management or similar that demonstrates that the risk of bush fire is offset by strategies that reduce bush fire risk; AND include:
  • • Discrete urban reserve/s
    • Parcels that are isolated from larger uninterrupted tracts of vegetation and known fire paths
    • Shapes and topographies which do not permit significant upslope fire runs towards development
    • Suitable access and adequate infrastructure to support suppression by firefighters
    • Vegetation that represents a lower likelihood of ignitions because the vegetation is surrounded by development in such a way that an ignition in any part of the vegetation has a higher likelihood of detection.

This new vegetation category has been introduced to reflect the bushfire hazard presented by grasslands and includes areas of unmanaged grassland (cattle grazing), cane land, plantations and melaleuca tea tree.

Vegetation Category 3 is considered to be medium bush fire hazard vegetation. It is higher in bush fire hazard than category 2 (and the excluded areas) but lower than Category 1. It is represented as dark orange on the BFPL map and has a 30 metre buffer.

This category consists of: 

• Grasslands, freshwater wetlands, semi-arid woodlands, alpine complex and arid shrublands.

The method for the determination of bush fire vegetation buffering is as follows:

• Bush fire prone vegetation Category 1 – apply a 100 metre external buffer to each vegetation polygon.
• Bush fire prone vegetation Category 2 – apply a 30 metre external buffer to each vegetation polygon.
• Bush fire prone vegetation Category 3 – apply a 30 metre external buffer to each vegetation polygon.

Vegetation excluded from being mapped as bush fire prone includes:

• Single areas of vegetation less than 1 hectare in area and greater than 100 metres separation from other areas of Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation;
• Multiple areas of vegetation less than 0.25 hectares in area and not within 30 metres of each other;
• Strips of vegetation less than 20 metres in width, regardless of length and not within 20 metres of other areas of Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation;
• Areas of “managed grassland” including grassland on, but not limited to, recreational areas, commercial/industrial land, residential land, airports/airstrips, maintained public reserves and parklands, commercial nurseries, and the like;
• Areas of managed gardens and lawns within curtilage of buildings;
• Non-vegetated areas, including waterways, roads, footpaths, buildings, and rocky outcrops.
• Managed botanical gardens;
• Agricultural lands used for annual and/or perennial cropping, orchard, market gardens, nurseries and the likes are excluded, with the exception of cane lands and plantations;
• Saline wetlands including mangroves.
• Other areas that, due to their size, shape and overall risk are not considered Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation.