Developing our Community Protection Plan

The Royal Commission into the 2009, Victorian Black Saturday bush fires delivered a number of recommendations that reiterated the importance of educating the community on the most appropriate action to take prior to and during a bush fire. Recommendations of the final report, which relate to bush fire safety policy, provide the impetus for the creation of the Community Protection Planning (CPP) framework. 

Ian Cook, Community Protection Planning & Neighbourhood Safer Place Officer, based in Coffs Harbour, has been given the responsibility of working with us to develop a Community Protection Plan for our village. Ian has been working for RFS for six years but has over 30 years experience as a volunteer RFS member.

Ian writes:

The Aim & Objectives of a Community Protection Plan is to improve the community and fire fighter capacity to prepare for and survive bush fires.
The Objective are:

1. Empower communities to make decisions and take responsibility for their safety by increasing their understanding of bush fire threats and providing information that will assist in the preparation of personal Bush Fire Survival Plans.
2. Identify, assess and depict contingency options available to a given community during a bush fire.
3. Identify, assess and depict the range of timing of treatments applied to a given community that are designed to reduce the bush fire risk
4. Identify and assess people at- risk within a given community
5. Gather and depict key information that will increase the preparedness of fire fighters for bush fire.

I have been requested to implement a Community Protection Plan for a number of communities in the Great Lakes LGA. These being North Arm Cove, Smiths Lake, Pindimar and Bundabah.

As community consultation is a vital part of the process, it will be my goal to engage with as many interested community groups and members during the development of the CPP as well as holding a number of community meetings to keep everyone up to date of how the planning process is progressing. Obviously each community will require individual meetings as a Community Protection plan must be relevant to each specific community.

In the past I have worked in a number of challenging communities along the east coast of NSW. Lennox Head, a community with 3 major tourists facilities sitting on the northern urban interface and surrounded by Tall Heath vegetation. Woombah, an historic fishing village located on the southern fringes of the Bundjalung National Park and  surrounded by  Wet and Dry Sclerophyll forest types with Tall Heath compartments, and of more recent, a Rural Land Sharing community located adjoining the Nightcap National Park, Northeast of Nimbin in Northern NSW.

I will be in North Arm Cove on the September 9 and 10 where I have a number of meetings organised with community groups at the Cove. I would welcome any member of the community to come along and introduce themselves and find out about the Community Protection Planning process. If any member would like me to visit them at their home, due to lack of transport or mobility restrictions for instance, they can simply email me at Ian.Cook@rfs.nsw.gov.au or give the office a call on 66 910400 to arrange a suitable time and place.

For convenience I have attached a poster on Community Protection Planning and how it all works.
I look forward to working closely with the community of North Arm Cove to develop a Community Protection Plan, which will ultimately increase the communities resilience to bush fire.