Community Based Bushfire Management

[We are Safer Together]

[Upbeat music]

[Voice over]
Community based bushfire management is about ....

[Jenny Wilson - Goulbourn Broken Catchment Management Authority] 
Giving the community the opportunity to have input into how fire is managed in their landscape. 

[Matthew Campbell - Nillumbik Shire Council]
A partnership approach to bushfire management that values and recognises people within the community as having an equal voice. 

[Peter Galvin - Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning] 
Instead of starting with something that's important to government or important to DELWP, it starts with what's important to communities. 

[Jenny voice over]
The community's got these strengths, so let's build on these strengths and make sure that the community is heard in the planning process.

[Quentin Addison - St. Andrews Fire Brigade]
There's dissent and discussion and argument, but it's all very positive, everybody gets heard and I think that's really, really important.

[Birgitte Hutchens - Independent Facilitator]
I think it's really important for government agencies to be willing to hear, and also respond, in a way that's real. 

[Kathy Overton - Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning] 
To me everything is about respect, and community based bushfire management enables greater recognition of respect.

[Peter] 
I think understanding that everyone comes at a particular problem from different points of view. 

[Cath Botta - Independent Facilitator] 
And then conversations can be more respectful and more sophisticated.

[Jenny] 
Then I think that results in much better knowledge on both sides. 

[Birgitte]
The agencies are just as informed through the community as the community are by the agencies.

[Cath] 
There is a shift, that occurs, when you allow space for others to have a say. 

[Quentin voice over] 
And it's a direct result of a willingness on the part of all the parties to get engaged and make it happen. 

[Peter] 
We might say that for community based bushfire management, the entry point into that conversation is bushfire, but I think bushfire might be just the gateway to having an effective conversation and building resilience.

[Quentin voice over]
The best way to create a resilient community is to talk with them about what they know, and what they need, and how we can help each other to get there.

[Music fades out] 

[On screen text] 
Community Based Bushfire Management. A different way of working. Building relationships. Community knowledge. Local actions to reduce bushfire risk.

[On screen text] 
Victoria State Government
Safer Together
A new approach to reducing the risk of bushfire in Victoria 

[Community Based Bushfire Management - Cornish Hill Collaboration]

[On screen text] 
We acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung people as the Traditional 
Owners of the land on which this video was created. 

We honour Elders past and present whose knowledge and wisdom
have ensured the continuation of culture and practices. 

[Upbeat Music]

[On screen text]
Community Based Bushfire Management
Stories of Change

Cornish Hill Collaboration

[Bridget Clarke - Community-based bushfire management facilitator] 
So the Cornish hill project, has really been about people working together, to get stuff done. 

[Sam Basham - Senior Fire Manager, Forest Fire Management Victoria] 
Cornish Hill's a great example of community coming together with various stakeholders.

[Glenn Webster - Daylesford CFA Brigade Captain]
Look, everyone's motivated to, fix or mitigate the problem. 

[Kay Richardson - CFA Vegetation Management Officer]
It's just been a great example of what you can get done and what you can achieve.

[Zac Van Kuyk - Daylesford CFA Brigade Lieutenant] 
The fact that change has occurred, is such a positive thing for me and a demonstrator of success. 

[Katherine Anderson - Friends of Cornish Hill]
It's all, feeling really good. 

[Jeff Doyle - Friends of Cornish Hill]
It's all

[Katherine]
Yeah, feeling really good.

[Music and birds singing]

[Bridget] 
So Daylesford is in central Victoria. It's in the middle of a large multi-owned park, that, is about 70,000 hectares and Cornish Hill is 38 hectares plonked in the middle of town. 

[Sam] 
Like all areas around Daylesford and other mining areas, there's a large amount of gauze and blackberry that was used to cover up these mining sites, which is a really fine fuel. And in conditions, where fire will get into them in hot, warm, windy days, that will create really intense fire and is very hard to stop. So, it needs continuous treatment to remove and keep those fuels down. 

[Music]

[Glenn]
Now, this little track here was, completely unusable, until 12 months ago. That's how the whole area was, basically. All 38 hectares was pretty much like this. We said we will sit at the edge and protect houses, but there will be no active firefighting in the reserve because of the lack of access and the potential for you to be stuck.

We couldn't even find out exactly who was the lead fire agency for in here. I was asking around and everyone said it was someone else.

[Music]

[Kay] 
Just from looking on mapping, it was quite obvious that there was quite a high fire risk, in terms of its proximity to Daylesford. So we knew that something had to be done.

