Pre-fire season checklist

1. Vehicles and equipment

Maintain and store your vehicles and equipment properly

• Check the condition of your machinery and equipment. Are spark arrestors working properly?
• Are your chainsaws and other equipment in good condition? Repair any faults.
• Have water Fire extinguishers or knapsack spray pumps (minimum 9 litres) available on farm equipment and machinery.
• Take care when driving in long grass. Hot exhausts, catalytic converters and diesel particulate filters can start fires.
• Clean under vehicles. Built up grass under a vehicle can catch fire.
• Store vehicles and other equipment separately to hay and chemicals.

2. Hay baling and storage

Make sure you bale and store your hay safely

• Ensure hay is fully cured (dead and dry) and at the recommended moisture content before baling.
• Have a strategy in place for storing hay safely. Haystack fires can happen in any type of bale stored in a haystack.
• Don't store all your haystacks in one place and keep haystacks small, to reduce the risk of losing your entire crop.
• Protect hay from rain. Ensure hay shed roofs are in good condition and purchase hay caps to protect exposed haystacks.

3. Home paddock and buildings

Reduce vegetation around your home paddock and buildings.

• Create a fire break around your home paddock.
• Reduce vegetation like grasses, leaves, twigs, bark litter and shrubs around your house, sheds and fences.

4. Other structures and fences

Reduce vegetation around other structures and fences.

• Reduce vegetation, such as grasses, leaves, twigs, bark litter and shrubs around buildings such as hay sheds, dairies and fences.
• Create strategic fire breaks to reduce fire intensity as it moves across your property.
• If you want to manage vegetation on roadsides along your fence line, contact the relevant road manager (VicRoads or your council).
• If you want to remove trees and native vegetation on your property, you might require a permit from your local council planning department.

5. Permits and laws

Stay across what you can and can't do during the Fire Danger Period and on Total Fire Ban days.

• Display Fire Danger Period and Total Fire Ban restrictions in an obvious place on your property so everyone on site can refer to them often and easily.
• Check with your council if local laws are in place for lighting fires, burning off or using incinerators.
• If you want to burn off weeds, stubble or vegetation during the Fire Danger Period, or if you intend to use fire for other purposes, apply for a permit to burn via Fire Permits Victoria or your local council.

6. Access for firefighters

Make sure firefighters can find and access your property in a bushfire

• Make sure fire crews can easily find the entrance to your property. Have a clear property name/number.
• Make sure trucks can access your property. Can fire trucks fit through your gates and driveways?
• Outside of the Fire Danger Period, check access tracks around your property. Can access be improved by clearing vegetation, signposting dead ends or creating turning circles?
• Make sure water supplies around your property are clearly marked in case emergency services need to access them.
• If you have private firefighting equipment, hold a 'refresher' training session with family and employees to make sure everyone can use it.

7. Make a fire plan

Know when to leave and what to do when the risk of fire is extreme

• Have a routine in place for extreme and catastrophic fire risk days. Make sure everyone on your property knows what to do.
  Your routine should cover things like:
  • moving stock to a 'safe' paddock
  • limiting or postponing machinery use
  • switching off electric fences.
• Know your trigger to leave based on the Fire Danger Rating.
• Leave well before there is risk of a fire starting, for example, the night before an extreme or catastrophic fire day.
• If you plan to stay and defend during a bushfire, establish a water supply of at least 10,000 litres (independent of the mains supply).

8. Livestock and horses

Have a plan for your animals

• Have a plan for your livestock and horses. Will you relocate them early or keep them on your property on hot, dry and windy days?
• Prepare and maintain a ‘safe' paddock for your livestock where they can be moved to on extreme and catastrophic fire danger days.
• Prepare and maintain a large, open 'safe' paddock where your horses can move freely, with a supply of water.
• Make a record of all your feed, animals and fencing before the fire season and keep a copy off your property.

Resources

Your guide to farm fire safety

Your guide to farm fire safety is for people who are looking for practical tips and suggestions for managing farm fire risk. It covers everything from land and fuel management to equipment maintenance and the protection of livestock and crops from fire.

Download (PDF, 12.1MB)

On the land

 is a very comprehensive guide to fire safety on your property.

Download now (PDF, 1.9MB)

Download

Page last updated: Wednesday, 9 September 2026 4:19:46 PM