From: Landscaping for Bushfire, CFA Victoria, 2011 |
It
looks like we are at the beginning of a bad bushfire season. Planning
ahead is the only sensible way to help ensure that your house and other
infrastructure are as safe as possible from bushfires.
Landscaping for Bushfire was developed by
the Country Fire Authority in response to Recommendation 44
from the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
While it is a Victorian publication and the regulations and many of the species referred to are Victorian, those aspects take up only a small part of what is covered. The document provides a very useful reference on the principles of landscaping for bushfire protection and also offers a lot of useful suggestions.
I highly recommend it for anyone in the Lockyer Valley Region, or anywhere for that matter.
Stay safe.
when it comes to bushfires, we are all neighbours
Another suggestion to mitigate the possibility of fire starting close to the house. Instead of using bark, wood chips or sugar cane mulch close to the house, use recycled brick and concrete aggregate. It is cheap, it looks 'interesting' and it doesn't support combustion, ie, it won't burn. Neither does it decompose and rot away, so it will not need replenishment as often. Lastly, and this is a big bonus, Termites don't eat it, nor are they attracted to it, so there is far less likelihood of termite attack.
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