[Music fades]

[Birds singing]

[Jeff]
It's a lovely area, but there's always been in the back of our minds a concern of fire risk, with the gauze, etc. So, we've been sort of working with all the other neighbors and formed a fabulous volunteer group, to try and get onto it and fix it up.

[Katherine]
Bridget came towards us with a lot of support actually. She's got an incredible knowledge of, across the agencies and how, we can apply for funding for the projects that we, as a bush regeneration group want to work.

But she also helped us to, get more in touch with the CFA and DEECA, and then she brought to us Backing Onto Bush. 

[Action: Flyer for Backing onto Bush - Fire and Vegetation Session] 

[Bridget] 
We got some speakers to come and talk about, not just what a fire could look like in their town, but also how to manage that risk. Obviously, all of those messages were delivered with a really local example, to people who lived right beside the parks.

So, that was a huge shift in the, I guess, energy of that little group. 

[Jeff]
The volunteer numbers increased, and everyone just got a little bit excited about it and a little bit relieved, because the fire issue, was really number one for everyone.

[Music] 

[Glenn]
So there was no need to convince people that it needed to be done. It was just really a matter of communicating and getting all the right people together and getting them around the table at the same time. 

[Bridget] 
Once we tapped into the right people and we were able to have all of those conversations together to understand the perspectives together, and just bringing the ones who needed to be in the conversation, into it and including them meaningfully, so that they were then able to see what had already been achieved. 

So that my role sat in that space of like, we haven't spoken to land and built environment yet. Let's find out who that is. Let's phone them up and keep them up to speed.

Obviously CFA were happy to be involved. Local government were happy to be involved. Community were happy to be involved. So it sort of opened an oxygen space to a conversation that just hadn't been had, where trust had evolved and relationships had formed. So you've got a good platform for work to get done.

[Music]

[Glenn]
Everyone's motivated to the outcome. Not everyone was in agreement of how to get there. It was a matter of sitting around the table and talking. CBBM role is, absolutely key to it. It keeps the motivation of the stakeholders up, because they know that something's going to happen. It's not just a talkfest and nothing happens. So that that CBBM role is... is absolutely pivotal to the outcome. 

[Music]

As it was, before the works began to clean up and give us access. This was a huge safety liability, to the town of Daylesford. So slowly we're turning it from a liability into an asset.

[Music]

[Jeff] 
It's basically just connecting, and you have to email, walk in, have chats, meet people on the ground and I think, with the collaboration with the CFA etc. The council, if you can join together you actually get an awful lot done. 

[Music]

[Sam]
It's not only a great result in terms of reducing risk, but the local community that then get involved, the relationships that are built out of that and the understanding of what we actually do and how we can actually help. Without that common goal, we tend to stick in our lane and focus on our own things.

[Kay]
We all want the same outcomes. We want to see the bushfire risk reduced. We want to see the amenity improved. We want to see some of the natural biodiversity values come back. 

So when someone's facilitating those discussions and bringing everyone together, you get things done. 

[Katherine]
What Bridget helped me to understand is that I'm not on my own trying to just chip away at a huge problem. If I talk to enough people, we can all work together.

[Music]

[On screen text] 
The Safer Together Community First team would like to thanks
the following for their help in the making of this video: 

Bridget Clarke
Sam Basham
Zac Van Kuyk
Glenn Webster
Kay Richardson
Jeff Doyle
Katherine Anderson
Friends of Cornish Hill
Cornish Hill Committee of Management
FFMVic
Daylesford CFA Brigade
Hepburn Shire Council 
Land and Built Environment 
CFA - D15 Community Safety Team 

[Community Based Bushfire Management - Hill and Ridge Emergency Network] 

[On screen text] 
We acknowledge the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which this video was created. 

We honour Elders past and present whose knowledge and wisdom have ensured the continuation of culture and practices. 

Community Based Bushfire Management
Stories of Change
Hill and Ridge Emergency Network

Hill and Ridge Emergency Network is a local initiative driven by the community to build emergency preparedness, resilience and adapt to a changing climate.  

It is proudly supported by Red Hill CFA, Main Ridge CFA, Hastings SES, 
Sorrento SES, Mornington Peninsula Shire, CFA District 8 and Safer Together Community First program. 

[Sam Norris - Red Hill CFA Brigade Captain]
Hill and Ridge Emergency Network. 

[uplifting music] 

Well, it started after the October 21 storm. Significant trees down, roads closed, and most of us were without power for up to seven days. No phone reception, no internet, no water.

[Julie Redhouse - Red Hill Football Club/Scouts]
The hardest thing was that it was, such a huge event.

There were people that were forgotten. There was an older lady that was stuck in her house for seven days and nobody knew that she was there.

Being brought up on a farm up here, I suppose we've got access to tractors and, larger equipment whereas other people in our street didn't have access to things like that. So they were, you know, stranded.

[Sam]
About a week later, there was a bit of anger within the community. So we spoke to a few people and we thought we could frame something up, to be better. 

[Steph de Bruin - Community Based Bushfire Management Facilitator] 
When I started to have conversations with some local leaders, the school, there were a lot of reflections in the aftermath of their experience of the storms. And what they found, were, maybe some of the responses that were lacking, either on the ground or just the lack of their ability to coordinate themselves, and to be able to help each other. 

And it was through those conversations that we decided to invite those community groups, leaders, the school, emergency services and the shire to a workshop that really sought to, map the existing strengths, skills and assets of the local community. How we could use those strengths and skills in the aftermath of any emergency, or significant disruption, and how the community could work together to increase that collaboration and communication.

We had local contractors that could provide machines, chainsaws, tree removal services, generators for power backup. 

The Men's shed could provide building tools for community projects. 

The Red Hill Opportunity Shop and they would be able to provide clothes and bedding, homewares maybe in the aftermath of a severe event. 

The Red Hill Consolidated School to be able to broadcast messages to the local community. 

The Red Hill Football Club, the use of facilities such as the pavilion and access to power, and catering, bathrooms and showers.

[Music]

[Rob Connor - Red Hill Lions Club]
Now, the Lions Club have got the capability of running food in an emergency. So, we've got a catering van. Reasonably basic, but it does the trick. And we also store food here in a freezer. Every year we rotate it around so it's here for an emergency. So that is part of the Hill and Ridge group. 

[Libby Jane - Red Hill Opportunity Shop/Post Office]
So I thought it was going to be one meeting, come along, say yes, the op shop would open its doors, people could come and get what they needed. But it evolved so quickly, and so effectively into a lot more than what I'd first thought it would be. 

[Julie]
So the Red Hill Community Network Group is a group of people from our community that came together and we pulled our knowledge and our experiences and our connections to create like a, Yellow Pages I suppose, of contacts. 

So Steph in her CBBM role, she bought in the knowledge and expertise of how to facilitate a meeting, how to facilitate a plan, how to put things down on paper. She helped us organise a community event that we engaged the whole community, and got feedback on what they thought this network should do, and also initiated a street coordinator group. 

That street coordinator can communicate with the CFA or the network to say this is what's happening in our street. We can facilitate finding someone to assist to remove the tree or get access or emergency services to that house. 

[Lyn Connor - Red Hill Lions Club] 
She also looked at skill development, things like chainsaw workshops that were very well attended, and they were opened up to the public.

[Brett 'Dutchy' Holland - Hastings SES] 
Operationally, it's critical for us. For the Hastings SES unit, we cover 728 square kilometers of area on the Mornington Peninsula. So, yeah, it's 15 different villages. We need to be able to know that some villages are self-sufficient and they're prepared, and they're ready, and they're resilient. So, that way we can apply our resources, as scarce as they are, to those communities that haven't got that level of resilience in them.

[Steph] 
I think the strength in our approach was how we focused on the development of the relationships. 

[Julie]
She really helped to guide us and keep us on track to make sure that, what we wanted to achieve, we have achieved and we've got a real plan, and something that we can enact after any type of significant event.

[Steph]
I think sometimes we can talk about risk in a way that demotivates people to act, and I think looking at what the strengths and skills were in the community, created that kind of proactive space.

[Lyn]
I feel very confident that the community will respond in the way that they have to setting up this group, and that everyone, knows they can play a role.

[Brett] 
So because they're actually thinking about setting up those networks, they're thinking about what could happen. So they're actually anticipating things and, becoming more prepared to actually respond as a community.

[Julie]
I think that every community has got the ability to create this network. You just have to find the right people and try and engage the wider community. Don't try and do it all on your own. 

[Sam]
It's inevitable that we will have to use it, whether it's a storm event, a power outage, whatever's gonna be thrown our way. But there's more and more of these events happening, and we have to be prepared to deal with them.

[Music]

[On screen text] 
The Safer Together Community First team would like to thank the following for their help in the making of this video: 

Sam Norris
Julie Redhouse
Steph de Bruin
Rob Connor
Lyn Connor
Libby Jane
Dutchy Holland
Virginia Richardson
Red Hill CFA
Main Ridge CFA
Hastings SES